Just ask the Minnesota Vikings – you never want to leave it down to the last minute to decide your fate, when a wayward kick (or week of losses in the investment world) can seal your fate for the year.  A rough 10 day patch to close out the year pushed Managed Futures into the red for December, causing the asset class to finish just below the even mark at -0.19% for the full year of 2015 {Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results}.

Where asset classes differ from playoff football – you don’t have to wait for next season to start to get back on the field. Managed futures were right back on the field the first trading day of January, and not just ready to play – but lined up in the exact right defensive formation for what the game delivered to start the year (the worst ever start to a year for stocks, if you haven’t heard ). The SG CTA Index (formerly Newedge Index) is up around +2% to start the year as stocks have struggled. Who knows if this is the start of a full blown crisis a la 2008, but we’re happy to see managed futures reacting and positioning itself as if it is just in case.

The end of a year is a rather arbitrary thing – with performance maybe having been positive if the year ended a day earlier or later. And while we all would have liked to see all of the managed futures indices firmly in the black for the year – we would much rather see our clients invested in space getting the diversification and absolute returns they’ve signed up for over many rolling 12 month periods, not just the one settled on by Pope Gregory VIII in the 1500s.

Here’s to a prosperous 2016.

(Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results)
(BarclayHedge reporting 64%% of funds, numbers subject to change)