June 2025 Kettera Strategies Overview
In June 2025, discretionary global macro strategies emerged as the top-performing style category in macro trading, continuing their strong year-to-date momentum with an 11.1% gain so far in 2025[1].
Discretionary global macro strategies had solid gains in June, supported by interest rate themes, foreign exchange (FX) positions, and equity sector bets. While there were some offsetting losses in certain currencies and some credit and commodities hedges underperformed, the performance was overall positive[3].
Quant macro and quant equity strategies also performed well across the first half of 2025, with quant equity funds posting an 8.2% return year-to-date. However, quant macro-specific June performance details are less explicit in the data, though they remain strong contributors within macro-related hedge funds[1].
FX specialist strategies contributed positively, particularly those with tactical positioning on USD bias versus EUR and emerging market currencies such as BRL and MXN. However, some FX exposures (e.g., short CNH, CHF) were challenged during June[3].
Systematic trend programs (CTAs and managed futures) delivered mildly positive returns (+0.4% in 2025 year-to-date), with better performance in June driven by profitable currency and stock index trends outweighing losses from energy market reversals. Faster and alternative trend-following strategies outperformed traditional trend followers in June due to strong gains in agricultural commodities, equities, and FX[1][3].
In June, long-term trend following programs generally saw higher returns, but some still posted negative numbers.
June was a challenging month for most FX-only managers, with those that navigated the USD slide by rapidly rotating out of the dollar into commodity and major currencies seeing positive results.
One traditional "global macro 1.0" veteran on the Hydra platform gained over 5%, benefiting from a portfolio that was slightly short to neutral U.S. equities and long front-end rates, while also holding long positions in heavy CapEx commodities.
The Hydra Emerging Manager Basket uses equal weightings for any approval category, and manager weightings are not discretionary. Weighting reductions only occur if a manager is de-listed or shuts its doors. The weightings are rebalanced annually, with exceptions for extraordinary events.
Past performance of the Hydra Emerging Manager Basket and the benchmarks is not necessarily indicative of future returns.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of AlphaWeek or The Sortino Group. Hedge Fund benchmarks do not reflect advisory fees or the impact of financial risk.
[1] Source: AlphaWeek [3] Source: The Sortino Group Ltd. (Copyrighted by The Sortino Group Ltd.)
Investing in discretionary global macro strategies continued to be profitable in June 2025, leveraging technology for interest rate themes, foreign exchange positions, and equity sector bets, as evidenced by a 11.1% gain so far this year. Furthermore, technology played a crucial role in systematic trend programs, allowing for rapid rotation out of the dollar into commodity and major currencies, delivering positive returns, especially for manager strategies navigating the USD slide.
