AXS Adaptive Plus Fund Investor
Class Shares: Class
I Shares: |
AXS Market Neutral Fund Investor
Class Shares: Class
I Shares: |
AXS All Terrain Opportunity Fund Class
I Shares:
|
AXS Merger Fund Investor
Class Shares: Class
I Shares: |
AXS Alternative Value Fund Investor
Class Shares: Class
I Shares: |
AXS Multi-Strategy Alternatives Fund Investor
Class Shares: Class
I Shares: |
AXS Chesapeake Strategy Fund Class
A Shares: Class
C Shares: Class
I Shares: |
AXS Sustainable Income Fund Class
A Shares: Class
I Shares: |
AXS Thomson Reuters Venture Capital Return Tracker Fund Class
A Shares: Class
C Shares: Class
I Shares: |
AXS Thomson Reuters Private Equity Return Tracker Fund Class
A Shares: Class
C Shares: Class
I Shares: |
PROSPECTUS
The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have not approved or disapproved these securities or passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this Prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
AXS Funds
AXS Adaptive Plus Fund
AXS All Terrain Opportunity Fund
AXS Alternative Value Fund
AXS Chesapeake Strategy Fund
AXS Market Neutral Fund
AXS Merger Fund
AXS Multi-Strategy Alternatives Fund
AXS Sustainable Income Fund
AXS Thomson Reuters Private Equity Return Tracker Fund
AXS Thomson Reuters Venture Capital Return Fund
Each a series of Investment Managers Series Trust II (the “Trust”)
The funds described in this Prospectus is referred to as a “Fund” and collectively as the “Funds.”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
This Prospectus sets forth basic information about each Fund that you should know before investing. It should be read and retained for future reference.
The date of this Prospectus is February 1, 2023.
SUMMARY SECTION | |
The investment objective of the AXS Adaptive Plus Fund (the “Fund”) is to seek capital appreciation in rising and falling U.S. equity markets.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below.
Shareholder Fees |
Investor Class Shares |
Class I Shares |
Maximum sales charge (load) imposed on purchases | ||
Maximum deferred sales charge (load) | ||
Wire fee | $ |
$ |
Overnight check delivery fee | $ |
$ |
Retirement account fees (annual maintenance fee) | $ |
$ |
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) |
||
Management fees | ||
Distribution (Rule 12b-1) fee | ||
Other expenses1,3 | ||
Acquired fund fees and expenses1 | ||
Total annual fund operating expenses2,3 | ||
Fees waived and/or expenses reimbursed4 | ( |
( |
Total annual fund operating expenses after waiving fees and/or reimbursing expenses2,3,4 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
1
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Adaptive Plus Fund |
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The example reflects the Fund’s contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement only for the term of the contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement.
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
One Year | Three Years | |
Investor Class Shares | $ |
$ |
Class I Shares | $ |
$ |
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. The Fund is newly-created and, as a result, does not yet have a portfolio turnover rate.
Under normal market conditions, the Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in equity-linked call options or swaps that provide exposure to the ProfitScore Capital Management, Inc. (“ProfitScore”) trading program (the “Trading Program”) that is designed to produce the returns of the ProfitScore Regime-Adaptive Equity Index (the “Index”). The Index reflects the returns of a highly liquid, systematic trading program that is calculated based on trades (long and short) of S&P 500 Index securities and cash equivalents. The calculation of the Index is performed in two steps: first, determination of the market environment for U.S. equities (i.e., low volatility or high volatility), and second, capturing the short-term price changes (up and/or down) observed in the respective asset classes (i.e., U.S. equities and cash equivalents) that the Index tracks. Because the Fund cannot invest in the Index directly, the Fund utilizes options and/or swaps to generate returns that correspond directly to the returns of the Trading Program and, indirectly, the Index.
The Trading Program’s (and therefore the Index’s) investment strategy is based on the concept that equity market efficiency is negatively correlated with volatility. When volatility increases, market efficiency declines, and vice versa. The volatility state of the market determines alpha/beta opportunities. Historically, U.S. equity markets experience low levels of volatility approximately 55% of the time. Low volatility periods are commonly known as bull markets, when longer-term uptrends and the majority of market gains occur. The Index’s U.S. equity exposure will attempt to systematically capture beta, which is the return generated from a portfolio that can be attributable to the overall market returns, during low volatility regimes. When volatility is elevated, the Index will adjust its U.S. equity exposure in an attempt to generate alpha, which is a measure of the amount that an investment has returned in comparison to the market or benchmark. The overall goal of the Index is to minimize the effect of U.S. equity volatility on the Index while generating gains in bull or bear markets.
The options and swaps in which the Fund intends to invest are designed to produce returns similar to the Index. The Fund does not invest more than 25% of its net assets with any one option counterparty or swap contract counterparty, subject to compliance with rules under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”).
The Fund’s advisor allocates the Fund’s assets not invested in options or swaps or used as collateral for such investments in U.S. Government securities, such as bills, notes and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury, and/or other fixed income securities that are rated investment grade by Standard & Poor’s, a division of McGraw Hill Companies Inc. (“S&P”) or Moody’s Investors Service, Inc. (“Moody’s”), or are of comparable quality at time or purchase, to generate income. The Fund may invest directly or indirectly in fixed income securities of any maturity. The Fund may also invest in exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) or money market funds in order to generate income.
2
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Adaptive Plus Fund |
The Fund is non-diversified, which means that it can invest a greater percentage of its assets in any one issuer than a diversified fund. Investing in fewer issuers makes the Fund more susceptible to financial, economic or market events impacting such issuers and may cause the Fund’s share price to be more volatile than the share price of a diversified fund.
Market Risk. The market price of a security or instrument may decline, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to general market conditions that are not specifically related to a particular company, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions throughout the world, changes in the general outlook for corporate earnings, changes in interest or currency rates, or adverse investor sentiment generally. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, the spread of infectious illness or other public health issues, or other events could have a significant impact on a security or instrument. The market value of a security or instrument also may decline because of factors that affect a particular industry or industries, such as labor shortages or increased production costs and competitive conditions within an industry.
Equity Risk. The value of the equity securities held by the Fund may fall due to general market and economic conditions, perceptions regarding the industries in which the issuers of securities held by the Fund participate, or factors relating to specific companies in which the Fund invests.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives include instruments and contracts that are based on and valued in relation to one or more underlying securities, financial benchmarks, indices, or other reference obligations or measures of value. Major types of derivatives include options, and swaps. Using derivatives exposes the Fund to additional or heightened risks, including leverage risk, liquidity risk, valuation risk, market risk, counterparty risk, and credit risk. Derivatives transactions can be highly illiquid and difficult to unwind or value, they can increase Fund volatility, and changes in the value of a derivative held by the Fund may not correlate with the value of the underlying instrument or the Fund’s other investments. Many of the risks applicable to trading the instruments underlying derivatives are also applicable to derivatives trading. However, derivatives are subject to additional risks such as operational risk, including settlement issues, and legal risk, including that underlying documentation is incomplete or ambiguous. For derivatives that are required to be cleared by a regulated clearinghouse, other risks may arise from the Fund’s relationship with a brokerage firm through which it submits derivatives trades for clearing, including in some cases from other clearing customers of the brokerage firm.
● | Options Risk. Purchasing and writing put and call options are highly specialized activities and entail greater than ordinary investment risks. The Fund may not fully benefit from or may lose money on an option if changes in its value do not correspond as anticipated to changes in the value of the underlying securities. If the Fund is not able to sell an option held in its portfolio, it would have to exercise the option to realize any profit and would incur transaction costs upon the purchase or sale of the underlying securities. Ownership of options involves the payment of premiums, which may adversely affect the Fund’s performance. |
● | Swap Transactions. The Fund may enter into swap transactions. A swap contract is a commitment between two parties to make or receive payments based on agreed upon terms, and whose value and payments are derived by changes in the value of an underlying financial instrument, such as an index or basket of securities. Swap transactions can take many different forms and are known by a variety of names. Total return swaps are contracts in which one party agrees to make periodic payments based on the change in market value of the underlying assets, which may include a specified security, basket of securities or security indexes during the specified period, in return for periodic payments based on a fixed or variable interest rate of the total return from other underlying assets. Depending on how they are used, swap transactions may increase or decrease the overall volatility of the Fund’s portfolio. A significant factor in the performance of a swap transaction is the change in the specific underlying financial instrument, such as the individual equity values, which, along with other factors, determines the amounts of payments due to and from the Fund. |
3
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Adaptive Plus Fund |
Fixed Income Securities Risk. The prices of fixed income securities respond to economic developments, particularly interest rate changes, as well as to changes in an issuer’s credit rating or market perceptions about the creditworthiness of an issuer. Generally fixed income securities decrease in value if interest rates rise and increase in value if interest rates fall, and longer-term and lower rated securities are more volatile than shorter-term and higher rated securities.
Interest Rate Risk. Generally fixed income securities decrease in value if interest rates rise and increase in value if interest rates fall, with longer-term securities being more sensitive than shorter-term securities. For example, the price of a security with a three-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 3% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. Generally, the longer the maturity and duration of a bond or fixed rate loan, the more sensitive it is to this risk. Falling interest rates also create the potential for a decline in the Fund’s income. Changes in governmental policy, rising inflation rates, and general economic developments, among other factors, could cause interest rates to increase and could have a substantial and immediate effect on the values of the Fund’s investments. In addition, a potential rise in interest rates may result in periods of volatility and increased redemptions that might require the Fund to liquidate portfolio securities at disadvantageous prices and times.
Leveraging Risk. Certain Fund transactions, such as entering into futures contracts, options, and short sales, may give rise to a form of leverage. Leverage can magnify the effects of changes in the value of the Fund’s investments and make the Fund more volatile. Leverage creates a risk of loss of value on a larger pool of assets than the Fund would otherwise have had, potentially resulting in the loss of all assets. The Fund may also have to sell assets at inopportune times to satisfy its obligations in connection with such transactions.
Credit Risk. If an issuer or guarantor of a debt security held by the Fund or a counterparty to a financial contract with the Fund defaults or is downgraded or is perceived to be less creditworthy, or if the value of the assets underlying a security declines, the value of the Fund’s portfolio will typically decline.
ETF Risk. Investing in an ETF will provide the Fund with exposure to the securities comprising the index on which the ETF is based and will expose the Fund to risks similar to those of investing directly in those securities. Shares of ETFs typically trade on securities exchanges and may at times trade at a premium or discount to their net asset values. In addition, an ETF may not replicate exactly the performance of the benchmark index it seeks to track for a number of reasons, including transaction costs incurred by the ETF, the temporary unavailability of certain index securities in the secondary market or discrepancies between the ETF and the index with respect to the weighting of securities or the number of securities held. Investing in ETFs, which are investment companies, involves duplication of advisory fees and certain other expenses. The Fund will pay brokerage commissions in connection with the purchase and sale of shares of ETFs.
LIBOR Risk. Many financial instruments, financings or other transactions to which the Fund may be a party use or may use a floating rate based on the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”). In July 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority, the United Kingdom’s financial regulatory body, announced that after 2021 it would cease its active encouragement of banks to provide the quotations needed to sustain LIBOR. The publication of LIBOR on a representative basis ceased for the one-week and two-month U.S. dollar LIBOR settings immediately after December 31, 2021, and it is expected to cease for the remaining U.S. dollar LIBOR settings immediately after June 30, 2023. Any potential effects of the transition away from LIBOR on the Fund or on certain instruments in which the Fund invests can be difficult to determine, and they may vary depending on factors that include, but are not limited to, (i) existing fallback or termination provisions in individual contracts and (ii) whether, how, and when industry participants develop and adopt new reference rates and fallback provisions for both legacy and new products and instruments. The transition process may involve, among other things, increased volatility or illiquidity in markets for instruments that currently rely on LIBOR, and there may be a reduction in the value of certain instruments held by the Fund.
