As part of a regular exercise, we scan the NFA register for new and closed managers. This report will be developed over time and will be a recurring feature. We would like to highlight that some of the closures and registrations are due to corporate (re)structuring and does not necessarily indicate that the manager has shut down their trading program. The number of managers registered with the NFA declined by 30, which is in line with prior months.
After a brief uptick in June, the number of managers continued to decrease at approximately the average speed of the last year. The trend is now pretty consistent, in a regular month, some 30 entities withdraw their NFA status. August, featured a decrease in the number of managers seeking or doing business under the CTA registration. We observed an increase in the number of active CTAs, in line with earlier estimates, with a net loss of 35 managers. We observed 21 new managers and 51 managers closed throughout August.
Key findings and discussion: With all indicators pointing towards decelerating, interest in smaller CTA/Managed Futures firms, it may not be surprising that there have been fewer CTAs (in aggregate) this month than we have seen in previous updates. It is, however, interesting to observe that closed outpaced new manager by a factor of two, on a consistent basis.
One of the key components of our methodology is having a clear view of the industry. We believe this is particularly important in this environment, given the fact that asset raising is more difficult and assets gravitate towards the larger managers.
In total, we have 2605 managers either as registered managers or pending registration with the NFA. We have 2108 managers as properly under the NFA’s control which is unchanged as most of the new managers are “Pending” registration with the NFA.
In June, 21 managers applied for a new registrations with the NFA. As usual, most of them are located in the USA. Canada, Malta, Taiwan and Hong Kong had one manager each. UK recorded three new managers.
| Name | State | Country | firstObs |
| Palm Lane Capital Llp | — | United Kingdom | 8/1/2020 |
| Index Plus lp | Virginia | United States | 8/2/2020 |
| Ridge Corporation Llc | Colorado | United States | 8/2/2020 |
| Torq Capital Management Hk Limited | — | Hong Kong | 8/2/2020 |
| Arb Asset Management Llc | Illinois | United States | 8/2/2020 |
| Northlander Malta | — | Malta | 8/5/2020 |
| Temple Honor Asia Fund lp | Taipei County | Taiwan | 8/7/2020 |
| Vortex Commodities Llc | Texas | United States | 8/11/2020 |
| Lexagon Capital Llc | Georgia | United States | 8/13/2020 |
| Turnpoint Foreign Exchange Llc | Utah | United States | 8/14/2020 |
| North Dune Corporation | Illinois | United States | 8/16/2020 |
| Blue Creek Capital Management Llc | Illinois | United States | 8/18/2020 |
| Dalpha Capital Management Llc | Texas | United States | 8/19/2020 |
| Goldman Fund Management Llc | Florida | United States | 8/20/2020 |
| Dynamic Capital Corporation Limited | Ontario | Canada | 8/21/2020 |
| Boundary Creek Uk Llp | — | United Kingdom | 8/21/2020 |
| East X Llp | — | United Kingdom | 8/22/2020 |
| Apr Management Llc | California | United States | 8/27/2020 |
| Sturm Advisory Services Llc | Connecticut | United States | 8/27/2020 |
| Pjt Partners lp | New York | United States | 8/28/2020 |
| 1859 Capital North America Llc | Delaware | United States | 8/29/2020 |
Funds withdrawing registrations was again back to normal levels with a total of 51 managers withdrawing from the NFA register. The same applies for closed managers, a particular manager may have elected to close a specific local entity and may still be actively trading. 43 of the 51 managers were located in the US. A fair amount of the withdrawals relate to individuals.
| Name | State | Country | lastObs |
| Tactical Trading Advisors Llc | Michigan | United States | 8/1/2020 |
| Crouch, Tommy Kent | Florida | United States | 8/2/2020 |
| Aventis Asset Management Llc | Illinois | United States | 8/2/2020 |
| Signition lp | New York | United States | 8/2/2020 |
| Talton Capital Management Llc | Illinois | United States | 8/2/2020 |
| Phillimore Investments lp | Connecticut | United States | 8/2/2020 |
| Gbm Global Investments Llc | Texas | United States | 8/2/2020 |
| Columbus Global Advisors Llc | New York | United States | 8/5/2020 |
| Fivestar Futures Llc | Wisconsin | United States | 8/5/2020 |
| Marinus Capital Advisors Llc | Connecticut | United States | 8/5/2020 |
| Ho, Winson | Texas | United States | 8/5/2020 |
| Global Dynamic Systems Llc | New York | United States | 8/5/2020 |
| Third Point Financial Markets Group Ltd | London | England | 8/5/2020 |
| Jerry, Robert | Tennessee | United States | 8/5/2020 |
| Icapital Alternative Investments Llc | New York | United States | 8/6/2020 |
| Westphal, Andrew Kevin | Texas | United States | 8/7/2020 |
| Crame, Christopher | Illinois | United States | 8/7/2020 |
| Bls Trading Advisor Llc | Florida | United States | 8/7/2020 |
| Ly, Alvin | California | United States | 8/7/2020 |
| Nefertiti Risk Capital Management Llc | New York | United States | 8/7/2020 |
| Matatov Capital Management Llc | Arizona | United States | 8/7/2020 |
| White Marigold Capital Management Llp | — | United Kingdom | 8/7/2020 |
| Kiski Partners Llc | New York | United States | 8/8/2020 |
| Grants Tech Limited | — | United Kingdom | 8/8/2020 |
| Ar Fund Management Llc | Florida | United States | 8/9/2020 |
| Edgewater Trading Inc | Illinois | United States | 8/12/2020 |
| Blacklion Capital Management Llc | Texas | United States | 8/12/2020 |
| Silver Ridge Asset Management lp | — | Cayman Islands | 8/12/2020 |
| Silver Ridge Asset Management Us lp | New York | United States | 8/12/2020 |
| Strand Asset Management ag | — | Switzerland | 8/13/2020 |
| Camelback Futures Llc | Tennessee | United States | 8/13/2020 |
| Apollo Lion Llc | New York | United States | 8/13/2020 |
| Luke Asset Management Partners Llc | Arizona | United States | 8/15/2020 |
| Hsaam Asset Management Inc | Colorado | United States | 8/15/2020 |
| Gapstow Capital Partners lp | New York | United States | 8/16/2020 |
| Buckeye Partners Group Llc | Georgia | United States | 8/16/2020 |
| Dakota Pacific Global Macro Advisers lp | Utah | United States | 8/16/2020 |
| Mesadieu, Geral | Ohio | United States | 8/19/2020 |
| Cold Spring Asset Management lp | Florida | United States | 8/19/2020 |
| Gqs Capital Ltd | London | United Kingdom | 8/19/2020 |
| Tangpay Financial Markets Group Ltd | Colorado | United States | 8/19/2020 |
| Jin Yuan International Holdings Limited | — | Seychelles, Republic of | 8/19/2020 |
| Sullivan, Stephen Paul | Illinois | United States | 8/22/2020 |
| Glovista Capital Management Llc | New Jersey | United States | 8/22/2020 |
| Interactive Investments Llc | Tennessee | United States | 8/23/2020 |
| Clinton Group Inc | New York | United States | 8/26/2020 |
| Clinton Gp Inc | New York | United States | 8/26/2020 |
| Scout Global Funds Ltd | — | Bahamas (islands) | 8/26/2020 |
| K2 Risk Solutions Llc | Colorado | United States | 8/26/2020 |
| Piper Sandler Hedging Services Llc | New York | United States | 8/27/2020 |
| Presige Management Llc | California | United States | 8/27/2020 |
Additional, continuously updated data can be found here: https://nilssonhedge.com/reports/tracking-the-cta-industry/
