Call it the anti-innovation.

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal revealed that managers of many of the world’s largest hedge funds are out of the market, instead keeping much of their holdings in cash and other short-term investments.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t hedge funds supposed to live for this kind of volatility? It appears as though the level of irrational behavior on the part of investments is so great that even hedge funds are staying on the sidelines.

Even with yesterday’s surge in the stock market, the world is still a little too unpredictable for hedge fund managers. Steven Cohen, the head of SAC Capital, for example, isn’t expecting to return to the stock market until 2009, according to the article.