CTA performance fractured across the industry in 2025. Sector indexes rose steadily late in the year, but managers’ results varied dramatically. Funds like QMS Diversified Global Macro and Quantedge posted double‑digit annual gains, as others remained deeply underwater despite December’s metals‑driven rally.
The IASG CTA Index, an index of all traders in the IASG database, added 1.9 percent in December and finished the year up 4.51 percent. The IASG Trend Following Strategy Index rose 3.81 percent last month and 8.1 percent for the year. It has climbed for seven straight months. Commodities trading advisors, or managed futures funds, use quantitative trading strategies to discern short-, medium-, or long-term trends in individual highly liquid markets.
One top performer last year was QMS Diversified Global Macro, which ended the year up 22.26 percent despite losing nearly 4 percent in December, according to a CTA database that contains most performance numbers. The fund trades in highly liquid global futures and forwards, including equity indices, sovereign rates and bonds, commodities, and currencies, per the fund’s description.
Quantedge Global Fund is another of just a few CTAs to increase by double digits. It ended 2025 up 15.2 percent despite losing 2.5 percent in December. This was the fund’s third straight double-digit gain and the fourth in the past five years, sandwiched around a 21.2 percent loss in 2022.
DUNN Capital’s main fund posted its sixth straight monthly gain in December after losing money in the each of the five previous months. The DUNN World Monetary & Agriculture Program (WMA) rose 5.25 percent last month and finished the year up 7.68 percent. WMA Institutional — the half-leverage version of the strategy — jumped 2.62 percent in December and 4.5 percent for the year, according to a recent email to clients.
December’s performance was driven primarily by sizable gains in metals, along with moderate to small gains in currencies, stocks, and volatility, according to a client email seen by Institutional Investor. Moderate to small losses were incurred in agriculturals, fixed income, and energies. Heading into the new year, long metals is the most substantial exposure in the portfolio, followed by long stocks and net long currencies against the U.S. dollar, the email says. The funds hold moderate positions in net long fixed income, net short energies, and net short agriculturals. Altogether, DUNN trades 67 markets.
Elsewhere, the Discus Composite Fund rose 1.2 percent in December and 3.04 percent for the year. Crabel Advanced Trend fund picked up 5.11 percent last month and ended 2025 up 6.51 percent.
Other CTAs and trend-following funds extended their late-year rally in December but still came up short and finished 2025 in the red. This is not surprising given that CTAs boast little or no correlation to the broad stock market. And last year, equity indices were up in the midteens-to-20 percent range.
For example, Tulip Trend gained just 70 basis points in December and dropped 6.9 percent for the year. It had been down more than 36 percent at the end of May.
For the year, metals were the big winner, accounting for nearly 24 percentage points of gains, according to the December monthly report. The biggest detractors were energy, at 13.34 percent; foreign exchange, 6.88 percent; and interest rates, 6.24 percent.
Elsewhere, the Aspect Diversified Fund jumped 3.68 percent in December but missed reporting a profit for the year, finishing down 0.37 percent. It was off nearly 16 percent at the end of July.
Welton Global picked up 90 basis points in December but was down 3.21 percent for the year. Welton Trend gained 1.29 percent last month but finished down about 8 percent. The two funds had declined by 16.6 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively, as of the end of June. Drury Trend-Following Program declined an additional 2.76 percent last month and ended the year down 17.4 percent.
