Great Lakes Managed Futures, Ltd

Managed futures offer investors access to CTAs--professional commodity trading advisors. Over the past 30 years this alternative asset class has been shown to lower volatility and enhance returns when added to traditional stock and bond portfolios. This phenomenon is attributable to the fact that managed futures tend to carry a very low or slightly negative correlation with traditional stock and bond investments.

The Term managed futures describes an industry comprised of professional money managers known as commodity trading advisors (CTAs).these trading advisors manage client assets on a discretionary basis using global futures markets as an investment medium. Trading advisors take positions based on expected profit potential.

Managed futures have been used successfully by investment management professionals for more than 30 years. Institutional investors looking to maximize portfolio exposure continue to increase their use of managed futures as an integral component of a well diversified portfolio. With the ability to go both long and short, managed futures are highly flexible financial instrument with the potential to profit from rising and falling markets. Moreover, managed future funds have virtually no correlation to traditional asset classes, enabling them to enhance returns as well as lower overall volatility.

Recent growth in managed futures has been substantial. In 2002, it was estimated that more than $45 billion was under management by managed futures trading advisors. By the end of 2007, that number had grown to more than $200 billion.

By their very nature, managed futures provide diversified investment opportunity in more than 150 global markets; from grains and gold to currencies and stock indices. Many funds further diversify by using several trading advisors with different trading approaches.

The benefits of managed within a well-balanced portfolio include:

Managed futures are highly flexible financial instruments traded on many regulated financial and commodity markets around the world. By broadly diversifying across global markets, managed futures can simultaneously profit from price changes in stock, bond, currency and money markets, as well as from diverse commodity markets having virtually no correlation to traditional asset classes.

The substantial growths of futures exchanges across the globe afford trading advisors countless opportunities to diversify their portfolios by geographic markets, as well as by product. Trading advisors thus have ample opportunity for profit potential and risk reduction among a broad ample of non-correlated markets. Investing in managed futures on a global scale provides protection against geo-specific variables such as poor weather or political unrest, which could affect some commodities or financials more than others.

While managed futures are new to some, banks, corporations and mutual fund managers have used futures markets to manage their exposure to price change for decades.

Futures markets make it possible for these companies "to hedge" or transfer their risk to other market participants, including speculators, who assume this risk in anticipation of making a profit.

Fund managers' investment strategies tend to fall into one of the two primary categories: the major group is known as trend followers, while the other is comprised of market-neutral traders.

Many trend followers use proprietary technical or fundamental trading systems which provide signals of when to go long or short in anticipation of upward or downward maket moves (trends). While some trend followers employ discretionary systems based on fundamental data and the discretion of the fund manager, the majority use fully automated technical trading systems based on a high objective, disciplined set of rules predefined by the fund management. By removing human emotion, such as fear and greed, from trading decisions, fully automated trading systems rely on predetermined stop-loss orders to limit losses and let profits run.

Market-neutral traders tend to seek profit from spreading between different financial and commodity markets (or different futures contracts in the same market). Also in the market-neutral category are option-premium sellers who use delta-neutral programs. Both spreaders and premium sellers aim to profit from non-directional trading strategies.

For further information on how managed futures can fit into your investment plans, please contact us at fundinfo@gltdirect.com