Within the hedge fund industry there are some trades that are destined to live on in legend: Jessie Livermore’s claimed $100m profit from shorting the 1929 crash, Paul Tudor Jones’ prediction of the 1987 crash, from which he doubled his money in a month, or the $1bn profit George Soros reputedly made when sterling was forced out of the exchange rate mechanism.

But the forecast last year by a select group of hedge funds of a crisis in subprime mortgages has put even the most spectacular trades in history in the shade.