Managed futures account

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A managed futures account (MFA) or managed futures fund (MFF) is a type of alternative investment in the US in which trading in the futures markets is managed by another person or entity, rather than the fund's owner. [1] Managed futures accounts include, but are not limited to, commodity pools. These funds are operated by commodity trading advisors (CTAs) or commodity pool operators (CPOs), who are generally regulated in the United States by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the National Futures Association. As of June 2016, the assets under management held by managed futures accounts totaled $340 billion. [2]

Contents

Characteristics

Managed futures accounts are operated on behalf of an individual by professional money managers such as CTAs or CPOs, trading in futures or other derivative securities. [3] The funds can take both long and short positions in futures contracts and options on futures contracts in the global commodity, interest rate, equity, and currency markets. [4]

Trading strategies

Managed futures accounts may be traded using any number of strategies, the most common of which is trend following. Trend following involves buying in markets that are trending higher and selling short in markets that are trending lower. Variations in trend following managers include duration of trend captured (short term, medium term, long term) as well as definition of trend (e.g. what is considered a new high or new low) and the money management/risk management techniques. A theoretical optimal portfolio capturing trends has been derived [5] , and these trends have been widely documented. [6] [7] Other strategies employed by managed futures managers include discretionary strategies, fundamental strategies, option writing, pattern recognition, and arbitrage strategies, among others. [8] However, trend following and variations of trend following are the predominant strategy. [9]

Notional funding

In many managed futures accounts the dollar amount traded is equal to the amount provided by the investor. However, managed futures also allows investors to leverage their investment with the use of notional funding, which is the difference between the amount provided by the investor (funding level) and the mutually agreed upon amount to be traded (trading level). [10] Notional funding allows an investor to put up only a portion of the minimum investment for a managed futures account, usually 25% to 75% of the minimum. For example, to meet a $200,000 minimum for a CTA that allows 50% notional funding, an investor would only need to provide $100,000 to the CTA. The investment would be traded as if it were $200,000, which would result in double the earnings or losses, as well as double the management fee relative to the actual amount invested. As a result, notional funding can add significant risk to managed futures accounts and investors who wish to use such funding are required to sign disclosures to state that they understand the risk involved. [11]

Performance

Managed Futures performance history from 1980 to 2008 Managed futures 1980 to 2008.jpg
Managed Futures performance history from 1980 to 2008

Managed futures have historically displayed very low correlations to traditional investments, such as stocks and bonds. [12] Following modern portfolio theory, this lack of correlation builds the robustness of the portfolio, reducing portfolio volatility and risk, without significant negative impacts on return. This lack of correlation stems from the fact that markets tend to "trend" the best during more volatile periods, and periods in which markets decline tend to be the most volatile. [4] From 1980 to 2010, the compound average annual return for managed futures was 14.52%, as measured by the CASAM CISDM CTA Equal Weighted Index, while the return for U.S. stocks was 7.04% (based on the S&P 500 total return index). [13] However, managed futures also have high fees. According to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and compiled by Bloomberg, 89% of the $11.51 billion of gains in 63 managed-futures funds went to fees, commissions and expenses during the decade from Jan. 1, 2003, to Dec. 31, 2012. [14]

History

In the United States, trading of futures contracts for agricultural commodities dates back to at least the 1850s. [15] In the 1920s, the federal government proposed the first regulation aimed at futures trading, and passed the Grain Futures Act in 1922. Following amendments in 1936, this law was replaced by the Commodity Exchange Act. [15] [16] The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was established in 1974, under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act. [16] The regulation led to the recognition of a new group of money managers including CTAs. At that time, the funds they operated became known as managed futures. In the late 1970s, the relatively new managed futures funds began to gain acceptance. [8] Although the majority of trading was still in futures contracts for agricultural commodities, [16] exchanges started to introduce futures contracts on other assets, including currencies and bonds. [8] In the 1980s, the futures industry developed significantly [3] following the introduction of non-commodity related futures and by 2004 managed futures had become a $130 billion industry. [8]

Regulation

Managed futures accounts are regulated by the U.S. federal government, through the CTAs and CPOs advising the funds. Most all of these entities are required to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the National Futures Association and follow their regulations on disclosure and reporting. [8]

