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"Although Managed Futures were able to register a small gain in July with 57 percent of the underlying index constituents reporting profits, the dispersion of monthly returns was quite high, ranging from a 41 percent gain down to a 15 percent loss," says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.

Four of Barclay's managed futures indices had gains in July, while six had losses. The Cryptocurrency Traders Index was up 5.28%, Agricultural Traders gained 1.04%, and Discretionary Traders were up 0.67%.

The MPI Barclay Elite Systematic Traders Index gave back its June gains with a 0.86% loss in July. Financial and Metals Traders were down 0.35%, Diversified Traders gave up 0.19% and Currency Traders lost 0.17%.

The BTOP50 Index, which is composed of the largest CTAs open to new investments, lost 0.53% in July.

"Tradable downtrends in precious metals and sugar helped some managers, but managers with longer term momentum strategies probably gave up some ground in interest rate and energy markets," says Waksman.

"Although the July decline experienced by Currency Traders was quite small (-0.17%), intra-month trend reversals in many of the most popular G7 currency crosses helped put 77 percent of currency funds into the loss column."

After seven months, six of Barclay's Managed Futures indices have losses and three have gains. Cryptocurrency Traders have a negative return of 42.07% for the year, the Elite Systematic Traders Index is down 5.14%, Diversified Traders have lost 3.42%, Systematic Traders are down 2.97%, while Financial and Metals Traders have lost 2.90%. The BTOP50 Index is currently is down 3.60%.

Conversely, the Currency Traders Index has gained 3.58% in 2018, Discretionary Traders are up 2.26%, and Agricultural Traders have gained 1.50%.