MutualFundWire.com: Astor Longs for ETFs With a New Fund

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Astor Longs for ETFs With a New Fund

Astor Asset Management, which has managed portfolios of ETFs since 2000, has increased their presence in the indexed fund market. The Astor Long/Short ETF Fund, a mutual fund with invest specifically in ETFs, was launched October 19. The mutual fund is Astor's first and comes with an expense ratio of 22 bps and 24.5 bps for the I class and R class shares, respectively.

The fund is managed by Astor Financial CEO Rob Stein, and co-managed by Scott Martin and Bryan Novak. It is distributed by Northern Lights.

"We use ETFs because we're economists, not stock pickers," Astor spokesperson Althea Trevor told the MFWire. "We use macro analysis to look at stock trends. We pick specific sector and asset classes to invest in. Through ETFs, we can create a portfolio that's very non-correlated."

“In our opinion, our new mutual fund allows active management to be part of any investment portfolio,” Stein stated. “By offering a mutual fund we have made our services more accessible to those interested in a more active approach to money management. We believe that the past few years have proven that new techniques are needed to further diversify and reduce the risk of one’s investments.”

Company Press Release CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Astor Asset Management’s Senior Economist Rob Stein, former Federal Reserve analyst and author of The Bull Inside the Bear (Wiley 2009), explains Astor’s new mutual fund, the Astor Long/Short ETF Fund (ASTRX).

Astor Asset Management has made a name for themselves with their Long/Short Balanced ETF Program, landing them national recognition as one of the top performing ETF managers for 2008. Astor is now applying their macroeconomic-based approach to their new mutual fund, the Astor Long/Short ETF Fund (ASTRX).

“In our opinion, our new mutual fund allows active management to be part of any investment portfolio,” says Robert Stein, CEO of Astor Financial. “By offering a mutual fund we have made our services more accessible to those interested in a more active approach to money management. We believe that the past few years have proven that new techniques are needed to further diversify and reduce the risk of one’s investments.”

Astor utilizes a proactive philosophy of identifying the economic cycle, implementing investment and allocation decisions using exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The goal of the Astor Long/Short ETF Fund (ASTRX) is to succeed in any type of market and economic environment. The fund utilizes long equity ETF positioning in diversified non-correlating market averages. During economic contractions, the Long/Short ETF Fund will utilize defensive positioning, which can range from overweighting cash and fixed income to using ETFs with inverse exposure to broad market averages. However, short selling of securities is not a part of the investment strategy.