The fund seeks to track the total return performance of the benchmark index before fees and expenses by investing in companies in the United States.
The sub-adviser’s investment process starts with a list of companies in the underlying benchmark index and the research team utilizes quantitative techniques and fundamental analysis to identify investment opportunities.
The process seeks to measure the performance of securities that are in the top 85% by market capitalization and that, in the aggregate, have lower volatility relative to the broader U.S. equity market.
Then the research team relies on a representative sampling indexing strategy to evaluate companies based on market capitalization and industry weightings.
The team also assesses a company’s return variability and yield and liquidity characteristics similar to those of the underlying Index.
Then the manager constructs a diversified portfolio of companies favored by the research team and allocates capital based on its conviction level.
The fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in securities of the underlying Index.