Investors in commodity trading advisers, also known as managed futures, finally got a month of strong performance.
Most large and well-known funds or programs, which have struggled all year, were in the black for the month and able to sharply reduce their losses for the year. Even so, many remain solidly in the red, according to an analysis provided by two different hedge fund and CTA databases.
These are funds that use computer trading programs to invest in futures, options, forwards, or swaps in a large number of highly liquid markets to identify trends — some short-term and others longer-term. This year, many have been hurt by the frequent, abrupt changes in direction of market movements owing to President Trump’s ever-changing tariff policy and the moves in interest rates.
One of the best performers last month was the Tulip Trend Fund, whose strategy has more than $4.7 billion in assets. It surged 13.9 percent in August but is still down 24.3 percent for the year, according to its monthly letter, seen by Institutional Investor. Its gains were driven by positions in interest rates, metals, and agricultural markets. It also enjoyed a boost from currency positions, it noted.
The profits in interest rates were predominantly thanks to synthetic market combinations. “Synthetics also contributed significantly to the positive returns in the metals and agricultural markets,” the letter noted.
The $4.7 billion Quantedge Global Fund gained a strong 8.4 percent for the month and is now solidly in the black, up 9.8 percent for the year.
The QMS Diversified Global Macro strategy, among the top CTA performers for the year, added 3.37 percent last month and has climbed 24.6 percent this year. It trades in highly liquid global futures and forwards, including equity indices, sovereign rates and bonds, commodities, and currencies.
Most other funds made money last month but remain in the red, albeit with smaller losses.
For example, the volatile Mulvaney Global Market Fund gained 8.14 percent in August. This cut its loss to a still-staggering 42.3 percent. The DUNN World Monetary & Agriculture Program (WMA) rose 1.46 percent but is down 10.63 percent for the year. WMA Institutional — the half-leverage version of the WMA strategy — added 0.76 percent last month but is off by 5.01 percent for 2025, per the firm.
“Performance [comprised] moderate to small gains made in metals, stocks, agriculturals, and volatility that outweighed small losses incurred in fixed income, energies, and currencies,” according to an email sent to clients and seen by II.
Long stocks continue to be the most significant exposure in the portfolio. “Net short fixed income, net long energies, and net short agriculturals are all of similar, moderate size,” the email said. “Smaller, but still impactful, positions are held in net long metals and net short currencies (against the U.S. dollar).”
Elsewhere, the Aspect Diversified Fund was up 3.53 percent in August, trimming its loss for the year to 12.65 percent. Drury Capital’s Diversified Trend-Following Program gained 2.5 percent for the month but is down 24 percent for the year. Welton Global Fund rose about 2.7 percent for the month but remains off 14.5 percent for the year, and Welton Trend Fund increased about 1.6 percent for the month but has dropped 8.45 percent for the year.
One fund that lost money last month was the Discus Composite fund, a shorter-term CTA. It fell 0.6 percent in August but remains in the black, up 3.6 percent.
