SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sierra Mutual Funds, Inc., an emerging manager and a pioneer in tactical, low volatility, conservative investing, today announced the launch of the Sierra Tactical Municipal Fund.
The fund will typically hold a variety of selected actively-managed municipal-bond mutual funds (and occasionally municipal bond ETFs), but will move temporarily into money-market relatively early in each decline in the muni market in accordance with a rules-based discipline that the Sierra companies developed and have implemented for over 31 years.
The fund will seek total return, including tax-exempt dividends and interest, while also seeking to limit downside risk. Interest income from municipal bonds (thus, the monthly dividends from the fund) is tax-free at the federal level, providing a potentially valuable benefit for clients in high income-tax brackets. Sierra also hopes to capture parts of the periodic rising trends in price of the underlying funds, through its buy and sell disciplines.
“Investors and Financial Advisers will recognize the same focus on low volatility and risk-mitigation in the Sierra Tactical Municipal Fund that they have experienced with Sierra’s other funds,” said David C. Wright, Sierra principal and co-founder. “Starting in 1987 with separately-managed accounts, Sierra has long been active in the muni bond space, seeking to identify funds that add alpha, to participate in most of each sustained uptrends in those funds, and to avoid the bulk of sustained declines in the muni market. We are pleased to be able to offer our portfolio-management expertise and proprietary investing disciplines to retail investors via this new fund, and we hope it will prove a distinct and compelling investment option for retail investors and Financial Advisors alike.”
The Sierra Tactical Municipal Fund will be managed by a team led by Mr. Wright and Kenneth L Sleeper, MBA, PhD, the co-founders of Sierra, and Terri Spath, MBA, CFA, Chief Investment Officer.
Sierra has long been a thought leader in tactical management with an emphasis on risk mitigation. The term “absolute return” is a relatively recent one, but starting in the mid-1980s, Sierra independently developed an absolute return philosophy, and several strategies to apply that.
To implement that philosophy in the new Sierra fund, each holding will be monitored daily, and a proprietary stop-loss discipline will be executed during muni market declines with the goal of limiting drawdowns. The fund may temporarily be 100% in cash on occasions when all holdings hit “Sell” signals.
Three share classes of the fund (symbols STMNX, STMEX and STMYX) are available to retail investors. The fund also offers the typical Class A shares (STMKX). All share classes have a minimum initial investment of $10,000.
For more information on the Sierra mutual funds, please visit www.sierramutualfunds.com.
About The Sierra Companies
The Sierra Group of Companies ("Sierra") comprises Sierra Investment Management, Inc., Ocean Park Asset Management, Inc., and Wright Fund Management, LLC, which manages the Sierra Mutual Funds, which include the Sierra Tactical All Asset Fund and Sierra Tactical Core Income Fund.
Since 1987 it has been Sierra’s goal to helping retirees and other conservative investors preserve and grow their wealth. Through the years, Sierra has fine-tuned an investment approach specifically designed to limit downside risk and to provide returns that conservative investors would deem satisfying, by reflecting Sierra’s current market and manager views. Using decades of strategic research and proven risk management disciplines, Sierra strives to help its clients meet their specific investment goals.
Past performance does not guarantee future results and there is no assurance that any investment strategy will achieve its investment objective. Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Sierra Mutual Funds. This and other information about the funds is contained in the prospectuses and should be read carefully before investing. The prospectus can be obtained on our website www.sierramutualfunds.com or by calling toll free 1-800-729-1467. The Sierra Mutual Funds are distributed by Northern Lights Distributors, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.
Neither Sierra Investment Management, Inc., Ocean Park Asset Management, Inc. nor Wright Fund Management LLC are affiliated with Northern Lights Distributors, LLC
Alpha gauges the performance of an investment against a market index or benchmark which is considered to represent the market’s movement as a whole. The excess return of an investment relative to the return of a benchmark index is the investment’s alpha.
Drawdown, calculated at month end, is an indicator of the risk of a portfolio chosen based on a certain strategy. It measures the largest single drop from peak to bottom in the value of a portfolio (before a new peak is achieved).
Underlying Funds may invest in foreign emerging market countries that may have relatively unstable governments, weaker economies, and less-developed legal systems, which do not protect investors. In general, the price of a fixed income security falls when interest rates rise. Any strategy that includes inverse securities could cause the Fund to suffer significant losses. Underlying Fund investments in lower-quality bonds, known as high-yield or junk bonds, present greater risk than bonds of higher quality. Municipal securities are subject to the risk that legislature changes and economic developments may adversely affect the value of the Fund’s investments. REIT risks include declines from deteriorating economic conditions, changes in property value, and defaults by borrower. Underlying Funds that own small and mid-capitalization companies may be more vulnerable than larger, more established organizations to adverse business or economic developments. In some instances it may be less expensive for an investor to invest in the Underlying Funds directly.
5430-NLD-12/31/2018
