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Despite big market movements in 2020, and at a time of unprecedented global economic crises, former grain trader Bernard Drury's leading fund - which he started in 1997 - has managed to offer outstanding performance through its trend following approach.

For the first two months of 2021, the Drury Diversified Trend Following Program has delivered a 13% return for investors. Its annualized ROR since inception is 9.5% in comparison to 6.4% for the S&P 500 for the same period.

Approximately 50% of the portfolio is invested in commodities and while corn and natural gas performed well; it was key trades in aluminium (up 5%), copper (up 5.5%) and cotton (up 2.7%) that delivered strong returns.

The Drury team is made up of well-respected, long-established specialists in the managed futures/CTA industry. A distinguishing feature of the Drury Diversified Trend Following Program is its portfolio composition. Approximately half of the portfolio's exposure comes from commodity markets including energy products, metals and agricultural commodities, while the remaining are in stock indices, fixed income and currency markets.

Bernard Drury, founder and CEO of Drury Capital said: " We have decades of experience in developing this well-diversified portfolio approach. Our goal has always been to provide the best investment product we can to meet our client's needs. Through extensive market research and innovation, we have been able to ride the erratic movements in the market and deliver outstanding performance."

Bill Miller, Global Head of Sales and Marketing for Drury said: "Our biggest advantage undoubtedly is the diversification of our strategy. Whatever happens in the global financial markets, and changes in over views, we are still able to drill down and provide the diversification needed to bring investors strong returns. This approach has meant we have been able to outperform in an historic period of market crises and capture price movement."

And the Drury success story looks set to continue, with the outstanding performance of the new Drury Capital Multi-Strategy Futures Program launched in 2020.

Against a backdrop of historic volatility in markets, the new fund gained 22% in its first year to February 2021 against an annual return target of 14% with 10% volatility.

This new fund provides investors with exposure to global equity and fixed income markets, blended with the uncorrelated benefits of trend following and with a single low fee structure.

Bernard Drury explained: "Fifteen years ago we had built a portfolio which took what we'd learned about trend following and combined it with more traditional investments in equities and fixed income. In 2020, it was a logical step to offer this produce to external investors in an easily investable, all-futures product.

"In the highly volatile trading environment of 2020, the benefit of diversification among uncorrelated strategies proved to be of great importance. The portfolio blends sub- strategies that are uncorrelated and of different time horizons, which, on balance, performed well in the tumultuous period. For example, while the S&P 500 was down 12.5% in March of last year, the Multi- Strategy Program had a positive return of 1.6% for the month. Conversely, in February 2021, when the S&P 500 was up moderately (2.6%) Multi-Strategy was up 3.8%with value being added by commodity exposures."

Bill Miller commented: "Such a well diversified offering means we have been nimble in making returns in the midst of such roller-coaster swings in market activity. It's clear there is still some way to go with the super cycle and this carefully curated blend of commodities and other elements will offer an interesting and compelling investment narrative."