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Leon Cooperman, founder of the $9 billion hedge fund Omega Advisors. The fund was said to have lost 11 percent this month.Credit Heidi Gutman/CNBC

From his getaway cabin deep in the woods, an experienced adviser to wealthy hedge fund investors was hopping from one conference call to another to manage clients’ mounting anxiety.

Similarly, a broker described how he had interrupted his vacation to respond to the needs of his nervous clients. And a multibillion-dollar hedge fund said numerous investors had requested play-by-play commentary and performance figures.

The sudden and rapid sell-off across global markets that began late last week and deepened on Monday has caught many on Wall Street off guard, interrupting the vacation plans of richly compensated money managers — especially those at some of the nation’s biggest hedge funds, where losses over the last few days have been especially steep.

The ferocity of Monday’s selling — in particular a decline in the Dow Jones industrial average of nearly 1,000 points in the first minutes of trading — was attributed to a number of events, from the forced sales of stocks bought on credit — known as margin calls — to economic woes in China and looming rate increases in the United States.

But by the end of Monday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index closing down 77.68 points, or 3.9 percent, there was still no clear reason for the plunge and not many big money managers were willing to stick their necks out and speak publicly. Even those who spoke privately to investors were few. “I think they don’t know what to say,” said one investor, who did not want to be quoted for fear of angering some managers.

What is clear, however, is that the numbers rolling in for August from the hedge fund industry do not look good. Hedge funds went into the sell-off bullish, with $1.5 trillion in long positions — bets that stocks will rise in price — compared with $684 billion in short positions, bets that stocks will decline in price, according to an analysis of the industry by Goldman Sachs.

The 10 stocks that Goldman said were the most widely held by hedge funds — stocks like Apple, Citigroup, Facebook and Amazon — were down from 5 to 10 percent over the last three trading days.

Continue reading the main story Graphic The Stock Market Loses 5 Percent In a Week: What Happens Next A look at the last five times the stock market lost 5 percent in a week.

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Leon G. Cooperman, founder of the $9 billion hedge fund Omega Advisors and a longtime market bull, is emerging as a big loser in the chaos. As of Friday, his fund was said to have lost 11 percent this month, according to people briefed on the matter. Mr. Cooperman did not return a call seeking comment.

The firm was hit hard by big declines in the share prices of Allergan, AerCap, Citigroup and the American International Group — four of Omega’s top stock holdings, according to regulatory filings.

One hedge fund manager who invests mainly in United States stocks, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he would not be surprised if the average fund lost from 3 to 7 percent in August. He said the past week had been brutal and the losses had come far faster than most would have anticipated. Several managers described frenzied selling when the markets opened on Monday morning.

Even the world’s biggest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, led by Ray Dalio, was not spared. The $162 billion firm told investors on Friday that its Pure Alpha fund was down 4.7 percent for the month. Going into August, the Pure Alpha portfolio had been up 11.8 percent for the year.

Bridgewater did not respond to a request for comment.

Before the full extent of the sell-off on Wall Street was known, Goldman had already predicted that the hedge fund industry would once again underperform the broader S.&P. 500, which, at Monday’s close, was down 8.1 percent for the year. The Dow lost 588 points, or 3.6 percent. The average hedge fund has underperformed the broader market for six consecutive years, according to the research firm HFR.

The warning signs for the latest global market rout appeared as far back as June, when China’s stock market took a plunge and regulators intervened. “This is really a story about China and emerging markets. Emerging market currencies are off by between 10 and 20 percent over the past two months,” said Jorge O. Mariscal, chief investment officer for emerging markets at UBS Wealth Management.

“Those who were short commodities, emerging market currencies or Chinese equities are clearly the winners here,” he said, adding that after the most recent turmoil anyone who made bets against any stocks around the world would be winners, too.

But after six years of a bull market run in which American stocks have hit one record after another, few hedge fund managers have been brave enough to short stocks with much conviction. To take a short position, a trader sells borrowed stock in a company that he or she thinks is overvalued in anticipation of buying it back at a cheap price.

Key Short Positions for Hedge Funds

Yet, while the headlines on Monday were stark — analysts in China and the United States were calling it Black Monday — the sell-off was not as bad for some hedge funds that had short positions. The past week was a good time for money managers betting on stock declines.

Express Scripts Holding, for example, which was flagged by Goldman Sachs as one of the most heavily shorted stocks, has shed 6.8 percent in the last three trading days. Exxon Mobil, another favorite short, was down 10 percent over the same period, in lock step with the price of oil dropping below $40 a barrel.

Kerrisdale Capital Management, a hedge fund based in New York, sent a “flash estimate” on Monday morning to let investors know that the fund would be down 2 percent for August, according to one investor. The hedge fund, which has a short bet against the satellite company Globalstar, was up around 10 percent for the year heading into August, the investor said.

Hedge funds that scoop up distressed assets at bottomed-out prices also began to eye opportunities. “What I have told investors is the economy is fine but now is a great time to be buying some things when they get hit,” said Marc Lasry, a co-founder of the $13.9 billion hedge fund Avenue Capital Group.

“Other people may be having issues,” Mr. Lasry said. “For us, that is an opportunity as opposed to a problem.”

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