The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objectives by allocating its assets using three principal strategies:
•“Managed Futures” Strategy
•“Commodities” Strategy
•“Fixed Income” Strategy
The Managed Futures strategy is designed to produce capital appreciation by capturing returns related to the commodity and financial markets by investing long or short in: (i) futures, (ii) forwards, (iii) options, (iv) spot contracts, or (v) swaps, each of which may be tied to (a) currencies including Bitcoin and Ether cryptoassets, (b) interest rates, (c) stock market indices, (d) energy resources, (e) metals or (f) agricultural products. These derivative instruments are used as substitutes for securities, interest rates, currencies and commodities and for hedging. To the extent the Fund uses swaps or structured notes under the Managed Futures strategy, the investments will generally have payments linked to commodity or financial derivatives. The Fund does not invest more than 25% of its assets in contracts with any one counterparty. Managed futures sub-strategies may include investment styles that rely upon buy and sell signals generated from technical analysis systems such as trend-pattern recognition, as well as from fundamental economic analysis and relative value comparisons. Managed Futures strategy investments will be made without restriction as to country. The Fund will only seek investment exposure to Bitcoin and Ether through investment in cash-settled futures contracts that trade on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The Fund's investment in Bitcoin and Ether futures will be limited, on an aggregate notional basis, to 5% of the Fund's assets. The Fund does not invest directly in or hold Bitcoin or Ether.
The Commodities strategy is designed to produce capital appreciation by capturing returns related to the commodities markets by investing primarily in securities of one or more (1) limited partnerships, (2) corporations, (3) limited liability companies and (4) other types of pooled investment vehicles, including commodity pools (collectively, “Underlying Funds”) and derivative instruments, such as swap contracts, structured notes or other securities or derivatives, that provide exposure to the managers of Underlying Funds. Each Underlying Fund invests according to its manager’s sub-strategy, long or short in one or a combination of: (i) futures, (ii) forwards, (iii) options, (iv) spot contracts, or (v) swaps, each of which may be tied to (a) energy resources, (b) metals or (c) agricultural products. These derivative instruments are used as substitutes for commodities and for hedging. To the extent the Fund uses swaps or structured notes under the Commodities strategy, the investments will generally have payments linked to commodity or financial derivatives that are designed to produce returns similar to those of the Underlying Funds and their respective sub-strategies. The Fund does not invest more than 25% of its assets in contracts with any one counterparty. Commodities sub-strategies may include investment styles that rely upon buy and
sell signals generated from technical analysis systems such as trend-pattern recognition, as well as from fundamental economic analysis and relative value comparisons. Commodities strategy investments are made without restriction as to the Underlying Fund’s country.
The Fund will execute its Managed Futures and Commodities strategies primarily by investing up to 25% of its total assets (measured at the time of purchase) in a wholly-owned and controlled subsidiary (the “Subsidiary”). The Subsidiary will invest primarily in futures, forwards, options, spot contracts, swaps, and other assets intended to serve as margin or collateral for derivative positions. Through its Managed Futures and Commodities strategies, the Fund will have exposure to underlying assets in the U.S. as well as foreign and emerging markets. The Fund defines emerging markets as those that are found in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The Subsidiary is subject to the same investment restrictions as the Fund.
The Adviser anticipates that, based upon its analysis of long-term historical returns and volatility of various asset classes, the Fund will allocate approximately 25% of its assets to the Managed Futures and Commodities strategies and approximately 75% of its assets to the Fixed Income strategy. However, as market conditions change the portion allocated may be higher or lower.
The Fixed Income strategy is designed to generate interest income and preserve principal by investing primarily in investment grade securities including: (1) obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government, its agencies or instrumentalities, (2) securities issued or guaranteed by foreign governments, their political subdivisions or agencies or instrumentalities, (3) bonds, notes, or similar debt obligations issued by U.S. or foreign corporations or special-purpose entities backed by corporate debt obligations, (4) U.S. asset-backed securities (“ABS”), (5) U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”), (6) U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”), (7) interest rate-related futures contracts and (8) interest rate-related or credit default-related swap contracts. The Fund defines investment grade fixed income securities as those that are rated, at the time purchased, in the top four categories by a rating agency such as Moody’s Investors Service, Inc. (“Moody’s”) or Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (“S&P”), or, if unrated, determined to be of comparable quality. However, the fixed income portion of the Fund’s portfolio will be invested without restriction as to individual issuer country, type of entity, or capitalization. Futures and swap contracts are used for hedging purposes and as substitutes for fixed income securities. The Fund’s Adviser primarily delegates management of the Fund’s Fixed Income strategy portfolio to a sub-adviser though the Adviser may also manage a portion of the Fixed Income Strategy from time to time.
The Fund seeks to achieve its secondary investment objective primarily by (1) diversifying the Managed Futures and Commodities strategy investments among asset classes and sub-strategies that are not expected to have returns that are highly correlated to each other or the equity markets and (2) by selecting Fixed Income strategy investments that are short-term to medium-term interest income-generating securities (those with maturities or average lives of less than 10 years) that are expected to be less volatile than the equity markets in general and that are not expected to have returns that are highly correlated to the equity markets or the Managed Futures or Commodities strategy.
