“We are excited to be launching this new strategy enabling us to build on the success of the Forward Tactical Growth Fund we introduced 16 months ago,” said J. Alan Reid, Jr., CEO of Forward Management. The Tactical Growth Fund seeks to achieve capital preservation and attracted $850 million in the 15 months between its launch in mid-September 2009 and the end of 2010.
The Tactical Enhanced Fund will take similar approaches as the Tactical Growth Fund but is designed for investors with higher-than-average absolute return targets and tolerance for risk and volatility. The Tactical Enhanced Fund can leverage up to 200% net long and 100% net short and can trade more frequently to take advantage of shorter-term market movements and find securities that the manager believes are undervalued or overvalued.
The investment process blends top-down fundamental analysis of macroeconomic factors and investor sentiment with quantitative model-driven analysis of market momentum. It invests in both U.S. and non-U.S. securities primarily through futures and exchange-traded funds.
“Many investors rightly wonder how they can possibly meet their long-run return targets when they keep losing ground due to market volatility,” noted Jeff Cusack, president of intermediary sales at Forward Management. “With the traditional investment approach of being long-only and fully invested at all times, there’s no way to sidestep market downturns. Our Tactical Enhanced strategy aims to provide the flexible, nimble approach we believe investors need today.”
