The Managed Funds Association (MFA) conference in Key Biscayne Fl. (held Feb. 8-10) was a tale of two asset classes. Much of the discussion surrounded the financial crisis, poor performance and expected additional regulation.

But the strategy/asset class best represented at the conference in terms of actual managers in attendance was managed futures, and commodity trading advisors (CTAs) had a great year in 2008. There was some confusion when a sponsor from a CTA introducing a panel, talked about how outstanding a year it was for the industry. There were some quizzical looks around the room from those who worked at or serviced the larger universe of equity based hedge funds. See it wasn’t so good of a year for them.

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