Managed Futures is running out of time to turn things around in 2013. The Newedge CTA index is reporting the asset class down -0.74% in September for its 5^th consecutive losing month, and down -2.03% year to date…

But it appeared as though things were turning around for managed futures half way through the month. After the 18^th of the month, managed futures was up 1.08%, giving hope to all of us tired of seeing red. Then “the Bernank” appeared with the fed announcement to not taper (our commentary here), and things went downhill from there – with seven of the eight remaining trading days after the announcement seeing managed futures posting negative days (past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results).

Here’s the main managed futures indices performance for the year:

N/R = Not Reported Yet
Indices listed in order from oldest to newest.
(Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results)

We’re starting to feel a little like Cathy Rigby in a Peter Pan play, urging people to ‘Clap if You Believe’ to resurrect good ol’ TinkerBell.

But we don’t need the magic of children to resurrect managed futures. We just need some directional volatility to appear – some good old fashioned trends!  Will they come?  Well, for them not to come would mean the end of volatility, then end of trends… and if there’s one thing we know, it’s that the one constant thing in the investment world is change, and this difficult period will eventually pass.