ARLSX conference call has been moved to Wednesday, January 15th

Here's an update that I just mailed to the 60 or so registrants for the call: the good folks at Aston Asset Management, adviser to the fund, discovered yesterday that a January 14th call would run afoul FINRA regulations. There's an embargo on the release of certain sorts of portfolio information for the 15 days following the end of a calendar quarter. A call on the 14th could occur only if Matt and Dan said nothing about portfolio positioning after 9/30 but a call after the close of the markets on the 15th was in the clear. At the risk of losing some of the folks already committed to a Tuesday call, we shifted it to Wednesday.

All of the original registration information remains valid: the link (below) still works, the registration and assigned PINs remain the same. It's just 24 hours later.

For what interest that holds,

David

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Just a reminder of next week's conference call with the managers of ASTON River Road Long Short. The copy below is a lightly-edited version of what I mailed out to the folks on our masterlist this afternoon.

I’d like to invite you to join a conversation with Matt Moran, manager of ASTON River Road Long Short Fund (ARLSX). Last winter we spent time talking with the managers of really promising hedged funds, including a couple who joined us on conference calls. ARLSX best matched my own predilections and I subsequently invested a bit in the fund. That does not say that we believe this is “the best” long/short fund (an entirely pointless designation), just that it’s the fund that best matched my own concerns and interests. The fund returned 18% in 2013, placing it in the top third of all long/short funds.

I was struck primarily by the extensiveness and thoughtfulness of Matt’s risk management system, though the promise that the fund might outperform the stock market by 200 bps/year over a full, 3-5 year market cycle was attractive as well.

Matt and co-manager Dan Johnson have agreed to join us for a second conversation. Matt has been kicking around ideas for what he’d like to talk about. His short-list includes:

• How we think about our performance in 2013 and, in particular, why we’re satisfied with it given our three mandates (equity-like returns, reduced volatility, capital preservation)
  
  
• Where we are finding value on the long side. (It’s a struggle.)
  
  
• How we’re surviving on the short side. (It’s a huge challenge.) Really, how many marginal businesses can keep hanging on because of the Fed’s historic generosity? Stocks must ultimately earn what underlying business earns and a slug of these firms are earning …
  
  
• But, too, we have a strong desire not to be carried out in body bags on short side.
  

Our conference call with Matt and Dan will beWednesday, January 15, from 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. EST. Just click REGISTER and you'll take been to the Chorus Call website where you'll register and receive a toll-free number and a PIN. As before, we'll try to divide the call in thirds: in the first third, they will talk us through the fund's genesis, universe and strategy. In the middle third, I'll ask a handful of questions - some suggested by folks on the Observer's discussion board. For the final third, we'll open the lines to your questions. As always it's a simple dial-in; there's no web component to it.

If you can't make it but have questions for the guys, please share them and I'll raise as many as I can in the time available (when possible I cheat on the side of giving more time to listeners' questions than my own, but I do usually work in three or four).

As ever,

David