If there’s one thing trend followers fear, it’s false trends that reverse quickly for losses. However, a close second is a flat market – and that certainly described the major stock indices in August. While the sideways, range-bound market didn’t hurt managed futures as badly as the snapback in June (when the Newedge Index fell -2.92%), it was far from what managed futures, and trend followers in particular, were hoping to see.

The Newedge CTA Index, as of 11 AM today, is reporting managed futures down -1.29% for August, repeating the pattern of following a good month with a poor one. Fortunately, the give-back was smaller this time around, leaving the index up 0.79% year-to-date.

Not every market spent the month stuck in a rut – there were decent upward trends in several metal markets, driven in part by some supply concerns in South Africa. The dollar spent most of the month headed down, while the Euro, British Pound, and Canadian Dollar headed mostly higher. Grains behaved more like the indices, with corn and wheat moving sideways, though soybeans generally crept higher.