BTAL - BTAL Anti-Beta Fund: Still A Great Diversifier

2024-03-12 10:21:28 ET

Summary

• The AGF U.S. Market Neutral Anti-Beta Fund has historically provided diversification benefits by performing well when the broader equity market is down.
• Despite its expected flat-to-negative annual return, BTAL has rallied in 2024, potentially due to investors seeking defensive low-beta stocks.
• Owning BTAL as part of a portfolio can (and likely will, in my opinion) provide superior risk-adjusted returns over the long term.

Those who follow me know that I am a rare appreciator of the AGF U.S. Market Neutral Anti-Beta Fund ( BTAL ), a long-short strategy that has produced a cumulative loss of nearly 20% since its 2011 inception — see chart below, purple line. As I will explain in more detail shortly, the appeal of this fund is not its ability to produce profits as a stand-alone holding, but its diversification capabilities instead....

For further details see: