Hedgie Herd in Gold

"You know why fund managers can't beat the S&P 500? Because they're sheep, and sheep get slaughtered."
--Gordon Gekko (Wall Street)

ZeroHedge reports the record hedge fund short positions in gold and other commodities. At 1.4 million oz net short, it constitutes the most bearish short position since the CFTC began tracking the data in 2006.

ZH also observes that epic bearish sentiment in 'paper' gold coincides with increasing demand for physical metal.

Does history suggest that hedgies are leaders or followers of movements such as this?

position in gold