It appears the hedge fund industry is making a strong comeback — and much sooner than most thought it would.

For the first time since the beginning of the financial crisis, new hedge-fund start-ups exceeded the number of hedge fund liquidations.

According to Hedge Fund Research, a total of 224 new hedge funds were started in the third quarter of 2009, compared with 190 funds that liquidated or closed. The total number of hedge funds now stands at 6,775, the highest number since the end of 2008 when there were 6,845 funds.

Even Zoe Cruz, one of Wall Street’s most powerful women during her time as Morgan Stanley co-president, has started her own fund — Voras Capital Management — for which she has recently started recruiting talent to manage the starting capital of $200 million.

This is a good sign. Or is it? Investments in hedge funds can aide in the economic recovery of Wall Street, but will most of these hedge fund managers, who have seemingly dusted themselves off and started anew, resort back to their old, misleading ways?

The top 10 hedge fund closures of 2008, ranked by Absolute Return magazine.