Cutler Capital Management has launched the Cutler Absolute Return Fund, a fund designed to provide institutional investors with positive returns regardless of market conditions or general market direction.

Geofrey K. Dancey and Arthur Raskin will co-manage the fund.

Dancey joined Cutler in 2003 as an analyst for the firm’s flagship fund. Raskin has over 30 years of experience trading convertibles, most recently for Cantor Fitzgerald.

They will employ a disciplined approach to tracking the convertible securities universe, allowing them to trade hedged positions that generate profits from cash flow and capital appreciation caused by security valuation changes, while controlling overall investment risk.

Cutler president David Grenier says he expects the fund to generate interest from institutional investors because it will seek to provide consistent positive monthly returns from hedged, lower-risk positions, and to establish a pattern of low volatility returns that are uncorrelated with overall equity and fixed income markets.

“In today’s volatile market, CAR can help institutional investors preserve and enhance their portfolios, without exposing their assets to unnecessary risk,” says Grenier.