Trees don’t grow to the sky, we’re told – and we saw that in Feb as managed futures snapped their 6 month winning streak. Back in August of 2014, Managed Futures started posting its outlier gains that the asset class is familiar with, stringing together 6 consecutive months of positive performance to exit a 3 year drawdown, and hitting new all time highs. {Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results}. That streak ended in February as the average of the 4 indices we track posted a negative return of -0.37%, bringing the YTD performance to +3.17%. It was a rollercoaster of sorts for the majority of managed futures managers we track, with the party continuing in the first days of the month, losses in the middle as most managers were long fixed income and bonds which experienced a sell off, then some gains into the end of the month as bond rebounded some and currencies sold off again.
(Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results)
Chart Courtesy: Finviz
At one point the Newedge CTA Index was down -2.44% on the month but a later rebound in bonds and new highs in the USD made up some ground {Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results}. While we can’t determine what trends lie ahead for Managed Futures, getting out to an early start on the year will certainly help if the asset class experiences slight down periods like February over the next couple of months.
(Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results)
(BarclayHedge reporting 62% of funds, numbers subject to change)
P.S. –Some of Attain’s Family of Alternative Funds outperformed the indices themselves. To get monthly performance and research updates on the family of funds, sign up here.
