http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1567138/000116204416001395/gator497201601.htm
497 1 gator497201601.htm
January 20, 2016
GATOR OPPORTUNITIES FUND
Supplement to the Prospectus dated July 29, 2015, as supplemented December 21, 2015
On December 21, 2015, the Gator Opportunities Fund (the “Fund”), a series of the Gator Series Trust (the “Trust”), notified shareholders that, pursuant to various considerations and approvals by the Trust’s Board of Trustees (the “Board”), the Trust expected that, subject to approval by the shareholders of the Fund, the Fund would be entering into a transaction with BPV Family of Funds (the “BPV Trust”) for the purpose of reorganizing the Fund into BPV Small Cap Fund (the “Transaction”). The Fund had prepared, with the assistance of the BPV Trust, a draft proxy statement regarding the Transaction, which was filed on Form N-14 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 14, 2015, in anticipation of finalizing the same for a shareholder meeting. However, the Trust was informed on January 15, 2016, that BPV Capital Management, LLC (“BPV”), the investment adviser to the BPV Trust, had determined not to go forward with the Transaction.
In light of the foregoing, effective immediately, the Trust has terminated the public offering of the Fund’s shares and will discontinue the Fund’s operations and liquidate no later than March 21, 2016 (the “Closing Date”). Shares of the Fund are no longer available for purchase.
The Board, in consultation with the Fund’s investment adviser, Gator Capital Management, LLC (the “Adviser”), determined by written consent dated January 20, 2016 (the “Written Consent”) to discontinue the Fund’s operations based on, among other factors, the Adviser’s belief that it would be in the best interests of the Fund and its shareholders to discontinue the Fund’s operations. Through the date of the Fund’s liquidation, currently scheduled to take place on the Closing Date, the Adviser will continue to waive fees and reimburse expenses of the Fund, as necessary, in order to maintain the Fund’s fees and expenses at their current level, as specified in the Prospectus.
In the Written Consent, the Board of Trustees directed that: (i) all of the Fund’s portfolio securities be liquidated to cash in an orderly manner on or before the Closing Date; and (ii) all outstanding shareholder accounts on the Closing Date be closed and the proceeds of each account be sent to the shareholder’s address of record or to such other address as directed by the shareholder including special instructions that may be needed for Individual Retirement Accounts (“IRAs”) and qualified pension and profit sharing fund accounts. As a result of the liquidation of the Fund’s portfolio securities described above, the Fund’s normal exposure to investments will be reduced and eventually eliminated. Accordingly, shareholders should not expect the Fund to achieve its stated investment objective.
Shareholders may continue to freely redeem their shares on each business day during the Fund’s liquidation process. The distribution of proceeds from the closing of shareholder accounts remaining on the Closing Date will be considered for tax purposes a sale of Fund shares by shareholders, and shareholders should consult with their own tax advisors to ensure its proper treatment on their income tax returns. In addition, shareholders invested through an IRA or other tax-deferred account should consult the rules regarding the reinvestment of these assets. In order to avoid a potential tax issue, shareholders may choose to authorize a direct transfer of their retirement account assets to another tax-deferred retirement account before the Fund liquidates. Typically, shareholders have 60 days from the date of the liquidation to invest the proceeds in another IRA or qualified retirement account; otherwise the liquidation proceeds may be required to be included in the shareholder’s taxable income for the current tax year.
If you have any questions regarding this Supplement, please call (813)-282-7870.
Investors Should Retain this Supplement for Future Reference

A December press release describing the acquisition of the Berwyn Funds’ investment advisor is here.

