This diagram shows the number of new hedge funds being launched in the lighter blue and the number of hedge funds being liquidated or closed down in darker blue in each year from 1996 to 2020. This shows that from 1996 to 2007, there was a large growth in the number of hedge funds in existence, since the number of launches was greater than the number of liquidations. However, there were already some signs leading up to the 2008 global financial crisis of all not being right in financial markets. As the number of hedge fund liquidations had been relatively high in 2005 to 2007, and the number of new funds being launched declined from 2005 to 2007. From 2010 to 2015, the number of new launches outweighed liquidations each year. However, there were still significant numbers of liquidations through this period. From 2015 to 2020, the number of liquidations has exceeded the new fund launches, which indicates saturation of the hedge fund markets, and that growth in AUM during the period came from the good funds doing increasingly well rather than growth in the number of funds.