The 3 Managed Futures ETFs That Made Money While the S&P 500 Crashed

Three managed futures ETFs generated positive returns during periods of S&P 500 declines, highlighting their potential as diversification tools in volatile markets. The outperformance stems from their ability to profit from falling prices via short positions in equities, bonds, and commodities, driven by trend-following strategies that capitalize on momentum across asset classes. These ETFs are most exposed to shifts in global interest rates, commodity price swings, and equity market volatility, as their returns depend on directional moves rather than long-only exposure. Unlike traditional equity benchmarks, managed futures funds can benefit from increased market turbulence and sustained trends, making them attractive during risk-off regimes. Traders will watch the next CPI release and Fed policy statements for signals on inflation persistence and rate path, which could reignite macro trends favoring trend-following strategies.

HIGH-impact news is typically a market-moving event with multi-pip or multi-percent intraday reactions. Examples include central bank rate decisions, major CPI/NFP releases, geopolitical shocks, mega-cap earnings beats/misses, and regulatory announcements. Traders typically position-reduce or hedge ahead of scheduled HIGH-impact events, and follow the wire in real time to react to unscheduled ones (war headlines, central-bank emergency statements, surprise corporate actions). The Trading News Terminal squawk box reads every HIGH-impact headline aloud the moment it hits the wire — so active traders don't have to stare at the feed.

Active traders typically follow a three-step workflow when a market-moving headline hits the wire: (1) read the headline on the terminal or hear it on the squawk box; (2) assess whether the news is already priced in (by checking intraday price action in the seconds before) or whether it's genuinely new information; (3) act — either entering a breakout position, fading an overreaction, or tightening stops on existing trades. Trading News Terminal's Pro plan delivers wire-grade headlines within seconds of the source, with automatic audio squawk on every HIGH-impact event, so the read-assess-act cycle never waits on a refresh button.