It’s been a rough start to the year for several prominent Australian hedge funds, who have missed out on the months-long rally that drove the sharemarket to record highs.

Long-short strategies operated by Totus Capital, Firetrail Investments and Sage Capital are among funds to report negative returns over the three months to the end of February, underperforming the S&P/ASX 200, which has jumped more than 9 per cent since the start of December.