TriState Capital Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSC) entered into a definitive asset-purchase agreement to acquire The Killen Group, Inc. (TKG), an investment management firm and the advisor to The Berwyn Funds.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-19/husky-suspends-dividend-cuts-spending-as-oil-rout-deepens
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-19/oil-giants-start-losing-safety-net-as-refining-margins-squeezed

"Global refining margins, the estimated profit from turning oil into gasoline and diesel, fell 34 percent in the fourth quarter, the steepest decline in eight years, to $13.20 a barrel, data on BP Plc’s website show. Every $1 drop cuts BP’s pretax adjusted earnings by $500 million a year, according to its website.
The companies face a squeeze on processing profits as a mild winter curbs demand for heating oil and diesel, creating huge stockpiles in the U.S. and Europe. That’s a reverse from the past two years, a period when refining earnings doubled, and kicks away one of the remaining buffers for integrated oil giants grappling with crude prices at a 12-year low.
“It’s a bit of a double whammy, lower oil prices and refining margins starting to weaken,” said Iain Reid, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Ltd. in London. “The safety net is still there, but there are some holes in it now.”

This game is a long way from being over, and I don't think the oil majors are immune. It may just take a little while until they are impacted. Already, we see income-- both operating and net--- taking a hit with most of them, and if things like refining margins decline to ziltch.... well, are dvd cuts really off the table? Buy those "juicy" yields (aren't they always) and be the bag holder later. No need to rush in; patience could be richly rewarded here.

Latest memo from Howard Marks: What Does the Market Know?
From Howard Marks (Oaktree Cap) Memos from Howard Marks 01/19/2016 © 2007-2016 Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. All rights reserved.
My buddy Sandy was an airline pilot. When asked to describe his job, he always answers, “hours of boredom punctuated by moments of terror.” The same can be true for investment managers, for whom the last few weeks have been an example of the latter. We’ve seen bad news and prices cascading downward. Investors who thought stocks were priced right 20% ago and oil $70 ago now wonder if they aren’t risky at their new reduced prices.
In Thursday’s (Jan 14th) memo, “On the Couch,” I mentioned the two questions I’d been getting most often: “What are the implications for the U.S. and the rest of the world of China’s weakness, and are we moving toward a new crisis of the magnitude of what we saw in 2008?” Bloomberg invited me on the air last Friday morning to discuss the memo, and the anchors mostly asked one version or another of a third question: “does the market’s decline worry you?” That prompted this memo in response.
The answer lies in a question: “what does the market know?” Is the market smart, meaning you should take your lead from it? Or is it dumb, meaning you should ignore it? Here’s what I wrote in “It’s Not Easy” in September and included in “On the Couch”:
Especially during downdrafts, many investors impute intelligence to the market and look to it to tell them what’s going on and what to do about it. This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. As Ben Graham pointed out, the day-to-day market isn’t a fundamental analyst; it’s a barometer of investor sentiment. You just can’t take it too seriously. Market participants have limited insight into what’s really happening in terms of fundamentals, and any intelligence that could be behind their buys and sells is obscured by their emotional swings. It would be wrong to interpret the recent worldwide drop as meaning the market “knows” tough times lay ahead.
The rest of this memo will be about fleshing out this theme (meaning you can stop reading here if you’ve had enough or are short on time).
https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/howard-marks-memos

@junkster, the problem you are alluding to of indiscriminate falling tide for all biotechs regardless of their financial situation has to do with most of the money flowing through sector funds and ETFs which don't do much due diligence but just depend on diversification. So all of them go up or all of them go down depending on capital flow. When is the last time someone complained why all biotechs were going up even though many of them were just in clinical stage with a risk of completely going under?
I have also mentioned earlier that doing sufficient due dilugence on these companies is beyond the capability of most retail investors or even funds because of the games they play and the difficulty of judging the health of their pipeline and prospects. Most of them are one trick ponies with a lumpy all or nothing return for their products and the availability of cheap money has prevented the larger ones from building a diversified and healthy pipeline since valuations for acquisitions has exploded.

Herro's guru status has always puzzled me. OAKEX has seemed like a so-so offering from an otherwise great shop, whose performance always seems to be overlooked when Herro is trotted out to do an interview somewhere.

+1. I think (and the charts show) that he did well against the benchmark when int'l was hot in the 'noughties, around '02-'07, and he got a lot of media play then; I remember him on at least one magazine cover back in those days. Of course his risk-adjusted performance hasn't been anything to brag about, but maybe the thundering journalistic herd just kept following him based on his gains in favorable markets.

