Key Takeaways
- • Steben & Company's Steben Managed Futures Strategy Fund (SKLIX) achieved a 4-Star Morningstar Rating for both overall and three-year performance periods as of April 30, 2017, ranking in the top 22.5% of 95 funds in the managed futures category based on risk-adjusted returns.
- • The fund employs a multi-adviser structure allocating to three complementary managed futures trading programs: Millburn Ridgefield's Core Markets Trend programme, Revolution Capital's Alpha Non-Trend programme, and PGR Capital's PGR Trend programme, without charging performance fees.
- • The fund is designed to deliver positive absolute returns with low correlation to traditional equity and bond markets, positioning it as a diversification tool for portfolios amid what management views as optimistic valuations and rising interest rates.
- • Ken Steben, founder and president of Steben & Company, emphasized the rating validates the firm's investment approach and its potential to enhance portfolio risk-adjusted returns while addressing equity overweight concerns in an extended bull market environment.
Summary
Steben & Company has achieved a significant institutional milestone with its Steben Managed Futures Strategy Fund earning a 4-Star Morningstar Rating across both overall and three-year performance metrics for Class I Shares (SKLIX) as of April 30, 2017. This rating positions the fund in the upper percentile of the managed futures category, placing it among the top 22.5% of 95 comparable funds based on risk-adjusted return metrics.
The fund operates as a multi-adviser mutual fund utilizing an actively managed allocation structure to select managed futures trading advisors within a cost-efficient framework that notably excludes performance fees. This approach differentiates the offering from many competitors in the alternative asset space. The current portfolio comprises three strategically complementary managed futures programs: Millburn Ridgefield's Core Markets Trend programme, Revolution Capital's Alpha Non-Trend programme, and PGR Capital's PGR Trend programme. This diversification across trend-following and non-trend strategies is designed to generate returns independent of traditional market conditions.
Ken Steben, founder and president of Steben & Company, framed the 4-Star rating as validation of the firm's investment philosophy, noting that the achievement "further distinguishes our investment approach from our peer category." He highlighted the fund's core objective: providing a source of diversification with historically low correlation to equities and bonds while enhancing overall portfolio risk-adjusted returns. Management's commentary reflected concern about elevated valuations and rising interest rates potentially generating greater market volatility in 2017, suggesting that the fund's strategy offers meaningful portfolio protection for advisors and their clients navigating what Steben characterized as the ninth year of an extended equity bull market and portfolios increasingly overweight to stocks.
The 4-Star designation underscores the fund's ability to deliver on its mandate of positive long-term absolute returns across both rising and falling market environments—a critical metric for institutional investors and wealth advisors seeking non-correlated alternative exposure.
The fund operates as a multi-adviser mutual fund utilizing an actively managed allocation structure to select managed futures trading advisors within a cost-efficient framework that notably excludes performance fees. This approach differentiates the offering from many competitors in the alternative asset space. The current portfolio comprises three strategically complementary managed futures programs: Millburn Ridgefield's Core Markets Trend programme, Revolution Capital's Alpha Non-Trend programme, and PGR Capital's PGR Trend programme. This diversification across trend-following and non-trend strategies is designed to generate returns independent of traditional market conditions.
Ken Steben, founder and president of Steben & Company, framed the 4-Star rating as validation of the firm's investment philosophy, noting that the achievement "further distinguishes our investment approach from our peer category." He highlighted the fund's core objective: providing a source of diversification with historically low correlation to equities and bonds while enhancing overall portfolio risk-adjusted returns. Management's commentary reflected concern about elevated valuations and rising interest rates potentially generating greater market volatility in 2017, suggesting that the fund's strategy offers meaningful portfolio protection for advisors and their clients navigating what Steben characterized as the ninth year of an extended equity bull market and portfolios increasingly overweight to stocks.
The 4-Star designation underscores the fund's ability to deliver on its mandate of positive long-term absolute returns across both rising and falling market environments—a critical metric for institutional investors and wealth advisors seeking non-correlated alternative exposure.
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