Hazeltree January Crowdedness Data May Signal Rising Volatility Across Global Hedge Fund Portfolios

Americas hedge fund long large-cap crowdedness led by AMD, Broadcom, and Netflix; short crowdedness led by Occidental Petroleum

NEW YORK & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Global hedge funds experienced volatility in January amid geopolitical headlines, policy shifts, and energy market swings, according to Hazeltree, a leading provider of integrated treasury and liquidity management solutions for alternative asset managers.

Key takeaways from the newly published January 2026 Hazeltree Crowdedness Report include:

• The most crowded sectors consistently fell into three sectors across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC:
  • Information Technology – North America (Software & Services) and APAC (Technology Hardware & Equipment)
  • Industrials – EMEA (Capital Goods) and APAC (Capital Goods)
  • Financials – North America (Banks) and EMEA (Banks)
• In every region, these sectors appear at or near the top of both long and short crowdedness rankings, consistent with December 2025. This could potentially be seen as managers simultaneously expressing conviction and hedging within the same sector.

The monthly report provides a look back at hedge fund long and short crowdedness across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC, based on Hazeltree’s analysis of anonymized data from approximately 16,000 securities on its proprietary securities‑finance platform, representing more than 600 global funds. It includes the ten 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 normalizes the number of funds in the Hazeltree’s community longing or shorting a given security within a pre-defined group (by region and market cap) compared to its peers. When a fund longs a stock, it generally means that they either expect the price of the stock to go up or use longs to hedge their exposure from the shorts. On the contrary, when a fund shorts a stock, it generally means that they either expect the price of the stock to drop or to hedge against their exposure from the longs.

“January began with an unusually volatile start to the year for global hedge fund crowdedness,” said Tim Smith, Managing Director, Data Insights, Hazeltree. “In our North America large-cap long crowdedness data, Meta caught our attention: our Data Insights indicators detected a sentiment shift in November as its long‑to‑short ratio bottomed, then steadily improved in December and January, finishing as the fourth most crowded name. On the large-cap short side, Kimberly‑Clark showed roughly a 2:1 ratio of short to long fund counts from our hedge fund community and is currently ranked as the fifth most crowded short.”

Further Highlights at the Single-Name Level

North America: Top Movers (>10% MoM Change in Fund Counts)

Long crowdedness increases

• Large-cap: AMD, Broadcom, Netflix, ServiceNow
• Mid-cap: Axis Capital, Etsy, Match Group
• Small-cap: Adient, IDT, Winmark

Note: Small-cap LegalZoom saw a >10% month‑over‑month decrease in long fund counts.

Short crowdedness increases

• Large-cap: Occidental Petroleum
• Mid-cap: Comstock Resources, Terawulf
• Small-cap: Allegiant Travel, Marriott Vacations Worldwide, Ziff Davis, Penn Entertainment, QuidelOrtho

EMEA: Top Movers (>10% MoM Change in Fund Counts)

Long crowdedness increases

• Large-cap: ASML
• Mid-cap: Plus500, Vallourec
• Small-cap: AMG

Note: Small-cap 4imprint and Grainger saw a >10% month‑over‑month decrease in long fund counts.

Short crowdedness increases

• Large-cap: Wise, H&M, Kuehne + Nagel

APAC: Top Movers (>10% MoM Change in Fund Counts)

Long crowdedness increases

• Mid-cap: China Mengniu Dairy, Trend Micro
• Small-cap: Xtep

Short crowdedness increases

• Large-cap: SoftBank
• Small-cap: Silex Systems, Meiko Electronics, Supply Network

Note: Large-caps Aeon and Nitori Holdings saw a >10% month‑over‑month decrease in short fund counts.

To view the January 2026 Hazeltree Crowdedness Report and past reports, click here.

Methodology

The Hazeltree Crowdedness Report is based on anonymized and aggregated positioning data from Hazeltree’s proprietary securities‑finance platform, which reflects trading activity from its hedge fund client base of more than 600 global funds. It calculates the crowdedness score by sector and region (Americas, EMEA, and APAC) and analyzes both long and short crowdedness over the full month of January 2026.

Divergence Bar Chart

The divergence bar chart shows the January 2026 crowdedness score by sector and region. Long positions are represented on the blue side of the chart and short positions on the red side, enabling a clear comparison of long and short positioning within each sector.

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About Hazeltree

Hazeltree is the leading provider of treasury and liquidity management and optimization solutions purpose-built for the alternative investment industry. Trusted by more than 600 investment firms managing over $4 trillion in assets, Hazeltree empowers hedge funds, private markets firms, and asset managers to enhance operational efficiency, reduce risk, and unlock alpha. Hazeltree’s cloud-based platform facilitates nearly $8 billion in daily transactions across more than 10,000 funds. By delivering seamless connectivity across counterparties and service providers, Hazeltree enables clients to optimize cash, credit facilities, margin, and fees—driving stronger returns and greater transparency across the investment lifecycle. Hazeltree is headquartered in New York with offices in London, Bournemouth, and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit www.hazeltree.com.