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And when the dust settled (on the calendar year at least) and 2021 began, a snapshot of the hedge fund industry's top 100 firms featured new names and dramatic shifts - just not quite as dramatic as it might have been.

Of the 28 firms this year that HFM classified as specialists in equity hedge, 24 have either seen their ranking improve or were new entrants on the list (86%). Of the remaining 76 firms, 33 saw their ranking improve or were new entrants (43%). Furthermore, equity specialists among this year's top 100 account for $724bn in hedge fund AuM. Last year, equity specialists accounted for $366bn.

Overall, the top 100 hedge fund firms managed hedge fund AuM totalling $1,825bn on 1 January 2021, up from $1,740bn on 1 January 2020, growth of 5% during a year that featured some of the most challenging periods for trading and capital raising in the past decade. Current indicators suggest that the economic environment is well suited to many hedge fund strategies.

70 of the top 100 firms have a majority of their AuM in hedge funds

70% of top 100 managers have a majority of AuM in hedge funds, and 47% have more than 95% of AuM in hedge funds. These numbers are slowly coming down. As firms have diversified to compete, so too have their AuMs reflected this adjustment.

If there is a key difference, it is regionally. In North America, only a handful of top 100 firms have < 5% of their AuM outside of hedge funds. In Europe, one-quarter do - belying an industry in which asset managers play as large role as hedge fund managers.

The rest of the world offers a distinctly different prism from North America and Europe, with managers allocating less of their resources to purely hedge fund management. This is due to both less developed capital markets allied to political and cultural legacies.

Top 100 firms accounted for 56% of US pensions' hedge fund commitments in 2020

US public pensions' reliance on brand-name hedge fund managers during the market ructions of 2020 is evident. In H1 2021, 36% of their hedge fund commitments went to a top 100 manager. In 2020, 56% did.

Hedge fund capital raising with US public pensions in H1 2021 ($4.8bn) was off the pace for recent years. In 2020, managers raised $11.1bn, approximately $5.5bn per half.

In the six halves since H1 2018, the average was even higher: $5.7bn. When the going gets tough, institutional allocators are more incentivised than ever to seek the relative safety of brand-name fund managers. That was 2020. In 2021, and with volatility less extreme, there will be more fundraising opportunities for smaller funds.