EMG Man Group Plc

Several hedge funds that use complicated computer programs to guide how they trade have made hundreds of millions of dollars in January's market selloff.

A tumbling oil price, sharp declines in global stocks and big moves in currencies this month have provided near-ideal conditions for commodity trading advisers, or CTAs, which run around $260 billion globally, providing the market trends and volatility they can latch onto and profit from.

Among the winners this month are: Man Group's $4.4 billion AHL Diversified fund, Aspect Capital's Diversified fund and Cantab Capital' $2.6 billion CCP Quantitative fund.

While the S&P 500 has tumbled 6.7% and the euro Stoxx Europe 50 has lost 7.6% so far this month, computer-driven funds have gained 5.3% this month through Thursday, according to early numbers from Hedge Fund Research.

In contrast, hedge funds on average are down 3.2% this month, after losing money last year.

"Trend-following CTAs are having a good month with short energy, long bonds and a mix of currency positions strongly positive so far," said Anthony Lawler, portfolio manager at GAM Holding. Shorting means betting that the price of a security will fall in the future.

He added that bets on the yen rising and sterling and emerging market currencies falling had also helped.

Man Group's $4.4 billion AHL Diversified fund, which was one of the world's best-performing hedge funds in 2014, was up 7.5% this month through Thursday, according to data from the company, equating to a profit of around $330 million. Its $3 billion AHL Evolution fund has risen 4.7% over the same period.

Aspect Capital, which runs $5 billion in assets, has seen its Diversified fund gain 5.5% this month through Thursday, said another person who had seen the numbers, a profit of approximately $275 million. Aspect Chief Executive Anthony Todd said in a comment emailed to The Wall Street Journal that the fund "continues to benefit from the downwards trends in energy prices, and more recently the weakening of the Canadian dollar."

Another winner is Cantab Capital's $2.6 billion CCP Quantitative fund, which has risen 10.8% this month through Jan. 15, according to the latest numbers sent to investors, said a person who had seen the numbers. That equates to a profit of around $280 million.

And recently-launched Florin Court Capital, which runs around $370 million in assets and which was set up by former AHL managers, was up 6% this month through Wednesday, having benefited from trades in power, commodities and emerging market currencies, said another person familiar with the fund's performance.

If CTAs hold on to this month's performance then it would mark one of the biggest monthly returns since the credit crisis. Many of these funds struggled over the past five years as central bank money-printing reduced market volatility and many of the trends that such funds like to latch onto disappeared, although the tumbling oil price helped such funds return to profit in 2014.

Write to Laurence Fletcher at laurence.fletcher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 25, 2016 07:35 ET (12:35 GMT)

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