Like sugar, leverage tastes really, really, really good.

Or, as the industry likes to call them, hedge-like mutual funds, which are mutual funds that follow hedge-fund-like strategies to the extent allowed them by the law and daily liquidity requirements, which is not a very great extent at all. Even so, they’ve done a pretty good job of matching hedge funds in one regard: trailing the broader markets.

Flows into hedge fund-like mutual funds, a category that attracted almost a third of the money going into actively managed funds in the past six years, have slowed this year to the weakest pace since 2008. The strategies, which include non-traditional bond funds and alternative stock funds, attracted just $1.2 billion from investors in the first five months of 2015, according to Chicago-based Morningstar Inc., down from $39 billion last year and a record $96 billion in 2013….

“Stocks and bonds did so well last year that a lot of people asked themselves: ‘Why do I need to own alternatives?’” said Lawrence Glazer, managing partner at Mayflower Advisors in Boston, where he helps oversee $2 billion.

Hedge Funds for Masses Lose Shine as Goldman, Pimco See Outflows [Bloomberg]