The 2010 enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act led to increased regulation of the managed futures industry. On January 26, 2011, the CFTC made additions and amendments to the regulation of CPOs and CTAs, including two new forms of data collection. The CFTC also introduced regulation to require greater reporting of data and amend its registration requirements. [17] Under the new amended registration requirement, funds that use swaps or other commodity interests may be defined as commodity pools and as such their operators must register with the CFTC, where previously they did not. [18] On 17 April 2012, the United States Chamber of Commerce and the Investment Company Institute filed a lawsuit against the CFTC, aiming to overturn this change to rules that would require the operators of mutual funds investing in commodities to be registered. [19]

Related Research Articles

In finance, a derivative is a contract that derives its value from the performance of an underlying entity. This underlying entity can be an asset, index, or interest rate, and is often simply called the underlying. Derivatives can be used for a number of purposes, including insuring against price movements (hedging), increasing exposure to price movements for speculation, or getting access to otherwise hard-to-trade assets or markets.

A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that holds liquid assets and that makes use of complex trading and risk management techniques to improve investment performance and insulate returns from market risk. Among these portfolio techniques are short selling and the use of leverage and derivative instruments. In the United States, financial regulations require that hedge funds be marketed only to institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commodity market</span> Physical or virtual transactions of buying and selling involving raw or primary commodities

A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products, such as cocoa, fruit and sugar. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold and oil. Futures contracts are the oldest way of investing in commodities. Commodity markets can include physical trading and derivatives trading using spot prices, forwards, futures, and options on futures. Farmers have used a simple form of derivative trading in the commodity market for centuries for price risk management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speculation</span> Engaging in risky financial transactions

In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset with the hope that it will become more valuable shortly. It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hopes for a decline in value.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commodity Futures Trading Commission</span> Government agency

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an independent agency of the US government created in 1974 that regulates the U.S. derivatives markets, which includes futures, swaps, and certain kinds of options.

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund that is also an exchange-traded product, i.e., it is traded on stock exchanges. ETFs own financial assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, debts, futures contracts, and/or commodities such as gold bars. The list of assets that each ETF owns, as well as their weightings, is posted on the website of the issuer daily, or quarterly in the case of active non-transparent ETFs. Many ETFs provide some level of diversification compared to owning an individual stock.

A commodity pool is an investment structure where many individual investors combine their moneys and trade in futures contracts as a single entity in order to gain leverage. They are analogous to mutual funds wherein a fund is similarly set up expressly for trading in equity, except that mutual funds are open to public subscription whereas commodity pools and hedge funds are private.

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Linda Bradford Raschke (/'ræʃki/) is an American financier, operating mostly as a commodities and futures trader.

A commodity broker is a firm or an individual who executes orders to buy or sell commodity contracts on behalf of the clients and charges them a commission. A firm or individual who trades for his own account is called a trader. Commodity contracts include futures, options, and similar financial derivatives. Clients who trade commodity contracts are either hedgers using the derivatives markets to manage risk, or speculators who are willing to assume that risk from hedgers in hopes of a profit.

Amaranth Advisors LLC was an American multi-strategy hedge fund founded by Nicholas M. Maounis and headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. At its peak, the firm had up to $9.2 billion in assets under management before collapsing in September 2006, after losing in excess of $6 billion on natural gas futures. Amaranth Advisors collapse is one of the biggest hedge fund collapses in history and at the time (2006) largest known trading losses.

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Winton Group, Ltd is a British investment management firm founded by David Harding. In the United States, Winton is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment advisor and with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a CTA, and is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK. The company trades on more than 100 global futures markets in a wide variety of asset classes and on global equity markets. The firm was launched with $1.6 million in 1997, reached a peak of $28.5 billion in assets under advisement, before dropping to $7.3 billion by late 2020. Winton Group has six offices around the world: London, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, and Abu Dhabi.

A Commodity pool operator (CPO) is an individual or organization that solicits or receives funds to use in the operation of a commodity pool, syndicate, investment trust, or other similar fund, specifically for trading in commodity interests. Such interests include commodity futures, swaps, options and/or leverage transactions. A commodity pool may refer to funds that trade in commodities and can include hedge funds. A CPO may make trading decisions for a fund or the fund can be managed by one or more independent commodity trading advisors. The definition of CPO may apply to investment advisors for hedge funds and private funds including mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in certain cases. CPOs are generally regulated by the United States federal government through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and National Futures Association.

