FAIRFIELD, Iowa, April 19, 2011– Managed futures lost 0.91% in March according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge. Year-to-date, the Barclay CTA Index is down 0.39%.
“Perilous crosscurrents wrought by devastation in Japan, unrest in the Middle East, and higher headline inflation generated turmoil in futures markets,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Four of Barclay’s eight CTA indices had negative returns in March, while four indices had gains. The Barclay Diversified Traders Index fell 1.71%, and Systematic Traders were down 1.56%.
“The fallout from mid-month trend reversals in capital and commodity markets hit diversified trend followers harder than other sectors.”
On the positive side, Discretionary Traders gained 0.83%, Agricultural Traders were up 0.73%, and Currency Traders gained 0.59%.
“There was no respite for a declining US dollar as the ECB clearly signaled its inflation concerns and intentions to raise rates,” says Waksman. “Currency traders have been able to profit from this ongoing trend.”
The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which measures performance of the largest CTAs, lost 1.59% in March, and is down 2.39% for the year.
Click here to view 30 years of Barclay CTA Index data.
Sol Waksman is an experienced media source, providing perspectives on hedge fund and managed futures trends. For more commentary or background, call 641-472-3456 or email swaksman@barclayhedge.com.
BarclayHedge was founded in 1985 and actively tracks more than 6,000 hedge funds, funds of hedge funds, and managed futures programs. Each month Barclay provides updated performance rankings for 38 Hedge Fund categories and 16 CTA categories.
Institutional investors, brokerage firms and private banks worldwide utilize Barclay’s data as performance benchmarks for the hedge fund and managed futures industries.