Business & Finance
Business and Finance
Business and Finance
Wed, August 8, 2012 
August 08, 2012 09:01 ET
Emerald Restructures and Renames Its Flagship Fund
WESTON, FL--(Marketwire - Aug 8, 2012) - Emerald Asset Advisors, LLC ([ www.EASfunds.com ]), an independent investment firm that advises two open-end mutual funds, is pleased to announce that its flagship allocation fund has been materially restructured and refined. Several constructive changes have been implemented which Emerald believes may serve as significant enhancements to the Fund's strategy, focus and style of management.
The firm's flagship fund, formerly the EAS Genesis Fund, previously followed a broad mandate that allocated capital across three general areas: alternative investments, long US equities and long global equities. This mandate has become more focused and is now based purely on liquid alternative investment strategies.
The restructured fund, renamed the EAS Alternatives Fund (the "Fund"), is derived from Emerald's longstanding multi-strategy/multi-manager alternative SMA portfolio ("EAS Hybrid"), which is approaching its 10-year anniversary and carries a GIPS-compliant track record.
Similar to the firm's Hybrid SMA strategy, the EAS Alternatives Fund applies a multi-strategy/multi-manager approach and invests across a variety of potential alternative investment classes such as Arbitrage; Commodities; Convertibles; Currencies; Emerging Market Bonds; Global Macro; High Yield; Long-Short Equity; Managed Futures; Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) and Real Estate. However, the Fund also includes a quantitative-based tactical overlay which the Adviser believes will serve as a valuable risk-management tool and one that will enhance its macro-level allocation decision-making.
Specifically, the Fund has partnered with Investment Guidance Solutions LLC (IGS), a Wellesley, MA-based financial technology firm that provides quantitative risk-managed solutions designed to analyze and monitor different asset classes. The Fund uses data from IGS' dynamic risk model to help guide its top-down, macro-level asset class allocations. The Adviser believes this special input will be a strong complement to its internal qualitative research approach and will strengthen its overall portfolio construction process.
"We've managed our Hybrid SMA strategy for almost 10 years using primarily a fundamental style, and we feel we've done well," said Medon Michaelides of Emerald Allocation Strategies. "The Fund is now based on this core strategy, but by adding a true technical component to the process, we expect to apply a more disciplined, rules-based methodology that will enable the Fund to operate more tactically and potentially avoid certain alternative classes that are indicating weakness. We believe the inclusion of data from IGS will provide a valuable tactical benefit that our shareholders will appreciate."
In managing the Fund, Emerald's goal is to provide a core multi-alternative solution for investors who desire an allocation to non-traditional investment styles, particularly those that tend to exhibit low volatility and low correlation to the equity markets. As the menu of strategy options in the alternative universe has greatly expanded for advisors, it is more challenging than ever to sift through their diverse complexities, differentiate them and then apply them to their practice.
Matthew MacEachern, a member of Emerald's investment team, said: "Understanding the nuances among all the different alternative strategies for many advisors is difficult enough; knowing when and how to use them is a whole other challenge. The Fund offers a packaged solution that actively manages these decisions for them."
IGS is equally excited about its involvement with Emerald and the newly structured Fund. Phil Lussier, CEO of IGS, said: "We are thrilled to work with the Emerald team, seasoned managers and pioneers in the liquid alternative space. By combining our dynamic risk-managed model with their alternative manager diligence expertise, we believe the EAS Alternatives Fund offers a compelling opportunity for investors."
While the Fund has been renamed, its symbols all remain the same (
About IGS
Investment Guidance Solutions LLC (IGS), a provider of portfolio construction solutions for mutual fund fund-of-fund portfolio managers, was formed in 2011. The company uses data provided by the proprietary technology of Newfound Research LLC ([ www.newfoundresearch.com ]) with the goal of protecting against downside risk associated with mutual funds. Specifically, IGS offers asset managers, financial advisors and investors a tool called IGSignals™ which may allow them to avoid down markets by signaling whether it is better to be invested in specific funds or in cash. For more information, please visit [ www.igsignal.com ].
About Emerald Asset Advisors, LLC
Emerald Asset Advisors, LLC ("Emerald") is the advisor to the EAS Alternatives Fund. Founded in 1998, Emerald is an independent investment firm serving the needs of high net worth individuals, financial advisors and institutional investors. Emerald has embraced the use of liquid alternative strategies for its practice and has managed multi-asset class portfolios for its clients since the firm's inception. For more information about Emerald's mutual funds, please visit [ www.EASfunds.com ].
