While equity markets have dived this year, managed futures funds gained 0.68% in September, extending their gains to 7.86% for the year, according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge.
“As the financial crisis continued to wreak havoc across global equity
markets, trend-following CTAs were able to profit from short positions in stock
index futures,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
In September, the Barclay Systematic Traders Index gained 1.94%, Diversified
Traders were up 1.56%, and the Financial/Metals Index rose 1.07%.
“Most commodity prices have been in decline since mid-August,”
says Waksman. “CTAs, on balance, are currently short these markets, and
the price declines were another source of profits for the month.”
“Global fixed income was a difficult area for many traders in September,"
he added. "The US rescue plan resulted in large counter-trend moves in
the interest rate markets.”
The Barclay CTA Index is up 7.86% through September, in stark contrast to a
19.29% decline in the S&P 500.
All eight of the managed futures indices monitored by BarclayHedge have positive
returns in 2008. The Diversified Traders Index is up 14.15% after three quarters,
Agricultural Traders have gained 10.73%, Systematic Traders are up 9.21%, and
Discretionary Traders have gained 9.05%.
The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which monitors performance of the largest traders,
rose 0.28% in September. The BTOP50 is now up 6.45% for the year.
INVESTORSOFFSHORE.COM
