- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -

Related

Nordic CTAs Suffer Worst Month on Record

Latest Report

- Advertisement -

Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – After having enjoyed a strong start to 2018, Nordic CTAs, as measured by the NHX CTA Index, experienced their worst month on record in February. The NHX CTA was down 4.9 percent last month (100 percent reported), as trends broke across all sectors except for fixed income. This NHX sub-category is down 1.8 percent year to date.

The largest global CTA programs performed slightly worse than their Nordic counterparts, with the Barclay BTOP50 Index dropping an estimated 5.4 percent. The Barclay BTOP50 Index tracks the performance of the 20 largest investable trading advisor programs. In a similar vein, the Société Générale CTA Index, which tracks the largest 20 CTAs by assets under management, was down 6.3 percent last month. February marked the worst month for the SG CTA Index since November 2001.

“Clearly, CTAs have had a difficult February, and trend followers were particularly hard hit at the beginning of the month,” Tom Wrobel, Director of Alternative Investments Consulting at Société Générale Prime Services, was quoted as saying on the performance of CTAs. “The recent market movements have led to uncertainty, and as a result, many CTAs gave back their performance following a strong period in January. As the month continued many trend-followers recovered slightly and some non-trend strategies posted positive performance, so it will be interesting to observe how CTAs react to the changing market conditions going forward,” he added.

If not for the three funds that gained 5 percent or more, the February performance of the NHX CTA Index would have been significantly worse. Two vehicles managed by Informed Portfolio Management AB were among the best gainers within the NHX CTA Index. IPM Systematic Currency Fund and IPM Systematic Macro Fund gained 7.3 percent and 5.0 percent, recovering the losses incurred in the first month of the year (up 3.7 percent and 2.9 percent YTD). MG Commodity, a Helsinki-based commodity fund, advanced 6.2 percent in February, bringing the year-to-date performance to 8.8 percent.

Six of the 21 members of the NHX CTA Index recorded losses of 10 percent or more in February. Paradoxically, RPM Galaxy, which aims to provide investors with Crisis Alpha (i.e. strong returns in periods of equity distress), lost 17.5 percent in February. Lynx and Estlander & Partners Alpha Trend II – Class P retreated 14.1 percent and 13.8 percent last month, respectively.

 

Picture © Shutterstock – Ersler Dmitry

Subscribe to HedgeBrev, HedgeNordic’s weekly newsletter, and never miss the latest news!

Our newsletter is sent once a week, every Friday.

Eugeniu Guzun
Eugeniu Guzun
Eugeniu Guzun serves as a data analyst responsible for maintaining and gatekeeping the Nordic Hedge Index, and as a journalist covering the Nordic hedge fund industry for HedgeNordic. Eugeniu completed his Master’s degree at the Stockholm School of Economics in 2018. Write to Eugeniu Guzun at eugene@hedgenordic.com

Latest Articles

Quirky Questions for Dr. Alexander Mende (RPM)

Not every conversation in the hedge fund world needs to revolve around trend signals, Sharpe ratios, or manager due diligence. In HedgeNordic’s ongoing Quirky...

Elementa Tops Swedish Hedge Fund Universe in H1

After celebrating its ten-year anniversary in March, long/short equity fund Elementa closed the first half of 2025 as the best-performing Swedish hedge fund, delivering...

Asgard Winds Down Macro Strategy, Refocuses on Fixed Income

Less than a year after the launch of Asgard-Steno Global Macro Fund – a collaborative effort between macro strategist Andreas Steno Larsen and fixed-income...

Eric Strand’s Green-Gold 60/40 Alternative Roars Back to Life

After a two-and-a-half-year drought, including a rough start to 2025, AuAg Precious Green has taken off in recent months. The fund, Eric Strand’s innovative...

BNY Debuts Tail-Risk Overlay Fund

BNY Investments Newton, the specialist multi-asset and equity management arm of BNY Mellon, has launched the BNY Adaptive Risk Overlay Fund – a tail-hedging...

Taiga Fund Delivers Best First Half Since 2019

Usually operating under the radar, Norwegian long/short equity vehicle Taiga Fund delivered one of its strongest first-half performances to date – its best since...

Allocator Interviews

In-Depth: High Yield

Voices

Request for Proposal

- Advertisement -
HedgeNordic
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.