The managed futures industry stepped into 2020 on a positive note with a 0.51 per cent return in January, according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge, a division of Backstop Solutions. It was the third consecutive profitable month for CTAs.“The coronavirus outbreak was a double-edged sword for traders in January, dragging oil prices down over concerns of reduced demand while boosting gold and Treasury bonds as investors sought defensive options,” says Sol Waksman, president of BarclayHedge. “Similarly, the cryptocurrency market benefited with bitcoin enjoying its best January since 2013.”

All but two CTA sectors were in positive territory for January. The Cryptocurrency Traders Index took the lead with a gain of 20.18 per cent. Other January gainers included the Financial & Metal Traders Index, up 0.91 per cent, Systematic Traders Index, gaining 0.74 per cent, the Currency Traders Index, returning 0.64 per cent, and the Diversified Traders Index, up 0.55 per cent.

In the loss column, the Discretionary Traders Index was down 0.20 per cent in January and the Agricultural Traders Index slipped 0.03 per cent.

The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which tracks the performance of the largest CTAs that are still open for new investment, returned 0.29 per cent in January.