Managed futures gained 5.00% in February according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge.
“In the first two months of 2008, the Barclay CTA Index has gained 7.17%. The last time the Index started out this strong was in 1997, when it was up 7.48% by the end of February,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Barclay’s Diversified Traders Index is also off to a fast start in 2008, gaining 13.86% in just two months. In 2007, the Index rose a total of 11.41% for the entire 12 months.
“In contrast to the targeted strategies of agricultural, currency, or financial and metals traders, diversified traders are able to seek out and take advantage of profitable trends in a wide range of market sectors. So far in 2008, CTAs using a diversified strategy have been making all the right moves,” says Waksman.
All eight of Barclays CTA indexes were profitable in February. The Diversified Traders Index jumped 8.76%, Systematic Traders gained 5.91%, Discretionary Traders were up 4.52%, Agricultural Traders rose 2.83%, and Financial and Metals Traders gained 2.65%.
“In February, widespread concern over the possibility of a recession and inflation fears further weakened the US Dollar and helped drive commodity prices higher. At the same time, US interest rates and equity indices continued to trend lower,” says Waksman.
The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which monitors performance of the largest traders, rose 3.97% in February.
Due to liquidity constraints in the commodity futures markets, the largest traders oftentimes find it necessary to allocate a larger proportion of their portfolios to the financial futures markets. But even with proportionally less exposure to commodities, the biggest traders are off to their best start since 2003,” adds Waksman.