“Traditional” or “Relative Return” Investment Funds

An investment fund provides investors with exposure to a collection of securities (e.g. shares, bonds, commodities, property), usually selected from within a defined universe. The investment manager is responsible for monitoring and making any necessary changes to the constituents of the fund. Each fund typically has between 30 and 150 individual holdings.

Traditional or “relative return” funds tend to move in the same direction as markets and their managers are typically aiming to outperform a relevant benchmark. The investment manager usually invests on a “long only” basis, i.e. they are reliant on the value of the fund’s investments (including dividends) rising in order to generate a positive return.

When selecting traditional investment funds, Aria Capital seeks to identify those
that have a track record of delivering strong risk-adjusted returns. We often favour funds/fund managers that are not benchmark constrained and take contrarian views irrespective of market “wisdom”.

Within this category there are a variety of styles from top down to bottom up, from value to growth to momentum, from opportunistic to thematic. We tend to blend many of these styles in order to provide our clients with strong diversification and risk management.

Within this category there are a wide variety of asset classes, territories and strategies including:

• Equities: our equity fund investments include global, developed, emerging and frontier markets, thematic strategies, special situations, small & mid cap, etc. In each case we utilise managers who have a proven track record in their particular specialisation.
• Commodities & resources: these funds invest in both commodities and in companies with exposures to commodities, chemicals, construction materials, paper and packaging and alternative energy.
• Fixed interest/Total return: these are bond based investments that aim to generate their returns from a combination of interest income, capital appreciation and currency gains by investing principally in fixed and floating rate debt securitiesand debt obligations of governments, government-related or corporate issuers worldwide.
• Real estate: our fund based exposure to the real estate typically takes the form of investments in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) or property funds. They are managed by fund managers who have the support of analysts located across the globe which enables them to develop highly detailed knowledge of the specific companies, properties and economies to which they are taking exposure.