Currency CTAs Struggle at Start of 2025

While CTAs more broadly had a solid start to the year, with the Barclay CTA Index rising 0.57% (with just under 85% of funds reporting), currency managers suffered losses, alongside Agri traders.

Earlier this month, HFR reported a good start for currency hedge funds, but their CTA brethren, who are perhaps more systematic in their approach, tuned in a -0.12% return to start the year. This is in contrast to 2024, where the Barclay sub-index was best performer by far at +11.11%.

Both systematic and discretionary traders had a solid start, the Barclay Discretionary Traders Index rising 0.47% and the Systematic Traders index rising 0.58%. The MPI Barclay Elite Systematic Traders Index, which was constructed to capture the average return of the 20 largest systematic traders, also rose 0.58% to start the year.

Best performer was the Cryptocurrency Traders Index at +2.24%, followed by the Diversified Traders Index at +0.86%.

The BTOP 50 Index, which seeks to replicate the overall composition of the managed futures industry with regard to trading style and overall market exposure, started well, rising 1.21% in January, its best start to the year since 2022.

Meanwhile, Macro traders had a good start to the year according to the SG Macro Trading Index, from SG Prime Services. The headline index was +1.6% in January, following on from a strong 2024, although this time discretionary traders slightly outperformed their systematic brethren.

The SG Macro Trading Index (Discretionary) was +1.64% in January, while the SG Macro Trading Index (Quantitative) lagged slightly at +1.55%. SG’s Commodity Trading Index rose 0.37% to start the year.