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FAIRFIELD, Iowa, January 22, 2008– Managed futures gained 7.54% in 2007 according to year-end data compiled by BarclayHedge.
“In 2007, the Barclay CTA Index marked its eighth straight year of positive returns,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
“Since the year 2000, managed futures have provided an compound annual return of 5.67%.”
Over the past 28 years, the Barclay CTA Index has had only 3 losing years – in 1992, 1994, and 1999 – with minor losses of 0.91%, 0.65%, and 1.19%.
“The managed futures industry has provided comfortable, stable growth for investors for many years,” says Waksman.
“Dr. John Linter’s seminal study in 1983 was the first academic acknowledgment of the potential diversification benefits arising from a prudent allocation to the managed futures sector.”
“But it took another 20 years before the managed futures industry finally came into its own. Since the beginning of 2003, assets under management have grown rapidly from $51 billion to approximately $190 billion today.”
All eight of Barclay’s CTA indexes were profitable in 2007. The Barclay Diversified Traders Index was up 11.50%, Systematic Traders returned 8.68%, Financial and Metals Traders gained 7.33%, and Discretionary Traders rose 6.43%.
“The chaos in the sub-prime mortgage market has created significant challenges for equity and fixed income markets, as well as for hedge funds,” says Waksman.
“Fortunately, most managed futures investors were able to dodge the negative fallout from the sub-prime mortgage market.”
“One exception is the group of unlucky investors impacted by the fraud at Sentinel Management Group, a mutual fund management firm based in Northbrook, Illinois.”
The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which monitors performance of the largest traders, rose 7.68% in 2007.Since 2000, the BTOP50 Index has compounded at a rate of 6.97% per year.
Click here to view 28 years of Barclay CTA Index data.
Download 21 years of monthly data for the Barclay BTOP50 Index.
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 sol@barclayhedge.com.
BarclayHedge, formerly known as The Barclay Group, was founded in 1985, and actively tracks more than 6,600 hedge funds, fund of hedge funds, and managed futures programs. Barclay has created and regularly updates 18 proprietary hedge fund indexes and eight managed futures indexes.
Institutional investors, brokerage firms and private banks worldwide utilize Barclay’s data as performance benchmarks for the hedge fund and managed futures industries.
