The Mutual Fund industry has drifted to closet indexing in the last two decades as style boxes evolved and financial advisors sought funds to meet asset allocations. The absolute return investing strategy regained its status after the market plunge in 2008-2009. Touchstone Investments has created a line of retail equity
Stephen Goddard and his team managing Touchstone’s Mid Cap Fund seek downside protection while taking the approach of a private business owner. Typically they buy stocks that they believe are out of favor and look for value on the balance sheet that can contribute to earnings growth and improved perception
Investing in high yield bonds can be especially rewarding if the economy is growing moderately while the default rate is low. Brendan White, portfolio manager of the Touchstone High Yield Fund, explains how the proper selection of sectors and companies with appropriate capital structures translates into an attractive risk-reward ratio
Global investing with all its inherent sector, country-specific and currency risks requires broader perspective and a disciplined approach. Sentinel International Equity Fund manager Kate Schapiro and her team follow a unique strategy that tracks country, global, sector and even style trends, to pick stocks that will provide above average returns
With the premise that investors’ focus changes over time, Harindra de Silva, the manager of the Old Mutual Analytic U.S. Long/Short Fund, believes that the challenge for modern managers is adapting to changes in a systematic way. Quantitative in nature, the fund’s core competence is weighting the various data factors
Jerome Heppelmann manages both the Old Mutual Large Cap (“Large Cap Fund”) and
the Old Mutual Focused Fund (“Focused”) with a similar philosophy and process that are
based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis to find the right balance between valuation, near-term dynamics, and long-term growth. But the Large Cap
Jerome Heppelmann, the manager of the Old Mutual Focused Fund, believes that there
is ample opportunity in the large-cap space because most of his peers strictly follow the
benchmark. Contrary to them, the fund invests in no more than 30 companies. Cognizant of the inherent risk in a focused portfolio, the manager
Sophia Collier, who has been at the helm of the Citizens Value Fund for the last three years, has an unusual background for portfolio management. As a successful entrepreneur, she brings not only the business perspective, but also the understanding that the world is a dynamic place and you need
The value search of the Fifth Third Multi-Cap Value Fund is not confined to a specific sector or market cap range. With a contrarian approach and a long-term outlook, the fund relies on an experienced research team to find those gems, ignored by Wall Street, that have stopped shining only
The Fifth Third Disciplined Large-Cap Value Fund exploits the tendency of the market to price stocks based on an extrapolation of recent results. In fact, growth rates exhibit
little persistence over time, so that buying out-of-favor, low expectation stocks with low P/E’s, low price to book ratios and above average yields
