It’s a bird, it’s a plane… no, it’s managed futures, clocking in with gains once again this year as other assets get hammered down. It won’t always be like this… it hasn’t been like this for a while. But it’s here now. What’s more, managed futures did it this month without the commodity headwind, relying on their short equities and short bond positions instead. Speaking of which, stocks finish the first half of the year with one of it’s worst prints in decades, and bonds similarly had it’s worst first half of the year since way before our time. Hedge Funds, as we tracking them here – showed their ability to lose less than the stock market, but that’s about it, while the aforementioned commodities finally sold off some as higher rates started to cool demand prospects in agriculture and metals. Stay tuned for a fun second half…

Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Sources: Managed Futures = SocGen CTA Index,
Cash = US T-Bill 13 week coupon equivalent annual rate/12, with YTD the sum of each month’s value,
Bonds = Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (NYSEARCA:BND),
Hedge Funds = IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF (NYSEARCA:QAI)
Commodities = iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust ETF (NYSEARCA:GSG);
Real Estate = iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF (NYSEARCA:IYR);
World Stocks = iShares MSCI ACWI ex-U.S. ETF (NASDAQ:ACWX);
US Stocks = SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY)

All ETF performance data from Y Charts