December 2012, Funds in Registration

By David Snowball

DoubleLine Floating Rate Fund

DoubleLine Floating Rate Fund will seek a high level of current income by investing in floating rate loans and “other floating rate investments.”  The “other” includes “floating rate debt securities; inflation-indexed securities; certain mortgage- and asset-backed securities, including those backed by collateral that carry an adjustable or floating rate of interest, such as adjustable rate mortgages; certain collateralized loan obligations; certain collateralized debt obligations; certain collateralized mortgage obligations; adjustable rate mortgages; floaters; inverse floaters; money market securities of all types; repurchase agreements; and shares of money market and short-term bond funds”.  The fund will be managed by Bonnie Baha and Robert Cohen.  Ms. Baha was part of Mr. Gundlach’s original TCW team.  No word on Mr. Cohen’s background. The minimum initial investment is $2000, reduced to $500 for IRAs. Expenses not yet set.

Epiphany FFV Global Ecologic Fund

Epiphany FFV Global Ecologic Fund will seek long-term capital growth by investing in a global portfolio of common and dividend-paying preferred stocks.  They seek “to encourage environmentally responsible business practices and a cleaner environment by investing … in environmentally responsible and sustainable companies.”  They anticipate holding about 50 names and, they assure us, they’ll invest no more than 5% in “pure play renewable energy.”  The managers will be  Frank Morris, founder and CEO of Ecologic Advisors andSamuel J. Saladino, CEO of Trinity Fiduciary Partners and the manager of Epiphany FFV Fund and Latin America Fund.  The former is a tiny, perfectly respectable US large cap fund.  The latter is new but doing well so far.  FFV refers to Faith and Family Values and represents the underlying theme of the social and moral screening.  The minimum initial investment is $1000, reduced to $100 for accounts set up with an automatic investing plan. The expense ratio is 1.56%.

Lyrical U.S. Value Equity Fund

Lyrical U.S. Value Equity Fund will seek to achieve long-term capital growth by buying “the stocks of companies that the Adviser believes are undervalued, the undervaluation to be temporary, the underlying business to have sufficient quality and durability, and the estimated discount in the stock price to be large enough to compensate for the risks of the investment.”  Good companies temporarily down.  Got it.  The fund will be managed by Andrew Wellington, Chief Investment Officer of Lyrical Asset Management.  The manager ran a hedge fund for a while, managed institutional midcap value money for Neuberger and was a founding member of Pzena Investment Management. The minimum investment is $10,000, reduced to $1,000 for IRAs.  The expense ratio is 1.45%.

Market Vectors High-Yield/Treasury Bond ETF

Market Vectors High-Yield/Treasury Bond ETF will track an index that invests in global high yield bonds and shorts U.S. Treasuries in order “to hedge interest rate sensitivity.”  Michael Mazier and Francis Rodilosso of Van Eck will manage the fund.  Expense not yet set.

MCM All-Cap Growth Fund

MCM All-Cap Growth Fund (MCAEX) will seek capital appreciation by investing in 25-50 smaller cap US growth stocks.  The fund will be managed by Rich Jones and Jonn Wullschleger, both of Mitchell Capital Management.  Their separate account composite, for accounts managed in this style, modestly outperformed the Russell 3000 Growth Index pretty consistently. The minimum initial investment is $2500.  Expenses are capped at 1.0%.

PIMCO Emerging Markets Full Spectrum Bond Fund

PIMCO Emerging Markets Full Spectrum Bond Fund will pursue maximum total return, consistent with prudent investment management. The plan is to invest in “a broad range of emerging market fixed income asset classes, such as external debt obligations of sovereign, quasi-sovereign, and corporate entities; currencies, and local currency-denominated obligations of sovereigns, quasi-sovereigns, and corporate issuers.”  The managers will actively manage both the asset allocation and security selection.  The benchmark asset allocation is 50% JPMorgan Global Bond Index Emerging Markets- Global Diversified, 25% JPMorgan Emerging Markets Bond Index Global and 25% JPMorgan Corporate Emerging Market Bond Index Diversified.  They can implement their allocation plan directly by buying securities or indirectly by investing in funds and ETFs.  The manager has not yet been named.  There will be a $1000 investment minimum for the no-load “D” shares.  Expenses have not yet been set.

Shelton Green Alpha Fund

Shelton Green Alpha Fund will seek a high level of long-term capital appreciation by investing in stocks “in the green economy.”  The prospectus is bereft of potentially useful details, such as what they’ll charge and who’ll manage the fund.  We do know that it’s a no-load fund, that the minimum investment is $1000, and that “green” funds have largely been a disaster for both sponsor and investor.  I wish them well.

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About David Snowball

David Snowball, PhD (Massachusetts). Cofounder, lead writer. David is a Professor of Communication Studies at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, a nationally-recognized college of the liberal arts and sciences, founded in 1860. For a quarter century, David competed in academic debate and coached college debate teams to over 1500 individual victories and 50 tournament championships. When he retired from that research-intensive endeavor, his interest turned to researching fund investing and fund communication strategies. He served as the closing moderator of Brill’s Mutual Funds Interactive (a Forbes “Best of the Web” site), was the Senior Fund Analyst at FundAlarm and author of over 120 fund profiles. David lives in Davenport, Iowa, and spends an amazing amount of time ferrying his son, Will, to baseball tryouts, baseball lessons, baseball practices, baseball games … and social gatherings with young ladies who seem unnervingly interested in him.