Managed futures managers experienced mixed performance for July, the latest report from Lipper Tass shows.

While discretionary managers saw gains benefiting from long equity, commodity trading exposures and yields edging downwards, systematic traders ended in negative territory on market trend reversals as riskier assets rallied.

Long-term trend followers generally finished the month with negative returns; they were caught with long positions in US dollars, gold, and silver and did not benefit from the rally in the remaining commodities.

The Lipper Managed Futures/CTAs index registered a positive return of 1.02 per cent for July, bringing the year-to-date performance to minus 2.94 per cent and the 12-month rolling return to minus 1.94 per cent.

Managers with assets in excess of USD45m returned a worse average monthly performance at minus 1.21 per cent—103 basis points below the average reading for the strategy.