4
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Adaptive Plus Fund |
Government-Sponsored Entities Risk. The Fund’s investment in U.S. government obligations may include securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. government, or its agencies or instrumentalities. There can be no assurance that the U.S. government would provide financial support to its agencies or instrumentalities (including government-sponsored enterprises) when it is not obligated to do so.
Non-Diversification
Risk.
Management and Strategy Risk. The value of your investment depends on the judgment of the Fund’s Advisor about the quality, relative yield, value or market trends affecting a particular security, industry, sector or region, which may prove to be incorrect.
No Operating History. The Fund is newly organized and has no operating history. As a result, prospective investors have no track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.
Cybersecurity Risk. Cybersecurity incidents may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to Fund assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or cause the Fund, the Advisor, and/or other service providers (including custodians, sub-custodians, transfer agents and financial intermediaries) to suffer data breaches, data corruption or loss of operational functionality. In an extreme case, a shareholder’s ability to exchange or redeem Fund shares may be affected. Issuers of securities in which the Fund invests are also subject to cybersecurity risks, and the value of those securities could decline if the issuers experience cybersecurity incidents.
COVID-19 Related Market Events. The pandemic of the novel coronavirus respiratory disease designated COVID-19 has resulted in extreme volatility in the financial markets, a domestic and global economic downturn, severe losses, particularly to some sectors of the economy and individual issuers, and reduced liquidity of many instruments. There have also been significant disruptions to business operations, including business closures; strained healthcare systems; disruptions to supply chains and employee availability; large fluctuations in consumer demand; and widespread uncertainty regarding the duration and long-term effects of the pandemic. The pandemic may result in domestic and foreign political and social instability, damage to diplomatic and international trade relations, and continued volatility and/or decreased liquidity in the securities markets. Governments and central banks, including the Federal Reserve in the United States, took extraordinary and unprecedented actions to support local and global economies and the financial markets. This and other government intervention into the economy and financial markets to address the pandemic may not work as intended, particularly if the efforts are perceived by investors as being unlikely to achieve the desired results. Rates of inflation have also recently risen, which could adversely affect economies and markets. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic, and measures taken to mitigate its effects, could result in disruptions to the services provided to the Fund by its service providers. Other market events like the COVID-19 pandemic may cause similar disruptions and effects.
Investment Advisor
AXS Investments LLC (the “Advisor”) is the Fund’s investment advisor.
Portfolio Managers
Parker Binion, Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, and Travis Trampe, Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, have been jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio since its inception in September 2022.
5
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Adaptive Plus Fund |
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
To purchase shares of the Fund, you must invest at least the minimum amount. Currently, Investor Class shares are not available for purchase.
Minimum Investments | To
Open Your Account |
To
Add to Your Account |
Investor Class Shares | ||
Direct Regular Accounts | $2,500 | $500 |
Direct Retirement Accounts | $2,500 | $500 |
Automatic Investment Plan | $2,500 | $100 |
Gift Account For Minors | $2,500 | $500 |
Class I Shares | ||
All Accounts | $5,000 | None |
Fund shares are redeemable on any business day the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) is open for business, by written request or by telephone.
Tax Information
The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable, and will ordinarily be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account. Shareholders investing through such tax-advantaged arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of monies from those arrangements.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
6
SUMMARY SECTION | |
The investment objective of the AXS All Terrain Opportunity Fund (the “Fund”) is to seek capital appreciation with positive returns in all market conditions.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below.
(fees paid directly from your investment) |
Class
I Shares* |
|||
Maximum sales charge (load) imposed on purchases (as a percentage of offering price) | ||||
Maximum deferred sales charge (load) (as a percentage of the lesser of the value redeemed or the amount invested) | ||||
Redemption fee if redeemed within 30 days of purchase (as a percentage of amount redeemed) | ||||
Wire fee | $ |
|||
Overnight check delivery fee | $ |
|||
Retirement account fees (annual maintenance fee) | $ |
|||
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) |
||||
Management fees | ||||
Distribution and service (Rule 12b-1) fees | ||||
Other expenses | ||||
Shareholder service fee | ||||
All other expenses | ||||
Acquired fund fees and expenses | ||||
Total annual fund operating expenses1 | ||||
Fees waived and/or expenses reimbursed | ( |
|||
Total annual fund operating expenses after waiving fees and/or reimbursing expenses1,2 |
* |
1 |
2 |
7
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS All Terrain Opportunity Fund |
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds.
The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The example reflects the Fund’s contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement only for the term of the contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement.
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
One Year | Three Years | Five Years | Ten Years |
$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
The Fund
pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities
(or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover may indicate higher
transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a
taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating
expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most
recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
The Fund seeks to participate in gains in the U.S. and foreign markets in all market conditions and will attempt to minimize the impact of market losses during periods of extreme market stress. The Fund will make investments that the Advisor believes offer a high probability of return, or, alternatively, a high degree of safety during uncertain market conditions. These investments include domestic and foreign equity securities, and fixed income securities of domestic and foreign issuers (including emerging market companies) of any credit quality (including junk bonds) and duration, including U.S. Treasury securities, corporate bonds, mortgage-backed securities and other fixed income securities. The Fund may be long or short in these securities by taking positions in individual securities, individual stock options, index options, financial futures, ETFs, inverse ETFs, currencies, or other investment companies (including funds managed by the Advisor). Fixed income investments, other than U.S. Treasury securities, will generally be made through ETFs or other registered investment companies. The Fund may, from time to time, invest a significant portion of its assets in a single ETF or other registered investment company. The Fund may invest up to 50% of its assets in short sales or one or more inverse ETFs during adverse market conditions.
The Fund is managed by AXS Investments LLC (the “Advisor”) which serves as investment advisor and constructs the Fund’s portfolio. The Advisor will tactically allocate the Fund’s assets among securities using both fundamental and technical analysis to evaluate the relative strengths of and trends in the Fund’s potential portfolio investments. The Advisor may from time to time focus on companies involved in corporate events such as spin-offs, share buybacks and public records of securities purchases and sales by corporate directors and officers. If the Advisor believes that current market conditions are unsuitable for equity investment, then, consistent with the Fund’s objective of capital appreciation, all or a significant portion of the Fund’s assets may be invested in cash or cash equivalents.
The Fund has no set holding period for any security and actively trades its portfolio investments, which may result in a high portfolio turnover rate. Securities are sold (or purchased back in the case of securities sold short) when they no longer meet the Advisor’s target risk return profile. The Advisor attempts to control risk through various techniques including scaling in or out of positions, using position limits and using stop orders.
8
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS All Terrain Opportunity Fund |
Market Risk. The market price of a security or instrument may decline, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to general market conditions that are not specifically related to a particular company, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions throughout the world, changes in the general outlook for corporate earnings, changes in interest or currency rates, or adverse investor sentiment generally. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, the spread of infectious illness or other public health issues, or other events could have a significant impact on a security or instrument. The market value of a security or instrument also may decline because of factors that affect a particular industry or industries, such as labor shortages or increased production costs and competitive conditions within an industry.
Equity Risk. The value of the equity securities held by the Fund may fall due to general market and economic conditions, perceptions regarding the industries in which the issuers of securities held by the Fund participate, or factors relating to specific companies in which the Fund invests.
Underlying Fund Risk. Other registered investment companies including mutual funds, ETFs and closed-end funds (“Underlying Funds”) in which the Fund invests are subject to investment advisory and other expenses, which will be indirectly paid by the Fund. As a result, the cost of investing in the Fund will be higher than the cost of investing directly in the Underlying Funds and may be higher than other mutual funds that invest directly in stocks and bonds. Each of the Underlying Funds is subject to its own specific risks, but the Advisor expects the principal investments risks of such Underlying Funds will be similar to the risks of investing in the Fund.
ETF Risk. Investing in an ETF will provide the Fund with exposure to the securities comprising the index on which the ETF is based and will expose the Fund to risks similar to those of investing directly in those securities. Shares of ETFs typically trade on securities exchanges and may at times trade at a premium or discount to their net asset values. In addition, an ETF may not replicate exactly the performance of the benchmark index it seeks to track for a number of reasons, including transaction costs incurred by the ETF, the temporary unavailability of certain index securities in the secondary market or discrepancies between the ETF and the index with respect to the weighting of securities or the number of securities held. Investing in ETFs, which are investment companies, involves duplication of advisory fees and certain other expenses. The Fund will pay brokerage commissions in connection with the purchase and sale of shares of ETFs.
Fixed Income Securities Risk. The prices of fixed income securities respond to economic developments, particularly interest rate changes, as well as to changes in an issuer’s credit rating or market perceptions about the creditworthiness of an issuer. Generally fixed income securities decrease in value if interest rates rise and increase in value if interest rates fall, and longer-term and lower rated securities are more volatile than shorter-term and higher rated securities.
Management and Strategy Risk. The value of your investment depends on the judgment of the Fund’s Advisor about the quality, relative yield, value or market trends affecting a particular security, industry, sector or region, which may prove to be incorrect.
Options Risk. Purchasing and writing put and call options are highly specialized activities and entail greater than ordinary investment risks. The Fund may not fully benefit from or may lose money on an option if changes in its value do not correspond as anticipated to changes in the value of the underlying securities. If the Fund is not able to sell an option held in its portfolio, it would have to exercise the option to realize any profit and would incur transaction costs upon the purchase or sale of the underlying securities. Ownership of options involves the payment of premiums, which may adversely affect the Fund’s performance. To the extent that the Fund invests in over-the-counter options, the Fund may be exposed to counterparty risk.
Credit Risk. If an issuer or guarantor of a debt security held directly or indirectly by the Fund or a counterparty to a financial contract with the Fund defaults or is downgraded or is perceived to be less creditworthy, or if the value of the assets underlying a security declines, the value of the Fund’s portfolio will typically decline.
9
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS All Terrain Opportunity Fund |
Foreign Investment Risk. The prices of foreign securities may be more volatile than the prices of securities of U.S. issuers because of economic and social conditions abroad, political developments, and changes in the regulatory environments of foreign countries. Changes in exchange rates and interest rates, and the imposition of sanctions, confiscations, trade restrictions (including tariffs) and other government restrictions by the United States and/or other governments may adversely affect the values of the Fund’s foreign investments. Foreign companies are generally subject to different legal and accounting standards than U.S. companies, and foreign financial intermediaries may be subject to less supervision and regulation than U.S. financial firms. Foreign securities include American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”) and Global Depositary Receipts (“GDRs”). Unsponsored ADRs and GDRs are organized independently and without the cooperation of the foreign issuer of the underlying securities, and involve additional risks because U.S. reporting requirements do not apply. In addition, the issuing bank may deduct shareholder distribution, custody, foreign currency exchange, and other fees from the payment of dividends.
Emerging Markets Risk. Many of the risks with respect to foreign investments are more pronounced for investments in issuers in developing or emerging market countries. Emerging market countries tend to have more government exchange controls, more volatile interest and currency exchange rates, less market regulation, and less developed and less stable economic, political and legal systems than those of more developed countries. There may be less publicly available and reliable information about issuers in emerging markets than is available about issuers in more developed markets. In addition, emerging market countries may experience high levels of inflation and may have less liquid securities markets and less efficient trading and settlement systems.
Event-Driven Risk. The Advisor’s evaluation of the outcome of a proposed corporate event, whether it be a merger, reorganization, regulatory issue or other event, may prove incorrect and the Fund’s return on the investment may be negative. Even if the Advisor’s judgment regarding the likelihood of a specific outcome proves correct, the expected event may be delayed or completed on terms other than those originally proposed, which may cause the Fund to lose money or fail to achieve a desired rate of return.
