Several news organizations couldn’t help but fall all over themselves this week talking about how George Soros made a billion in the Yen and other U.S. Funds Scored Big in the Yen. We hope this isn’t the contrarian indicator that kills the trade, as the Yen is on a historic slide – new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been following through on his initial efforts to devalue Japan’s currency. Not even the hullaballoo over the G7’s criticism earlier this week was able to elicit more than a temporary hiccup in the trend:

Disclaimer: past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

With a big move like this, there are always going to be plenty of people making money (and many who are losing money). But when the press started pointing out the big winners this week, we couldn’t help but notice a glaring omission: no mention of CTAs. We know that quite a few CTAs have made (or are currently making) money on short Yen trades, including Covenant Capital Management Aggressive, Briarwood Capital Management Diversified, Mark J. Walsh & Co. Standard, and Integrated Managed Futures Corp. Global Concentrated. (Disclaimer: past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results).

One of the best trades for managed futures in years, and not even a mention in mainstream coverage about it? Well, Bridgewater gets a mention toward the end of the WSJ article, but no one seems able to decide whether they’re a hedge fund or a CTA (for our money, they’re the former, though BarclayHedge counts them as a CTA). Just another day in our industry, and a reminder of why the lack of hedge fund/CTA distinction in the media rubs us the wrong way.