Hedge funds lost $14.3 billion of investor capital in the first quarter, alternatives data provider Preqin reported Thursday.
The outflows came on the heels of $8.9 billion net outflows in the fourth quarter.
In contrast, the hedge fund sector took in a net $28.8 billion in last year's first quarter, followed by $47.5 billion in the second quarter.
This positive trend reversed in the second half as net inflows plummeted to just $3.9 billion in the third quarter before going negative at year-end.
Overall, the total assets under management held by hedge funds globally fell 0.5% in the first quarter, to $3.1 trillion.
Preqin reported that credit strategies funds had the biggest outflows, $11.9 billion, while equity strategies funds hemorrhaged $9.7 billion.
Only CTAs and multistrategy funds experienced net inflows in the first quarter, gaining $13.7 billion and $12.8 billion, respectively.
Over the past four quarters, multistrategy and commodity trading advisor funds enjoyed the largest net inflows, $28.1 billion and $27 billion, while macro strategies lost $28.8 billion in investor capital, the largest net outflow among strategies.
Event-driven, macro, relative value and credit strategies funds all suffered net outflows in three of the past four quarters.
Preqin analysts found that net asset flows in the first quarter strongly correlated with 2015 performance.
Fifty-three percent of funds that returned more than 5% last year saw net inflows in the first three months of the year, and only 36% had net outflows. In contrast, just a quarter of funds that returned less than 5% in 2015 experienced inflows, while 53% had net outflows.
