But that hasn't been the case so far this year. In a report released Tuesday, Morningstar analyst Jason Kephart noted that just seven of the 56 funds in the managed futures category have lost money in 2016.
That said, not all liquid alts categories have seized the moment as spectacularly. The group of market-neutral funds tracked by Morningstar was down 0.37 percent as of January 15, which provided decent protection in this period of market turmoil. (Though considering the high fund fees, investors would’ve been better off keeping that money in cash.)
Elsewhere, the collective group of multialternative funds was down 2.02 percent, whlie long-short equity funds had lost 4.36 percent.