Two Nordic hedge funds have been recognized at the CTA and Discretionary Trader Awards 2026, organized by The Hedge Fund Journal. Qblue Balanced’s Qblue Alternative Risk Premia Fund was named the best-performing fund over five years in the “Alternative Risk Premia” category, while Mandatum Asset Management’s Mandatum Managed Futures Fund won the award for best-performing fund in 2025 in the “Trend Follower” category for managers with assets under management between $100 million and $200 million.

Qblue: Consistency Through Changing Market Regimes

Launched in mid-2019, the Qblue Alternative Risk Premia Fund employs a multi-strategy systematic approach designed to harvest risk premia across equities, fixed income, commodities, and currencies. Following a more challenging start in 2019 and 2020, the strategy delivered five consecutive years of solid performance, generating an annualized return of 9.7 percent over the five years through the end of 2025. The track record also includes the difficult market environment of 2022, when the fund gained 5.8 percent, helping secure the award for best-performing fund over five years in the “Alternative Risk Premia” category.

“In each of those moments, the strategy did what it was designed to do: deliver returns uncorrelated to traditional markets, especially when correlation matters most. That is not luck. That is design.”

Alexandra McGuigan at Qblue Balanced.

“The award is nice, but consistency is really the key point,” comments Alexandra McGuigan at Qblue Balanced. Since the fund’s launch, the strategy has navigated periods including the Covid-19 liquidity shock, the 2022 correlation breakdown, and the “Liberation Day” volatility in 2025. “In each of those moments, the strategy did what it was designed to do: deliver returns uncorrelated to traditional markets, especially when correlation matters most. That is not luck. That is design,” adds McGuigan. “Bjarne Graven Larsen, Lars Hougaard Nielsen, Martin Christian Richter and the entire Copenhagen team built something that works when it is supposed to work. The recognition belongs to my team in Copenhagen.”

Mandatum: Adaptive Trend-Following

Mandatum Managed Futures Fund, a trend-following strategy managed by Mandatum Asset Management, was named the best-performing fund in 2025 in the “Trend Follower” category for managers overseeing between $100 million and $200 million. The Finnish managed futures strategy has been one of the standout performers in the Nordic CTA space in recent years, finishing second in the “Best Nordic CTA” category at this year’s Nordic Hedge Award  after winning the category for two consecutive years.

Unlike more traditional trend-following approaches, the fund incorporates dynamic risk allocation and regime-detection models to identify the optimal combination of momentum signals under prevailing market conditions. This additional layer has proven instrumental in navigating more challenging periods for trend-followers, such as 2024 and 2025, while also allowing the strategy to fully participate in strong environments like 2022.

“We are pleased to see the strategy continue to receive external recognition. This reflects our long-term commitment to a systematic and adaptive investment process and our focus on consistently translating systematic insights into a well-executed portfolio.”

Ville Rantanen, Portfolio Manager at Mandatum Asset Management.

“We are pleased to see the strategy continue to receive external recognition. This reflects our long-term commitment to a systematic and adaptive investment process and our focus on consistently translating systematic insights into a well-executed portfolio,” says Ville Rantanen, Portfolio Manager of the fund. “It also highlights the strategy’s ability to adapt across changing market environments.”

Methodology

The Hedge Fund Journal CTA and Discretionary Trader Awards are based on quantitative analysis of risk-adjusted returns across multiple categories and time horizons. Only the top-performing funds, based purely on performance data, are invited to participate. If a qualifying fund declines participation, the category is omitted rather than awarded to the next-best performer.