As US markets set new records, hedge fund managers aren't buying the frenzy

The $4 trillion boom lifting equities for a month has been a YOLO feast, complete with spiraling meme stocks and surging options. For a slightly more staid group, hedge-fund managers, the frenzy has begun to sow skepticism.

The result is a market of contrasts, in which a virtually uninterrupted march higher in the major indexes has pushed volume in the day trader flier-of-choice, bullish call contracts, to some of the highest levels in history. Meanwhile, professional speculators -- many of them stung by upheaval in bond markets -- were going risk-off in stocks, cutting leverage at the fastest pace in months