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Fund Liquidations: Salient, Ramius And Raylor

By DailyAlts Staff In this edition of Fund Liquidations, notes on four funds that have filed for liquidation: Salient Alternative Beta Fund In a September 2 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), the Salient MF Trust said its Board of Trustees had approved a plan to liquidate the Salient Alternative Beta Fund (MUTF: SABFX ). The liquidation date was slated for just a day later, on September 3, and the fund immediately stopped accepting investments from new shareholders. According to Bloomberg , September 14 was the fund’s last day of trading, and its shares closed at a final price of $6.96. The fund debuted in March 2013 at a price of $10.14. Ramius Hedged Alpha Fund The Ramius Hedged Alpha Fund (MUTF: RDRAX ) was liquidated on September 4. Its Board of Trustees made the decision to liquidate in July and notified the SEC of its intentions on July 31. According to Bloomberg , the fund debuted on September 17, 2010 at a share price of $10.02, and closed September 4, 2015 at $8.78, down 11.4% since inception. Year-to-date, through its final day of trading, the Ramius Hedged Alpha Fund returned -11.9%. Ramius Strategic Volatility Fund Ramius also liquidated the Ramius Strategic Volatility Fund (MUTF: RVOAX ) on September 4, after filing its intent to do so with the SEC on July 31. The fund, which debuted in October 2012 at $10 per share, finished its final day of trading at $2.64, down a staggering 73.6% since its inception, according to Bloomberg . The fund closed out 2014 at $3.09, meaning its year-to-date returns through its closing were -14.6%. Raylor Managed Futures Strategy Fund According to a September 9 SEC filing , the Board of Trustees of the Northern Lights Fund Trust III has decided to cease operations of the Raylor Managed Futures Strategy Fund (MUTF: TMFAX ). Effective immediately, management stopped selling shares to new investors and warned its existing shareholders that it would begin to deviate from the fund’s investment objective, in pursuit to a liquidation of the fund planned for October 9. Shares of the Raylor Managed Futures Strategy Fund returned -8.76% in the first eight months of 2015, according to Morningstar, ranking it in the bottom 8% of funds in its category. Over the six months concluding August 31, the fund returned an even-worse -11.55%. Share this article with a colleague

Investors Grow Wary Of High-Yield, Junk Bond ETFs

Summary ETF investors are pulling out of high-yield, junk bonds. Rising junk bond issuance may be pressuring high-yield market. However, some bond investors may be turning to low-duration junk bond ETFs to hedge rate risks. After staging a decent rally this year, high-yield speculative-grade bond exchange traded funds are now experiencing large withdrawals. Retail investors pulled $1.96 billion from U.S. high-yield funds for the week ended March 11, with 97% of the total, or $1.91 billion from ETFs, writes Matthew Fuller of S&P Capital IQ on Forbes . Over the week ended March 11, the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: HYG ) experienced $1.5 billion in outflows and the SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (NYSEArca: JNK ) saw $921.6 million in redemptions, according to ETF.com . The large withdrawals and pullback in high-yield bonds may be in response to the sudden influx of $11 billion in speculative-grade debt to hit the market, the biggest sale of securities in almost a year and 26% ahead of last year’s supply, Bloomberg reports. Over the past week, HYG dipped 0.8% and JNK fell 0.5%. “The market is showing some indigestion,” John McClain, a money manager at Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc., said in the Bloomberg article. “It’s harder to find value with a lot of companies taking a ‘now or never’ approach to the market, pouring a lot of supply into the market.” Additionally, short-duration junk bond options also experienced modest inflows, which suggests that some investors may be hedging against potential rate risks ahead. For instance, the SPDR Barclays Short Term High Yield Bond ETF (NYSEArca: SJNK ) , which has a 2.28 year duration, attracted $96.5 million in assets for the week ended March 11 while the iShares 0-5 Year High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: SHYG ) , which has a 2.26 year duration, added $4.9 million in assets. In contrast, HYG has a 4.03 year duration and JNK has a 4.22 year duration – duration is a measure of a bond fund’s sensitivity to changes interest rates, so a lower duration corresponds with a smaller sensitivity. iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (click to enlarge) Max Chen contributed to this article . Disclosure: The author is long HYG, JNK. (More…) The author wrote this article themselves, and it expresses their own opinions. The author is not receiving compensation for it. The author has no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Agribusiness ETFs: Commodity Slump Pressures Farmers

Summary Depressed commodity prices are hurting farmers. As farmers’ profits fall, the agribusiness industry could slow. Overview of current agriculture industry. Agribusiness exchange-traded funds could experience stunted growth as depressed grain prices squeeze farmers’ profit margins. Over the past year, the Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (NYSEARCA: MOO ) rose 7.7% and the PowerShares Global Agriculture Portfolio ETF (NASDAQ: PAGG ) increased 7.6% higher. “U.S. farmers are beginning to cut back on farming equipment as the low crop prices and rising costs diminish income,” reports Alan Bjerga for Bloomberg . The U.S. government projects that farm income this year is heading toward the third consecutive decline and will post its largest fall since the Great Depression. Net-cash income from farm activity is expected to plunge 22% to $89.4 billion, the biggest drop off since 1932. For instance, Illinois grower Jason Lay stated that he will purchase 30% less fertilizer for 2,500 acres of corn and soybeans, 7% fewer seeds for spring planting and no new equipment, with crop futures now trading near a five-year low. “You spend when times are prosperous so you don’t need to when they’re not,” Lay said in the Bloomberg article. “That’s how you make it through.” Over the past year, the Teucrium Corn ETF (NYSEARCA: CORN ) has declined 17.0% and the Teucrium Soybean Fund (NYSEARCA: SOYB ) fell 14.1%. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture has predicted lower-than-expected U.S. corn stockpiles next year of 1.827 billion bushels, down from 1.877 billion, but raised its global stockpile projections to 189.6 million metric tons from 189.2 million,” reports Jesse Newman for the Wall Street Journal . “Combined grain supplies are substantial, and the market will not shift attention to the spring-planting progress and crop development across the Northern Hemisphere,” Jerry Gidel, the chief feed-grain analyst at Rice Dairy LLC, said in a Bloomberg article. Market Vectors Agribusiness (click to enlarge) Max Chen contributed to this article . Disclosure: The author has no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. (More…) The author wrote this article themselves, and it expresses their own opinions. The author is not receiving compensation for it. The author has no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.