Category Archives: Funds

Ariel Global (AGLOX), November 2019

By David Snowball

Objective and strategy

Ariel Global Fund’s fundamental objective is long-term capital appreciation. The manager pursues an all-cap global portfolio. The fund is, in general, currency hedged so that the returns you see are driven by stock selection rather than currency fluctuation. The manager pursues a “bottom up” discipline which starts by weeding out as much trash as humanly possible before proceeding to a meticulous investment in both the fundamentals of the remaining businesses and their intrinsic value. The fund is diversified and will Continue reading →

Castle Focus (MOATX), November 2019

By David Snowball

Objective and strategy

Castle Focus Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation. They have a bottom-up, absolute value focus, which means a ready willingness to hold substantial amounts of cash when they’re not able to find good companies selling at substantial discounts. The portfolio is typically comprised of 15 to 30 positions. Currently about 30% of the portfolio is in cash and about 30% is invested in non-US companies.

Adviser

Castle Investment Management, which is Continue reading →

Funds in Registration

By David Snowball

The Securities and Exchange Commission, by law, gets between 60 and 75 days to review proposed new funds before they can be offered for sale to the public. Each month, Funds in Registration gives you a peek into the new product pipeline. Most funds currently in registration will become available by year’s end, which is the reason for the surge now

Our list contains 30 new funds and active ETFs. We don’t usually track passive ETFs but did want to mention two this Continue reading →

Crawford Small Cap Dividend Fund (CDOFX), October 2019

By David Snowball

Objective and strategy

Crawford Small Cap Dividend pursues attractive long-term total return with below-market risk. They pursue that goal by investing in a portfolio of small-cap US companies that demonstrate a consistent pattern of earnings and dividend growth. Their discipline is bottom-up, value-oriented and focused on company fundamentals. There are currently Continue reading →

Invenomic Fund (BIVRX/BIVIX/BIVSX), October 2019

By David Snowball

Objective and strategy

Invenomic Fund is seeking long term capital appreciation. They pursue that through a widely diversified long-short portfolio comprised, primarily, of domestic stocks. The long and short portfolios each held about 130 positions, as of August 2019. The long portfolio is generally fully invested in undervalued, timely stocks while the size of the short portfolio varies based on the opportunities available. The long portfolio is all-cap and might include equity securities other than just common stocks. The fund’s short portfolio is broadly diversified and targets stocks which Continue reading →

Funds In Registration

By David Snowball

The Securities and Exchange Commission, by law, gets between 60 and 75 days to review proposed new funds before they can be offered for sale to the public. Each month, Funds in Registration gives you a peek into the new product pipeline. Most funds currently in registration will become available by late October.

Our list contains 22 new funds and active ETFs. We don’t track Continue reading →

Funds in Registration, September 2019

By David Snowball

The Securities and Exchange Commission, by law, gets between 60 and 75 days to review proposed new funds before they can be offered for sale to the public. Each month, Funds in Registration gives you a peek into the new product pipeline. Most funds currently in registration will become available by late October.

Our list contains 37 new funds and active ETFs, with another 15 (unlisted) high minimum institutional funds and passive ETFs. Funds worth putting on your radar include FPA Balanced, a 60/40 fund with A-tier managers; three new funds from Continue reading →

Funds in Registration

By David Snowball

The Securities and Exchange Commission, by law, gets between 60 and 75 days to review proposed new funds before they can be offered for sale to the public. Each month, Funds in Registration gives you a peek into the new product pipeline. Most funds currently in registration will become available by mid-October.

Eighteen new funds, available just in time for Halloween! Spoooky!

Most of the buzz surrounds the new line of Avantis active ETFs. Avantis is the product of a collaboration between American Century Investments and long-time Dimensional Fund Advisor (DFA) managers. DFA probably invented Continue reading →

Matthews Asia Value (MAVRX / MAVAX) (Liquidated), July 2019

By David Snowball 

This fund has been liquidated.

Objective and strategy

Matthews Asia Value pursues long-term capital growth by investing in a diversified portfolio of securities of undervalued companies from the Asian region. The target is firms that are high quality, undervalued with strong balance sheets, focused on their shareholders, and well-positioned to take advantage of Asia’s economic and financial evolution. The goal is to buy shares at a discount of 30% or more to their calculation of intrinsic value.

It is an all-cap portfolio, which translates to Continue reading →

Funds in Registration

By David Snowball

Before funds and ETFs can be offered to the public, they’ve got to be submitted to the SEC which has 70 days to review the application. In general, advisers try to launch just before year’s end because that allows them to have clean “year to date” and calendar year results to share. The funds on-file this month will be eligible to launch in September, though not required to do so. A surprising number of advisors filed virtual “red herring” prospectuses: substantially incomplete documents that were pushed through to meet some self-imposed deadline but that fail to stipulate strategy, manager and costs.

There are a series of intriguing Continue reading →

Index Funds S&P 500® Equal Weight NoLoad (formerly Index Funds S&P 500® Equal Weight), (INDEX), June 2019

By David Snowball 

At the time of publication, this fund was named Index Funds S&P 500® Equal Weight.

