An absolute gem in a Wall Street Journal piece Thursday about the recent big losses at computer-driven hedge funds: "Our risk models failed to pick up the fact that we were due for a correction," said Keith Campbell, founder of Campbell & Co. "We were highly diversified. It was the perfect negative storm." The guy goes on to describe current market conditions as “very unusual.”

According to the story, Campbell & Co., which manages some $11 billion, does all of its trading using computers — you know, that box on your desk that periodically seizes up, forcing you to pound it with a slipper or some other light object in a futile effort to get it to unfreeze without doing any permanent damage.

Campbell & Co.'s the tip of the iceberg, of course, with lots of computer-based funds getting pounded. When quants are concerned, it's not the PCs that are to blame, poor beasts, but rather the piteously human models they apply in chasing alpha. From there it's a short, but familiar, leap into the void, and always the same refrain: We never saw it coming. —Alain Sherter

See story from CNNMoney.com

Tags: hedge funds