Earlier this year we expanded our look at managed futures mutual funds to consider all of the new entrants into the space. We have been critical of these products for a few reasons. For one, they are being marketed as managed futures products, but many do not contain any actual managed futures exposure; rather they merely utilize a trend following model to approximate such exposure. Then there are some that actually do invest in underlying managed futures managers (kudos to you), but do so at a very high cost with extra layers of fees and, more often than not, a high front end sales (load) fee. And then there are those which are not providing managed futures exposure and charging load fees: the worst of the worst.
Despite our reservations, even more funds are being launched in this space. After our last mutual fund update, a reader asked us to look into another new managed futures mutual fund: the Guggenheim Investments Global Managed Futures Strategy (GISQX). While it has not yet established a track record long enough to be included in our performance table, we will be keeping our eye on this new fund, as well as any others that are being rolled out.
We don’t think mutual funds are the best vehicle to access the asset class if you have the capital to stand on your own and invest in individually managed accounts; and the numbers continue to back us up. With the exception of one fund (the AQR Managed Futures Strategy), every mutual fund we track is underperforming the major managed futures indices. Read ‘em and weep below (Disclaimer: past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results).
Sorted by YTD Return After Load.