RSIVX WBMAX ARIVX PRPFX AQRNX MFLDX WAFMX SFGIX I just hope GPMCX is not the next.

Not arguing with your overall point, but I don't think WAFMX and SFGIX deserve to be on that list. Sure, they've lost a good amount of money on an absolute basis, but they have still performed much better than the rest of the emerging markets sector. Folks that "jumped on the bandwagon" for these funds are still better off than if they had put their money in almost any other emerging markets fund.

Completely agree and I apologize. They are five star funds and I can understand long term investors being in them. I just have a thing about holding losers over a long period of time as I want my capital compounding on a *consistent* basis. I realize though 3 years is not a "long period of time" for most investors. Unlike most here, I don't have a salary or pension to fall back on during the lean times.

Consistent with capital preservation is a phrase in lot of equity fund prospectuses too. Now I am ass dissapointed with rsivx as anyone, but let's not quote this and perpetuate the notion rsivx is a cash substitute.

"RiverPark Strategic Income Fund seeks high current income and capital appreciation consistent with the preservation of capital..."
I bailed on this fund about six months ago when it was clear that the managers would not be able to satisfy the capital preservation aspect in the prospectus. It proved to be the correct move for me.

I customarily wait for year-end pay-outs and then, after the New Year, re-jigger. I like to feed profit from aggressive funds into more conservative funds. (Trim MSCFX for example, and put the proceeds in MAPOX. But not this year. No profit in MSCFX.)
"what is the best way to change your asset allocation, slowly over a period of a year or two or drastic changes over a period of a few months? I know it's not the best time to make those changes, but maybe I should wait for the market to settle down."
If you've any funds that generated profits from the past few years, find yourself an excellent bond fund that can serve as your CORE--- even if it's not labelled as such. I own DLFNX, but the big, fat sister--- DLTNX--- performs better, even through the recent fecal couple of weeks. Put profit into a core-bond fund, out of high yield. But don't necessarily CLOSE your HY positions.
Or, look at the whole thing as a longer-term process of DCA-ing into more ideal funds for your own Big Picture. Right now seems a decent time to buy. Or get into some good, currently cheap blue-chip individual stocks. Apple at these prices looks like a steal.
http://www.morningstar.com/stocks/xnas/aapl/quote.html
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/DLTNX/quote.html
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/DLFNX/quote.html
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/dodix/quote.html
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/FTBFX/quote.html

Thanks for the input. Yes, I own DODIX, PIMIX and DBLTX as core bond funds. I do have a few funds with profits but have to be careful with large capital gains that have accumulated. I do understand your logic, however.

Obviously, the past few weeks have been a reality check for investors who thought they had the proper asset allocation for their portfolio but were wrong. I consider myself part of that group. Multiple years of gains can make one complacent and oblivious to the downside, especially when it hits hard. I have a fairly large portfolio (just about 7 figures) and my asset allocation is about 40% equities, 50% bonds and 10% cash. However, I realize that my equity portion is too aggressive and my bond weighting is geared more toward high yield bonds. So, my equity portion feels more like 60% equities, which is way too high for me given that my goal first and foremost is a low risk, income oriented portfolio. With a million dollars in my portfolio, I would be happy with 3-5% returns on average over the next 15 years, when I hope to retire.
My question is - what is the best way to change your asset allocation, slowly over a period of a year or two or drastic changes over a period of a few months? I know it's not the best time to make those changes, but maybe I should wait for the market to settle down.

A quick thought ... Selling and buying activity usually generates commissions, fees, tax revenue, etc. Good for the brokerage house and exchanges. Just think for a moment if most all investors sold out and then had to buy back in that would generate a lot of revenue for banks, brokerages, advisors, exchanges and, for some, taxes to pay on realized capital gains. For them probally a good thing and for me, as an investor, a bad thing.
I might trim some allocations form time-to-time but selling completely out, probally not a good thing, for me, to do.

