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"December's 1.11% rise in the S&P 500 Index extended its unprecedented winning streak to fourteen consecutive months and helped push trend trader's returns a bit more into the black for 2017," says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.

"Continuing uptrends in energy and base metals were the main profit contributors from the commodity sector."

Diversified Traders gained 0.93% in December, Systematic Traders were up 0.40%, Discretionary Traders added 0.36%, and Agricultural Traders rose 0.23%.

The Currency Traders Index was down 0.44% in December, while Financials/Metals Traders gave up 0.31%.

"Currency markets proved more challenging, particularly in emerging markets where rallies in Chinese renminbi and the South African rand competed with a sell-off in the Mexican peso," says Waksman.

For 2017 as a whole, Financials/Metals Traders gained 3.05%, Agricultural Traders were up 2.16%, Systematic Traders added 0.42%, and Discretionary Traders ended the year with a 0.09% gain.

The Diversified Traders Index was down 0.97% for the year.

The BTOP50 Index, which is composed of the largest CTAs open to new investment, gained 1.13% in December, but was still down 0.55% at the end of 2017. This was the third year in a row that the BTOP50 has recorded an annual loss.