Natixis Global Asset Management has launched the ASG Global Macro Fund (GMFAX), an alternatives mutual fund managed by AlphaSimplex Group, LLC (ASG). 

The fund pursues an absolute-return oriented, long/short strategy that employs a dynamic risk-managed approach to invest across a range of global markets.

Investors and financial advisors are clamoring for accessible, liquid ways to invest in alternative strategies,” says David Giunta, president and chief executive officer, at Natixis Global Asset Management – US Distribution. “The ASG Global Macro Fund provides a solution by offering tools and techniques more widely available in hedge funds in a ’40 Act structure. It is designed to help broaden portfolio diversification beyond holding long positions in stocks and bonds while also helping to manage overall portfolio risk.”

The ASG Global Macro Fund employs a diversified “go anywhere” strategy based on macroeconomic principles and designed to capitalise on market inefficiencies. The fund will invest in a broad range of asset classes and trading styles and may hold long and short positions based on a suite of systematic models designed to identify investment opportunities arising from interest rate trends, imbalances in asset supply/demand, government monetary policies, as well as other factors. Typical fund investments can include long and short positions in stock, bond, commodity, and currency markets. A “short” exposure seeks to benefit when the underlying asset decreases in price. A “long” exposure seeks to benefit when the underlying asset increases in price.

“The ASG Global Macro Fund employs an adaptive approach using liquid instruments and risk-sensitive models developed by our firm over the past ten years,” says Duncan B E Wilkinson, CFA, chief executive officer at AlphaSimplex Group. “In an environment where traditional risk assets have become highly correlated, we are looking to create a fund that has uncorrelated returns to US equities, targets an annualised volatility level of 7.5% or less, and which we expect to be a good complement to a traditional portfolio.”