FAIRFIELD, Iowa, May 13, 2008– Managed futures couldn’t find a direction in April, losing 0.27% according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge.
“Several profitable trends of the past few months reversed in April,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
“Growing confidence that the worst of the credit crisis may be behind us spurred a decline in prices for fixed income instruments as interest rate markets shifted their attention to inflationary concerns.”
Diversified Traders lost 0.74% in April, Systematic Traders were down 0.59%, and Financial and Metals Traders slid 0.56%.
“Although prices for precious metals declined sharply after mid-month, energy prices continued their advance,” says Waksman.
Agricultural Traders gained 1.14%, Discretionary Traders were up 0.20%, and Currency Traders rose 0.08%.
“The US Dollar, which has been in a five-year decline, staged a recovery in April. The rally was fueled by the belief that rate cuts by the Fed may be at an end.”
The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which monitors performance of the largest traders, lost 1.31% in April, but remains up 4.67% through the end of April.
Click here to view 28 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 (formerly The Barclay Group) was founded in 1985 and actively tracks more than 6,800 hedge funds, funds 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.