Managed Futures

Managed futures are investment funds that trade futures contracts: on stock indices, bonds, currencies, metals, energy and crops. The managers are known as commodity trading advisors (CTAs), and many of them run systematic trend-following rules: hop on whatever is moving, ride it, and get out when it turns.

They are famous for sometimes doing well when stock markets are falling apart, because a hard downtrend is still a trend. They are also famous for long, grinding stretches when markets chop sideways and the trends never come.