Managed futures has been around at least since the 1980s, but interest and assets in the space didn’t truly take off until investors saw the outsized gains managers produced during the 2008 financial crisis – double digit gains while the stock market is in freefall is definitely attention-grabbing (Disclaimer: past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results). Unfortunately, that surge in interest came after the crisis gains had been achieved. And now that we’ve experienced a few middling years while stocks have bounced back to new highs, there are signs that interest is waning.

The Hedge Fund Spotlight from Preqin Group has a new report that includes some illuminating facts on the state of managed futures after the less-than-stellar 2009-2013 period. Despite our perpetual complaint that CTAs are grouped in with hedge funds, there are still some very interesting bits of information about managed futures in the report. A few takeaways:

1. The performance of CTAs and managed futures managers was marginally positive in the first quarter. An array of commodities’ prices, notably in the metals sector, declined during the first three months of 2013 and major currencies weakened against the US dollar. A gain of 1.40%, the highest for six months, in January was all but given away the following month and CTAs ended Q1 up 0.21%.
2. CTA launches in 2012 were at their lowest since 2006, and from the slow start in 2013 it appears it could be another year where CTA launches are overshadowed by hedge funds pursuing other strategies.
3. Following the poor performance of CTAs in 2011 and 2012, and a slow start to 2013 in terms of returns generated, investor appetite for CTAs is showing signs of decreasing. Investor searches initiated for the strategy fell again to 17% of all searches gathered by Preqin analysts in Q1 2013, down from 18% in Q4 2012 and 25% in Q2 2012.

Just as predictably as investors rushing in after the crisis, we’re now seeing a bit of a drop-off in interest as investors start asking themselves why they’re diversified when stocks look so great (a question we broke down in a recent newsletter). It’s the flip side of chasing performance: fleeing weakness. And the unfortunate pattern would be completed if we entered another crisis phase, with stocks tumbling and managed futures shining after investors have turned elsewhere.