Managed futures gained 1.32% in July according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge. Year-to-date, the Barclay CTA Index is down 0.67%.
“A counter-intuitive bond market rally that flew in the face of rating downgrade concerns may have puzzled many traders, but trend-following CTAs were largely able to profit from the move,” says Sol Waksman, founder and President of BarclayHedge.
All of Barclay’s eight CTA indices had gains in July. The Barclay Diversified Traders Index gained 2.03%, Systematic Traders were up 1.93%, Agricultural Traders gained 1.18%, Discretionary Traders added 0.72%, Financial & Metals Traders were up 0.69%, and the Currency Traders Index gained 0.70%.
“Energy, grains, and precious and industrial metals all moved higher during the month,” says Waksman. “In addition to helping to support commodity prices, the continued decline of the US dollar against most major currencies (excepting the Euro) provided support to currency trader portfolios in July.”
The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which measures performance of the largest CTAs, jumped 1.95% in July, but remains down 1.65% year-to-date.
