Another month has drawn to a close, and managed futures look to have shaken off the January blues with slight gains in the extended version of February.  Based on preliminary data from the Newedge CTA Index, we are estimating managed futures as an asset class finished February up 0.85%.

Looking at the breakdown by strategy type, it appears that traditional trend following type managers did the best behind an uptrend in nearly all risk-on markets.  Although, As we noted mid-month, this year has also been more “normal” in terms of market correlations and risk on/off days. Elsewhere, agriculture programs like Global Ag, NDX Shadrach, and Rosetta also posted strong numbers in February while popular spread trader Emil Van Essen was down for the month. Short term countertrend strategies were the worst performers as the upward trends remained persistent for most of the month with very little in the area of reversions to the mean.