CTAs Into the Black for 2025 After Strong September
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: October 26, 2025
A strong September has helped the Barclay CTA Index, managed by BarclayHedge, into the black for the year, marking the fourth consecutive monthly gain after a tough start to the year.
The headline Barclay CTA Index was up 2.41% with just over 90% of funds reporting results, bringing the year-to-date performance into positive territory at +0.31%. Only one sub-index, the Cryptocurrency Traders index, fell in September, and that by only 0.08%, highlighting the strong returns across the industry. Currency Traders had a decent month, rising 0.92%, but the Index remains just in negative territory at -0.14%.
Strongest performing sub-index in September was the MPI Barclays Elite Systematic Traders Index at +3.15% (fractionally in front of Diversified Traders at +3.13%), and while that ate into the year-to-date losses, the Index remains underwater at -3.18% through the first nine months of 2025.
The Barclay Systematic Traders Index also went well in September, rising 2.62%, however this too remains in the red at -1.38% year-to-date. The Discretionary Traders Index also rose, by slightly less, at +2.27%, however continues to comfortably outperform its systematic equivalent, year-to-date, the Barclay Discretionary Index is +5.6% – strongest performer thus far.
The BTOP50 Index, which seeks to replicate the overall composition of the managed futures industry with regard to trading style and overall market exposure, also had a strong month, rising an estimated 3.46%. This also brings the index into the black for the year at an estimated +0.63%.
There was a slight reversal of fortunes in the SG Macro Trading Indices, where Discretionary slightly outperformed Quantitative. The overall SG Macro Trading Index was +2.16% in September for +7.36% year-to-date, while the SG Macro Trading (Discretionary) Index rose 2.25%, bringing performance for 2025 to +9.32%. This slightly widened an already sizeable gap to the Quantitative Index, which rose 2.05% in September, bring year-to-date returns to +3.88%.
