Sol Waksman, president of Barclay Group, an alternative investment database, said that three-quarters of the 1,241 hedge funds that have reported returns for January lost money.

“That’s a scary number,” Mr. Waksman said.

“We will lower our non-comp expense materially, and I do mean materially,” Roger Altman said.

“It’s that sad dawning when you realize the market is so much bigger than you are,” Mark Fishman, of Sailfish Capital, said.

“Hey, you try wagging these puppies around a while and see if you don’t have back problems,” she explained, without any mention of problems in the hedge fund world.