Investors Flee 'Black Swan' Hedge Funds

Investors are pulling out of such "tail risk" funds although economic and geopolitical bolts continue to strike from the blue, be they the messy bailout of Cyprus which has shown how the euro zone crisis can flare up when markets least expect it, or the U.S. stand-off with North Korea.

Despite such crises, shares have ploughed on to multi-year highs while volatility, as measured by the VIX or "Fear" Index, fell in mid-March to its lowest level since before the financial crisis when the U.S. investment bank went under in 2008.