Investors punish U.S. hedge funds for poor returns

Investors pulled a net $5.9 billion out of U.S. hedge funds in April, marking the industry's biggest outflow in 6-1/2 years as they punished managers for their worst-ever returns at the start of 2008.

According to new data released by TrimTabs Investment Research and BarclayHedge late on Monday evening, investors took $9.4 billion away from individual hedge fund managers and added $3.5 billion to funds of hedge funds, portfolios that spread select a group of individual hedge funds.