Objective and strategy

The fund equally weights all of the stocks in the S&P 500 index and rebalances its portfolio quarterly.

Adviser

The Index Group, LLC, headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado. While they are Continue reading →

Funds in Registration

By David Snowball

Before funds and ETFs can be offered to the public, they’ve got to be submitted to the SEC which has 70 days to review the application. In general, advisers try to launch just before year’s end because that allows them to have clean “year to date” and calendar year results to share. In general, launching new funds in July and August is a dumb idea. Investment returns in summer are, in general, miserable and you lose the advantage of being able to report a full calendar quarter.

Happily, not many fall victim to that trap. Well, these guys Continue reading →

Invenomic Fund (formerly Balter Invenomic), (BIVRX/BIVIX/BIVSX), May 2019

By David Snowball 

At the time of publication, this fund was named Balter Invenomic.

Objective and strategy

Balter Invenomic Fund is seeking long term capital appreciation. They pursue that through a widely diversified long-short portfolio comprised, primarily, of domestic stocks. The long and short portfolios each held about 150 positions, as of early 2019. The long portfolio is always fully invested in undervalued, timely stocks while the size of the short portfolio varies based on the opportunities available. The long portfolio is all-cap and might include equity securities other than just common stocks. The fund’s short portfolio is broadly diversified and targets stocks which are both overvalued and are likely to fall. The short portfolio is not designed merely as a defensive buffer; it is designed to deliver positive returns and reduce the overall risk of the portfolio through Continue reading →

River Canyon Total Return Bond Fund Institutional Class (RCTIX), May 2019

By Dennis Baran

Objective and strategy

The fund seeks to maximize total return by investing across the structured credit sectors – RMBS, ABS, CMBS, CLO, and other non-traditional fixed income sectors. The fund must invest at least 60% of its assets in securities rated as investment grade. The balance of the fund will typically be invested in bonds rated below investment grade.

The management team seeks relative value across the breadth of structured credit sectors including Agency/Non-Agency RMBS, ABS, CLOs, Mortgage Derivatives, and Continue reading →

Funds in Registration

By David Snowball

Before funds and ETFs can be offered to the public, they’ve got to be submitted to the SEC which has 70 days to review the application. In general, advisers try to launch just before year’s end because that allows them to have clean “year to date” and calendar year results to share. These launches will likely occur in late June so that they’ll at least have full-quarter results for 2019 Q3.

The dominant themes this month seem to be enhanced risk-management (Aptus, Horizon, Hussman, Quadratic, RG) and ESG emphasis (Horizon, Kennedy, Wahed). Also cannabis. Continue reading →

Brown Advisory Sustainable Growth Fund (BAFWX/BIAWX/BAWAX), April 2019

By David Snowball

Objective and strategy

The managers seek long-term capital appreciation by investing in a concentrated portfolio of 30-40 mid and large capitalization companies that use sustainable business strategies (SBA) to drive future earnings growth.

They focus on finding companies whose sustainability strategies are generating tangible business results such as revenue growth, cost improvement, or enhanced franchise value. Such companies may enjoy competitive advantages from environmentally efficient design or manufacturing or offer Continue reading →

Funds in registration

By David Snowball

Before funds and ETFs can be offered to the public, they’ve got to be submitted to the SEC which has 70 days to review the application. In general, advisers try to launch just before year’s end because that allows them to have clean “year to date” and calendar year results to share. These launches will likely occur in late May or June so that they’ll at least have full-quarter results for 2019 Q3.

The team behind Harbor Focused International has been recognized as one of the best asset managers in Europe, while the advisers behind DoubleLine Emerging Markets Local Currency Bond Fund and Vanguard Global ESG Select Stock Fund are among the best in US fixed income and equity investing, respectively. And yet, the Kensington Managed Income Fund might have the best underlying performance of them all. That makes it a Continue reading →

Funds in Registration

By David Snowball

Before funds can be offered to the public, they’ve got to be submitted to the SEC which has 70 days to review the application. In general, advisers try to launch just before years end because that allows them to have clean “year to date” and calendar year results to share. These launches will likely occur in late April or May.

Palm Valley Capital Fund is sort of a stand-out here, despite the name that vaguely calls a retirement community (with golf!) to mind. It will be a small cap stock fund managed by Continue reading →

Marshfield Concentrated Opportunity (MRFOX), February 2019

By Dennis Baran

Objective and strategy

MRFOX seeks capital preservation and long-term growth of principal while targeting a pattern of performance that’s at variance with the market, different from it in as many ways as possible, and adds value on a risk-adjusted basis. The managers’ goal of avoiding the “closet index” trap while laying the groundwork for superior performance means

  • owning a thoughtful concentration of approximately 20 stocks
  • holding cash between of 0-25 percent while awaiting well-priced opportunities
  • steering clear of generic “consensus” stocks and
  • being freed from sector and market capitalization constraints

Continue reading →

Funds in registration

By David Snowball

Just a handful of new funds were registered with the SEC this month, perhaps in response to the disruption caused by the government shutdown which affected the SEC. In any case, we’ve chosen to highlight just two funds from that list; both are guided by first-rate managers whose long careers and other funds should engender considerable interest and respect. Continue reading →