BarclayHedge Insider - BarclayHedge

Managed Futures Add to Gains; Barclay CTA Index Up 1.69% in October

Written by superadmin | Nov 15, 2007 6:00:00 AM

FAIRFIELD, Iowa, November 15, 2007– Managed futures rose 1.69% in October, according to flash estimates from the Barclay CTA Index.

“October profits were powered by a continuation of September’s uptrend in energy prices and downtrend in the US Dollar,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of The Barclay Group.

“Higher prices in the energy complex reflected increased tension as Turkey massed troops on the Iraqi border, coupled with lower than expected supplies of crude oil and refined products,” says Waksman.

“The Canadian dollar, viewed by many market participants as an energy/commodity currency, reached a new 130-year high against the US Dollar.”

All eight of Barclay’s CTA indexes were profitable in October. The Diversified Traders Index gained 2.40%, Systematic Traders rose 2.17%, and the Agricultural Traders Index was up 2.10%,

The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which monitors performance of the largest traders, added 2.19% in October, following a 2.66% gain in September.

“Continuing speculation that the US Federal Reserve would cut interest rates again helped to drive the US Dollar to a new low against the Euro, and to a 26-year low against the British Pound,” says Waksman.

Click here to view 27 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.

The Barclay Group, founded in 1985, actively tracks more than 6,500 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.