Let Managed Futures Fire Up Your Portfolio

The trend has been friendly so far this year to investors in managed futures funds. Robert Sinnott, portfolio manager for the ASG Managed Futures Strategy Fund (ASFYX) - Get Report , said success in this highly quantitative area is more than simply a matter of market-timing. 'Trend following strategies serve as a long term diversifier for portfolios and having a strategic allocation, rather than a tactical allocation is going to be the way you succeed,' said Sinnott. 'If you try and time it, you are going to miss the benefits, like we saw in January of this year.' The ASG Managed Futures Strategy Fund is up 4.6% thus far in 2016, according to fund-tracker Morningstar. The $3.3 billion fund has returned an average of 4.5% annually over the past five years, outpacing 99% of its peers in Morningstar's managed futures category.