According to MoneyControl hedge fund stars are partying like it’s 2008 in Monaco, which means that they see tough times ahead and lavish parties are a thing of the past until the profits start to flow again. They are complaining that asymmetric trades are really tough to find and it’s hard to make money these days. After all a $500,000 bonus just doesn’t buy much these days after inflation and taxes. The article says:

Successful money-making ideas are in short supply and as many as a fifth of last year’s delegates opted to stay at home, eschewing visits to the world-famous Monte Carlo casino for more hours in front of a computer screen, hunting for the trade that brings them back into the black.

“It is not the time when you can just say to someone, ‘come to Monaco for four days’, when there are so many issues to deal with back home,” said Roberto Giuffrida, head of global business development at Permal, one of the world’s largest fund of hedge funds.

Staying at home to find trades, instead of partying in Monaco. It really sounds like times are getting tough. In fact:

“Off-duty” delegates were more careful with their own money, opting for the relatively modest McCarthy’s Irish pub to watch games in the Euro 2012 soccer tournament, although some could not resist a visit to old haunt the Sass bar, a favourite among jet-setters and where U2 frontman Bono once held his birthday party.

After the second year of losses in four for the sector as a whole, managers are earnestly comparing how bad their situation is against their peers, sometimes straying into gallows humour at just how hard it was to survive current markets.

If hedge funders are low on cash, just imagine how it must be for the rest of us, the 99%.