Counting the cost

The combative Scottish fund manager Hugh Hendry is closing his Eclectica hedge fund firm after 15 years. “It’s a function of economics. The costs were just too great,” Mr Hendry told Bloomberg. “But I died in active combat.”

His main fund, which returned 31pc in 2008 as it bet against US and UK banks, fell 9.4pc in the year to August. The average return on similar macro funds – which bet on economic trends – has been just 2.9pc this year.