Tag Archives: brian-haskin

Meritage Partners With Behringer For Distribution Of The Insignia Macro Fund

By DailyAlts Staff The strategic agreement between Behringer Securities and Meritage Capital is starting to bear fruit. Back in May, the two firms announced an agreement to develop, manage, and distribute specialized, multi-strategy investment funds intended to address the challenges presented by market volatility. On July 20, Behringer formally announced that it will be distributing the Insignia Macro Fund (MUTF: IGMFX ), an open-end mutual fund managed by Meritage. The Insignia Macro Fund initially debuted on December 31, 2013. It employs global-macro investment strategies in pursuit of attractive long-term risk-adjusted returns. The multi-manager fund is unique among global macro mutual-fund offerings in that it allocates to “discretionary focused managers.” Per the fund’s most recent fact sheet date 4/30/15, the $64 million fund employed seven underlying managers in the following weights: 16.53% – H2O Asset Management Discretionary Macro | Fundamental 15.85% – Willowbridge Associates Discretionary Macro | Fundamental 14.91% – The Cambridge Strategy Quantitative | Fundamental & Technical Models 14.80% – QMS Capital Management Quantitative | Fundamental & Technical Models 14.77% – Tlaloc Capital Discretionary Macro | Fundamental 13.92% – Crabel Capital Management Quantitative | Short Term 9.22% – Blackwater Capital Management Trend Follower | Pattern Recognition “Historically, global macro strategies have shown higher long-term returns with lower volatility than developed equity markets – and little correlation to stocks, bonds or other investments,” said Meritage CEO Alex Smith, in a recent statement. “We are pleased that the Fund will be distributed on Behringer Securities’ platform, and we look forward to our continued partnership.” In the same statement, Behringer CEO Frank Muller said the addition of the Insignia Macro Fund to Behringer’s platform indicates Behringer’s commitment to providing financial advisors with access to “nimble, entrepreneurial managers, strategies and structures to build better portfolios.” He also said the fund helps investors “identify portfolio diversifiers” and preserve their wealth. The past year has been both hot and cold for global macro funds, and the Insignia Macro Fund is no exception. Its A-class shares returned 9.31% for the year ending June 30, ranking in the top 42% of the funds in its Morningstar category (Managed Futures). But for the final six months of that period, the fund returned just 0.66% – and yet, this was enough for it to rank in the top 24% of the category. The Insignia Macro Fund is also available in institutional-class shares (MUTF: IGMLX ). Class A shares have a net-expense ratio of 2.00%, while the institutional shares carry fees of 1.75%. The minimum initial investment for the A shares is $2,500; while the minimum for institutional shares is 100 times higher, at $250,000. For more information, visit insigniafunds.com .

Global X Serves Up A New Alternative ETF

By DailyAlts Staff Global X Funds has a growing line of “SuperDividend” ETFs, and the latest is sure to be of interest to liquid alts investors: the Global X SuperDividend Alternatives ETF (NASDAQ: ALTY ) , which began trading on the Nasdaq on July 14. The ETF is the sixth in Global X’s SuperDividend ETF series and is designed to closely track the INDXX SuperDividend Alternatives Index. The underlying index tracks the performance of the highest dividend-yielding securities in each category of alternative income investments, as defined by index sponsor INDXX. This includes MLPs (master limited partnerships), REITs (real estate investment trusts), BDCs (business development companies), and other nontraditional income-producing investments. The Global X SuperDividend Alternatives ETF’s aim is to provide income from alternative sources with low correlation to dividend stocks and other traditional income investments. The strategy also seeks to limit volatility by screening for lower-volatility investments and overweighting categories that have been less volatile, historically. “The alternatives space encompasses a broad range of investments with risks, returns and correlations that differ from traditional equity and fixed income securities,” said Jay Jacobs, research analyst at Global X Funds, in a recent statement. “Investors are increasingly looking for alternative solutions that can potentially generate high income while diversifying their portfolios. Applying the SuperDividend approach to the alternative income space is a natural extension of our suite.” In practice, the Global X SuperDividend Alternatives ETF carries exposure to MLPs and other infrastructure companies, REITs and other real estate investments, alternative managed portfolios, and fixed-income and derivative strategies. As of July 13, REITs accounted for the largest share of the fund’s holdings at over 26%, while private equity and BDCs accounted for the next-largest share at over 19%. MLPs constituted less than 9% of the fund’s holdings, according to the fund’s fact sheet . On the downside, the Global X SuperDividend Alternatives ETF’s expense ratio is rather high at 3.03%. This is largely a function of the fact that the fund invests in other funds, according to ETF.com , and, as required, includes the underlying expense ratios of those fund in its expense ratio.

AMG To Liquidate The AMG FQ Global Alternatives Fund

By DailyAlts Staff On June 26, the AMG Funds I trust filed paperwork with the SEC announcing its plan to liquidate the AMG FQ Global Alternatives Fund (MUTF: MGAAX ), a global tactical allocation fund, on or about July 31. The fund, which launched in 2006, has a one-star rating from Morningstar. Its -5.98% year-to-date returns through June 30 ranked in the bottom 2% of all funds in Morningstar’s Multialternative category. The decision to liquidate was made at a June 25 meeting of the AMG Funds I Board of Trustees. Effective the very next day, the fund stopped accepting most new investments and started selling its portfolio investments. Proceeds from the sales are being held in cash and cash equivalents and will be distributed to shareholders on the liquidation date. The fund sought to outperform the Citigroup 1-month T-bill index, but routinely failed to do so. Since launching on March 30, 2006, the AMG FQ Global Alternatives Fund has dramatically underperformed. In addition to ranking in the bottom 2% of all Multialternative funds in 2015, the fund generated negative annual returns in 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2014; and lagged the category average by 170 basis points in 2012. A $10,000 investment in the AMG FQ Global Alternatives Fund at its inception would have dwindled in value to $8,829.53 as of June 25, 2015, the day the fund’s Board of Trustees decided to liquidate. By comparison, a $10,000 investment in the average fund in Morningstar’s Multialternative category would have grown to $11,408.56 over that same time. As of June 30, the fund’s assets stood at slightly over $15.9 million. Investors with automatic investment plans through IRAs and 401(k)s may still buy shares until the liquidation date. Shareholders who don’t hold their shares in tax-advantaged accounts may have taxable gains or losses upon liquidation. Share this article with a colleague