Volatility spike trips up hedge funds in Q4

Just when hedge funds seemed to have gotten the wind in their sails, thanks to a strong summer and robust September, year 2009 is ending on a flat note, albeit not as badly as it had begun. One industry bellwether is the Credit Suisse/Tremont Broad Hedge Fund Index, which scraped together a rather unimpressive 0.13% gain for October, nearly spoiling eight previous months of positive returns. And while November saw stock markets resume the 2009 rally, most long/short equity hedge fun…