Loe volatility absolute return specialist Sierra Investment Management has launched the Sierra Strategic Income Fund that will allocate tactically among a wide range of income-oriented asset classes.
Two share classes of the open-end fund (symbols SSIIX and SSIRX) will be available at no load to retail investors with a minimum initial investment of USD10,000 and USD100,000 respectively and the Class Y institutional shares (symbol SSIYX) are available to institutional investors with an initial minimum of USD20 million.
The Sierra Strategic Income Fund will access an unusually wide variety of asset classes by investing in unaffiliated mutual funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFS) – collectively, “underlying funds”. The fund will seek to enhance total return and reduce volatility and downside risk of its overall portfolio by investing primarily in selected underlying funds that invest in a wide variety of fixed-income instruments of various maturities and quality, including domestic and foreign bonds (some of which are hedged against currency risk), preferred stocks, and REITS, and on occasion in funds that are designed to have returns that are inverse to the 10-year US Treasury note or the 30-year US Treasury bond or that hedge foreign currency risk.
“The Sierra Strategic Income Fund is a tactical, diversified, Absolute Return fund that shares the low-volatility and downside-protection philosophy that Sierra is known for,” says Kenneth L Sleeper, MBA, PhD, Managing Director and co-founder of Sierra and lead portfolio manager of the new Sierra Strategic Income Fund, as well as co-portfolio manager of the Sierra Core Retirement Fund, a five-star* rated Fund out of 843 Moderate Allocation Funds by Morningstar for the three years ended 31 December, 2011. “By attempting to limit overall volatility and downside risk as well as looking for opportunities to enhance return through income and capital appreciation, the Sierra Strategic Income Fund can play a prominent role in conservative investors’ portfolios.” However, there is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective.
The Sierra Strategic Income Fund will be managed by a team comprised of Sleeper, Sierra principal and co-founder David C Wright, and Sierra executive vice president Frank A Barbera.
