Hedge Funds, CTAs, Up in February

Hedge funds and CTAs had a positive February according to the BarclayHedge, with the Barclay Hedge Fund Index up 2.58% and the Barclay CTA Index up 1.49%.

Only three of the 30 sub-indices were in negative territory for the month, all in emerging markets in the form of two Latin American indices and the MENA index.

The European Equities lndex led the way at +6.87%, followed by Equity Long/Short at 5.71%. Global Macro traders were up 1.89%, for 2.41% on the year, the Multi-Strategy Index was up 1.67% for 3.02% on the year.

All eight CTA sub-indices were in positive territory for the month and only two, currency traders and financials/metals traders, are negative for the year, by 0.14% and 0.44% respectively.

Unsurprisingly given the surge in cryptocurrency prices, the Cryptocurrency Traders Index was up a massive 37.33%, for 78.24% on the year. Next best performer in February was the MPI Barclay Elite Systematic Traders Index at +2.73%, (+ 1.82% on the year). The Systematic Traders Index rose 1.66% (+1.19% on the year), while the Discretionary Traders Index was +1.41% (+2.38%). Second best performer over the first two months of the year, behind crypto traders is the Diversified Traders Index at +2.39%.

The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which tracks larger managers, was+2.86% in February, following a 1.03% drop in January.