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FAIRFIELD, Iowa, May 5, 2006 - Money under management in Managed Futures grew from $130.6 billion to $135.0 billion during the first three months of 2006, according to The Barclay Group, a leading provider of managed futures and hedge fund data.
"This strong flow of funds into managed futures has been driven by positive returns by CTA's, as well as increased interest in commodities," says Sol Waksman, president of The Barclay Group.
"Daily press reports of the latest price increases in oil and gold has fueled investor interest in long-only commodity funds. Recent data indicates more than $200 billion is currently invested in such instruments.
"Some of this interest is finding its way into managed futures investments, which typically can be long or short in commodity markets as well as financial futures markets."
The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which measures the performance of the largest CTA's, is up 4.44% through April. The broader Barclay CTA Index has gained 3.91%.
"The $135 billion currently under management is a 2.35 percent increase since December 31, 2004, when the previous peak in assets was achieved," says Waksman.
"Five years ago, CTA's managed just $37.9 billion in assets; ten years ago, $22.8 billion; and 20 years ago the figure was 1.49 billion. Based on first quarter data, this long-term trend of increasing assets under management appears to be intact."
Click here to view 26 years of asset growth in managed futures.
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 5,300 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.