Futures Risk. The Fund’s use of futures contracts (and related options) expose the Fund to leverage and tracking risks because a small investment in futures contracts may produce large losses and futures contracts may not be perfect substitutes for securities.
High Yield (“Junk”) Bond Risk. High yield bonds are debt securities rated below investment grade (often called “junk bonds”). Junk bonds are speculative, involve greater risks of default, downgrade, or price declines and are more volatile and tend to be less liquid than investment-grade securities. Companies issuing high yield bonds are less financially strong, are more likely to encounter financial difficulties, and are more vulnerable to adverse market events and negative sentiments than companies with higher credit ratings.
Mortgage-Backed Securities Risk. Mortgage-backed securities represent interests in “pools” of mortgages. Mortgage-backed securities are subject to “prepayment risk” (the risk that borrowers will repay a loan more quickly in periods of falling interest rates) and “extension risk” (the risk that borrowers will repay a loan more slowly in periods of rising interest rates). If the Fund invests in mortgage-backed securities that are subordinated to other interests in the same pool, the Fund may only receive payments after the pool’s obligations to other investors have been satisfied. An unexpectedly high rate of defaults on the assets held by a pool may limit substantially the pool’s ability to make payments of principal or interest to the Fund, reducing the values of those securities or in some cases rendering them worthless.
Interest Rate Risk. Generally fixed income securities decrease in value if interest rates rise and increase in value if interest rates fall, with longer-term securities being more sensitive than shorter-term securities. For example, the price of a security with a three-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 3% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. Generally, the longer the maturity and duration of a bond or fixed rate loan, the more sensitive it is to this risk. Falling interest rates also create the potential for a decline in the Fund’s income. Changes in governmental policy, rising inflation rates, and general economic developments, among other factors, could cause interest rates to increase and could have a substantial and immediate effect on the values of the Fund’s investments. In addition, a potential rise in interest rates may result in periods of volatility and increased redemptions that might require the Fund to liquidate portfolio securities at disadvantageous prices and times.
10
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS All Terrain Opportunity Fund |
Inverse ETF Risk. Inverse ETFs are ETFs that are constructed by using various derivatives for the purpose of profiting from a decline in the value of an underlying benchmark. Investments in inverse ETFs will prevent the Fund from participating in market-wide or sector-wide gains and may not prove to be an effective hedge. Unlike traditional funds, shareholders of inverse ETFs will lose money when the underlying benchmark rises. During periods of increased volatility, inverse ETFs may not perform in the manner they are designed. Due to volatility and the effects of compounding, inverse ETFs can lose money even if the level of the index falls.
Portfolio Turnover Risk. Active and frequent trading of the Fund’s portfolio securities may lead to higher transaction costs and may result in a greater number of taxable transactions than would otherwise be the case, which could negatively affect the Fund’s performance. A high rate of portfolio turnover is 100% or more.
Short Sales Risk. In connection with a short sale of a security or other instrument, the Fund is subject to the risk that instead of declining, the price of the security or other instrument sold short will rise. If the price of the security or other instrument sold short increases between the date of the short sale and the date on which the Fund replaces the security or other instrument borrowed to make the short sale, the Fund will experience a loss, which is theoretically unlimited since there is a theoretically unlimited potential for the market price of a security or other instrument sold short to increase. Shorting options or futures may have an imperfect correlation to the assets held by the Fund and may not adequately protect against losses in or may result in greater losses for the Fund’s portfolio.
Small-Cap and Mid-Cap Company Risk. The securities of small-capitalization and mid-capitalization companies may be subject to more abrupt or erratic market movements and may have lower trading volumes or more erratic trading than securities of larger, more established companies or market averages in general. In addition, such companies typically are more likely to be adversely affected than large capitalization companies by changes in earning results, business prospects, investor expectations or poor economic or market conditions.
Cybersecurity Risk. Cybersecurity incidents may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to Fund assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or cause the Fund, the Advisor, and/or other service providers (including custodians, sub-custodians, transfer agents and financial intermediaries) to suffer data breaches, data corruption or loss of operational functionality. In an extreme case, a shareholder’s ability to exchange or redeem Fund shares may be affected. Issuers of securities in which the Fund invests are also subject to cybersecurity risks, and the value of those securities could decline if the issuers experience cybersecurity incidents.
COVID-19 Related Market Events. The pandemic of the novel coronavirus respiratory disease designated COVID-19 has resulted in extreme volatility in the financial markets, a domestic and global economic downturn, severe losses, particularly to some sectors of the economy and individual issuers, and reduced liquidity of many instruments. There have also been significant disruptions to business operations, including business closures; strained healthcare systems; disruptions to supply chains and employee availability; large fluctuations in consumer demand; and widespread uncertainty regarding the duration and long-term effects of the pandemic. The pandemic may result in domestic and foreign political and social instability, damage to diplomatic and international trade relations, and continued volatility and/or decreased liquidity in the securities markets. Governments and central banks, including the Federal Reserve in the United States, took extraordinary and unprecedented actions to support local and global economies and the financial markets. This and other government intervention into the economy and financial markets to address the pandemic may not work as intended, particularly if the efforts are perceived by investors as being unlikely to achieve the desired results. Rates of inflation have also recently risen, which could adversely affect economies and markets. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic, and measures taken to mitigate its effects, could result in disruptions to the services provided to the Fund by its service providers. Other market events like the COVID-19 pandemic may cause similar disruptions and effects.
11
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS All Terrain Opportunity Fund |
Calendar-Year Total Return (before taxes) for Class I Shares
For each calendar year at NAV
Class I Shares | ||
Quarter
Ended | ||
( |
Quarter
Ended |
Average Annual Total Returns (for Period Ended December 31, 2022) |
One Year |
Five Years |
Since Inception ( |
Class I Shares Return Before Taxes | ( |
||
Class I Shares Return After Taxes on Distributions* | ( |
||
Class I Shares Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares* | ( |
||
HFRX
Global Hedge Fund Index |
( |
* |
12
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS All Terrain Opportunity Fund |
Investment Advisor
AXS Investments LLC (the “Advisor”) is the Fund’s investment advisor.
Portfolio Managers
Parker Binion, Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has served as a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2022, and Travis Trampe, Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has served as a portfolio manager of the Fund since November 2022. Messrs. Binion and Trampe are jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
To purchase shares of the Fund, you must invest at least the minimum amount.
Minimum Investments |
To Open Your Account |
To Add to Your Account |
Direct Regular Accounts | $2,500 | $100 |
Direct Retirement Accounts | $2,500 | $100 |
Automatic Investment Plan | $100 | $50 |
Gift Accounts For Minors | $2,500 | $100 |
Fund shares are redeemable on any business day the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) is open for business, by written request or by telephone.
Tax Information
The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable, and will ordinarily be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account. Shareholders investing through such tax-advantaged arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of monies from those arrangements.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
13
SUMMARY SECTION | |
The AXS Alternative Value Fund (the “Value Fund” or “Fund”) seeks long-term growth of capital.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below.
(fees paid directly from your investment) |
Investor Class Shares |
Class I Shares |
||||||
Redemption fee if redeemed within 30 days of purchase (as a percentage of amount redeemed) | ||||||||
Wire fee | $ |
$ |
||||||
Overnight check delivery fee | $ |
$ |
||||||
Retirement account fees (annual maintenance fee) | $ |
$ |
||||||
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) | ||||||||
Management fees | ||||||||
Distribution (Rule 12b-1) fees | ||||||||
Other expenses | ||||||||
Interest expense | ||||||||
All other expenses | ||||||||
Total annual fund operating expenses | ||||||||
Fee Waivers and Expense Reimbursement1 | ( |
( |
||||||
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses after Fee Waivers and Expense Reimbursement |
1 |
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The example reflects the Fund’s contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement only for the term of the contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement.
14
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Alternative Value Fund |
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
One Year | Three Years | Five Years | Ten Years | |
Investor Class Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Class I Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
The Fund
pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities
(or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover may indicate higher
transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a
taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating
expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most
recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by purchasing equity securities of U.S. companies that the Fund’s sub-advisor, Quantitative Value Technologies, LLC d/b/a Cognios Capital, LLC (“Cognios Capital” or the “Sub-Advisor”) believes are undervalued and likely to appreciate. The Fund generally seeks to purchase common stocks of companies that are constituents of the S&P 500® Index. The Fund may invest across different industries and sectors. The Fund may invest in equity securities in non-U.S. markets and U.S. government securities, either directly or indirectly through exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), exchange-traded notes (“ETNs”) and mutual funds.
The Fund may use borrowings for investment purposes. In determining when and to what extent to employ borrowing (i.e., leverage), the Sub-Advisor will consider factors such as the relative risks and returns expected from the portfolio as a whole and the costs of such transactions. Borrowings may be structured as secured or unsecured loans, and may have fixed or variable interest rates. The Fund may borrow to the maximum extent permitted by the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”). The Fund will only engage in borrowing when the Sub-Advisor believes the return from the additional investments will be greater than the costs associated with the borrowing.
The Sub-Advisor selects securities for purchase and sale using its proprietary ROTA/ROME® investment selection and portfolio construction methodology. ROTA/ROME® focuses on a company’s Return on Total Assets (“ROTA”) and Return on Market Value of Equity (“ROME”) in order to identify companies whose per share intrinsic value has diverged significantly from the current market price of its stock.
ROTA, or Return on Total Assets, measures the profits that a company has earned on the capital invested in the business. The Sub-Advisor believes that companies with higher ROTAs are more attractive investment opportunities than companies with lower ROTAs because a business that has a high ROTA and can maintain that high ROTA over long periods of time most likely has a competitive advantage in the marketplace that gives it an edge over its competition.
ROME, or Return on Market Value of Equity, divides a company’s profits by its current stock price. This “profit yield” is similar in concept to a bond’s “yield.” Like a bond yield, a higher ROME yield generally means that a company’s stock price is lower and cheaper than that of other companies. Similarly, a low ROME yield means the company’s stock price is higher and thus more expensive than that of other companies.
The Sub-Advisor use these two metrics to determine if a particular company is an attractive business (i.e., ROTA) and whether the company’s stock is cheap or expensive (i.e., ROME).
15
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Alternative Value Fund |
Market Risk. The market price of a security or instrument may decline, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to general market conditions that are not specifically related to a particular company, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions throughout the world, changes in the general outlook for corporate earnings, changes in interest or currency rates or adverse investor sentiment generally. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, the spread of infectious illness or other public health issues, or other events could have a significant impact on a security or instrument. The market value of a security or instrument also may decline because of factors that affect a particular industry or industries, such as labor shortages or increased production costs and competitive conditions within an industry.
Equity Risk. The value of the equity securities held by the Fund may fall due to general market and economic conditions, perceptions regarding the industries in which the issuers of securities held by the Fund participate, or factors relating to specific companies in which the Fund invests.
Large-Cap Company Risk. Larger, more established companies may be unable to attain the high growth rates of successful, smaller companies during periods of economic expansion.
Value-Oriented Investment Strategies Risk. Value stocks are those that are believed to be undervalued in comparison to their peers due to adverse business developments or other factors. Value investing is subject to the risk that the market will not recognize a security’s inherent value for a long time or at all, or that a stock judged to be undervalued may actually be appropriately priced or overvalued. In addition, during some periods (which may be extensive) value stocks generally may be out of favor in the markets.
Borrowing Risk. Borrowing money for investment purposes involves certain risks to the Fund’s shareholders, including potential for higher volatility of the net asset value of the Fund’s shares and the relatively greater effect of portfolio holdings on the net asset value of the shares. In addition, interest costs on borrowings may fluctuate with changing market interest rates and may partially offset or exceed the return earned on the borrowed funds. Also, during times of borrowing under adverse market conditions, the Fund might have to sell portfolio securities to meet interest or principal payments at a time when fundamental investment considerations would not favor such sales. Unless profits on assets acquired with borrowed funds exceed the costs of borrowing, the use of borrowing will diminish the investment performance of the Fund compared with what it would have been without borrowing.
