Key Takeaways
- • Hazeltree's January 2026 Crowdedness Report found that global hedge fund positioning was unusually volatile, amid geopolitical headlines, policy shifts, and energy market swings, according to the firm.
- • Information Technology, Industrials, and Financials were the most crowded sectors across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC, appearing at or near the top of both long and short rankings, consistent with December 2025.
- • In North America, AMD, Broadcom, Netflix, and ServiceNow led large-cap long crowdedness increases, while Occidental Petroleum led large-cap short crowdedness increases.
- • The report draws on anonymized data from roughly 16,000 securities and more than 600 global funds on Hazeltree's securities-finance platform.
Summary
Global hedge funds experienced volatility in January 2026 amid geopolitical headlines, policy shifts, and energy market swings, according to Hazeltree, a provider of treasury and liquidity management solutions for alternative asset managers. The firm's newly published January 2026 Hazeltree Crowdedness Report identifies three sectors as consistently crowded across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC: Information Technology (North America Software & Services and APAC Technology Hardware & Equipment), Industrials (EMEA and APAC Capital Goods), and Financials (North America and EMEA Banks). Hazeltree noted that these sectors appeared at or near the top of both long and short crowdedness rankings in every region, consistent with December 2025, which it said could indicate managers simultaneously expressing conviction and hedging within the same sector.
The report is based on anonymized data from approximately 16,000 securities on Hazeltree's proprietary securities-finance platform, representing more than 600 global funds. Crowdedness is a relative metric that normalizes the number of funds in the Hazeltree community longing or shorting a security within a region and market-cap group against its peers.
Tim Smith, Managing Director, Data Insights at Hazeltree, said January began with an unusually volatile start to the year for global hedge fund crowdedness. He cited Meta, whose long-to-short fund ratio bottomed in November before improving through December and January, finishing as the fourth most crowded North America large-cap long. Kimberly-Clark, he said, showed roughly a 2:1 ratio of short to long fund counts and ranked fifth most crowded large-cap short.
Among single-name movers with more than a 10% month-over-month change in fund counts, North America large-cap long increases included AMD, Broadcom, Netflix, and ServiceNow, while large-cap short increases were led by Occidental Petroleum. In EMEA, ASML led large-cap long increases and Wise, H&M, and Kuehne + Nagel led large-cap short increases. In APAC, SoftBank was the largest-cap short increase, and China Mengniu Dairy and Trend Micro led mid-cap long increases.
The report is based on anonymized data from approximately 16,000 securities on Hazeltree's proprietary securities-finance platform, representing more than 600 global funds. Crowdedness is a relative metric that normalizes the number of funds in the Hazeltree community longing or shorting a security within a region and market-cap group against its peers.
Tim Smith, Managing Director, Data Insights at Hazeltree, said January began with an unusually volatile start to the year for global hedge fund crowdedness. He cited Meta, whose long-to-short fund ratio bottomed in November before improving through December and January, finishing as the fourth most crowded North America large-cap long. Kimberly-Clark, he said, showed roughly a 2:1 ratio of short to long fund counts and ranked fifth most crowded large-cap short.
Among single-name movers with more than a 10% month-over-month change in fund counts, North America large-cap long increases included AMD, Broadcom, Netflix, and ServiceNow, while large-cap short increases were led by Occidental Petroleum. In EMEA, ASML led large-cap long increases and Wise, H&M, and Kuehne + Nagel led large-cap short increases. In APAC, SoftBank was the largest-cap short increase, and China Mengniu Dairy and Trend Micro led mid-cap long increases.
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