Nontraditional Bond
The Nontraditional Bond category contains funds that pursue strategies divergent in one or more ways from conventional practice in the broader bond-fund universe. Many funds in this group describe themselves as "absolute return" portfolios, which seek to avoid losses and produce returns uncorrelated with the overall bond market; they employ a variety of methods to achieve those aims. Another large subset are self-described "unconstrained" portfolios that have more flexibility to invest tactically across a wide swath of individual sectors, including high-yield and foreign debt, and typically with very large allocations. Funds in the latter group typically have broad freedom to manage interest-rate sensitivity, but attempt to tactically manage those exposures in order to minimize volatility. The category is also home to a subset of portfolios that attempt to minimize volatility by maintaining short or ultra-short duration portfolios, but explicitly court significant credit and foreign bond market risk in order to generate high returns. Funds within this category often will use credit default swaps and other fixed income derivatives to a significant level within their portfolios. Morningstar®
Highland Alternative Income Fund (HHFAX)
| Performance (1-yr.): 0.90% | Expenses: 4.07% |
| Performance (1-mo.): 0.84% | Total Assets: $9.29M |
Iron Strategic Income Fund (IFUNX)
| Performance (1-yr.): 7.42% | Expenses: 1.62% |
| Performance (1-mo.): 1.58% | Total Assets: $419.39M |
JPMorgan Strategic Income Opportunities Fund (JSOAX)
| Performance (1-yr.): 6.67% | Expenses: 1.13% |
| Performance (1-mo.): 0.47% | Total Assets: $15.66B |
Legg Mason BW Absolute Return Opportunities Fund (LROAX)
| Performance (1-yr.): 13.19% | Expenses: 1.20% |
| Performance (1-mo.): 2.16% | Total Assets: $230.86M |
Loomis Sayles Strategic Alpha Fund (LABAX)
| Performance (1-yr.): 10.02% | Expenses: 1.17% |
| Performance (1-mo.): 1.16% | Total Assets: $1.04B |
Metropolitan West Strategic Income Fund (MWSTX)
| Performance (1-yr.): 12.40% | Expenses: 2.10% |
| Performance (1-mo.): 1.05% | Total Assets: $217.5M |
Metropolitan West Unconstrained Bond Fund (MWCIX)
| Performance (1-yr.): 10.71% | Expenses: 0.75% |
| Performance (1-mo.): 0.92% | Total Assets: $253.69M |
MFS Absolute Return Fund (MRNAX)
| Performance (1-yr.): 1.96% | Expenses: 1.14% |
| Performance (1-mo.): 0.42% | Total Assets: $151.93M |
Parametric Absolute Return Fund (EOAAX)
| Performance (1-yr.): 4.07% | Expenses: 1.45% |
| Performance (1-mo.): 0.60% | Total Assets: $67.44M |
PIMCO Credit Absolute Return Fund (PZCRX)
| Performance (1-yr.): 8.13% | Expenses: 1.30% |
| Performance (1-mo.): 0.56% | Total Assets: $879.84M |