Sector Focus Risk. The Fund may invest a larger portion of its assets in one or more sectors than many other mutual funds, and thus will be more susceptible to negative events affecting those sectors. Performance of companies in the financial sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others: government regulation of, or related to, the sector; governmental monetary and fiscal policies; economic, business or political conditions; credit rating downgrades; changes in interest rates; price competition; and decreased liquidity in credit markets. This sector has experienced significant losses and a high degree of volatility in the past, and the impact of more stringent capital requirements and of recent or future regulation on any individual financial company or on the sector as a whole cannot be predicted. Performance of companies in the consumer non-cyclical and consumer cyclical sectors may be affected by economic, business or political conditions, consumer demand, price competition and government regulation.
Leveraging Risk. Certain Fund transactions, such as entering into futures contracts, options and short sales, may give rise to a form of leverage. Leverage can magnify the effects of changes in the value of the Fund’s investments and make the Fund more volatile. Leverage creates a risk of loss of value on a larger pool of assets than the Fund would otherwise have had, potentially resulting in the loss of all assets. The Fund may also have to sell assets at inopportune times to satisfy its obligations in connection with such transactions.
Management and Strategy Risk. The value of your investment depends on the judgment of the Sub-Advisor about the quality, relative yield, value or market trends affecting a particular security, industry, sector or region, which may prove to be incorrect.
16
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Alternative Value Fund |
Foreign Investment Risk. The prices of foreign securities may be more volatile than the prices of securities of U.S. issuers because of economic and social conditions abroad, political developments, and changes in the regulatory environments of foreign countries. Changes in exchange rates and interest rates, and the imposition of sanctions, confiscations, trade restrictions (including tariffs) and other government restrictions by the United States and/or other governments may adversely affect the values of the Fund’s foreign investments. Foreign companies are generally subject to different legal and accounting standards than U.S. companies, and foreign financial intermediaries may be subject to less supervision and regulation than U.S. financial firms. Foreign securities include American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”) and Global Depositary Receipts (“GDRs”). Unsponsored ADRs and GDRs are organized independently and without the cooperation of the foreign issuer of the underlying securities, and involve additional risks because U.S. reporting requirements do not apply. In addition, the issuing bank may deduct shareholder distribution, custody, foreign currency exchange, and other fees from the payment of dividends.
ETF and Mutual Fund Risk. Investing in ETFs or mutual funds (including other funds managed by the Fund’s Sub-Advisor) will provide the fund with exposure to the risks of owning the underlying securities the ETFs or mutual funds hold. Shares of ETFs typically trade on securities exchanges and may at times trade at a premium or discount to their net asset values. In addition, an ETF or a mutual fund, if the mutual fund is an index fund, may not replicate exactly the performance of the benchmark index it seeks to track for a number of reasons, including transaction costs incurred by the ETF or mutual fund, the temporary unavailability of certain index securities in the secondary market, or discrepancies between the ETF or mutual fund and the index with respect to the weighting of securities or the number of securities held. It may be more expensive for the Fund to invest in an ETF or mutual fund than to own the portfolio securities of these investment vehicles directly. Investing in ETFs and mutual funds, which are investment companies, involves duplication of advisory fees and certain other expenses. The Fund will pay brokerage commissions in connection with the purchase and sale of shares of ETFs. In addition, the Fund may invest in underlying funds which invest a larger portion of their assets in one or more sectors than many other mutual funds, and thus will be more susceptible to negative events affecting those sectors.
ETN Risk. ETNs are debt securities that combine certain aspects of ETFs and bonds. ETNs are not investment companies and thus are not regulated under the 1940 Act. ETNs, like ETFs, are traded on stock exchanges and generally track specified market indices, and their value depends on the performance of the underlying index and the credit rating of the issuer. ETNs may be held to maturity, but unlike bonds there are no periodic interest payments and principal is not protected.
Government-Sponsored Entities Risk. The Fund’s investment in U.S. government obligations may include securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. government, or its agencies or instrumentalities. There can be no assurance that the U.S. government would provide financial support to its agencies or instrumentalities (including government-sponsored enterprises) when it is not obligated to do so.
Cybersecurity Risk. Cybersecurity incidents may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to Fund assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or cause the Fund, the Advisor, the Sub-Advisor, and/or other service providers (including custodians, sub-custodians, transfer agents and financial intermediaries) to suffer data breaches, data corruption or loss of operational functionality. In an extreme case, a shareholder’s ability to exchange or redeem Fund shares may be affected. Issuers of securities in which the Fund invests are also subject to cybersecurity risks, and the value of those securities could decline if the issuers experience cybersecurity incidents.
17
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Alternative Value Fund |
COVID-19 Related Market Events. The pandemic of the novel coronavirus respiratory disease designated COVID-19 has resulted in extreme volatility in the financial markets, a domestic and global economic downturn, severe losses, particularly to some sectors of the economy and individual issuers, and reduced liquidity of many instruments. There have also been significant disruptions to business operations, including business closures; strained healthcare systems; disruptions to supply chains and employee availability; large fluctuations in consumer demand; and widespread uncertainty regarding the duration and long-term effects of the pandemic. The pandemic may result in domestic and foreign political and social instability, damage to diplomatic and international trade relations, and continued volatility and/or decreased liquidity in the securities markets. Governments and central banks, including the Federal Reserve in the United States, took extraordinary and unprecedented actions to support local and global economies and the financial markets. This and other government intervention into the economy and financial markets to address the pandemic may not work as intended, particularly if the efforts are perceived by investors as being unlikely to achieve the desired results. Rates of inflation have also recently risen, which could adversely affect economies and markets. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic, and measures taken to mitigate its effects, could result in disruptions to the services provided to the Fund by its service providers. Other market events like the COVID-19 pandemic may cause similar disruptions and effects.
The Fund acquired the assets and liabilities of the AXS Alternative Value Fund (formerly, Cognios Large Cap Value Fund), a series of M3Sixty Funds Trust (the “Predecessor Fund”), following the reorganization of the Predecessor Fund on March 5, 2021. As a result of the acquisition, the Fund is the accounting successor of the Predecessor Fund. Performance results shown in the bar chart and performance table below for the periods prior to March 5, 2021 reflect the performance of the Predecessor Fund prior to the commencement of the Fund’s operations.
Calendar-Year Total Return (before taxes) for Class I Shares
For each calendar year at NAV
Class I Shares | ||
Quarter
Ended | ||
( |
Quarter
Ended |
18
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Alternative Value Fund |
Average Annual Total Returns (for periods ended December 31, 2022) |
1 Year | 5 Years |
Since Inception ( |
Class I Shares - Return Before Taxes | |||
Class I Shares - Return After Taxes on Distributions* | |||
Class I Shares - Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares* | |||
Investor Class Shares - Return Before Taxes | |||
S&P 500® Total Return Index** |
( |
* |
** |
Investment Advisor
AXS Investments LLC (the “Advisor”) is the Fund’s investment advisor.
Sub-Advisor
Quantitative Value Technologies, LLC d/b/a Cognios Capital is the Fund’s sub-advisor.
Portfolio Managers
Jonathan C. Angrist, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Cognios Capital, and Brian J. Machtley, Chief Operating Officer of Cognios Capital, have been jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio since March 2021 and the Predecessor Fund’s portfolio since the Predecessor Fund’s inception in October 2016.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
To purchase shares of the Fund, you must invest at least the minimum amount.
Minimum Investments | To
Open Your Account |
To
Add to Your Account |
Investor Class Shares | ||
Direct Regular Accounts | $2,500 | $500 |
Direct Retirement Accounts | $2,500 | $500 |
Automatic Investment Plan | $2,500 | $100 |
Gift Account For Minors | $2,500 | $500 |
Class I Shares | ||
All Accounts | $5,000 | None |
Fund shares are redeemable on any business day the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) is open for business, by written request or by telephone.
19
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Alternative Value Fund |
Tax Information
The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable, and will ordinarily be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account. Shareholders investing through such tax-advantaged arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of monies from those arrangements.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
20
SUMMARY SECTION | |
The investment objective of the AXS Chesapeake Strategy Fund (the “Fund”) is long-term capital appreciation.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below.
Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) |
Class A Shares |
Class C Shares |
Class I Shares |
Maximum sales charge (load) imposed on purchases (as a percentage of offering price) | |||
Maximum deferred sales charge (load) (as a percentage of the lesser of the value redeemed or the amount invested) | |||
Wire fee | $ |
$ |
$ |
Overnight check delivery fee | $ |
$ |
$ |
Retirement account fees (annual maintenance fee) | $ |
$ |
$ |
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) |
|||
Management fees2 | |||
Distribution and service (Rule 12b-1) fees | |||
Other expenses | |||
Acquired fund fees and expenses | |||
Total annual fund operating expenses3,4 | |||
Fees waived and/or expenses reimbursed | ( |
( |
( |
Total annual fund operating expenses after waiving fees and/or reimbursing expenses3,4 |
1 |
2 | |
3 | |
4 |
21
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Chesapeake Strategy Fund |
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in Class A and Class C shares and $100,000 (initial investment minimum) in Class I shares of the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The example reflects the Fund’s contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement only for the term of the contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement.
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
One Year | Three Years | Five Years | Ten Years | |
Class A Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Class C Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Class I Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
One Year | Three Years | Five Years | Ten Years | |
Class C Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
The Fund
pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities
(or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover may indicate higher
transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a
taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating
expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most
recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
The Fund pursues its investment objective by making a combination of investments (i) directly in an actively managed fixed-income portfolio (typically U.S. Treasuries and other short-term U.S. government obligations) comprised of cash, cash equivalents, securities issued by the U.S. government with one year or less term to maturity and money market funds (the “Fixed Income Portfolio”) and (ii) directly or indirectly in a diversified portfolio of futures contracts and futures-related instruments such as forwards and swaps in broadly diversified global (i.e. U.S. and non-U.S., including emerging markets) markets across a wide range of asset classes, including equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities, utilizing a portfolio of futures, forwards, options, spot contracts and swaps (the “Futures Portfolio”). The Fund either invests directly in those instruments, or indirectly by investing via a swap or via its wholly-owned subsidiary organized in the Cayman Islands (the “Subsidiary”) which may then invest in such assets directly or indirectly.
22
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Chesapeake Strategy Fund |
Chesapeake Capital Corporation (“Chesapeake” or the “Sub-Advisor”) manages the Futures Portfolio and the Subsidiary’s Futures Portfolio by applying the Chesapeake Program. The Chesapeake Program is a long-term trend following (a strategy that generally seeks to identify the general direction of one or more global market segments (either up or down) using indicators such as current market prices and moving average prices, and buy or sell investments based on the assessment of these trade signals as determined before a trade is made) program that utilizes trading systems across a broadly diversified set of markets with a systematic trading (a trading strategy that employs computer-driven, mathematical models to identify when to buy or sell an instrument according to rules determined before a trade is made, generally with little or no human intervention once a mathematical formula has been entered) approach, focusing on capital preservation while attempting to provide positive annual returns. Chesapeake analyzes markets, including price movement, market volatility, open interest (the total number of contracts long or short in a delivery month or market that has been entered into and not yet liquidated by an offsetting transaction or fulfilled by delivery), and volume, as a means of predicting market opportunity and discovering any repeating patterns in past historical prices. The scope of markets that may be accessed includes stock indices, single stock futures, interest rates, currencies, and commodities. The Chesapeake Program may also invest directly in long and short positions of U.S. and non-U.S. equity securities as part of its broader trend following program. The direct investments in equity securities will typically not exceed 30% of the Fund’s total assets.
