The Fund pursues its objective by investing in a base portfolio that is generally comprised of an approximately equal mix of equity securities and money market instruments. The Fund writes (sells) call options on the S&P 500® Index, a broad-based U.S. stock market index, and/or a substitute for the S&P 500® Index (the “S&P 500® Index” or the “Index”) on substantially the full value of the Fund’s equity securities. The Fund also writes (sells) put options on the S&P 500® Index or a substitute for such Index on substantially the full value of the Fund’s money market instrument holdings.  

The Fund employs a top-down, disciplined and systematic investment process that seeks to take advantage of the volatility risk premium, i.e., the tendency for volatility priced into an option to be higher, on average, than the volatility actually experienced on the securities underlying the option. Actual, or realized, options volatility may be higher or lower than anticipated. The Fund will generally write short tenor call and put options, typically with initial maturity of six weeks or less, and that are “out of the money” at the time of the initiation. That is, the exercise price of the call options sold generally will be above the current price level of the Index when written and the exercise price of put options sold generally will be below the current price level of the Index when written. Put and call options will normally: be held until expiration when they will expire worthless; be settled by a cash payment from the Fund; or be closed through an offsetting position. The Fund’s expected performance is defensive when compared to a long-only equity portfolio. The investment process is periodically reevaluated and may be adjusted to ensure that the process is consistent with the Fund’s investment objective and strategies.

The Fund generally seeks to implement its options strategy so that its options contracts qualify as “section 1256 contracts” as defined in the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”).  Under the Code, capital gains and losses on section 1256 contracts are generally recognized annually based on the marked-to-market value of open options positions at tax year end, with gains or losses treated as 60% long-term and 40% short-term, regardless of the holding period.  The Fund intends to limit the overlap between its stock holdings and the S&P 500® Index to less than 70% on an ongoing basis in an effort to avoid being subject to the “straddle rules” under federal income tax law.  As discussed below, straddles generally are subject to disadvantageous treatment under the Code.

The Fund’s equity investments consist of a diversified portfolio of common stocks that seeks to approximate the pretax total return performance of the S&P 500® Index. The Fund’s money market instrument investments consist primarily of U.S. Treasury securities with a maximum remaining maturity of one year or less and may also include high grade investments with effective maturities of one year or less, including commercial paper issued by banks and corporations.  The Fund may also invest in an affiliated investment company that invests in money market instruments.  High-grade instruments are rated A or higher by a rating agency or deemed to be of comparable quality by the investment adviser.  The Fund’s asset allocation mix between equities and money market instruments is rebalanced periodically.  The Fund may also lend its securities.

In selecting the Fund’s equity investments, the portfolio managers employ a disciplined and systematic investment process to invest in a diversified portfolio of common stocks with risk and return characteristics in aggregate similar to those of the S&P 500® Index.  The Fund may engage in a systematic program of tax-loss harvesting (i.e., periodically selling positions that have depreciated in value to realize capital losses that can be used to offset capital gains realized by the Fund) in its equity portfolio.