It’s amazing how times change.

Not so long ago the hedge funds were held up as the scourge of business. In some cases, companies saw their share price fall in the wake of speculators shorting their stock - selling shares in a company they had not yet bought.

It seemed that a listing on a stock market brought with it an unhealthy pre-occupation with the short term, with speculators sometimes bringing a share price right down - just because the short term results were not so good.

But now, we have gone the other way. According to today’s FT, short sellers lost money in March, and April is expected to be even worse.

For one thing, they got it wrong with Amazon. The dotcom star was a victim of short selling earlier in the month, with many expecting results to be down on predictions. But, as we reported last week, results were much better than expected, the share price soared and all those speculators who went short found themselves in the unenviable position of having to buy shares they had already sold, but this time at a much higher price.

But, according to the FT, another problem is private equity. These days, if companies are under reporting, the private equity boys often move in. This has kept up the share price in companies that would previously have made nice little victims for the short sellers.

While some say private equity is like a swarm of locusts, it appears a more apt description to say that they are like a locust pesticide.

In the world of agriculture, we understand it is all but impossible to stop a swarm of locusts. But maybe, in business we have found the answer: private equity.