A trend among trend-following hedge funds went into reverse in October. For the first time in a year and a half, bigger funds did worse than smaller ones.

For 18 months, the average monthly performance of bigger trend-following funds, those holding more than $1 billion in assets, had been better than funds holding less. But in October, the big ones, including David Harding's Winton Futures fund, Ewan Kirk's Cantab Capital Partners and Man Group's flagship AHL range, caught a chill, according to widely followed industry data reviewed by Financial News.