Managed Futures Accelerate Downward

FAIRFIELD, Iowa, August 8, 2006 - Managed Futures lost 1.39% in July, according to flash estimates for the Barclay CTA Index.

"We've seen an accelerating downward trend in CTA performance over the past three months," says Sol Waksman, founder and president of The Barclay Group.

"The Barclay CTA Index lost 0.33 percent in May, fell 0.61 percent in June, and dropped 1.39 percent in July."

Six of Barclay's eight CTA indexes were down in July. The Diversified Traders Index dropped 2.11%, Systematic Traders fell 1.75%, Financial and Metals was down 0.44%, and Currency Traders lost 0.24%.

The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which monitors the performance of the largest CTA's, fell even faster, losing 1.96% in July.

"It's not surprising that the largest traders had somewhat higher losses on a percentage basis than the industry averages," says Waksman.

"Larger CTAs usually include significant allocations to financial futures markets in order to maintain portfolio liquidity, and this month the financial markets were difficult to navigate successfully."

Barclay's Agricultural Index gained 0.37% in July, and the Discretionary Traders Index was up 0.35%.

Although Barclay's CTA Index has lost 2.33% during the past three months, it remains up 1.32% for the year.

Click here to view 27 years of Barclay CTA Index data.

Sol Waksman, an experienced media source, provides perspectives on hedge fund and managed futures trends. For more commentary, call Sol at 641-472-3456 or email sol@barclayhedge.com.

The Barclay Group, founded in 1985, actively tracks more than 5,500 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 indexes as performance benchmarks for the hedge fund and managed futures industries.