FYI: (Scroll & Click On Download)
Regards,
Ted
http://www.moneylifeshow.com/highlights.asp
RSquared Capital.Com:
http://rsquaredcapital.com/mutual-fund/fund/firm-overview/
M* Snapshot RSQVX:
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/RSQVX/quote.html
Lipper Snapshot RSQVX:
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/rsqvx
RSQVX Is Not Ranked In The (FLB) Fund Category By U. S. News & World Report:
http://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/foreign-large-blend/rsq-international-equity-fund/rsqvx

Sub advisor
http://www.talmagellc.com/investments.html
At Talmage, we have been investing in commercial real estate debt alongside our clients since 2003. During this time, we have made over $10 billion of investments, including
C M B'S, whole loans, mezzanine loans, B-notes, CDOs and bank debt. Prior to forming Talmage, our professionals had longstanding careers and helped develop the real estate debt investment platforms at firms such as Capital Trust and G. Soros Realty.

FYI:
Regards,
Ted
WSJ Slant:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/stocks-rise-as-china-trade-data-eases-concerns-about-economy-1452677759
Bloomberg Slant:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-12/asian-index-futures-point-to-rally-as-u-s-shrugs-off-oil-slump
Reuters Slant:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks-idUSKCN0UR1LE20160113
MarketWatch Slant:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-futures-up-triple-digits-as-market-eyes-third-day-of-gains-2016-01-13/print
IBD Slant:
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MjEzNTAwNzU=
USA Today Slant:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2016/01/13/investors-look-score-hat-trick-stocks-eye-3rd-day-gains/78730086/
WSJ Markets At A Glance:
http://markets.wsj.com/us
Sector Tracker:
http://www.sectorspdr.com/sectorspdr/tools/sector-tracker
Current Futures: Negative
http://finviz.com/futures.ashx

FYI:
DoubleLine CEO forecast slow 2015 inflation, low rate increase
Flagship fund outperformed 98 percent of Morningstar peers
No wonder thousands are expected to tune in today for Jeffrey Gundlach’s 2016 outlook.
The DoubleLine Capital co-founder was mostly right on his calls a year ago: oil prices would fall, junk bonds would live up to their name, China was flashing danger signs and interest rates would go sideways.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-12/gundlach-power-as-oracle-faces-test-after-nailing-oil-junk-debt

Energy sector is more than a falling knife. It seems to be in a price reset and so can wallow for a long time in price discovery. I believe something fundamental has changed in the trading instruments that resulted overstated demand or understated supply not just a physical demand-supply situation.
Biotech/Pharma may get to that stage once it no longer keeps producing high returns because a lot of the returns were from just money piling on to a hot sector. That creates volatility which is fine but I don't think most of the investment money coming via broad etfs and funds understand the risks in this space. Investing in clinical stage biotechs is like playing VC with startups where most of the exit upside has already been realized by the real VCs. They can simply cease to exist if clinical trials fail or FDA approval does not happen because of side effects. Bigger company pipelines are threatened because smaller startups would rather do an IPO or the acquisition costs are very high.
It doesn't mean the whole space is in trouble. Some companies will do very well but picking them is beyond the capabilities of retail investors and even some smart investors and they might not even care if too much money is pouring in. Problem with this rising/falling tide space via broad ETFs and funds is that it is subject to shocks from bad news from any company as happened with Celgene today. A very large number of companies in this space will eventually fail so there will be a sequence of bad news and the broad ETFs and funds do not provide enough diversification. Might be good if you are a momentum trader. There might not be enough gains over a longer period to show for all of the volatility.
The only thing I would trust in this kind of a market if one were to buy on dips is the S&P 500 and is likely the best one to pay off with such a move. It avoids most but not all of the sector-specific problems, currency problems, interest-rate problems, developing market problems and almost every other problem. US Economy is far from recession and all the investment money will have to go somewhere. Programmed money simply moves into such "safe" instruments to park the money other than cash.
Energy, pharma/biotechs, financials (who seem to have run out of lucrative proprietary trading ideas under increased scrutiny and don't make much in traditional banking) will be value traps for a while in my opinion even of there might be frequent violent swings up.
Obviously, I could be completely wrong about this. :)

