Threadneedle Asset Management is to launch its first fund to invest long and short in instruments linked to commodities. The asset class has helped both computer-driven and discretionary portfolios investing in it make doube-digit returns and buck the hedge fund industry's losing trend this year.

Funds that invest in futures markets linked to commodities, as well as in instruments linked to other macroeconomic variables such as interest rates and foreign exchange are by far the best performers in the hedge fund industry so far this year.