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FAIRFIELD, Iowa, August 14, 2018 — The flash estimate for the Barclay CTA Index, compiled by BarclayHedge, indicates a 0.21% gain in July. Year to date, the Index has lost 1.98%.
“Although Managed Futures were able to register a small gain in July with 57 percent of the underlying index constituents reporting profits, the dispersion of monthly returns was quite high, ranging from a 41 percent gain down to a 15 percent loss,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Four of Barclay’s managed futures indices had gains in July, while six had losses. The Cryptocurrency Traders Index was up 5.28%, Agricultural Traders gained 1.04%, and Discretionary Traders were up 0.67%.
The MPI Barclay Elite Systematic Traders Index gave back its June gains with a 0.86% loss in July. Financial and Metals Traders were down 0.35%, Diversified Traders gave up 0.19% and Currency Traders lost 0.17%.
The BTOP50 Index, which is composed of the largest CTAs open to new investments, lost 0.53% in July.
“Tradable downtrends in precious metals and sugar helped some managers, but managers with longer term momentum strategies probably gave up some ground in interest rate and energy markets,” says Waksman.
“Although the July decline experienced by Currency Traders was quite small (-0.17%), intra-month trend reversals in many of the most popular G7 currency crosses helped put 77 percent of currency funds into the loss column."
After seven months, six of Barclay’s Managed Futures indices have losses and three have gains. Cryptocurrency Traders have a negative return of 42.07% for the year, the Elite Systematic Traders Index is down 5.14%, Diversified Traders have lost 3.42%, Systematic Traders are down 2.97%, while Financial and Metals Traders have lost 2.90%. The BTOP50 Index is currently down 3.60%.
Conversely, the Currency Traders Index has gained 3.58% in 2018, Discretionary Traders are up 2.26%, and Agricultural Traders have gained 1.50%.
Click here to view 38 years of Barclay CTA Index data.
Sol Waksman is the founder and president of BarclayHedge. Waksman is an industry expert and experienced media source, providing perspectives on hedge fund and managed futures trends.
BarclayHedge is the global leader in providing independent, research-based information services to the alternative investment industry. Founded in 1985, Barclay currently maintains data on more than 6,600 hedge funds, fund of funds, and CTAs. No one has been in the business of collecting alternative investment data longer than BarclayHedge.
Institutional investors, brokerage firms, and private banks worldwide utilize BarclayHedge indices as performance benchmarks for the hedge fund and managed futures industries.
