Managed Futures Turn Upward in August

FAIRFIELD, Iowa, September 14, 2006 - Managed Futures gained 0.23% in August, according to flash estimates for the Barclay CTA Index.

"The majority of CTAs were able to eke out a small profit for the month, despite the cross-currents and reversals in several major sectors such as energy and precious metals," says Sol Waksman, founder and president of The Barclay Group.

Five of Barclay's eight CTA indexes had positive returns in August. The Currency Traders Index gained 0.52%, Systematic Traders rose 0.04%, Financial and Metals was up 0.03%.

"Currency traders had their first profitable month since May," says Waksman. "A rally in the Canadian Dollar and the continuing sell-off in the Yen provided profitable trading opportunities."

The Discretionary Traders Index lost 0.27% in August, the Agricultural Index fell 0.26%, and Diversified Traders slid 0.22%.

The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which monitors the performance of the largest CTA's, managed a gain of 0.07% in August.

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

Sol Waksman is an experienced media source, providing perspectives on hedge fund and managed futures trends. Call 641-472-3456 or email sol@barclaygrp.com for more commentary or background.

The Barclay Group, founded in 1985, actively tracks more than 5,700 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.