The Global Opportunities program seeks to provide long-term growth of capital from a portfolio of mutual funds that focus on specific countries and regions of the world while managing risk by having the flexibility to invest as much as 100% of assets in money market funds during periods that the portfolio manager feels may hold above average risk. In addition, the portfolio may hold positions in “inverse” funds which are designed to make money if a market declines. There are two primary screening strategies to determine investment holdings. The first strategy looks at the relative momentum and strength of major market trends between the various countries and regions. The second strategy looks for investments that have entered long-term bull markets and have the potential to provide above-average returns with below-average volatility. Additional screening is done using various technical filters. Due to the more volatile nature of international equity and currency markets, it is expected that this strategy will have more volatility than any of our other investment strategies.
[easychart type=”pie” title=”ASSET ALLOCATION for Apr 2014″ groupnames=”Diversified Emerging Markets,Emerging Market Bond,Equity Foreign,Intermediate Term Bond,Latin America ETF,Pacific/Asia ETF,Pacific/Asia ex-Japan,Cash” group1values=”25.02″ group2values=”14.64″ group3values=”24.28″ group4values=”10.51″ group5values=”9.97″ group6values=”4.79″ group7values=”7.80″ group8values=”2.99″ chartfadecolor=”FFFFFF”]

 

The U.S. Tactical Core program is a long only strategy seeking to outperform the S&P 500 index over a full market cycle by aligning capital with the U.S. equity market during sustained rallies and positioning defensively in weak equity market conditions. The strategy is not restricted to a minimum percentage in stocks or bonds, and may at times be fully invested in either asset class.This strategy is the culmination of a decade of research covering over 100 years of market data. The underlying premise of the strategy is that equity prices are driven by investor risk premiums and that these premiums vary with the business cycle. By combining momentum measures, economic data and yield curve dynamics, the model seeks to assess these risk premiums in order to participate in equities during sustained rallies and move defensively into Government bond funds when weaker market conditions are experienced. The U.S. Tactical Core strategy typically re-balances monthly. Portfolios in this strategy have increased market exposure through the use of leveraged index products.