At the beginning of the financial crisis in August 2007, D. E. Shaw's multistrategy fund had assets of $20 billion. A third of the fund's exposure was to the equity markets and equity-linked quantitative strategies. As a result, the fund lost five percent of its assets and had its worst performing month to that point in time. By September 2008, the company's capital was leveraged at 4x. In the final months of 2008, subsequent gains on its then $15 billion multistrategy fund had disappeared.