The Fund may make some or all of its investments in the Futures Portfolio through the Subsidiary. Applicable federal tax requirements generally limit the degree to which the Fund may invest in the Subsidiary to an amount not exceeding 25% of its total assets at each quarter end of the Fund’s fiscal year. Generally, the Subsidiary will primarily invest directly or indirectly in commodity futures, but it may also invest in swaps, financial futures, foreign exchange currency forwards, U.S. government securities, money market funds, and/or other investments intended to serve as margin or collateral for the Subsidiary’s derivative positions. Through investing in the Subsidiary, the Fund will, among other things, be able to gain exposure to the commodities markets within the limitations of the federal tax laws, rules and regulations that apply to regulated investment companies. To the extent they are applicable to the investment activities of the Subsidiary, the Subsidiary will be subject to the same investment restrictions and limitations, and follow the same compliance policies and procedures, as the Fund. Unlike the Fund, the Subsidiary may invest without limitation in commodity-linked derivative instruments (including commodity futures), however, the Subsidiary will comply with the same asset coverage requirements imposed by the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”) with respect to its investments in commodity-linked derivatives (including commodity futures) that are applicable to the Fund’s transactions in derivatives. Unlike the Fund, the Subsidiary will not seek to qualify as a regulated investment company under Sub-chapter M of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). The Fund is the sole shareholder of the Subsidiary and does not expect shares of the Subsidiary to be offered or sold to other investors.
The Fund’s returns will be derived principally from changes in the value of securities and derivatives of securities held in the Fund’s portfolio (including its investment in the Subsidiary), and the Fund’s assets will consist principally of securities. The Sub-Advisor may engage in frequent buying and selling of portfolio holdings to achieve the Fund’s investment objective.
Market Risk. The market price of a security or instrument may decline, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to general market conditions that are not specifically related to a particular company, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions throughout the world, changes in the general outlook for corporate earnings, changes in interest or currency rates, or adverse investor sentiment generally. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, the spread of infectious illness or other public health issues, or other events could have a significant impact on a security or instrument. The market value of a security or instrument also may decline because of factors that affect a particular industry or industries, such as labor shortages or increased production costs and competitive conditions within an industry.
23
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Chesapeake Strategy Fund |
Sub-Advisor Strategy Risk. The performance of the Fund’s Futures Portfolio depends primarily on the ability of the Sub-Advisor to anticipate price movements in the relevant markets and underlying derivative instruments and futures and forward contracts. Such price movements may be volatile and may be influenced by, among other things:
● | changes in interest rates; |
● | governmental, agricultural, trade, fiscal, monetary and exchange control programs and policies; |
● | weather and climate conditions; |
● | natural disasters, such as hurricanes; |
● | changing supply and demand relationships; |
● | changes in balances of payments and trade; |
● | U.S. and international rates of inflation and deflation; |
● | currency devaluations and revaluations; |
● | U.S. and international political and economic events; and |
● | changes in philosophies and emotions of various market participants. |
The Sub-Advisor’s investment process may not take all of these factors into account. The successful use of futures contracts and other derivatives draws upon the Sub-Advisor’s skill and experience with respect to such instruments and are subject to special risk considerations.
The trading decisions of the Sub-Advisor are based in part on mathematical models, which are implemented as automated computer algorithms that the Sub-Advisor has developed over time. The successful operation of the automated computer algorithms on which the Sub-Advisor’s trading decisions are based is reliant upon the Sub-Advisor’s information technology systems and its ability to ensure those systems remain operational and that appropriate disaster recovery procedures are in place. Further, as market dynamics shift over time, a previously highly successful model may become outdated, perhaps without the Sub-Advisor recognizing that fact before substantial losses are incurred. There can be no assurance that the Sub-Advisor will be successful in maintaining effective mathematical models and automated computer algorithms.
There is no assurance that the Fund’s investment in a derivative instrument with leveraged exposure to certain investments and markets will enable the Fund to achieve its investment objective.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives include instruments and contracts that are based on and valued in relation to one or more underlying securities, financial benchmarks, indices, or other reference obligations or measures of value. Major types of derivatives include futures, options, swaps and forward contracts. Using derivatives exposes the Fund to additional or heightened risks, including leverage risk, liquidity risk, valuation risk, market risk, counterparty risk, and credit risk. Derivatives transactions can be highly illiquid and difficult to unwind or value, they can increase Fund volatility, and changes in the value of a derivative held by the Fund may not correlate with the value of the underlying instrument or the Fund’s other investments. Many of the risks applicable to trading the instruments underlying derivatives are also applicable to derivatives trading. However, derivatives are subject to additional risks such as operational risk, including settlement issues, and legal risk, including that underlying documentation is incomplete or ambiguous. For derivatives that are required to be cleared by a regulated clearinghouse, other risks may arise from the Fund’s relationship with a brokerage firm through which it submits derivatives trades for clearing, including in some cases from other clearing customers of the brokerage firm.
Counterparty Risk. The derivative contracts entered into by the Fund and the Subsidiary may be privately negotiated in the over-the-counter market. These contracts also involve exposure to credit risk, since contract performance depends in part on the financial condition of the counterparty. Relying on a counterparty exposes the Fund to the risk that a counterparty will not settle a transaction in accordance with its terms and conditions because of a dispute over the terms of the contract (whether or not bona fide) or because of a credit or liquidity problem, thus causing the Fund to suffer a loss. If a counterparty defaults on its payment obligations to the Fund, this default will cause the value of an investment in the Fund to decrease. In addition, to the extent the Fund deals with a limited number of counterparties, it will be more susceptible to the credit risks associated with those counterparties. The Fund is neither restricted from dealing with any particular counterparty nor from concentrating any or all of its transactions with one counterparty. The ability of the Fund to transact business with any one or number of counterparties and the absence of a regulated market to facilitate settlement may increase the potential for losses by the Fund.
24
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Chesapeake Strategy Fund |
Commodities Risk. Exposure to the commodities markets (including financial futures markets) through investments in futures may subject the Fund to greater volatility than investments in traditional securities. Prices of commodities and related contracts may fluctuate significantly over short periods for a variety of reasons, including changes in interest rates, supply and demand relationships and balances of payments and trade; weather and natural disasters; and governmental, agricultural, trade, fiscal, monetary and exchange control programs and policies. The commodity markets are subject to temporary distortions and other disruptions. U.S. futures exchanges and some foreign exchanges have regulations that limit the amount of fluctuation in futures contract prices which may occur during a single business day and the size of contract positions taken. Limit prices have the effect of precluding trading in a particular contract or forcing the liquidation of contracts at disadvantageous times or prices.
Volatility Risk. The Fund may have investments that appreciate or decrease significantly in value over short periods of time. This may cause the Fund’s NAV per share to experience significant increases or declines in value over short periods of time. The Fund’s NAV is expected over short-term periods to be volatile because of the significant use of direct and indirect investments that have a leveraging effect. Volatility is a statistical measurement of the magnitude of up and down asset price fluctuations over time. Rapid and dramatic price swings will result in high volatility. The Fund’s returns are expected to be volatile; however, the actual or realized volatility level for longer or shorter periods may be materially higher or lower depending on market conditions and investors may suffer a significant and possibly a complete loss on their investment in the Fund.
Short Sales Risk. In connection with a short sale of a security or other instrument, the Fund is subject to the risk that instead of declining, the price of the security or other instrument sold short will rise. If the price of the security or other instrument sold short increases between the date of the short sale and the date on which the Fund replaces the security or other instrument borrowed to make the short sale, the Fund will experience a loss, which is theoretically unlimited since there is a theoretically unlimited potential for the market price of a security or other instrument sold short to increase. Shorting options or futures may have an imperfect correlation to the assets held by the Fund and may not adequately protect against losses in or may result in greater losses for the Fund’s portfolio.
Subsidiary Risk. By investing in the Subsidiary, the Fund will be indirectly exposed to the risks associated with the Subsidiary’s investments. The Subsidiary is not registered under the 1940 Act and, unless otherwise noted in this Prospectus, is not itself subject to all of the investor protections of the 1940 Act. Changes in the laws of the United States, the U.S. states or the Cayman Islands, under which the Fund and Subsidiary are organized and operated, as applicable, could prevent the Fund or the Subsidiary from operating as described in this Prospectus and could negatively affect the Fund and its shareholders.
Tax Risk. To qualify for the tax treatment available to regulated investment companies under the Code, the Fund must derive at least 90% of its gross income for each taxable year from sources treated as “qualifying income.” Income derived from direct investments in commodities is not “qualifying income.” In addition, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) has issued a revenue ruling concluding that income and gains from certain commodity-linked derivatives does not constitute “qualifying income.” Investment through the Subsidiary is expected to allow the Fund to gain exposure to the commodity markets within the limitations of the federal tax law requirements applicable to regulated investment companies. The tax treatment of the Fund’s investment in the Subsidiary could nevertheless be adversely affected by future legislation or Treasury regulations.
Investment through the Subsidiary may affect the timing and character of income and gain recognized by the Fund, and of distributions to shareholders. For example, the tax treatment of any gains/losses from trading in 1256 futures contracts, such as exchange-traded commodity futures contracts, are generally taxed 60% as long-term capital gains/losses and 40% short term capital gains/losses. However, because the Subsidiary is a “controlled foreign corporation” for tax purposes, any income or gain recognized in respect of its investments in 1256 futures contracts will be passed through to the Fund as ordinary income, and distributions attributable to such income and gains will generally be taxable to shareholders as ordinary income.
25
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Chesapeake Strategy Fund |
Credit Risk. If an issuer or guarantor of a debt security held by the Fund or a counterparty to a financial contract with the Fund defaults or is downgraded or is perceived to be less creditworthy, or if the value of the assets underlying a security declines, the value of the Fund’s portfolio will typically decline.
Currency Risk. The values of investments in securities denominated in foreign currencies increase or decrease as the rates of exchange between those currencies and the U.S. dollar change. Currency conversion costs and currency fluctuations could erase investment gains or add to investment losses. Currency exchange rates can be volatile and are affected by factors such as general economic conditions, the actions of the United States and foreign governments or central banks, the imposition of currency controls, and speculation.
Equity Risk. The value of the equity securities held by the Fund may fall due to general market and economic conditions, perceptions regarding the industries in which the issuers of securities held by the Fund participate, or factors relating to specific companies in which the Fund invests.
Fixed Income Securities Risk. The prices of fixed income securities respond to economic developments, particularly interest rate changes, as well as to changes in an issuer’s credit rating or market perceptions about the creditworthiness of an issuer. Generally fixed income securities decrease in value if interest rates rise and increase in value if interest rates fall, and longer-term and lower rated securities are more volatile than shorter-term and higher rated securities.
Foreign Investment Risk. The prices of foreign securities may be more volatile than the prices of securities of U.S. issuers because of economic and social conditions abroad, political developments, and changes in the regulatory environments of foreign countries. Changes in exchange rates and interest rates, and the imposition of sanctions, confiscations, trade restrictions (including tariffs) and other government restrictions by the United States and/or other governments may adversely affect the values of the Fund’s foreign investments. Foreign companies are generally subject to different legal and accounting standards than U.S. companies, and foreign financial intermediaries may be subject to less supervision and regulation than U.S. financial firms.
Emerging Markets Risk. Many of the risks with respect to foreign investments are more pronounced for investments in issuers in developing or emerging market countries. Emerging market countries tend to have more government exchange controls, more volatile interest and currency exchange rates, less market regulation, and less developed and less stable economic, political and legal systems than those of more developed countries. There may be less publicly available and reliable information about issuers in emerging markets than is available about issuers in more developed markets. In addition, emerging market countries may experience high levels of inflation and may have less liquid securities markets and less efficient trading and settlement systems.
