New’n’Closed – 2020 August

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.

NameStateCountryfirstObs
Palm Lane Capital Llp—United Kingdom8/1/2020
Index Plus lpVirginiaUnited States8/2/2020
Ridge Corporation LlcColoradoUnited States8/2/2020
Torq Capital Management Hk Limited—Hong Kong8/2/2020
Arb Asset Management LlcIllinoisUnited States8/2/2020
Northlander Malta—Malta8/5/2020
Temple Honor Asia Fund lpTaipei CountyTaiwan8/7/2020
Vortex Commodities LlcTexasUnited States8/11/2020
Lexagon Capital LlcGeorgiaUnited States8/13/2020
Turnpoint Foreign Exchange LlcUtahUnited States8/14/2020
North Dune CorporationIllinoisUnited States8/16/2020
Blue Creek Capital Management LlcIllinoisUnited States8/18/2020
Dalpha Capital Management LlcTexasUnited States8/19/2020
Goldman Fund Management LlcFloridaUnited States8/20/2020
Dynamic Capital Corporation LimitedOntarioCanada8/21/2020
Boundary Creek Uk Llp—United Kingdom8/21/2020
East X Llp—United Kingdom8/22/2020
Apr Management LlcCaliforniaUnited States8/27/2020
Sturm Advisory Services LlcConnecticutUnited States8/27/2020
Pjt Partners lpNew YorkUnited States8/28/2020
1859 Capital North America LlcDelawareUnited States8/29/2020

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.

NameStateCountrylastObs
Tactical Trading Advisors LlcMichiganUnited States8/1/2020
Crouch, Tommy KentFloridaUnited States8/2/2020
Aventis Asset Management LlcIllinoisUnited States8/2/2020
Signition lpNew YorkUnited States8/2/2020
Talton Capital Management LlcIllinoisUnited States8/2/2020
Phillimore Investments lpConnecticutUnited States8/2/2020
Gbm Global Investments LlcTexasUnited States8/2/2020
Columbus Global Advisors LlcNew YorkUnited States8/5/2020
Fivestar Futures LlcWisconsinUnited States8/5/2020
Marinus Capital Advisors LlcConnecticutUnited States8/5/2020
Ho, WinsonTexasUnited States8/5/2020
Global Dynamic Systems LlcNew YorkUnited States8/5/2020
Third Point Financial Markets Group LtdLondonEngland8/5/2020
Jerry, RobertTennesseeUnited States8/5/2020
Icapital Alternative Investments LlcNew YorkUnited States8/6/2020
Westphal, Andrew KevinTexasUnited States8/7/2020
Crame, ChristopherIllinoisUnited States8/7/2020
Bls Trading Advisor LlcFloridaUnited States8/7/2020
Ly, AlvinCaliforniaUnited States8/7/2020
Nefertiti Risk Capital Management LlcNew YorkUnited States8/7/2020
Matatov Capital Management LlcArizonaUnited States8/7/2020
White Marigold Capital Management Llp—United Kingdom8/7/2020
Kiski Partners LlcNew YorkUnited States8/8/2020
Grants Tech Limited—United Kingdom8/8/2020
Ar Fund Management LlcFloridaUnited States8/9/2020
Edgewater Trading IncIllinoisUnited States8/12/2020
Blacklion Capital Management LlcTexasUnited States8/12/2020
Silver Ridge Asset Management lp—Cayman Islands8/12/2020
Silver Ridge Asset Management Us lpNew YorkUnited States8/12/2020
Strand Asset Management ag—Switzerland8/13/2020
Camelback Futures LlcTennesseeUnited States8/13/2020
Apollo Lion LlcNew YorkUnited States8/13/2020
Luke Asset Management Partners LlcArizonaUnited States8/15/2020
Hsaam Asset Management IncColoradoUnited States8/15/2020
Gapstow Capital Partners lpNew YorkUnited States8/16/2020
Buckeye Partners Group LlcGeorgiaUnited States8/16/2020
Dakota Pacific Global Macro Advisers lpUtahUnited States8/16/2020
Mesadieu, GeralOhioUnited States8/19/2020
Cold Spring Asset Management lpFloridaUnited States8/19/2020
Gqs Capital LtdLondonUnited Kingdom8/19/2020
Tangpay Financial Markets Group LtdColoradoUnited States8/19/2020
Jin Yuan International Holdings Limited—Seychelles, Republic of8/19/2020
Sullivan, Stephen PaulIllinoisUnited States8/22/2020
Glovista Capital Management LlcNew JerseyUnited States8/22/2020
Interactive Investments LlcTennesseeUnited States8/23/2020
Clinton Group IncNew YorkUnited States8/26/2020
Clinton Gp IncNew YorkUnited States8/26/2020
Scout Global Funds Ltd—Bahamas (islands)8/26/2020
K2 Risk Solutions LlcColoradoUnited States8/26/2020
Piper Sandler Hedging Services LlcNew YorkUnited States8/27/2020
Presige Management LlcCaliforniaUnited States8/27/2020

Additional, continuously updated data can be found here: https://nilssonhedge.com/reports/tracking-the-cta-industry/