Compass Efficient Model Portfolios launched the Compass EMP Alternative Investment Fund, a broadly diversified, global portfolio made up of exchange-traded funds, the company announced Tuesday.
Designed to complement traditional U.S.-based equity and fixed-income investments, the fund will invest in commodities, managed futures, currencies, real estate, emerging market equities and inflation-protected bonds.
It will trade under three ticker symbols, CAIAX, CAICX and CAITX, to accommodate A, C and T share classes, respectively, said Rob Walker, president of Compass EMP, a registered investment advisory and ETF management firm based in Nashville, Tenn.
The new fund is the company’s third ETF-based mutual fund. The fund will not actively trade ETFs or use market-timing techniques. As with more orthodox mutual funds, the managers will create a strategy and rebalance based on recommendations from its investment committee, Walker said.
Stephen Hammers, a managing partner and chief investment officer at Compass EMP, will be the lead manager. He has worked for Compass for about seven years ago and has about 15 years of asset management experience, most of which was spent at Merrill Lynch.
Compass launched a long-term growth fund and a conservative-to-moderate fund about a year ago and has accumulated about $100 million in assets in those two funds collectively. About two-thirds of those assets are in the conservative-to-moderate fund. Both funds have delivered returns in the low 20% range, Walker said.
Compass is also considering launching other ETF-based mutual funds, including ones for fixed-income and money markets, he said.
