July was mostly a losing month for commodity trading advisors and trend-following funds.
The IASG CTA Index declined by 0.7 percent for the month, trimming its gain for the year to 3.44 percent. The IASG Trend Following Strategy Index fell by 2.7 percent, nearly halving its gain for the year, to 2.82 percent.
Just over 42 percent of managers that reported to the database posted gains for July. The average manager was down 0.77 percent.
“June’s challenging environment carried into July, with traditional trend-following and systematic strategies continuing to face headwinds,” IASG noted in its monthly report. “After leading CTA performance earlier in the year, trend followers have faced a more difficult environment as established market trends have weakened or reversed.”
Crypto (up 12.86 percent) and energy (up 10.88 percent) were the top-performing strategies, according to aiSource, which tracks CTAs, also known as managed futures. Energy benefited from heating oil and light sweet crude. Grains gained 8.9 percent, led by oats and corn, up 17.41 percent and 11.34 percent, respectively.
Among specific funds, even some of this year’s strong performers lost money in July.
The Mulvaney Global Market Fund lost 4 percent-plus and is now up 69.86 percent for the year. And Drury Diversified Trend Following Program dropped 5.26 percent, cutting its 2026 gain to 19.41 percent.
One of the biggest losers last month was the Tulip Trend Fund, off 15.8 percent. As a result, it is solidly in the red for the year, down 15.4 percent.
The fund’s setback was driven by losses in agricultural markets, according to the fund’s July monthly report — specifically large short positions in wheat and corn along with long positions in U.S. cattle. It also suffered from currency bets, mainly from short exposure to the Korean won, the Japanese yen, and the New Zealand dollar. And Tulip Trend saw losses on long interest rate positions in Europe, Canada, and Australia. It did generate gains on long positions in energy markets.
Several CTAs made money last month.
Quantedge Global Fund continued to surge, posting a nearly 8 percent gain in July. It is now up 34.6 percent for the year. Aspect Diversified Fund climbed 3.31 percent and is up 11.32 percent for 2026. And QMS Diversified Global Macro Strategy rose 3.54 percent last month, putting it back in the black, up 2.08 percent this year.
