Investment style – CTAs
Range Wise: Plummer weighs the crops
CTAs have been one of the worst performing hedge fund strategies this year. The Barclay Group's CTA index shows the strategy was down by 2.33% for the year to July 31. The agricultural traders sub-index has fared much better and is up 13.36%.
Although the returns for this sub-strategy are already in double digits, Range Wise, Bill Plummer's agricultural CTA, was up a whopping 42% for the year to mid-July, with a 104% rate of return. "Of the 315 managed futures programs in our database with more than $10 million under management and with updated performance through month-end June 2004, Range Wise is ranked number one with a year to date return of 41.87%," says Sol Waksman, president of The Barclay Group.
Plummer is an agricultural commodity trader. The fact that he's been trading commodities for 35 years is a clear strength. "I would say that the interesting thing about Range Wise is that they have a tremendous amount of experience in the field and at times have managed in excess of $100 million for customers," says Waksman.