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FAIRFIELD, Iowa, February 16, 2011– Managed futures started the year with a 0.41% loss in January according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge.
“The chief drivers of CTA performance in January were an improving economic outlook and geo-political uncertainty in the Middle East,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
“Unfortunately for investors, the impact of these opposing forces had disparate regional effects and created difficult crosscurrents for managers.”
All eight of Barclay’s CTA indices started 2011 in the red. The Barclay Agricultural Traders Index lost 1.02% in January, Currency Traders were down 0.68%, Financial & Metals Traders lost 0.39%, Systematic Traders slid 0.40%, and Diversified Traders were down 0.34%.
“Although equity markets in developed countries responded positively to upbeat economic forecasts, investors in developing nations worried about inflation pressures and monetary tightening,” says Waksman.
“And although bond prices declined in the US, investors decided that the improved outlook would result in a decline in business defaults and consequently bid up prices for High Yield debt securities.”
The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which measures performance of the largest CTAs, lost 1.11% in January.
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.
