While seeding activity remained strong overall during 2019, volume was down modestly year over year, particularly in strategies that traditionally are able to command the largest seed investments given their significant investment capacities. This dynamic has been observed in past circumstances when the markets were perceived to be expensive, such that strategies which are highly correlated to overall market performance become somewhat less desirable as investors foresee an imminent correction. However, the return of extreme volatility in the first quarter of 2020 due to the COVID response may well provide an opening for these strategies, and there are already signs in 2020 of an uptick in the seeding of these products.