A sign of how tough the market has been this year: Through November 24, every long stock fund tracked by Morningstar — that’s right, every single long stock fund — had lost ground in 2008. That includes 10,085 U.S. funds (which, on average, had lost 44.47 percent) and 2,912 international funds (which had lost an average of 51.01 percent).

The best U.S. performer: Embarcadero Alternative Strategies, which was down 1.55 percent. That was far better than the best international performer, Prasad Growth, which was down “only” 11.21 percent. (Click here for full list of fund returns.)

There were, of course, stock funds that had made money this year, but all were bear funds that used major short positions.