After over three decades of managing client investments in the futures markets, Abraham Trading Company is closing its flagship futures fund and trade desk, shifting its focus to its recently launched multistrategy investment product, the Abraham Fortress Fund.

Salem Abraham, 53-year-old founder and president of the firm, grew up in Canadian. He began trading in the futures markets 32 years ago as an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame. After he graduated and returned to his hometown, he started the Abraham Trading Company.

Over the course of Abraham’s career, he has held seats on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade. In 1999, as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange was transitioning from pits to electronic trading, Salem and his trading team were the first firm to send computergenerated trading signals to the exchange.

Assets in Abraham Trading’s futures investment strategy peaked at over $600 million. Besides futures trading, the Abraham team has also invested in oil and gas, water rights, wind rights, ranchland, farmland, orchards, and commercial real estate.

Abraham Trading’s flagship program started in January 1988 and produced an average annual rate of return of 13.1 percent since the program’s inception.

“Although the product has been successful over the long term,” Salem remarked, “its futures-only focus did not fare well in the recent market environment. More importantly, investment opportunities exist in every asset class.”

“I wanted to combine our systematic approach to futures trading with our depth of experience in other asset classes,” Salem said, “to create a product that capitalized on those strengths. My research team and I have gained a lot of wisdom and understanding about how to construct what we believe to be the best investment portfolio for our clients, not just in the futures markets but over all asset classes.”

Rather than a strictly futures-focused product, the Abraham Fortress Fund combines traditional equity and fixed-income asset classes with a variety of hedge fund strategies.

“Instead of offering investors only one piece of their investment puzzle with our futures strategy,” Salem said, “we can now offer a complete solution with pieces that satisfy a variety of portfolio objectives.”

The Abraham Fortress Fund’s name describes its goal to both protect client investments and to capitalize on opportunities for growth. “The strategy harnesses the power of diversification and the investment experience of our team,” he said, “providing a product that both individual and institutional investors really needa diversified, low-volatility, cost-efficient, and growth-minded investment. The Abraham Fortress Fund checks all of those boxes, and we are excited to introduce investors to its valuable approach.”

“The downside of closing the futures strategy and the trade desk is that we are losing several longtime employees,” Salem commented. “We’re sad to see our close friends and teammates leave. Abraham Trading could not have grown and successfully operated without their hard work and expertise.”