Managed futures posted a gain of 3.48 per cent in October, according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by Fairfield, Iowa-based index provider BarclayHedge, taking the index's cumulative advance to 10.81 per cent over the first 10 months of this year.

'In October, investor concern turned from the financial sector to fear of a global recession,' says BarclayHedge founder and president Sol Waksman. 'Massive government intervention has had little effect on the major downward trends of the past several months.'

The Barclay Diversified Traders Index jumped 6.42 per cent in October, taking their gain to 21.23 per cent in the first 10 months of 2008. Systematic Traders gained 4.18 per cent and Discretionary Traders were up 3.39 per cent, while the Financial/Metals Index rose 3.19 per cent.

'Commodity prices continued to trend downward in October,' says Waksman. 'The commodity-based CRB Index recorded its worst ever monthly decline, falling more than 22 percent.

'CTAs have performed remarkably well in 2008, especially when compared with the losses we're seeing in hedge funds and global equity markets. The Barclay CTA Index is up 10.81 per cent through October, in contrast to a 19.14 per cent loss for the Barclay Hedge Fund Index and a 32.84 per cent drop in the S&P 500.'

The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which monitors performance of the largest traders, rose by 3.90 per cent in October, and is now up 9.87 per cent for the year so far.

Founded as the Barclay Group in 1985, BarclayHedge tracks more than 6,700 hedge funds, funds of hedge funds and managed futures programmes and maintains 18 proprietary hedge fund and eight managed futures indices, providing data to clients including institutional investors, brokerage firms and private banks.