Tag Archives: mutual funds

The Best And Worst Of February: Market Neutral Funds

The 68 mutual funds and ETFs in the market neutral category averaged modest gains of 0.08% in February while flows to the category turned positive for the first time since September 2014. The Vanguard Market Neutral Fund (MUTF: VMNIX ) was February’s biggest recipient of inflows, at roughly $279 million, while the AQR Diversified Arbitrage Fund (MUTF: ADAIX ) suffered the month’s steepest outflows at $295 million. Neither of the funds, which posted respective February returns of 1.55% and 1.33%, ranked in the top or bottom three performers for the month, though. Best Performers in February The three best-performing market neutral funds in February were: The QuantShares US Market Neutral Value Fund was February’s top-performing fund, returning +3.83%. Unfortunately, for shareholders, the fund’s one-year performance through February 29 stood at -6.35%, ranking in the bottom 13% of the category. For the three years ending Leap Day 2015, CHEP returned an annualized -0.52%. Its February outperformance is evidence of its more-volatile-than-average nature, with a one-year standard deviation of 6.45% compared to the category average of 4.81%. On a three-year basis, CHEP looks even less predictable, with annualized volatility of 7.70% compared to the category average of 4.25%. The Cognios Market Neutral Large Cap Fund, by contrast, returned a solid +2.45% in February and had one-year returns of +11.07% through the end of the month. Those annual gains were good enough to rank in the top 7% of its peers, and its three-year annualized returns through February 29 stood at an impressive +9.57%, ranking in the top 4% of the category. For the past year, COGIX has been even more volatile than CHEP, with a standard deviation of 8.01%. But COGIX’s one- and three-year alphas of 7.60% and 9.62% – relative to the returns of the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Total Return Index – more than make up for its outsized volatility. Finally, the Causeway Global Absolute Return Value Fund) ranked third in February, with returns of +2.40%. Its annual returns through the end of the month stood at a less impressive -0.48%, ranking it near the middle of the category. Over the longer term, however, CGAIX’s three-year returns of +4.11% were good enough to rank in the top 11% of market neutral funds over that time span. Worst Performers in February The three worst performing market neutral funds in February were: Mother’s Day comes in May, but February was unkind to MOM. The QuantShares US Market Neutral Momentum Fund, which sports the “MOM” ticker symbol, was the worst performer of its kind last month, losing 6.14%. Nevertheless, the ultra-volatile MOM – with its annual standard deviation of 12.66% – was still up 10.68% for the year, as of February 29, and its three-year annualized returns through that date stood at +3.24%. The TFS Market Neutral and BlackRock Global Long/Short Equity funds tied as the second-worst market neutral performers in February, with one-month returns of -3.97%. The funds’ one-year returns were also uninspiring at -6.85% and -6.75%, respectively. But over the three-year period, the BlackRock fund’s annualized gains of 2.89% greatly outdid the TFS fund’s annualized losses of 0.84%. Past performance does not necessarily predict future results. Jason Seagraves contributed to this article.

3 Best-Rated Dreyfus Mutual Funds To Consider

The Dreyfus Corporation – a segment of BNY Mellon – was founded in 1951 and has around $286 billion of assets under management allocated across a wide range of equity and fixed-income mutual funds. Meanwhile, established in 1784 by Alexander Hamilton, BNY Mellon currently has nearly $1.6 trillion assets under management invested throughout the globe. It provides services including investment management, investment services and wealth management across 35 countries. Below we share with you three top-rated Dreyfus mutual funds. Each has earned a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform its peers in the future. To view the Zacks Rank and past performance of all Dreyfus mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of Dreyfus funds . Dreyfus Global Equity Income A (MUTF: DEQAX ) invests a large portion of its assets in equity securities. DEQAX invests in dividend-paying companies situated in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong and Western Europe. DEQAX may invest a maximum 30% of its assets in emerging markets. DEQAX seeks total return. The Dreyfus Global Equity Income A fund has a three-year annualized return of 7.1%. As of January 2016, DEQAX held 55 issues with 5.52% of its assets invested in Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM ). Dreyfus International Equity A (MUTF: DIEAX ) seeks capital appreciation over the long run. DIEAX invests the majority of its assets in securities of foreign companies. DIEAX focuses on companies that are located in Canada and countries included in the Morgan Stanley Capital International Europe, Australasia and Far East (MSCI EAFE) Index. The Dreyfus International Equity A fund has a three-year annualized return of 2.3%. DIEAX has an expense ratio of 1.12% compared to the category average of 1.22%. Dreyfus Municipal Bond (MUTF: DRTAX ) invests a major portion of its assets in municipal debt securities that are expected to provide return exempted from federal income tax. DRTAX invests the majority of its assets in securities that are rated A or higher. DRTAX is believed to maintain a dollar-weighted average maturity of more than 10 years. The Dreyfus Municipal Bond fund has a three-year annualized return of 3.5%. Daniel Marques is one of the fund managers of DRTAX since 2009. Original Post

The Best And Worst Of February: Nontraditional Bond Funds

Nontraditional bond funds lost an average of 0.47% in February, bringing the category’s one-year returns through the end of the month to -4.06% versus 1.50% for the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. As a result, investors pulled a total of $21.7 billion out of the category for the year ending February 29, bringing total category assets down to $125 billion. Despite this, there have been some stellar performers in the category: Six funds generated one-year returns in excess of +2%, but this represented just a small fraction of the 129 funds in the category with track records of at least a year. Meanwhile, 84 funds in the category suffered one-year losses of at least 2%, with 13 of those posting double-digit losses. Best Performers in February The three best-performing nontraditional bond funds in February were: The BTS Tactical Fixed Income Fund was the only mutual fund in February’s top three, edging out a pair of ETFs to rank as the month’s top performer. BTFAX returned +3.30% in the shortest month of the year, bringing its one-year returns to +1.37% for the year ending February 29. This was good enough for it to rank in the top 6% of its category, which may be why the fund received more than $84.7 million in inflows for the year. The fund’s one-year beta of 1.49 is high, but with its bullish returns, investors don’t seem to mind. ETFs from ProShares and Deutsche X-trackers took the second and third spots for February, returning +1.89% and +1.51%, respectively. Only the former has been around long enough to have a one-year track record, and it returned +0.86% for the year ending February 29, ranking in the top 1% of all nontraditional bond ETFs. It suffered $3.95 million in net outflows for the year, though, compared to the Deutsche fund, which received $6.25 million in inflows. Worst Performers in February The three worst-performing nontraditional bond funds in February were: Highland’s Opportunistic Credit Fund was February’s worst-performing nontraditional bond fund, and it was very near the bottom of the category for its one-year returns. HNRZX lost 4.86% in February, bringing its one-year losses through February 29 to a painful 32.16%. The fund’s beta of -1.02 indicates nearly perfect inverse correlation to the Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index, but its -36.09% one-year alpha better explains its woeful returns. Over the three-year period, the fund lost an annualized 7.70%, ranking at the very bottom of the category. Thus, it’s more than a little surprising that it enjoyed more than $5.9 million in inflows for the one-year period ending February 29. PIMCO’s Capital Securities and Financials Fund only launched on April 13, 2015. It lost 3.83% for the month. Coming in as the third-worst performing nontraditional bond fund is the Putnam Premier Income Fund, which returned -3.68%. Its one-year return through February 29 stood at -10.04%. Past performance does not necessarily predict future results. Jason Seagraves contributed to this article. Note: MPT statistics (alpha and beta) are calculated relative to the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index.