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"Downtrends in agricultural markets, precious metals, and emerging market currencies provided a helpful tailwind for the 70 percent of futures funds that reported a profit in August," says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.

Five of Barclay's managed futures indices had gains in August, while four had losses.

The MPI Barclay Elite Systematic Traders Index enjoyed a 2.81% gain in August. Diversified Traders were up 1.21%, the Systematic Traders Index gained 1.10%, and Currency Traders added 0.35%.

The Cryptocurrency Traders Index dropped 11.77% in August, Discretionary Traders were down 0.43%, Agricultural Traders gave up 0.19% and Financial/Metals slipped 0.04%.

The BTOP50 Index, which is composed of the largest CTAs open to new investment, gained 1.67% in August, and is down 2.64% for the year.

Through August, six of Barclay's Managed Futures indices have losses and three have gains.

The Cryptocurrency Traders Index is down 49.18% for the year, with significant losses in six of the eight months. Financial and Metals Traders have lost 3.08%, Diversified Traders are down 2.45%, and the Systematic Traders Index has given up 2.06%.

On the positive side, Currency Traders have gained 3.86% in 2018, Discretionary Traders are up 1.88%, and Agricultural Traders have a 1.24% return.