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“CTAs have gotten off to a slow start in 2012,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.

“Even though seven of Barclay’s eight CTA indices had positive returns in January, the overall performance was basically flat.”

The Currency Traders Index gained 0.69%, Discretionary Traders were up 0.25%, Financial & Metals Traders gained 0.24%, and Agricultural Traders added 0.16%.

However, a 0.13% loss in the Barclay Diversified Traders Index brought down the overall average of the Barclay CTA Index. Since Diversified Traders make up a larger percentage of the CTA database, a loss in that index can cancel out gains in other strategies.

“Although various market segments such as equities, precious metals, and gasoline performed well during the month, there were enough losses in other corners of a diversified portfolio that drove returns into the loss column for the sector,” says Waksman.

The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which measures performance of the largest CTAs, gained 0.23% in January.

Click here to view 32 years of Barclay CTA Index data.

(press release)

BarclayHedge was founded in 1985 and actively tracks more than 6,200 hedge funds, funds of hedge funds, and managed futures programs. Each month Barclay provides updated performance rankings for 38 Hedge Fund categories, 16 CTA categories, and 7 UCITS categories. Institutional investors, brokerage firms, and private banks worldwide utilize BarclayHedge indices as performance benchmarks for the hedge fund and managed futures industries.

BG