Managed futures lost 0.49% in October according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge. The Index is now up 3.88% for the year.
“A spike in intra-month volatility coupled with sharp mid-month price reversals in financial markets made for a difficult trading environment in October,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Five of Barclay’s eight CTA indices had losses in October. Agricultural Traders gave up 3.39%, Discretionary Traders were down 1.08%, and Financial & Metal Traders lost 0.23%.
On the positive side, the Currency Traders Index gained 0.80%, and Systematic Traders were up 0.09%.
“Yen and EUR weakness versus the USD has been the prevailing trend in currency markets for the past several months. Traders that were able to stay in their positions as the USD weakened early in the month came out ahead at month-end,” say Waksman.
The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which measures performance of the largest CTAs, gained 1.39% in October, and is now up 6.96% in 2014.
“Medium-term trend following strategies, as a group, had better success at navigating October’s choppy markets. Given the high representation of these strategies within the BTOP50 Index, it’s not surprising that the BTOP50 outperformed the more broadly-based Barclay CTA Index,” says Waksman.
After ten months in 2014, all eight of Barclay’s CTA indices are in positive territory, with two indices leading the pack. The Diversified Traders Index is up 5.39%, and Systematic Traders have gained 5.19%.
