So apparently lots of funds are down like 50%+ over the last 12 months or so (say since early 2025)

What I really don't understand is unless you are a fund that has the MANDATE to deploy long-only, then how are you down this much?
Ain't no way you're hiring a bunch of analysts and supposed smart people to form a collective intelligent group, and yet NOBODY in the fkin group might think "actually market *can* go down as well"
Or at least if you're forced to express long on a certain thesis, you can express it in a long/short pair to hedge out other risks?
???? like wtf ???
objectively, for the last (at least) 8 months, markets have generally been clear in that it's down in almost all metrics:
> down in vol
> down in OI
> down in orderflow
> down in spot flow
> down in price action market structure
And you're telling me this collective group all goes "yea max long" at like 100k or smth?
I really don't get how if you're even half switched on, your collective group of analysts including yourself shouldn't at least be fkin drawing down 50% man
Literally just might as well ask a magic 8 ball as to what to do and you might perform better