and in repurchase agreements collateralized by such securities.
Substantially all of the Fund’s Net Assets will be invested in U.S. Government Securities and instruments based on U.S. Government Securities. The Fund also intends to invest in derivatives, including (but not limited to) interest rate
futures, options and interest rate swaps, which are used primarily to hedge the Fund’s portfolio risks, manage the Fund’s duration and/or gain exposure to certain fixed income securities. 100% of the Fund’s portfolio will be
invested in U.S. dollar-denominated securities.
The Fund may gain exposure to Agency Mortgage-Backed
Securities through several methods, including by utilizing to-be-announced (“TBA”) agreements in Agency Mortgage-Backed Securities or through the use of reverse repurchase agreements. TBA agreements for Agency Mortgage-Backed Securities
are standardized contracts for future delivery of fixed-rate mortgage pass-through securities in which the exact mortgage pools to be delivered are not specified until shortly before settlement. A reverse repurchase agreement enables the Fund to
gain exposure to specified pools of Agency Mortgage-Backed Securities by purchasing them on a forward settling basis and using the proceeds of the reverse repurchase agreement to settle the trade.
The Fund may also seek to obtain exposure to fixed
income investments through investments in affiliated or unaffiliated investment companies, including exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”).
The Fund’s target duration range under normal
interest rate conditions is expected to approximate that of the ICE BofAML Two-Year U.S. Treasury Note Index, plus or minus 1 year, and over the past five years ended June 30, 2021, the duration of this index has ranged between 1.81 and 1.99 years.
“Duration” is a measure of a debt security’s price sensitivity to changes in interest rates. The longer the duration of the Fund (or an individual debt security), the more sensitive its market price to changes in interest rates.
For example, if market interest rates increase by 1%, the market price of a debt security with a positive duration of 3 years will generally decrease by approximately 3%. Conversely, a 1% decline in market interest rates will generally result in an
increase of approximately 3% of that security’s market price.
The Fund’s benchmark index is the ICE BofAML
Two-Year U.S. Treasury Note Index.
Fixed Income
Investment Philosophy:
Our process:
■
|
Combines
diversified sources of return by employing multiple strategies |
■
|
Takes a global
perspective to seek to uncover relative value opportunities |
■
|
Considers a wide
range of factors as part of the fundamental investment process, which may include environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) factors |
■
|
Employs focused
specialist teams to seek to identify short-term mis-pricings and incorporate long-term views |
■
|
Emphasizes
a risk-aware approach as we view risk management as both an offensive and defensive tool |
No one factor or consideration is determinative in
the fundamental investment process.
Principal
Risks of the Fund |
Loss of
money is a risk of investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) or any government agency. The Fund should not be relied upon
as a complete investment program. There can be no assurance that the
Fund will achieve its investment objective. Investments in the Fund
involve substantial risks which prospective investors should consider carefully before investing. The Fund's principal risks are presented below in alphabetical order, and not in the order of importance or potential exposure.
Call/Prepayment Risk. An issuer could exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation held by the Fund (such as a Mortgage-Backed Security) earlier than expected. This may happen when there is a decline in interest
rates, when credit spreads change, or when an issuer’s credit quality improves. Under these circumstances, the Fund may be unable to recoup all of its initial investment and will also suffer from having to reinvest in lower-yielding
securities.
Derivatives Risk. The Fund's use of options, futures, swaps and other derivative instruments may result in losses. These instruments, which may pose risks in addition to and
greater than those associated with investing directly in securities, currencies or other instruments, may be illiquid or less liquid, volatile, difficult to price and leveraged so that small changes in the value of underlying instruments may produce
disproportionate losses to the Fund. Certain derivatives are also subject to counterparty risk, which is the risk that the other party in the transaction will not fulfill its contractual obligations. The use of derivatives is a highly specialized
activity that involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with investments in more traditional securities and instruments.
Interest Rate Risk. When interest rates increase, fixed income securities or instruments held by the Fund will generally decline in value. Long-term fixed income securities or instruments will normally have more
price volatility because of this risk than short-term fixed income securities or instruments. The risks associated with changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Fund’s investments. Fluctuations in interest
rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Fund.
Large Shareholder Transactions Risk. The Fund may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Fund. Such large shareholder redemptions, which may occur rapidly or
unexpectedly, may cause the Fund to sell portfolio securities at times when it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact the Fund's NAV and liquidity. Similarly, large Fund share purchases may adversely affect the
Fund's performance to the extent that the Fund is delayed in investing new cash or otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would. These transactions may also accelerate the realization of taxable income to
shareholders if such sales of investments resulted in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, a large redemption could result in the Fund's current expenses being allocated over a smaller asset base, leading to an
increase in the Fund's expense ratio.
Market Risk. The value of the securities in which the Fund invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of individual companies, particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions
throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets. Events such as war, acts of terrorism, social unrest, natural disasters, the spread of infectious illness or other public health threats could also
significantly impact the Fund and its investments.
Mortgage-Backed and/or Other Asset-Backed Securities
Risk. Mortgage-related and other asset-backed securities are subject to certain additional risks, including “extension risk” (i.e., in periods of rising interest rates, issuers may pay
principal later than expected) and “prepayment risk” (i.e., in periods of declining interest rates, issuers may pay principal more quickly than expected, causing the Fund to reinvest proceeds at lower prevailing interest rates).
Mortgage-Backed