Bear-market and long/short mutual funds booked record sales this year. The funds, which employ hedging strategies, earned $10 billion in sales between this October and last, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, indicating that some investors fear that the recent stock rally is over. The returns are double that of the most recent high in 2006.

The article highlights JPMorgan Chase and PIMCO funds, which were especially inundated with cash in the past year. The best selling fund was John Hussman's Hussman Strategic Growth Fund, drawing $1.7 billion through Septemeber.

“Companies are capitalizing on the uncertainty in the market,” Nadia Papagiannis, an analyst with Chicago-based Morningstar, told Bloomberg's Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam. “There’s also a mystique that comes with hedge-fund investing.” 

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