Mutual Funds involve risk including possible loss of principal.
An investor should consider the Funds' investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. This and other information about the EAS Alternatives Fund and the EAS Trademark Capital Global Fund is contained in the Funds' prospectus, which can be obtained by calling 1-877-EAS-0757 (1-877-327-0757). Please read the prospectus carefully before investing. The Funds are distributed by Northern Lights Distributors, LLC, member FINRA.
Emerald Asset Advisors, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor providing wealth management services for high net worth individuals and institutions. You may obtain a complete list and description of composites and/or a performance presentation that complies with the requirements of the Global Investment Performance Standards by emailing [ dnaitove@emeraldasset.com ] or by calling 954-385-9624. Emerald Asset Advisors, LLC claims compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®).
Long-Short Equity fund managers own stocks (long positions) and sell short stocks (short positions) in an attempt to either reduce stock market risk or to capitalize on securities that the manager concludes will either rise (longs) or fall (shorts) based on stock-specific factors independent of general market movements and levels.
A Master Limited Partnership (MLP) is a limited partnership that is publicly traded on a securities exchange. It combines the tax benefits of a limited partnership with the liquidity of publicly traded securities. Master Limited Partnerships are limited by United States Code to only apply to enterprises that engage in certain businesses, mostly pertaining to the use of natural resources, such as petroleum and natural gas extraction and transportation. For many MLPs, these include all manner of activities related to the production, processing or transportation of oil, natural gas and coal.
A Global Macro strategy bases its holdings -- such as long and short positions in various equity, [ fixed income ], currency, and futures markets -- primarily on overall economic and political views of various countries (macroeconomic principles).
Merger Arbitrage exploits merger activity to capture the spread between current market values of securities and their values after successful completion of a merger, restructuring or similar corporate transaction.
An Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is a security that tracks an index, a commodity or a basket of assets like an index fund, but trades like a stock on an exchange. ETFs experience price changes throughout the day as they are bought and sold.
The Funds engage in hedging activities by investing in inverse ETFs. Inverse ETFs may employ leverage, which magnifies the changes in the underlying stock index upon which they are based. Any strategy that includes inverse securities could cause the Fund to suffer significant losses.
The Funds may purchase ETFs and Underlying Funds that invest in "alternative asset" or "specialty" market segments. The risks and volatility of these investments are linked to narrow segments of the economy such as commodities, foreign currencies, or real estate, and may include leverage, which magnifies the changes in the value of the ETF or Underlying Fund.
ETFs are subject to specific risks, depending on the nature of the underlying strategy of the fund. These risks could include liquidity risk, sector risk, as well as risks associated with fixed income securities, real estate investments, and commodities, to name a few.
An investor's overall cost of investing in the Funds will be higher than the cost of investing directly in Underlying Fund shares, and the investor will indirectly bear fees and expenses charged by the Underlying Funds in addition to the Funds' direct fees and expenses.
The Funds may invest in smaller, less well-known companies, which may be subject to more erratic market movements than large-cap stocks, or foreign securities, which are subject to currency fluctuations and political uncertainty; and derivative securities, which may carry market, credit, and liquidity risks. These risks may result in greater share price volatility.
The Funds use quantitative models that utilize "technical" factors to attempt to identify price moves. Model results are inherently limited and subject to certain risks. Potential risks include but are not limited to data risk (including cleanliness of data), validity of assumptions, hindsight bias, incorrect model, inappropriate usage, and hardware and software bugs. While there have been periodic updates and improvements to the model, there have not been any material changes in the objectives or strategies of the model that have occurred that may affect results. The success of technical analysis depends upon the occurrence in the future of price movements. Technical systems will not be profitable and may in fact produce losses if there are no market moves of the kind the system seeks to follow. There is no assurance that any trading system will generate profits under all or any market conditions.
Correlation is a statistical measure of how a security will move in relation to an index (or another security). Perfect positive correlation (a correlation of +1) implies that as an index moves up or down, the security will move in concert in the same direction. A perfect negative correlation means if an index moves up or down, the security will move in the opposite direction in the same measure. If the correlation is 0, the movements of the security and index are said to have no correlation.
Emerald Asset Advisors, LLC and Northern Lights Distributors, LLC are not affiliated.
