FAIRFIELD, Iowa, November 13, 2017 — The flash estimate for the Barclay CTA Index, compiled by BarclayHedge, shows a 1.75% gain in October. Year to date, the index is up 0.15%.
Diversified Traders led for the month with a gain of 2.50%, followed by Systematic Traders at 2.46% and Financial/Metals Traders up 2.02%. Currency Traders notched a modest gain of 0.25% while Discretionary Traders fell 0.06% and Agricultural slid by 0.31%.
“Global equity markets provided the biggest boost to returns as the S&P 500 rally moved into its 12th consecutive month and the Nikkei 225 rose to 20-year highs,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
“The ongoing rally in the energy complex that began this summer continued for a fourth consecutive month, driving crude oil prices to its highest levels in more than a year and providing a profitable trading opportunity,” says Waksman. “Prices for base metals rallied as well.”
The largest systematic traders, those managing in excess of $1 billion, were particularly well positioned to benefit from October’s trends and their investors enjoyed average gains of 3.88%. Ninety-four percent of these systematic strategies were profitable last month.
The strong October performance of Financials/Metals propelled the sector to the top spot for the year with a gain of 3.35%. Agricultural is up 2.23% year to date while Currency (0.40%) and Discretionary (0.27%) have modest gains. In the negative column, Systematic is down 0.12% and Discretionary has fallen 1.90%.
The BTOP50 Index, which is composed of the largest CTAs that are open to new investment, gained 3.08% for the month but is still down 1.40% for the year.
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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.