Options) that reference the Index or S&P 500 ETFs. FLEX Options are exchange-traded option contracts with uniquely customizable terms, such as exercise prices and expiration dates.
The Fund seeks a lower volatility level than the broad U.S. large cap market. Volatility is one way to measure risk and refers to the variability of the Fund's or the market's returns. If the Fund is successful in providing lower volatility, then the value of the Fund's portfolio will fluctuate less than the overall market over a full market cycle (typically, a three to five year time horizon).
In order to meet its investment objective and reduce volatility, the Fund implements a strategy where it writes (sells) call options, while also purchasing long call options (a call spread). The adviser seeks to generate a net-credit in the call spread. The net credit is the difference between the premium received by the Fund from the sale of the out-of-the-money call options and the cost of buying the long, further out-of-the-money call options. The strategy also offers the potential for additional upside participation when the underlying equity index appreciates above the strike price of the purchased call. The call options are reset periodically to seek to better capitalize on current market conditions and opportunities.
While the Fund will not generally invest directly in ETFs, there may be times when it will purchase shares or receive shares of S&P 500 ETFs in order to settle its option positions. The adviser will not normally maintain such positions for an extended period.
In addition to the use of the options overlay strategy, the Fund may use futures contracts, primarily futures on indexes, to more effectively gain targeted equity exposure from its cash positions if it is unable to purchase or write the necessary options for the options overlay strategy.
The Fund invests in a non-diversified portfolio of securities.
The Fund will not invest more than 25% of the value of its total assets in the securities of companies conducting their principal business activities in the same industry, except that, to the extent that an industry represents 20% or more of the S&P 500 (Total Return) Index, at the time of investment, the Fund may invest up to 35% of its total assets in that industry.
Many of the equity securities in the Fund's portfolio are securities of companies in the technology and financials sectors.
The Fund's investment strategies may not always provide greater market protection than other equity investments, particularly in rising equity markets when the Fund is expected to underperform traditional long-only equity strategies. This is due to the call spread strategy, in which the Fund trades away a portion of upside in return for option premium and risk management. By selling a call option at a lower level and buying a call option at a higher level, the call spread creates a range in which upside is capped. When equities rise within that spread, a traditional long-only equity strategy captures the full market movement, while the Fund's return is limited. This outcome is a deliberate trade-off for creating option income and mitigating risk in other market environments.
Investment Process - Equity Portfolio: In managing the equity portion of the Fund, the adviser employs a fundamental data science enabled investment approach that combines research, data insights, and risk management. The adviser defines data
science as the discipline of extracting useful insights from collections of information, and the adviser utilizes the insights as a part of its investment process. The adviser utilizes proprietary techniques to process, analyze, and combine a wide variety of information, including the adviser's multi-decade history of proprietary fundamental research, company financial statements, and a variety of other data sources that the adviser finds relevant to conducting fundamental analysis. The adviser combines insights derived from these sources to forecast the financial prospects of each security, also known as fundamental analysis. Alongside its own insights, the Fund's portfolio management team uses the forecasts developed through data science techniques to help to identify securities that are priced favorably relative to their associated levels of risk. The Fund's portfolio management team then constructs a portfolio that seeks to maximize expected future financial performance while controlling for key risks to the underlying companies' businesses identified by the adviser's analysis. The adviser assesses key risks by analyzing potential events or conditions that may have a negative impact on the adviser's valuation of a particular security. Such key risks may include, but are not limited to, sensitivity to changes in macroeconomic conditions, competitive risks from existing companies or new entrants, and operational risks related to the companies' business models. The adviser regularly evaluates the efficacy of the sources of information included within the investment process, and seeks to identify new data sources that will be additive to the adviser's forecasts and portfolio construction, assessing the validity of its models and assumptions as new information becomes available and market conditions change.
As part of its investment process, the adviser seeks to assess the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors on many issuers in the universe in which the Fund may invest. The adviser's assessment is based on an analysis of key opportunities and risks across industries to seek to identify financially material issues with respect to the Fund's investments in securities and ascertain key issues that merit engagement with issuers. These assessments may not be conclusive, and securities of issuers that may be negatively impacted by such factors may be purchased and retained by the Fund, while the Fund may divest or not invest in securities of issuers that may be positively impacted by such factors.
The adviser may sell a security for several reasons. A security may be sold due to a change in the company's fundamentals or if the adviser believes the security is no longer attractively valued relative to its associated levels of risk. Investments may also be sold if the adviser identifies a stock that it believes offers a better investment opportunity.
Investment Process - Options Overlay Strategy: The Fund uses a strategy designed to deliver yield to investors. Specifically, the options overlay strategy is intended to provide the Fund with options premium, as well as dampen the overall volatility profile of the Fund. The strategy will employ multiple call option positions that expire at various dates, and a portion of the options overlay strategy may be reset as the applicable options approach expiration.
When the Fund enters into call spreads, it receives cash in the form of a net credit. The net credit is the difference between the premium received by the Fund from the sale of the out-of-the money call options and the cost of buying the long, further out-of-the-money call options. The Fund's call options give the