PivotalPath Managed Futures:Trend Following Index

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PivotalPath Managed Futures: Trend Following Index

The PivotalPath Managed Futures: Trend Following Index is an equal weighted index of funds that typically forecast market trends and determine whether to invest long or short in futures contracts across metals, grains, equity indices and soft commodities, as well as foreign currency and U.S. government bond futures. The Index tracks the monthly performance, net of fees in USD, of its constituents and is representative of funds with a minimum fund track record of 18 months and a minimum fund AUM of $50mm. The constituents are fixed at the end of each calendar year for the following calendar year.

Download the full monthly series — free with a registered account.

7.5%
Annualised return
11.8%
Annualised volatility
0.51
Sharpe ratio
-18.6%
Maximum drawdown

PivotalPath Managed Futures: Trend Following Index as of August 2026.

Performance

Summary statistics since inception

Annualised return 7.5%
Annualised volatility 11.8%
Sharpe ratio (excess of risk-free) 0.51
Return / volatility (not a Sharpe ratio) 0.64
Maximum drawdown -18.6%
Positive months 57.8%
Best month 11.1%
Worst month -8.9%

Trailing returns — ANNUALISED (periods over one year)

2 years, annualised 5.0%
3 years, annualised 3.7%
5 years, annualised 5.8%
10 years, annualised 4.4%

Cumulative returns — NOT annualised

1 year, cumulative 20.9%
Year to date 9.7%
Month to date 3.1%
Since inception 585.5%

The two tables above use different conventions and are not comparable figure for figure: returns over periods longer than one year are annualised, while one-year, year-to-date, month-to-date and since-inception returns are cumulative.

Behaviour against the S&P 500

Regression against the S&P 500

Since inception Trailing 36 months
Raw Excess
Jensen’s
Raw Excess
Jensen’s
Beta to S&P 500 -0.10 -0.09 0.10 0.11
Alpha, annualised 9.2% 6.9% 2.0% -2.0%
R-squared 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.02
Correlation -0.13 — 0.14 —

Raw regresses reported returns against the benchmark with nothing deducted. Excess subtracts the risk-free rate from both sides first, which is what makes its intercept Jensen’s alpha. The raw intercept still contains the cash return, so it overstates skill by roughly the risk-free rate times (1 − beta).

Are hedge funds correlated? →  ·  Do hedge funds generate alpha? →

Capture — since inception

Upside capture 21.7%
Downside capture -14.9%
Falling benchmark months 113
Mean return, benchmark’s worst 10 3.3%
Benchmark mean, same 10 months -10.4%

Capture — trailing 36 months

Upside capture 25.6%
Downside capture 36.7%
Falling benchmark months 12
Mean return, benchmark’s worst 10 -0.4%
Benchmark mean, same 10 months -2.8%

Do hedge funds protect on the downside? →

Returns by period

Quarterly returns · 2020 to present

Q3 2026 (partial) 2.4%
Q2 2026 1.5%
Q1 2026 5.6%
Q4 2025 5.4%
Q3 2025 6.8%
Q2 2025 -7.2%
Q1 2025 -4.7%
Q4 2024 0.1%
Q3 2024 -4.2%
Q2 2024 -2.1%
Q1 2024 11.5%
Q4 2023 -5.2%
Q3 2023 2.3%
Q2 2023 6.8%
Q1 2023 -5.5%
Q4 2022 -5.8%
Q3 2022 4.9%
Q2 2022 6.6%
Q1 2022 11.8%
Q4 2021 0.0%
Q3 2021 1.9%
Q2 2021 4.3%
Q1 2021 3.8%
Q4 2020 7.2%
Q3 2020 -0.8%
Q2 2020 -2.6%
Q1 2020 -1.2%

27 quarters, 2020 to present. Scroll for the full series.

The most recent quarter shown is partial. Cumulative within each quarter, net of fees, in USD.

Calendar-year returns · since inception

2026 (partial) 9.7%
2025 -0.4%
2024 4.6%
2023 -2.2%
2022 17.7%
2021 10.4%
2020 2.3%
2019 10.2%
2018 -7.3%
2017 5.2%
2016 -0.6%
2015 1.8%
2014 23.3%
2013 2.4%
2012 -1.1%
2011 2.8%
2010 14.8%
2009 -3.1%
2008 27.3%
2007 12.7%
2006 6.9%
2005 2.6%
2004 4.8%
2003 16.2%
2002 24.6%
2001 9.1%
2000 13.9%

27 years, since 2000. Scroll for the full series.

The most recent year shown is partial. Cumulative within each year, net of fees, in USD.

Returns by year →

Construction

Weighting
Asset-weighted. An equal-weighted variant is published separately.
Eligibility
Minimum 18-month track record and $50mm AUM, assessed at constituent locking.
Constituent locking
Determined annually, at the end of each calendar year.
Rebalancing
Monthly.
Returns basis
Net of all fees, in USD.
Returns are monthly, net of all fees, in USD. The complete return history is published free under a Creative Commons Attribution licence at github.com/pivotalpath/publicdata. Past performance does not predict future returns.

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