Though Mr. Henry and other managed futures managers use a different approach from Mr. Soros and Mr. Robertson, some of the same trends have hurt them all.
Despite the weak performance, investors have not lost their enthusiasm for managed futures funds.
Commodity trading advisers (CTAs), also known as managed futures funds, exist to exploit the phenomenon.
"For a long time it was a stepchild," said Sol Waksman, president of BarclayHedge, referring to managed futures.
The Man Group, the giant British hedge fund, is down about 7.5 percent in its $23.9 billion managed futures fund.
Still, while technology investors enjoyed unmatched gains last year, Mr. Henry and others in the managed futures industry suffered.
These tactics can include managed futures, absolute return funds, merger arbitrage and other approaches that will get their own column someday.
With the markets in free fall in 2008, the typical managed futures fund returned 14 percent, versus an 18 percent loss for hedge funds.
If a particular market is falling, managed futures traders, especially those using trend-following computer models, bet on the downward momentum and profit along with the decline.
The managed futures industry has been "battered almost beyond recognition in the past couple years," said Barry Colvin, chief operating officer of Tremont Advisers, a hedge fund consulting firm.