A commodity trading advisor (CTA) is US financial regulatory term for an individual or organization who is retained by a fund or individual client to provide advice and services related to trading in futures contracts, commodity options and/or swaps. They are responsible for the trading within managed futures accounts. The definition of CTA may also apply to investment advisors for hedge funds and private funds including mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in certain cases. CTAs are generally regulated by the United States federal government through registration with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and membership of the National Futures Association (NFA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Dever</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Securities market participants (United States)</span>

Securities market participants in the United States include corporations and governments issuing securities, persons and corporations buying and selling a security, the broker-dealers and exchanges which facilitate such trading, banks which safe keep assets, and regulators who monitor the markets' activities. Investors buy and sell through broker-dealers and have their assets retained by either their executing broker-dealer, a custodian bank or a prime broker. These transactions take place in the environment of equity and equity options exchanges, regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or derivative exchanges, regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). For transactions involving stocks and bonds, transfer agents assure that the ownership in each transaction is properly assigned to and held on behalf of each investor.

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References

  1. ↑ "CFTC Glossary: Controlled account". Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  2. ↑ "CTA Industry - Assets Under Management". Barclay Hedge. 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  3. 1 2 Burghardt, Galen; Walls, Brian (2011). Managed Futures for Institutional Investors: Analysis and Portfolio Construction. Bloomberg Press. pp. 1–2. ISBN   978-1576603741 . Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  4. 1 2 Melin, Mark H. (2010). High-Performance Managed Futures: The New Way to Diversify Your Portfolio. Wiley. ISBN   978-0470637937 . Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  5. ↑ Valeyre, S. (2024). "Optimal trend-following portfolios". Journal of Investment Strategies. 12.
  6. ↑ Hurst, B.; Ooi, Y.H.; Pedersen, L.H. (2017). "A Century of Evidence on Trend-Following Investing". Journal of Portfolio Management. 44 (1): 15–29. doi:10.3905/JPM.2017.44.1.015.
  7. ↑ Bhansali, V.; Davis, J.; Dorsten, M.; Rennison, G. (2015). "Carry and trend in lots of places". Journal of Portfolio Management.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Lhabitant, François-Serge (2007). Handbook of Hedge Funds. Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated. ISBN   978-0470026632.
  9. ↑ "Constructing a managed futures portfolio". Managed Futures Today. November 2010. Archived from the original on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  10. ↑ Burghardt, Galen; Walls, Brian (2011). Managed Futures for Institutional Investors: Analysis and Portfolio Construction. Bloomberg Press. pp. 37–8. ISBN   978-1576603741 . Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  11. ↑ Melin, Mark H. (2010). High-Performance Managed Futures: The New Way to Diversify Your Portfolio. Wiley. pp. 203–4. ISBN   978-0470637937 . Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  12. ↑ "Managed Futures Investing". Wisdom Trading.
  13. ↑ Fischer, Michael S. (September 2010). "Under the investment radar". Private Wealth. Charter Financial Publishing Network Inc. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  14. ↑ "How Investors Lose 89 Percent of Gains from Futures Funds". Bloomberg.
  15. 1 2 Stassen, John H. (1982). "The Commodity Exchange Act in Perspective a Short and Not-So-Reverent History of Futures Trading Legislation in the United States". Washington and Lee Law Review. Washington & Lee University School of Law. 39 (3): 825–843. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  16. 1 2 3 "History of the CFTC". Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
  17. ↑ "Commodity Pool Operators and Commodity Trading Advisors: Amendments to Compliance Obligations" (PDF). Commodity Futures Trading Commission. 26 January 2011. Retrieved 14 May 2012.
  18. ↑ "The CFTC's final entity rules and their implications for hedge funds and other private funds" (PDF). Sutherland. Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP. 10 May 2012. Retrieved 4 June 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  19. ↑ Dolmetsch, Chris; Schmidt, Robert (17 April 2012). "CFTC Sued By Fund Industry To Overturn Registration Rule". Bloomberg. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
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