Schooner Investment Group's [see profile] flagship mutual fund, Schooner Fund, an alternative mutual fund, has reached its three-year mark, and the firm is looking to build on the fund's momentum among institutional investors.

"With the increased institutional interest we have seen we are evaluating the addition of an I share class in 2012," Jeremy McCann, chief operating officer at Schooner, told the MFWire, in an e-mail reply.

The Schooner Fund currently manages $60 million in assets and is PMed by Greg Levinson, chief investment officer, who was a senior PM at hedge fund shop Sailfish Capital Partners.

McCann confided that the firm is currently incubating and developing liquid alternative mutual funds and hopes to have them available in mid-2012.

"We will be adding employees as needed for any new developments. The firm added three new employees with the launch of the Schooner Global Absolute Return Fund, two on the investment side and one in sales," he said.

Schooner Funds Celebrates Three Year Anniversary of Their Flagship Mutual Fund, and the Launch of Their Newest Alternative Mutual Fund

Despite a difficult market, it's been smooth sailing for Schooner Investment Group's flagship mutual fund, The Schooner Fund (Ticker: SCNAX). The Fund recently celebrated its three-year mark. The Schooner team has been very happy with its performance relative to its benchmarks, the S&P 500 Index and Morningstar's Long/Short category. In addition, Schooner Fund recently received third party analysis and ratings from Morningstar, and Lipper after achieving its three year track record. The Schooner Fund combines the structure of mutual funds with the trading strategies and risk mitigation techniques utilized by hedge funds. Schooner's strategy is built around equity volatility trades utilizing U.S. large cap stocks, options and convertibles. The firm's fund managers are hedge fund veterans with long track records of working with equity derivative strategies.

While traditional long-only mutual funds are inherently subject to market volatility, they are rarely able to take advantage of volatility pricing. The Schooner Fund represents a new breed of funds which attempts to profit from market fluctuations while aiming to limit the downside risks of a long only portfolio.

The Schooner Fund combines the structure of mutual funds with the trading strategies and risk mitigation techniques utilized by hedge funds. Schooner's strategy is built around equity volatility trades utilizing U.S. large cap stocks, options and convertibles. The firm's fund managers are hedge fund veterans with long track records of working with equity derivative strategies.

Greg Levinson, Chief Investment Officer and SCNAX Portfolio Manager since August 2008, is pleased with the Fund's results to date and comments, "Our objective from inception has been to outperform both the S&P 500 Index and other funds in our peer group over a full market cycle, and do it with meaningfully less volatility and dramatically lower drawdown risk. We are extremely happy with our results."

Schooner Investment Group continues to see increasing advisor use of liquid alternative products, and anticipates the trend to continue for years. "We have every intention of being a significant player in this space," adds Levinson. Most recently the firm launched their second mutual fund, The Schooner Global Absolute Return Fund (Ticker: SARIX), and has new products and strategies in the works for 2012 release. "As demonstrated with the Schooner Fund, we seek to bring a fresh perspective to delivering risk adjusted returns. We continue to develop complementary products that we believe address advisor needs�our goal is to not just be a player, but a leader, in the alternative mutual fund marketplace!" For more information, contact Schooner at 484-580-8086 or visit www.schoonermutualfunds.com.

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