Quote from NYSEscalpa:
When a financial journalist and marketer for a multi strat fund (who has a vested interest in discrediting another strategy to promote his own) says trend following is broken, that's when you know the bottom is in!
The managers marketsurfer highlights in his random sampling tend to trade trends longer term and yes, given government interventions, choppy markets, etc, they have underperformed lately.
There are multiple catalysts for trends in numerous commodity markets which trend followers will be able to profit from, but that's a whole other (lengthy) discussion. Smart money recognizes that you have to have a longer time frame when investing in CTAs and is buying drawdowns in quality trend following programs now, but diversifying by managers and time frames.