The fund seeks capital appreciation by investing in companies in the United States.
The investment process starts with a list of companies in the benchmark index and the research team utilizes quantitative techniques and fundamental analysis to identify investment opportunities.
Next, the research team sells stocks and exchange traded funds short.
The team believes that in all market conditions there will exist some companies whose stocks are overvalued by the market and that capital appreciation can be realized by selling short those stocks.
In determining which stocks to sell short, the team seeks to identify those securities that are most likely to decline in price or underperform the market (the Vulnerability Index)
In calculating a Vulnerability Index, the team considers twelve or more components.
Some of the components include fundamental factors such as earnings growth or dividends, while other components consider market factors such as institutional trading activity or insider buying or selling.
Then the manager constructs a portfolio of stocks from a list of companies favored by the research team and allocates capital based on its conviction level.
From time to time the fund may sell short index-related securities.
The fund seeks capital appreciation and income in the long term by investing in companies across any size in the United States.
The investment process is designed to highlight companies in the benchmark index that can achieve superior investment performance through group selection.
The investment team considers a group to be a collection of stocks whose investment performance tends to be similarly influenced by a variety of factors.
The fund currently monitors around 110 industry-specific groups composed of narrow themes, such as Airlines, Health Care Facilities, and Semiconductors.
The research team believes that as economic and market conditions change, rotating among equity industry groups has the potential to offer superior investment performance over the long-term.
Then the team relies on a disciplined, quantitative investment strategy to analyze the domestic industry group universe.
Next the team narrows the investable universe to a list of companies with financial strength and exhibiting characteristics that may propel the underlying strength of the group.
Then the manager constructs a portfolio of stocks in those groups which are the most attractive.
The fund offers diversification by way of dynamic rotation between equity industry group concentrations.
The fund invests in companies of all sizes and industries as well as in growth and value stocks.
