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Managed Futures Gain 1.32% in July; Barclay BTOP50 Index Adds 1.95%

Written by superadmin | Aug 16, 2011 12:00:00 AM

FAIRFIELD, Iowa, August 16, 2011– Managed futures gained 1.32% in July according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge. Year-to-date, the Barclay CTA Index is down 0.67%.

“A counter-intuitive bond market rally that flew in the face of rating downgrade concerns may have puzzled many traders, but trend-following CTAs were largely able to profit from the move,” says Sol Waksman, founder and President of BarclayHedge.

All of Barclay’s eight CTA indices had gains in July. The Barclay Diversified Traders Index gained 2.03%, Systematic Traders were up 1.93%, Agricultural Traders gained 1.18%, Discretionary Traders added 0.72%, Financial & Metals Traders were up 0.69%, and the Currency Traders Index gained 0.70%.

 “Energy, grains, and precious and industrial metals all moved higher during the month,” says Waksman.

“In addition to helping to support commodity prices, the continued decline of the US dollar against most major currencies (excepting the Euro) provided support to currency trader portfolios in July.”

The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which measures performance of the largest CTAs, jumped 1.95% in July, but remains down 1.65% year-to-date.

Click here to view 30 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 was founded in 1985 and actively tracks more than 6,000 hedge funds, funds of hedge funds, and managed futures programs. Each month Barclay provides updated performance rankings for 38 Hedge Fund categories and 16 CTA categories.

Institutional investors, brokerage firms and private banks worldwide utilize Barclay’s data as performance benchmarks for the hedge fund and managed futures industries.