ASTON/River Road Long-Short Fund

Investment Strategy

The ASTON/River Road Long-Short Fund seeks to provide absolute returns while minimizing volatility over a full market cycle.

Alternatives At a Glance Brochure (259 KB, PDF)

If you are an investment professional, login or register here for access to Aston’s research content. Discover the unique qualities that differentiate our Subadvisers at both the firm and strategy levels.  

Principal Investment Strategies

The Fund pursues its objective by taking long and short positions in equity securities. The Fund’s portfolio managers believe that a combination of long and short positions may provide positive returns. The allocation between long and short positions is a result of the fundamental investment process. The Fund does not intend to be market neutral and anticipates that it will normally hold a higher percentage of its assets in long positions (i.e., the Fund will be “net long”). The Fund’s equity investments consist primarily of domestic common stock but may also include other types of equity such as foreign stock, preferred stock, convertible securities and REITs. The Fund may use instruments such as exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), options, futures and other index-based investments to manage its exposure between long and short positions. The Fund may have significant cash balances.

When the Fund takes a short position, it sells a stock that it does not own at the current market price in anticipation that the market price will go down. To complete a short sale, the Fund must borrow the security to make delivery to the buyer. The Fund is then obligated to replace the borrowed security by purchasing the security in the open market at the time of closing out the short sale. The price at such time may be more or less than at the time the security was sold. Until the borrowed security is returned, the Fund is required to pay the lender amounts equal to any dividends or interest that accrue during the period of the loan. To borrow the security, the Fund also may be required to pay a premium to the lender, which would increase the cost of the security sold. The proceeds of the short sale will be retained by the broker to the extent necessary to meet margin requirements, until the short position is closed. To manage risk the portfolio managers may use controls and techniques to systemically reduce market exposure upon the occurrence of certain trigger events.

Principal Risks

Short sales may involve the risk that the fund will incur a loss by subsequently buying a security at a higher price than the price at which the fund previously sold the security short. A loss incurred on a short sale results from increases in the value of the security, losses on a short sale are theoretically unlimited. Value investing often involves buying the stocks of companies that are currently out of favor that may decline further. Investing in exchange traded and closed end funds are subject to additional risk that shares of the underlying fund may trade at a premium or discount to their net asset value per share. Exposure to real estate markets include declines from deteriorating economic conditions, changes in the value of the underlying property, and defaults by borrowers. Investing in foreign markets also entails the risk of social and political instability, market illiquidity, and currency volatility.

Note: Please see profile sheet for Sector Breakdown and Top Ten Holdings.