The alternative investment industry is mostly comprised of a few big CTAs that offer strategies that aren’t really so different than your average mutual fund. Barclay Hedge has been a staple of the alt investment industry which resonates loudly with emerging managers and basically anything that isn’t ‘mainstream.’ Crypto also has been mostly an alternative industry, only recently catching the eye of major institutions, as reported by Bloc10 and others.
Recently Barclay Hedge added a new category “Cryptocurrency Traders” and here are the results:
At first glance it seems to be the most strange Barlcay Hedge report ever – but upon further inspection, it looks just like Crypto would – huge volatility and short track record. One thought – because this is an ‘index’ and doesn’t represent individual funds, it would be possible if the YTD number was minus (negative) more than 100%. For example if multiple funds suffered greater than 50% losses consistently (new funds, meaning that in month 3 and 4 a new group of funds lost more than 50%) it would be possible for the YTD number to be -110% for example. Theoretically, it would be possible in any market mathematically speaking, but practically, -30% is not common in most reporting funds on Barclay Hedge and is not common in the alternative investment community.
May was another dramatic month making the YTD returns for the group -35%, mere peanuts to the Bitcoin millionaires that have made 10,000% returns and more.
What is significant is the listing of the Cryptocurrency index on Barclay hedge, another sign that we are now in a real paradigm shift towards Cryptocurrency and Blockchain. As we explain in our book Splitting Bits – Understanding Bitcoin and the Blockchain – the big wave of real investment in Crypto is only starting (You can get a copy of Splitting Bits on our website www.bloc10.com ). The current bubble was fueled by Main St. but primarily foreigners with little credibility in the investing world. Wall St. has not even dipped their toe in the water yet.
To capture this move, we are working hard developing algorithms specifically tailored to the Crypto market, such as our Machine Learning Precognition Engine, see here.
For more info about Cryptocurrency, trading Crypto, true price data, and more – see www.totalcryptos.com