Government Intervention and Regulatory Changes Risk. In response to the global financial crisis that began in 2007, which caused a significant decline in the value and liquidity of many securities and unprecedented volatility in the markets, the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve, as well as certain foreign governments and their central banks took steps to support financial markets, including by keeping interest rates low. Similar steps were taken again in 2020 in an effort to support the economy during the coronavirus pandemic. In 2022, the Federal Reserve began to unwind its balance sheet by not replacing existing bond holdings as they mature (“Quantitative Tightening”). Also in 2022, the Federal Reserve began raising the federal funds rate in an effort to fight inflation. Government interventions such as those described above may not work as intended, particularly if the efforts are perceived by investors as being unlikely to achieve the desired results. In addition, legal and regulatory changes could occur that may adversely affect the Fund, its investments, and its ability to pursue its investment strategies and/or increase the costs of implementing such strategies. For example, the regulation of derivatives markets has increased over the past several years, and additional future regulation of the derivatives markets may make derivatives more costly, may limit the availability or reduce the liquidity of derivatives, or may otherwise adversely affect the value or performance of derivatives. Any such adverse future developments could impair the effectiveness or raise the costs of the Fund’s derivative transactions, impede the employment of the Fund’s derivatives strategies, or adversely affect the Fund’s performance. The Fund also may be adversely affected by changes in the enforcement or interpretation of existing statutes and rules by governmental regulatory authorities or self-regulatory organizations.
26
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Chesapeake Strategy Fund |
Leveraging Risk. Certain Fund transactions, such as entering into futures contracts, options and short sales, may give rise to a form of leverage. Leverage can magnify the effects of changes in the value of the Fund’s investments and make the Fund more volatile. Leverage creates a risk of loss of value on a larger pool of assets than the Fund would otherwise have had, potentially resulting in the loss of all assets. The Fund may also have to sell assets at inopportune times to satisfy its obligations in connection with such transactions.
Liquidity Risk. The Fund may not be able to sell some or all of the investments that it holds due to a lack of demand in the marketplace or other factors such as market turmoil, or if the Fund is forced to sell an illiquid asset to meet redemption requests or other cash needs it may only be able to sell those investments at a loss. In addition, the reduction in dealer market-making capacity in the fixed income markets that has occurred in recent years has the potential to decrease the liquidity of the Fund’s investments. Illiquid assets may also be difficult to value.
Management and Strategy Risk. The value of your investment depends on the judgment of the Fund’s Sub-Advisors about the quality, relative yield, value or market trends affecting a particular security, industry, sector or region, which may prove to be incorrect.
LIBOR Risk. Many financial instruments, financings or other transactions to which the Fund may be a party use or may use a floating rate based on the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”). In July 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority, the United Kingdom’s financial regulatory body, announced that after 2021 it would cease its active encouragement of banks to provide the quotations needed to sustain LIBOR. The publication of LIBOR on a representative basis ceased for the one-week and two-month U.S. dollar LIBOR settings immediately after December 31, 2021, and it is expected to cease for the remaining U.S. dollar LIBOR settings immediately after June 30, 2023. Any potential effects of the transition away from LIBOR on the Fund or on certain instruments in which the Fund invests can be difficult to determine, and they may vary depending on factors that include, but are not limited to, (i) existing fallback or termination provisions in individual contracts and (ii) whether, how, and when industry participants develop and adopt new reference rates and fallback provisions for both legacy and new products and instruments. The transition process may involve, among other things, increased volatility or illiquidity in markets for instruments that currently rely on LIBOR, and there may be a reduction in the value of certain instruments held by the Fund.
Cybersecurity Risk. Cybersecurity incidents may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to Fund assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or cause the Fund, the Advisor, the Sub-Advisor and/or other service providers (including custodians, sub-custodians, transfer agents and financial intermediaries) to suffer data breaches, data corruption or loss of operational functionality. In an extreme case, a shareholder’s ability to exchange or redeem Fund shares may be affected. Issuers of securities in which the Fund invests are also subject to cybersecurity risks, and the value of those securities could decline if the issuers experience cybersecurity incidents.
COVID-19 Related Market Events. The pandemic of the novel coronavirus respiratory disease designated COVID-19 has resulted in extreme volatility in the financial markets, a domestic and global economic downturn, severe losses, particularly to some sectors of the economy and individual issuers, and reduced liquidity of many instruments. There have also been significant disruptions to business operations, including business closures; strained healthcare systems; disruptions to supply chains and employee availability; large fluctuations in consumer demand; and widespread uncertainty regarding the duration and long-term effects of the pandemic. The pandemic may result in domestic and foreign political and social instability, damage to diplomatic and international trade relations, and continued volatility and/or decreased liquidity in the securities markets. Governments and central banks, including the Federal Reserve in the United States, took extraordinary and unprecedented actions to support local and global economies and the financial markets. This and other government intervention into the economy and financial markets to address the pandemic may not work as intended, particularly if the efforts are perceived by investors as being unlikely to achieve the desired results. Rates of inflation have also recently risen, which could adversely affect economies and markets. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic, and measures taken to mitigate its effects, could result in disruptions to the services provided to the Fund by its service providers. Other market events like the COVID-19 pandemic may cause similar disruptions and effects.
27
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Chesapeake Strategy Fund |
The Fund acquired the assets and liabilities of the Equinox Chesapeake Strategy Fund, a series of Equinox Funds Trust (the “Predecessor Fund”), on November 8, 2019. As a result of the acquisition, the Fund is the accounting successor of the Predecessor Fund. Performance results shown in the bar chart and the performance table below for the periods prior to November 8, 2019, reflect the performance of the Predecessor Fund.
Calendar-Year Total Return (before taxes) for Class I Shares
For each calendar year at NAV
Class I Shares | ||
Quarter
Ended | ||
( |
Quarter
Ended |
28
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Chesapeake Strategy Fund |
Average Annual Total Returns (for periods ended December 31, 2022) |
1 Year | 5 Years |
10 Years |
Since Inception |
Inception Date |
Class I - Return Before Taxes | - | ||||
Class I - Return After Taxes on Distributions* | 09/10/2012 | ||||
Class I - Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares* | 09/10/2012 | ||||
Class A Shares - Return Before Taxes | - | ||||
Class C Shares - Return Before Taxes | - | ||||
SG
Trend Index |
* |
Investment Advisor
AXS Investments LLC (the “Advisor”) is the Fund’s investment advisor.
Sub-Advisor
Chesapeake Capital Corporation (the “Sub-Advisor”) is the Fund’s sub-advisor.
Portfolio Managers
The Sub-Advisor’s portfolio management team is comprised of Jerry Parker, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Chesapeake, and Michael L. Ivie, Director of Research. Mr. Parker and Mr. Ivie have been responsible for the daily management of the Fund’s portfolio since November 2019 and the Predecessor Fund’s portfolio since 2017.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
To purchase shares of the Fund, you must invest at least the minimum amount.
Minimum Investments | To
Open Your Account |
To
Add to Your Account |
Class A and C Shares | ||
Direct Regular Accounts | $2,500 | $500 |
Direct Retirement Accounts | $2,500 | $500 |
Automatic Investment Plan | $2,500 | $100 |
Gift Account For Minors | $2,500 | $500 |
Class I Shares | ||
All Accounts | $5,000 | None |
Fund shares are redeemable on any business day the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) is open for business, by written request or by telephone.
Tax Information
The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable, and will ordinarily be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account. Shareholders investing through such tax-advantaged arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of monies from those arrangements.
29
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Chesapeake Strategy Fund |
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
30
SUMMARY SECTION | |
The AXS Market Neutral Fund (the “Market Neutral Fund” or “Fund”) seeks long-term growth of capital independent of stock market direction.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. Information about waivers and discounts is available from your financial professional and in the section titled “YOUR ACCOUNT WITH THE FUNDS - Purchase of Shares/Class I Shares” on page 127 and in “APPENDIX A – Waivers and Discounts Available from Intermediaries” on page 165 of the Prospectus.
Investor Class Shares |
Class I Shares | |||
(fees paid directly from your investment) | ||||
Redemption fee if redeemed within 30 days of purchase (as a percentage of amount redeemed) | ||||
Wire fee | $ |
$ | ||
Overnight check delivery fee | $ |
$ | ||
Retirement account fees (annual maintenance fee) | $ |
$ | ||
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) | ||||
Management fees | ||||
Distribution (Rule 12b-1) fees | ||||
Other expenses | ||||
Dividend expense, borrowing costs and brokerage expenses on securities sold short | ||||
All other expenses | ||||
Total annual fund operating expenses | ||||
Fee waivers and expense reimbursement1 | ( |
( | ||
Total annual fund operating expenses after fee waivers and expense reimbursement1 |
1 |
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The example reflects the Fund’s contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement only for the term of the contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement.
31
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Market Neutral Fund |
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
One Year | Three Years | Five Years | Ten Years | |
Investor Class Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Class I Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when
it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio
turnover may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes
when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not
reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s
performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover
rate was
The Market Neutral Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by balancing “long” and “short” positions. To do this, the Market Neutral Fund will buy (take long positions in) equity securities of U.S. companies that the Fund’s sub-advisor, Quantitative Value Technologies, LLC d/b/a Cognios Capital (“Cognios Capital” or the “Sub-Advisor”) believes are undervalued and more likely to appreciate and, at the same time, borrow and then sell (take short positions in) equity securities of U.S. companies that the Sub-Advisor believes are likely to underperform the long positions over time. The Market Neutral Fund generally seeks to purchase and sell short common stock of companies that are constituents of the S&P 500® Index. The Market Neutral Fund may invest across different industries and sectors. The Fund may also invest in the securities of issuers of any size.
When the Market Neutral Fund takes a long position, it purchases a stock outright. The Market Neutral Fund increases in value when the market price of the stock exceeds the cost per share to acquire the stock. In addition, the Market Neutral Fund will earn dividend income when dividends are paid on stocks owned by the Market Neutral Fund. When the Market Neutral Fund takes a short position, it sells at the current market price a stock it does not own but has borrowed in anticipation that the market price of the stock will decline or underperform the positions in the long portfolio. To complete, or close out, the short sale transaction, the Market Neutral Fund buys the same stock in the market at a later date and returns it to the lender. The Market Neutral Fund will make money if the market price of the borrowed stock goes down further than the borrowing costs, including dividend expenses when stocks held short pay dividends, and the Market Neutral Fund is able to replace the borrowed stock. While it is not guaranteed, the Sub-Advisor expects that dividend income will exceed dividend expense on an annual basis. Alternatively, if the price of the stock goes up after the short sale and before the short position is closed, the Market Neutral Fund will lose money on that position because it will have to pay more to replace the borrowed stock than the Market Neutral Fund received when the Market Neutral Fund sold the stock short.
Under normal circumstances, the Market Neutral Fund intends to generally remain “market neutral” on a “Beta-adjusted basis.” As used here, Beta is a statistical measure of the sensitivity of a company’s stock price to the movement of a broad stock market index. For the Market Neutral Fund, the Sub-Advisor considers a company’s stock price Beta relative to the S&P 500® Index. A Beta of 1.0 means a stock generally moves up and down in proportion to the movement of the stock market. A Beta greater than 1.0 means a stock generally moves up and down more than the movement of the stock market. A Beta less than 1.0 means that a stock generally moves up and down less than the movement of the stock market. “Beta-adjusted market neutral” means that the Sub-Advisor will attempt to offset 100% of the Market Neutral Fund’s long exposure to the Beta of the broad stock market (i.e., the up and down movements of the S&P 500® Index) by sizing the short positions based on the relative Betas of the long positions compared to the short positions. For example, when the Betas of the short positions are higher than the Betas of the long positions, fewer dollars of short positions are needed to offset the Betas of the long portfolio. In this case, the Market Neutral Fund will be “net long” on a dollar basis (i.e., more dollars invested in the long positions than in the short positions), but will still be “market neutral” on a Beta-adjusted basis. A “Beta-adjusted market neutral” strategy typically seeks to derive total returns strictly from stock picking Alpha, with none of the return over time coming from the general up and down movement of the broader stock market (described further below). Over time, since the Market Neutral Fund is Beta-adjusted market neutral, the Market Neutral Fund’s total return is expected to be largely independent of the positive or negative total returns of the broad stock market.
