Hazeltree: hedge fund crowdedness in 2025 diverged sharply by region
15 January 2026 US
Image: FULLSTOCKI/stock.adobe.com
Hedge fund crowdedness in 2025 diverged sharply by region, according to Hazeltree鈥檚 2025 year in review Crowdedness Report, reflecting fundamentally different economic drivers across North America, EMEA, and APAC, the firm says.
The year also saw consumer discretionary emerging as a global battleground, with crowdedness divergence reflecting where goods are made versus where they are sold, the report says
The annual report looks back at hedge fund long and short crowdedness across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC, based on Hazeltree鈥檚 analysis of anonymised data from 16,000 securities in its community of more than 600 asset management firms.
The addition of long crowdedness is a new layer of analysis for its external reporting.
Commenting on the year鈥檚 data, Tim Smith, managing director of data insights at Hazeltree, states: 鈥淥ur heatmap analysis demonstrated the long and short side moved in tandem most of the year for those crowded sectors within the North America region, such as consumer discretionary, financials, and information technology sector.
鈥淢eanwhile, longs in the healthcare sector picked up volume in the month of September while the shorts remained stable throughout the year.鈥�
The firm states that at the security level, hedge fund longs remained heavily crowded in large-cap technology stocks such as Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms, reflecting continued conviction in software and services companies with visible AI monetisation.
On the short side, crowding persisted in names including IBM and Strategy, while Synopsys emerged as an increasingly crowded short as concerns grew around execution risk tied to its pending Ansys acquisition.
Within financials, banks took centre stage in claiming the title of the most crowded across longs and shorts. Citigroup, Bank of America, and US Bancorp led the field for longs based on successful turnaround stories and high-efficiency growth targets, while Wells Fargo, JPMorganChase, and KeyCorp led the most crowded space for shorts.
In healthcare, heatmap trends show two-sided crowding concentrated in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and life sciences, with longs increasingly focused on Merck, while shorts rotated toward Amgen, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Revvity, reflecting sensitivity to valuation and margin pressure as the year progressed.
The report highlights that in North America, divergence data shows information technology as the most crowded sector on both the long and short sides throughout the year.
Scatter analysis places the sector firmly in the high-long, high-short quadrant, signaling a highly grossed market where hedge funds maintained large offsetting positions.
In the EMEA region, industrials dominated crowded positioning on both sides, reflecting sustained exposure to capital goods and policy-driven themes.
Divergence analysis shows financials skewing more bullish, while consumer staples stood out as a relatively bearish outlier.
Scatter charts reinforce that crowding in the region was more concentrated and structurally driven than in the Americas.
The report also reveals that APAC's divergence and scatter data highlight persistent crowding in industrials and information technology, with positioning rotating between the two sectors throughout the year.
Unlike North America, crowding here was anchored in manufacturing, capital goods, and technology hardware, underscoring the region鈥檚 role in global supply chains rather than software-led growth.
Companies are awarded a Hazeltree Crowdedness Score, a metric between 1 and 99 to represent the security that the highest percentage of funds are shorting.
The year also saw consumer discretionary emerging as a global battleground, with crowdedness divergence reflecting where goods are made versus where they are sold, the report says
The annual report looks back at hedge fund long and short crowdedness across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC, based on Hazeltree鈥檚 analysis of anonymised data from 16,000 securities in its community of more than 600 asset management firms.
The addition of long crowdedness is a new layer of analysis for its external reporting.
Commenting on the year鈥檚 data, Tim Smith, managing director of data insights at Hazeltree, states: 鈥淥ur heatmap analysis demonstrated the long and short side moved in tandem most of the year for those crowded sectors within the North America region, such as consumer discretionary, financials, and information technology sector.
鈥淢eanwhile, longs in the healthcare sector picked up volume in the month of September while the shorts remained stable throughout the year.鈥�
The firm states that at the security level, hedge fund longs remained heavily crowded in large-cap technology stocks such as Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms, reflecting continued conviction in software and services companies with visible AI monetisation.
On the short side, crowding persisted in names including IBM and Strategy, while Synopsys emerged as an increasingly crowded short as concerns grew around execution risk tied to its pending Ansys acquisition.
Within financials, banks took centre stage in claiming the title of the most crowded across longs and shorts. Citigroup, Bank of America, and US Bancorp led the field for longs based on successful turnaround stories and high-efficiency growth targets, while Wells Fargo, JPMorganChase, and KeyCorp led the most crowded space for shorts.
In healthcare, heatmap trends show two-sided crowding concentrated in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and life sciences, with longs increasingly focused on Merck, while shorts rotated toward Amgen, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Revvity, reflecting sensitivity to valuation and margin pressure as the year progressed.
The report highlights that in North America, divergence data shows information technology as the most crowded sector on both the long and short sides throughout the year.
Scatter analysis places the sector firmly in the high-long, high-short quadrant, signaling a highly grossed market where hedge funds maintained large offsetting positions.
In the EMEA region, industrials dominated crowded positioning on both sides, reflecting sustained exposure to capital goods and policy-driven themes.
Divergence analysis shows financials skewing more bullish, while consumer staples stood out as a relatively bearish outlier.
Scatter charts reinforce that crowding in the region was more concentrated and structurally driven than in the Americas.
The report also reveals that APAC's divergence and scatter data highlight persistent crowding in industrials and information technology, with positioning rotating between the two sectors throughout the year.
Unlike North America, crowding here was anchored in manufacturing, capital goods, and technology hardware, underscoring the region鈥檚 role in global supply chains rather than software-led growth.
Companies are awarded a Hazeltree Crowdedness Score, a metric between 1 and 99 to represent the security that the highest percentage of funds are shorting.
NO FEE, NO RISK
100% ON RETURNS If you invest in only one securities finance news source this year, make sure it is your free subscription to 网爆吃瓜 Finance Times
100% ON RETURNS If you invest in only one securities finance news source this year, make sure it is your free subscription to 网爆吃瓜 Finance Times