FYI: (This is a folow-up article)
DoubleLine Capital, the $85 billion investment firm run by its chief executive and chief investment officer, Jeffrey Gundlach, said it opened the DoubleLine Global Bond Fund to investors on Monday.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-funds-doubleline-gundlach-idUSKCN0UP1K020160111
Fund Symbols:
I shares (DBLGX) and N shares (DLGBX)

There are both similarities and differences of faults with hedge funds and open end funds. In one sense, you're right about people tending to pile into some funds based on manager past performance.
People piled into Gundlach's funds, even though they use "exotic financial derivatives like total return swaps". (See below.) IMHO use of exotic derivatives has become more commonplace - they're not limited to hedge funds and a few offbeat mutual funds as the article suggested. Though they're still insignificant if not absent from vanilla funds.
People piled into DoubleLine, into Yacktman, and others based on the managers' long term past performance at substantially identical funds. Not on a short term (3 year) record at a fund that was substantially different. RSIVX by design holds longer term, often illiquid bonds, than RPHYX, as opposed short term bonds ("think 30-90 day maturity").
So ISTM there is a qualitative difference between piling into funds like RSIVX (unproven management for that type of fund) or TFCIX or WBMAX (both with untested strategies for open end funds), and piling into proven management and strategies in the hedge fund arena. Another example of a mismatch between strategies and open end funds - stable value funds. There were (as I recall) over a dozen open end stable value funds attempted. They couldn't handle the open end fund daily redemption requirement.
YACKX also floundered for its first couple of years. It was only in 1994, in a relatively flat market, that it began to shine. Yet people stuck with him. Quoting Yacktman: "My only real fear in 1993 was that people who put their money in during 1992 would take it out at a loss. I didn't want this to happen, because I knew my performance would come back. ... As it turned out, more money came in than went out."
With hedge funds, accredited investors have the responsibility (and supposedly the opportunity) of investigating the offering. These "sophisticated" investors don't get the same disclosures as are required of open end funds. If managers have buried past failures, it's up to the investors to discover that.
The mandated disclosures of open end funds are supposed to make it easier for the other 99%. It is their choice to accept or reject a disclosure that discloses little other than: "just trust us".
DoubleLine funds and total return swaps:
Reuters, Nov 16, 2015: RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Income Fund possesses economic exposure to an aggregate of 1,103,373 shares of Common Stock [of FSC] due to certain cash-settled total return swap agreements."

ThinkAdvisor, Nov 22, 2013“It’s [DSEEX] put together using a total-return swap,” Gundlach said of the fixed-income side of the fund.
Probably other funds; this was a quick search.

FYI: (Scroll & Click On Article title At Top Of Google Search)
Nobody said beating the market is easy. In any given year, historically speaking, fewer than half of active managers beat their benchmark, and about half of those do so purely as a matter of chance. There are, of course, some managers who beat the market year after year after year—but determining which manager is going to do that is next to impossible.
But not totally impossible.
Just four funds made the cut, all led by managers who are venerated in the industry, but not exactly household names. The biggest, $25.7 billion Harbor Capital Appreciation (ticker: HCAIX), has been run by Sig Segalas of Jennison Associates since 1990. The standout performer was Sam Isaly, a star in health-care investing but less well-known in the diversified stock fund universe; he steers the $1.6 billion Eaton Vance Worldwide Health Sciences (ETHSX). The other two were Jerome Dodson, manager of the $708 million socially responsible Parnassus fund (PARNX), and a little-known investor named David Carlson, whose $2.2 billion Elfun Trusts (ELFNX) is open only to General Electric’s 300,000 U.S. employees and retirees.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/#q=The+Market+Beaters+Barron's