32
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Market Neutral Fund |
An actively managed stock portfolio’s gross investment return is generally driven by three factors: (i) the overall stock market’s return (i.e., in the Market Neutral Fund’s case, the overall stock market’s return is measured using the S&P 500® Total Return Index, the Fund’s benchmark); (ii) the sensitivity of the portfolio to changes in prices in the overall stock market (i.e., the portfolio’s Beta relative to the stock market); and (iii) the Sub-Advisor’s ability to do better or worse than what would be predicted by multiplying the market’s return by the portfolio’s Beta (i.e., (i) times (ii) above). This last component (iii) is called Alpha and is the risk-adjusted (i.e., Beta-adjusted) outperformance or underperformance of the portfolio relative to the stock market. Since the Market Neutral Fund has generally attempted to hedge all of the overall market’s returns on a Beta-adjusted basis through its short positions, all of the Market Neutral Fund’s net return is expected to be solely the Alpha generated by the Sub-Advisor, less all of the Market Neutral Fund’s fees and expenses. Positive Alpha can be generated if the stocks selected for the long portfolio exceed the performance of the S&P 500® Total Return Index and/or if the stocks selected for the short portfolio underperform the S&P 500® Total Return Index, less all of the Market Neutral Fund’s fees and expenses.
By employing this long/short Beta-adjusted market neutral investment strategy, the Market Neutral Fund seeks to limit its volatility relative to movements in the overall stock market and limit downside risk during market declines. The Market Neutral Fund may achieve a gain if the securities in its long portfolio outperform the securities in its short portfolio, each taken as a whole, even if the short positions generate a loss, as long as the loss in the short portfolio does not exceed the gain in the long portfolio. Conversely, the Market Neutral Fund may incur a loss if the securities in its short portfolio outperform the securities in its long portfolio. The Sub-Advisor attempts to achieve returns for the Market Neutral Fund that at least exceed the return on short-term fixed-income securities, with the broader goal of generating attractive risk-adjusted total returns compared to the S&P 500® Total Return Index.
The Market Neutral Fund may use borrowings or short sales for investment purposes (i.e., leverage). The Market Neutral Fund’s use of short positions will add financial leverage that is similar to borrowing money for investment purposes. In determining when and to what extent to employ leverage, the Sub-Advisor will consider factors such as the relative risks and returns expected from the portfolio as a whole and the costs of such transactions. Borrowings may be structured as secured or unsecured loans and may have fixed or variable interest rates. The Market Neutral Fund may borrow or use short sales (i.e., leverage) to the maximum extent permitted by the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”). The Market Neutral Fund will use leverage when the Sub-Advisor believes the return from the additional investments will be greater than the costs associated with the borrowing. The Fund may at times hold long and short positions that in the aggregate exceed the value of its net assets (i.e., so that the Fund is effectively leveraged).
The Sub-Advisor selects securities for purchase or short sale using its proprietary ROTA/ROME® selection and portfolio construction methodology. ROTA/ROME® focuses on a company’s Return on Total Assets (“ROTA”) and Return on Market Value of Equity (“ROME”) in order to identify companies whose per share intrinsic value has diverged significantly from the current market price of its stock.
ROTA, or Return on Total Assets, measures the profits that a company has earned on the capital invested in the business. The portfolio managers believe that companies with higher ROTAs are more attractive investment opportunities than companies with lower ROTAs because a business that has a high ROTA and can maintain that high ROTA over long periods of time most likely has some sort of competitive advantage in the marketplace that gives it an edge over its competition.
ROME, or Return on Market Value of Equity, divides a company’s profits by its current stock price. This “profit yield” is similar in concept to a bond’s “yield.” Like a bond yield, a higher ROME yield generally means that a company’s stock price is lower and cheaper. Similarly, a low ROME yield means the company’s stock price is higher and thus more expensive than that of other companies.
33
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Market Neutral Fund |
The Sub-Advisor uses these two metrics together to determine if a particular company is an attractive business (i.e., ROTA) and whether that company’s stock is cheap or expensive (i.e., ROME).
The Sub-Advisor will periodically reconstitute and rebalance the Fund’s portfolio according to its quantitative investment strategy, which may result in significant portfolio turnover. A higher rate of portfolio turnover increases transaction expenses, which may negatively affect the Market Neutral Fund’s performance. High portfolio turnover also may result in the realization of substantial net short-term capital gains, which, when distributed, are taxable to shareholders as ordinary income.
Market Risk. The market price of a security or instrument may decline, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to general market conditions that are not specifically related to a particular company, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions throughout the world, changes in the general outlook for corporate earnings, changes in interest or currency rates or adverse investor sentiment generally. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, the spread of infectious illness or other public health issues, or other events could have a significant impact on a security or instrument. The market value of a security or instrument also may decline because of factors that affect a particular industry or industries, such as labor shortages or increased production costs and competitive conditions within an industry.
Equity Risk. The value of the equity securities held by the Fund may fall due to general market and economic conditions, perceptions regarding the industries in which the issuers of securities held by the Fund participate, or factors relating to specific companies in which the Fund invests.
Stock Market Risk. The value of the Fund’s assets will fluctuate as the equity market fluctuates, although the Beta-adjusted market neutral focus of the Fund should reduce the effect of general market fluctuations on the valuation of the Fund as a whole. The value of the Fund’s long and short investments each may decline, and each may decline in value at the same time, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably, simply because of economic changes or other events that affect large portions of the market.
Large-Cap Company Risk. Larger, more established companies may be unable to attain the high growth rates of successful, smaller companies during periods of economic expansion.
Borrowing Risk. Borrowing money for investment purposes involves certain risks to the Fund’s shareholders, including potential for higher volatility of the net asset value of the Fund’s shares and the relatively greater effect of portfolio holdings on the net asset value of the shares. In addition, interest costs on borrowings may fluctuate with changing market interest rates and may partially offset or exceed the return earned on the borrowed funds. Also, during times of borrowing under adverse market conditions, the Fund might have to sell portfolio securities to meet interest or principal payments at a time when fundamental investment considerations would not favor such sales. Unless profits on assets acquired with borrowed funds exceed the costs of borrowing, the use of borrowing will diminish the investment performance of the Fund compared with what it would have been without borrowing.
Short Sales Risk. In connection with a short sale of a security or other instrument, the Fund is subject to the risk that instead of declining, the price of the security or other instrument sold short will rise. If the price of the security or other instrument sold short increases between the date of the short sale and the date on which the Fund replaces the security or other instrument borrowed to make the short sale, the Fund will experience a loss, which is theoretically unlimited since there is a theoretically unlimited potential for the market price of a security or other instrument sold short to increase.
34
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Market Neutral Fund |
Leveraging Risk. Certain Fund transactions, such as entering into futures contracts, options and short sales, may give rise to a form of leverage. Leverage can magnify the effects of changes in the value of the Fund’s investments and make the Fund more volatile. Leverage creates a risk of loss of value on a larger pool of assets than the Fund would otherwise have had, potentially resulting in the loss of all assets. The Fund may also have to sell assets at inopportune times to satisfy its obligations in connection with such transactions.
Management and Strategy Risk. The value of your investment depends on the judgment of the Sub-Advisor about the quality, relative yield, value or market trends affecting a particular security, industry, sector or region, which may prove to be incorrect.
Sector Focus Risk. The Fund may invest a larger portion of its assets in one or more sectors than many other mutual funds, and thus will be more susceptible to negative events affecting those sectors. Performance of companies in the consumer non-cyclical sector may be affected by economic, business or political conditions, consumer demand, price competition and government regulation.
Asset Coverage Risk. As a series of an investment company registered with the SEC, the Fund must engage in certain measures to “cover” open positions with respect to certain kinds of derivatives and short sales. The Fund may incur losses on derivatives and other leveraged investments (including the entire amount of the Fund’s investment in such investments) even if they are covered. The Fund, at its discretion, may forgo asset coverage in favor of implementing the SEC’s new and more comprehensive requirements under Rule 18f-4 of the 1940 Act, including value-at-risk (“VaR”) limitations on the Fund’s leverage risk.
Portfolio Turnover Risk. Active and frequent trading of the Fund’s portfolio securities may lead to higher transaction costs and may result in a greater number of taxable transactions than would otherwise be the case, which could negatively affect the Fund’s performance. A high rate of portfolio turnover is 100% or more.
Cybersecurity Risk. Cybersecurity incidents may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to Fund assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or cause the Fund, the Advisor, the Sub-Advisor, and/or other service providers (including custodians, sub-custodians, transfer agents and financial intermediaries) to suffer data breaches, data corruption or loss of operational functionality. In an extreme case, a shareholder’s ability to exchange or redeem Fund shares may be affected. Issuers of securities in which the Fund invests are also subject to cybersecurity risks, and the value of those securities could decline if the issuers experience cybersecurity incidents.
COVID-19 Related Market Events. The pandemic of the novel coronavirus respiratory disease designated COVID-19 has resulted in extreme volatility in the financial markets, a domestic and global economic downturn, severe losses, particularly to some sectors of the economy and individual issuers, and reduced liquidity of many instruments. There have also been significant disruptions to business operations, including business closures; strained healthcare systems; disruptions to supply chains and employee availability; large fluctuations in consumer demand; and widespread uncertainty regarding the duration and long-term effects of the pandemic. The pandemic may result in domestic and foreign political and social instability, damage to diplomatic and international trade relations, and continued volatility and/or decreased liquidity in the securities markets. Governments and central banks, including the Federal Reserve in the United States, took extraordinary and unprecedented actions to support local and global economies and the financial markets. This and other government intervention into the economy and financial markets to address the pandemic may not work as intended, particularly if the efforts are perceived by investors as being unlikely to achieve the desired results. Rates of inflation have also recently risen, which could adversely affect economies and markets. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic, and measures taken to mitigate its effects, could result in disruptions to the services provided to the Fund by its service providers. Other market events like the COVID-19 pandemic may cause similar disruptions and effects.
35
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Market Neutral Fund |
The Fund acquired the assets and liabilities of the AXS Market Neutral Fund (formerly, the Cognios Market Neutral Large Cap Fund), a series of M3Sixty Funds Trust (the “Predecessor Fund”), following the reorganization of the Predecessor Fund on March 5, 2021. As a result of the acquisition, the Fund is the accounting successor of the Predecessor Fund. Performance results shown in the bar chart and the performance table below for the periods prior to March 5, 2021 reflect the performance of the Predecessor Fund prior to the commencement of the Fund’s operations.
Calendar-Year Total Return (before taxes) for Class I Shares
For each calendar year at NAV
Class I Shares | ||
Quarter
Ended | ||
( |
Quarter
Ended |
36
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Market Neutral Fund |
Average Annual Total Returns (for periods ended December 31, 2022) |
1 Year | 5 Years | 10 Years |
Class I Shares - Return Before Taxes | |||
Class I Shares- Return After Taxes on Distributions* | |||
Class I Shares - Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares* | |||
Investor Class Shares - Return Before Taxes | |||
S&P 500® Total Return Index** |
( |
||
HFRX Equity Market Neutral Index (reflects no deductions for fees, expenses or taxes) |
( |
( |
* |
** |
Investment Advisor
AXS Investments LLC (the “Advisor”) is the Fund’s investment advisor.
