CTA Strategies for Returns-Enhancing Diversification

• Main Authors: LEE, David Kuo Chuen, KOH, Francis, PHOON, Kok Fai
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2004
• Subjects: commodity trading advisors; commodity futures; performance measures; Finance and Financial Management
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/3400
• Institution: Singapore Management University

In this paper, we analyzed the risk and performance characteristics of different strategies involving the trading of commodity futures, financial futures and options on futures employed by Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs). Differing from previous studies, we employed full and split samples to examine the correlations, and computed risk and performance measures for various CTA strategies. We ranked the returns of the S&P 500 and MSCI Global Indices from the worst to the best months, and partitioned the sample into ten deciles. For each decile, we computed the relationship between the CTA indices and the equity indices, and compared their risk and return characteristics. We found that CTA strategies have higher Sharpe and Sortino ratios compared to other asset classes for the entire sample period under study. Further, unlike hedge funds, the correlation coefficients between CTA and equity portfolios for the first decile (worst performance of the equity indices) are mostly negative. The volatility (measured by downside deviation) of CTA strategies is lower compared to equity indices. And, for the upmarket months, CTA strategies are associated with high Sortino ratios