A handful of standout commodity trading advisors stole the spotlight in November, with Tulip Trend Fund surging 8 percent and Quantedge Global Fund adding 3.5 percent, cementing double-digit gains for the year.
Tulip’s jump more than halved its year-to-date loss to 7.6 percent, though the fund slipped 3.7 percent in early December, according to its client letter. In the letter, Tulip described November as “a month [in] which diversification paid off again.”
The firm said gains were driven by metals, currencies, and interest rates. The largest contributors were longs in both precious and base metals, shorts in various Asian currencies, and synthetic longs in U.S. interest rate instruments against shorts in other regions. These were offset somewhat by losses predominantly from longs in U.S. cattle, shorts in sugar, and longs in volatility index futures.
The results stand out even as CTAs mostly posted positive results last month.
The IASG CTA Index, an index of all the traders in the IASG database, gained 0.49 percent in November and is up 2.2 percent in 2025. The IASG Trend Following Strategy Index rose 0.72 percent last month and 3.24 percent for the year. It has now been up for six straight months.
Many funds outperformed the indices in November, adding to existing increases. Others trimmed yearlong losses, and several funds were able to finally edge into the black for 2025. But most have been in the red all year, hurt by unexpected shifts in trends in major liquid markets — although losses are much smaller than earlier in the year.
One fund that moved solidly into the black last month was DUNN Capital’s main fund. The DUNN World Monetary & Agriculture Program (WMA) climbed 2.61 percent last month and is up 2.31 percent for the year. WMA Institutional — the half-leverage version of the strategy — picked up 1.36 percent in November and is now up 1.63 percent for the year, per a recent email sent to clients.
According to the firm, last month’s performance was driven by moderate to small gains in metals, currencies, fixed income, and volatility. This was offset somewhat by losses in stocks, energies, and agriculturals. During the first two of weeks of November, the portfolio’s overall risk exposure increased, DUNN noted. But it noted that the Adaptive Risk Profile detected signal strengths coming down and volatility continuing fairly high, and steadily contracted its value at risk target through the remainder of the month.
Heading into the final month of 2025, a strategy of being net long metals supplanted equities to become the most substantial exposure in the portfolio. It is followed closely by long stocks and net long fixed income. In addition, net long currencies against the U.S. dollar, net short agriculturals, and net long energies are moderate-size positions. The firm also has a small short position in the VIX.
Crabel Advanced Trend fund, meanwhile, rose 2.51 percent in November and is up 1.33 percent for the year. It was down 14.7 percent as recently as the end of July.
The Discus Composite fund gained 60 basis points last month and is now up 1.71 percent for the year, per a different CTA database. One of the top performers, QMS Diversified Global Macro, shed about 75 basis points but is still up 27.2 percent for the year.
Other funds posted increases last month but remain in the red for the year. The Aspect Diversified Fund added 2.31 percent in November, trimming its loss for the year to 3.91 percent, a database reveals. And Transtrend’s DTP-Enhanced Risk was up 3.75 percent and is now down just 1.7 percent for 2025.