The Adviser, on behalf of itself and on behalf of the Fund and other Funds it advises or may advise in the future that are each a series of LoCorr Investment Trust, was granted an exemptive order from the Securities Exchange Commission (the "SEC") that permits the adviser, with Board of Trustees approval, to enter into or amend sub-advisory agreements with sub-advisers without obtaining shareholder approval. Shareholders will be notified within 90 days of the engagement of an additional sub-adviser or sub-advisers to manage a portion of the Fund's portfolio.
ADVISER’S INVESTMENT PROCESS
The Adviser will pursue the Fund’s investment objectives, in part, by utilizing its investment and risk management process.
•Sub-Adviser Selection represents the result of quantitative and qualitative reviews that will identify a sub-adviser chosen for its managed futures expertise, historical performance,
management accessibility, commitment, investment strategy, as well as process and methodology. Using this selection process, the Adviser believes it can identify a sub-adviser that can produce positive, risk-adjusted returns. The Adviser replaces a sub-adviser when its returns are below expectations or it deviates from its traditional investment process with respect to changes in its investment strategy.
•Risk Management represents the ongoing attention to the historical return performance of each Underlying Fund as well as the interaction or correlation of returns between Underlying Funds. Using this risk management process, the Adviser believes the Fund, over time, will not be highly correlated to the equity markets and will provide the potential for reducing volatility in investors’ portfolios.
SUB-ADVISER INVESTMENT PROCESS
Graham Capital Management, L.P.
Graham Capital Management, L.P. (“GCM”) serves as a sub-adviser to the Fund. GCM executes the strategy within the Fund by employing macro-oriented quantitative investment techniques to select long and short positions in the global futures and foreign exchange markets. These techniques are designed to produce attractive absolute and risk-adjusted returns while maintaining low correlation to traditional asset classes (that is, a strategy which seeks to produce positive returns over time regardless of market movements). The strategy within the Fund is a quantitative trading system driven by trend-following models. This program signals buy and sell orders based on a number of factors, including price, volatility, and length of time a position has been held in the portfolio. The strategy employs sophisticated techniques to gradually enter and exit positions over the course of a trend in order to maximize profit opportunities. It is expected that the average holding period of instruments traded pursuant to the strategy within the Fund will be approximately six to eight weeks; however, that average may differ depending on various factors and the system will make daily adjustments to positions based on both price activity and market volatility. The program trades a broad range of markets, including global interest rates, foreign exchange, global stock indices and commodities.
Millburn Ridgefield LLC
Millburn Ridgefield LLC (“Millburn”) serves as a sub-adviser to the Fund. Millburn’s Diversified Program invests in a diversified portfolio of futures, forward and spot contracts (and may also invest in option and swap contracts) on currencies, interest rate instruments, stock indices, metals, energy and agricultural commodities. Millburn invests globally pursuant to its proprietary quantitative and systematic trading methodology, based upon signals generated from an analysis of price, price-derivatives, fundamental and other quantitative data. Millburn’s Diversified Program generally seeks maximum diversification subject to liquidity and sector concentration constraints. Each market is traded using a diversified set of trading systems, which may be optimized for groups of markets, sectors or specific markets. The following factors, among others, are considered in constructing a universe of markets to trade: profitability, liquidity of markets, professional judgment, desired diversification, transaction costs, exchange regulations and depth of market.
Revolution Capital Management, LLC
Revolution Capital Management, LLC (“Revolution”) serves as a sub-adviser to the Fund. Revolution focuses on short-term, systematic and quantitative trading, applying statistical analysis to all aspects of research, development, and operations. The strategy seeks to provide superior risk-adjusted returns while maintaining low correlations both to traditional equity and bond investments as well as the trend-following strategies often employed by commodity trading advisors.
R.G. Niederhoffer Capital Management, Inc.
R.G. Niederhoffer Capital Management, Inc. (“Niederhoffer”) serves as a sub-adviser to the Fund. Niederhoffer provides asset management services for the Fund using its Smart Alpha Program. The R.G. Niederhoffer Smart Alpha Program seeks to achieve three key objectives: (1) Stable absolute returns regardless of market environment, with zero correlation to Fixed Income, Equities and Hedge Funds (that is, a strategy which seeks to produce positive returns over time regardless of market movements); (2)
Strong, consistent downside and upside protection for portfolios containing Global Bonds, Global Equities, Hedge Funds, and CTAs, and (3) Daily/monthly liquidity and high transparency.
Nuveen Asset Management, LLC
Nuveen Asset Management, LLC (“Nuveen”), serves as a sub-adviser to the Fund for its Fixed Income strategy, selects securities using a “top-down” approach that begins with the formulation of Nuveen’s general economic outlook. Following this, various sectors and industries are analyzed and selected for investment. Finally, Nuveen selects individual securities within these sectors or industries that it believes have above peer-group expected yield, potential for capital preservation or appreciation. Nuveen selects futures and swaps to hedge interest rate and credit risks and as substitutes for securities when it believes derivatives provide a better return profile or when specific securities are temporarily unavailable. Nuveen sells securities and derivatives to adjust interest rate risk, adjust credit risk, when a price target is reached, or when a security’s or derivative’s price outlook is deteriorating.