It’s been a rough year for managed futures; that’s certainly hard to argue against, with the predominant up trend across many markets in the beginning of the year reversing course in July, then that downtrend being reversed in October.  What’s encouraging on our end is that, despite negative performance, assets under management for the asset class continue to rise. That’s right- Barclay Hedge FINALLY updated its assets under management figures for Q3 of this year, and the results were pleasantly surprising.

Whether investors are getting smarter or scrambling to get in on something that did well during 2008 as they watch the stock market swing, there’s no way of knowing. Still, the 7% surge in AUM last quarter is pretty impressive, especially in a year where managed futures hasn’t been the best performing asset class. But before you go patting your friendly local managed futures proprietor on the back, congratulating him on being in a growing industry, consider that the lion’s share of this money is going to the biggest of the big managed futures programs.The following comes from Finalternatives:

David Harding’s London-based Winton Capital Management has been on the receiving end of more than a tenth of the money flowing into hedge funds in 2011, a year that saw a few managers dominate.

The $26 billion firm had added a net $7.3 billion to its assets under management as of October 31, reportsBloomberg, citing two investors who preferred not to be identified.

Winton is one of eight funds that accounted for a third of all new money poured into hedge funds this year, says, Bloomberg.

Ignoring for a second that the reporters lump Winton in with hedge funds, it is impressive/alarming (take your pick) that 14% of managed futures growth in 2011 has come from a single manager – Winton.  But if it means more recognition of the value of managed futures by the investing world as a whole, we’ll take it.