Global hedge funds shift towards the short side in February
13 March 2026 Global
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Global hedge funds experienced a slight momentum shift towards the short side than the long side, according to Hazeltree鈥檚 February 2026 Crowdness Report.
Securities lending institutional utilisation supports this conclusion, the firm says, increasing by 50 per cent over the recent six months in major regions, with the exception, perhaps, in EMEA, which was volatile but still up.
The monthly report provides a look back at hedge fund long and short crowdedness across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC, based on Hazeltree鈥檚 analysis of anonymised data from more than 600 funds, covering approximately 16,000 securities.
It includes the 10 most crowded regional long and short positions, broken out by large, mid, and small-cap categories.
Hazeltree defines the crowdedness score as a relative metric that normalises the number of funds in the Hazeltree鈥檚 community longing or shorting a given security within a pre-defined group (by region and market cap) compared to its peers.
Tim Smith, managing director, data insights, at Hazeltree, says: 鈥嬧�淭he month of February brought unprecedented market volatility that rippled through financial markets.
鈥淲hile the war in Russia and Ukraine raged on, a new war front opened in the Middle East between Iran, Israel, and the US, along with an increasing spike in redemptions in private credit from asset managers such as Blue Owl Capital and Blackstone.
鈥淪oftware companies had a brutal month with a massive sell-off and valuation reset dubbed 'SaaS-pocalypse鈥�, which was triggered by advances in AI 'agentic' tools that automate workflows, and could threaten the revenue models of traditional, seat-based SaaS tools.鈥�
In North America, Oracle Corp and Nebius Group N.V. were the most crowded securities in the large-cap short crowdedness category.
Aurora Innovation, BXP, Dropbox, and The Campbell's Company were at the top of the mid-cap category, and Ziff Davis, Sally Beauty Holdings, and Aeva Technologies came top of the small-cap short crowdedness category.
In EMEA, Marks & Spencer Group came top of the large-cap short crowdedness category, with Sodexo SA topping the mid-cap category, and Soitec, Kainos Group, and Hays all coming top of the small-cap short crowdedness category.
In APAC鈥檚 large-cap short crowdedness category, Ibiden Co, Panasonic Corp, and Toyota Motor Corp came top, the mid-cap category was topped by Nitto Boseki Co, Nagoya Railroad Co, and SG Holdings Co, and for the small-cap, Deep Yellow, Ube Industries, and Kyoritsu Maintenance Co came top.
Securities lending institutional utilisation supports this conclusion, the firm says, increasing by 50 per cent over the recent six months in major regions, with the exception, perhaps, in EMEA, which was volatile but still up.
The monthly report provides a look back at hedge fund long and short crowdedness across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC, based on Hazeltree鈥檚 analysis of anonymised data from more than 600 funds, covering approximately 16,000 securities.
It includes the 10 most crowded regional long and short positions, broken out by large, mid, and small-cap categories.
Hazeltree defines the crowdedness score as a relative metric that normalises the number of funds in the Hazeltree鈥檚 community longing or shorting a given security within a pre-defined group (by region and market cap) compared to its peers.
Tim Smith, managing director, data insights, at Hazeltree, says: 鈥嬧�淭he month of February brought unprecedented market volatility that rippled through financial markets.
鈥淲hile the war in Russia and Ukraine raged on, a new war front opened in the Middle East between Iran, Israel, and the US, along with an increasing spike in redemptions in private credit from asset managers such as Blue Owl Capital and Blackstone.
鈥淪oftware companies had a brutal month with a massive sell-off and valuation reset dubbed 'SaaS-pocalypse鈥�, which was triggered by advances in AI 'agentic' tools that automate workflows, and could threaten the revenue models of traditional, seat-based SaaS tools.鈥�
In North America, Oracle Corp and Nebius Group N.V. were the most crowded securities in the large-cap short crowdedness category.
Aurora Innovation, BXP, Dropbox, and The Campbell's Company were at the top of the mid-cap category, and Ziff Davis, Sally Beauty Holdings, and Aeva Technologies came top of the small-cap short crowdedness category.
In EMEA, Marks & Spencer Group came top of the large-cap short crowdedness category, with Sodexo SA topping the mid-cap category, and Soitec, Kainos Group, and Hays all coming top of the small-cap short crowdedness category.
In APAC鈥檚 large-cap short crowdedness category, Ibiden Co, Panasonic Corp, and Toyota Motor Corp came top, the mid-cap category was topped by Nitto Boseki Co, Nagoya Railroad Co, and SG Holdings Co, and for the small-cap, Deep Yellow, Ube Industries, and Kyoritsu Maintenance Co came top.
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