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John Sundt By Beverly Chandler, Opalesque London:

US retail investors have developed an appetite for managed futures on the evidence provided by Altegris Advisors Altegris Managed Futures Strategy Fund. The fund has raised $1 bn in its first 12 months. John Sundt, President and CEO of Altegris Advisor and Co-Portfolio Manager of the Altegris Managed Futures Strategy Fund explains that investors want strategies that do well in periods of crisis, what he calls 'crisis alpha'.

The non-correlation argument has always been the strongest argument for managed futures but many investors will know that you can wait a long time for the strategy to out-perform more traditional investments. Sundt says: "Managed futures are a marathon not a sprint."

The Altegris fund is based on a platform with exposure to managed accounts which are securitized to form a mutual fund investment in the managed futures managers that would not be available to many retail investors, Winton Capital among them. While performance for the fund over its first 12 months is pretty much flat, Sundt points out that the last quarter shows traditional markets down 20% during the 'summer shock while their portfolio was up 4%. "If you had 12-15% of your portfolio in managed futures last quarter it would have made a huge difference" he says.

Diversification is unarguably key for investors and managed futures and global macro style funds appear to offer that. From October 2007 to F......................

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