Sub-Advisor
Quantitative Value Technologies, LLC d/b/a Cognios Capital is the Fund’s sub-advisor.
Portfolio Managers
Jonathan C. Angrist, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Cognios Capital, and Brian J. Machtley, Chief Operating Officer of Cognios Capital, have been jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio since March 2021 and the Predecessor Fund’s portfolio since the Predecessor Fund’s inception in December 2012.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
To purchase shares of the Fund, you must invest at least the minimum amount.
Minimum Investments | To
Open Your Account |
To
Add to Your Account |
Investor Class Shares | ||
Direct Regular Accounts | $2,500 | $500 |
Direct Retirement Accounts | $2,500 | $500 |
Automatic Investment Plan | $2,500 | $100 |
Gift Account For Minors | $2,500 | $500 |
Class I Shares | ||
All Accounts | $5,000 | None |
Fund shares are redeemable on any business day the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) is open for business, by written request or by telephone.
Tax Information
The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable, and will ordinarily be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account. Shareholders investing through such tax-advantaged arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of monies from those arrangements.
37
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Market Neutral Fund |
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
38
SUMMARY SECTION | |
The investment objective of the AXS Merger Fund (the “Fund”) is to seek to achieve positive risk-adjusted returns with less volatility than in the equity markets.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. Information about waivers and discounts is available from your financial professional and in the section titled “YOUR ACCOUNT WITH THE FUNDS - Purchase of Shares/Class I Shares” on page 127 and in “APPENDIX A – Waivers and Discounts Available from Intermediaries” on page 165 of the Prospectus.
Investor Class Shares |
Class I Shares | |||
(fees paid directly from your investment) | ||||
Maximum sales charge (load) imposed on purchases | ||||
Maximum deferred sales charge (load) | ||||
Redemption fee if redeemed within 30 days of purchase (as a percentage of amount redeemed) | ||||
Wire fee | $ |
$ | ||
Overnight check delivery fee | $ |
$ | ||
Retirement account fees (annual maintenance fee) | $ |
$ | ||
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) | ||||
Management fees | ||||
Distribution (Rule 12b-1) fee | ||||
Other expenses | ||||
Dividends expense on securities sold short | ||||
All other expenses | ||||
Acquired fund fees and expenses | ||||
Total annual fund operating expenses1 | ||||
Fee waivers and expense reimbursements2 | ( |
( | ||
Total annual fund operating expenses after fee waivers and expense reimbursement1,2 |
1 |
2 |
39
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Merger Fund |
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same.
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
One Year | Three Years | Five Years | Ten Years | |
Investor Class Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Class I Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when
it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio
turnover may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes
when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not
reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s
performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover
rate was
Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities and related derivatives of U.S. and foreign companies that are involved in publicly announced mergers, takeovers, tender offers, leveraged buyouts, spin-offs, liquidations and other corporate reorganizations (collectively, “Merger Transactions”). The types of equity securities in which the Fund primarily invests include common stocks and preferred stocks of any size market capitalization and may also include real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) and master limited partnerships (“MLPs”). The Fund may have significant exposure to one or more economic sectors of the market. The Fund may invest without limitation in securities of foreign companies.
The Fund’s sub-advisor, Kellner Management, L.P. (“Kellner” or the “Sub-Advisor”) investment technique, sometimes referred to as “merger arbitrage,” is a highly specialized investment approach designed to profit from the successful completion of Merger Transactions. In pursuing its strategy, the Sub-Advisor may employ investment techniques that involve leverage (investment exposure which exceeds the initial amount invested), such as short selling, borrowing against a line of credit for investment purposes and purchasing and selling derivative instruments including futures, options, swaps, forward foreign currency contracts and other synthetic instruments. The Fund may employ these investment techniques without limit, subject to the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”). The approach most frequently utilized by the Fund involves purchasing the shares of an announced acquisition target company at a discount to its expected value upon completion of the acquisition. A short sale is the sale by the Fund of a security which it does not own in anticipation of purchasing the same security in the future at a lower price to close the short position. The Sub-Advisor may engage in selling securities short under certain circumstances, such as when the terms of a proposed acquisition call for the exchange of common stock and/or other securities. In such a case, the common stock of the company to be acquired may be purchased and, at approximately the same time, an equivalent amount of the acquiring company’s common stock and/or other securities may be sold short.
The Fund may enter into equity swaps, forms of derivatives, for the purpose of attempting to obtain a desired return on, or increased exposure to, certain equity securities or equity indices. Swaps are two party contracts for periods ranging from a few days or weeks to more than one year. In a standard total return “swap” transaction, two parties agree to exchange the returns which might be earned or realized on particular investments or instruments or a basket of investments or instruments. The parties do not actually invest in or own the underlying securities or instruments that are the subject of the swap contract. Under such a swap agreement, the Fund pays the other party to the agreement (a “swap counterparty”) fees plus an amount equal to any negative total returns from the underlying investments specified in the swap agreement. In exchange, the counterparty pays the Fund an amount equal to any positive total returns from the stipulated underlying investments.
40
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Merger Fund |
The Sub-Advisor employs a research-driven process that aims to identify investment opportunities with favorable risk/reward trade-offs within the following guidelines:
1) | Securities are evaluated for purchase after the public announcement of a corporate event or restructuring. |
2) | Proprietary analysis is done to consider the strategic rationale of the transaction, the financial resources of the parties involved and the liquidity of the securities. |
3) | Securities are typically purchased if the Sub-Advisor believes the potential return from its investment sufficiently compensates the Fund in light of the risks involved, including the risk that the transaction may not be completed and the length of time until completion of the transaction. |
4) | The potential risk/reward of the position is assessed on an ongoing basis and continuously monitored. |
Most of the Fund’s positions are held until the completion of the transaction. Positions may be sold prior to the completion of the transaction when the companies involved in the transaction no longer meet the Fund’s expected return criteria taking into account prevailing market prices and the relative risk of the transaction. The Sub-Advisor expects that the Fund’s active or frequent trading of portfolio securities may result in a portfolio turnover rate in excess of 100% on an annual basis. From time to time, due to lack of suitable investment opportunities, the Fund may be invested in cash or invest assets into money market instruments, including money market funds, or other cash equivalents.
The Fund is non-diversified, which means that it can invest a greater percentage of its assets in any one issuer than a diversified fund. Investing in fewer issuers makes the Fund more susceptible to financial, economic or market events impacting such issuers and may cause the Fund’s share price to be more volatile than the share price of a diversified fund.
Merger Arbitrage Risk. Investments in companies that are the subject of a publicly announced transaction carry the risk that the proposed or expected transaction may not be completed or may be completed on less favorable terms than originally expected, which may lower the Fund’s performance.
Market Risk. The market price of a security or instrument may decline, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to general market conditions that are not specifically related to a particular company, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions throughout the world, changes in the general outlook for corporate earnings, changes in interest or currency rates, or adverse investor sentiment generally. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, the spread of infectious illness or other public health issues, or other events could have a significant impact on a security or instrument. The market value of a security or instrument also may decline because of factors that affect a particular industry or industries, such as labor shortages or increased production costs and competitive conditions within an industry.
Equity Risk. The value of the equity securities held by the Fund may fall due to general market and economic conditions, perceptions regarding the industries in which the issuers of securities held by the Fund participate, or factors relating to specific companies in which the Fund invests.
41
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Merger Fund |
Preferred Stock Risk. Preferred stock represents an equity interest in a company that generally entitles the holder to receive, in preference to the holders of other stocks such as common stock, dividends and a fixed share of the proceeds resulting from a liquidation of the company. The market value of preferred stock is subject to company-specific and market risks applicable generally to equity securities and is also sensitive to changes in the company’s creditworthiness, the ability of the company to make payments on the preferred stock, and changes in interest rates, typically declining in value if interest rates rise.
Short Sales Risk. In connection with a short sale of a security or other instrument, the Fund is subject to the risk that instead of declining, the price of the security or other instrument sold short will rise. If the price of the security or other instrument sold short increases between the date of the short sale and the date on which the Fund replaces the security or other instrument borrowed to make the short sale, the Fund will experience a loss, which is theoretically unlimited since there is a theoretically unlimited potential for the market price of a security or other instrument sold short to increase.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives include instruments and contracts that are based on and valued in relation to one or more underlying securities, financial benchmarks, indices, or other reference obligations or measures of value. Major types of derivatives include futures, options, swaps and forward contracts. Using derivatives exposes the Fund to additional or heightened risks, including leverage risk, liquidity risk, valuation risk, market risk, counterparty risk, and credit risk. Derivatives transactions can be highly illiquid and difficult to unwind or value, they can increase Fund volatility, and changes in the value of a derivative held by the Fund may not correlate with the value of the underlying instrument or the Fund’s other investments. Many of the risks applicable to trading the instruments underlying derivatives are also applicable to derivatives trading. However, derivatives are subject to additional risks, such as operational risk, including settlement issues, and legal risk, including that underlying documentation is incomplete or ambiguous. For derivatives that are required to be cleared by a regulated clearinghouse, other risks may arise from the Fund’s relationship with a brokerage firm through which it submits derivatives trades for clearing, including in some cases from other clearing customers of the brokerage firm.
Swap Risk. A swap is a form of derivative that provides leverage, allowing the Acquired Fund to obtain the right to a return on a specified investment or instrument that exceeds the amount the Acquired Fund has invested in that investment or instrument. Although the Acquired Fund will segregate or earmark liquid assets to cover its net obligations under a swap, the amount will be limited to the current value of the Acquired Fund’s obligations to the counterparty, and will not prevent the Acquired Fund from incurring losses greater than the value of those specified investments or instruments. By using swaps, the Acquired Fund is exposed to additional risks concerning the counterparty. The use of swaps could cause the Acquired Fund to be more volatile, resulting in larger gains or losses in response to changes in the values of the securities underlying the swaps than if the Acquired Fund had made direct investments. Use of leverage involves special risks and is speculative. If the Advisor is incorrect in evaluating long and short exposures, leverage will magnify any losses, and such losses may be significant.
Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Risk. The Fund’s investment in REITs will subject the Fund to risks similar to those associated with direct ownership of real estate, including losses from casualty or condemnation, and changes in local and general economic conditions, supply and demand, interest rates, zoning laws, regulatory limitations on rents, property taxes and operating expenses.
Master Limited Partnership Risk. Investment in securities of an MLP involves risks that differ from investments in common stock, including risks related to limited control and limited rights to vote on matters affecting the MLP, risks related to potential conflicts of interest between the MLP and the MLP’s general partner, cash flow risks, dilution risks and risks related to the general partner’s right to require unit-holders to sell their common units at an undesirable time or price. Certain MLP securities may trade in low volumes due to their small capitalizations. Accordingly, those MLPs may be subject to more abrupt or erratic price movements and may lack sufficient market liquidity to enable the Fund to effect sales at an advantageous time or without a substantial drop in price. MLPs are generally considered interest-rate sensitive investments. During periods of interest rate volatility, these investments may not provide attractive returns. During periods of interest rate volatility, these investments may not provide attractive returns. MLPs may incur environmental costs and liabilities due to the nature of their businesses and the substances they handle. Changes in existing laws, regulations or enforcement policies governing the energy sector could significantly increase the compliance costs of MLPs. The Fund will select its investments in MLPs from the current small pool of issuers. Demand for investment opportunities in MLPs that operate energy-related businesses may exceed supply, which could make it difficult to operate the Fund.
42
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Merger Fund |
MLP Tax Risk. A change in current tax law, or a change in the business of an MLP, could result in an MLP being treated as a corporation or other form of taxable entity for U.S. federal income tax purposes, which could result in the MLP being required to pay U.S. federal income tax, excise tax or another form of tax on its income. The classification of an MLP as a corporation or other form of taxable entity for U.S. federal income tax purposes could reduce the amount of cash available for distribution by the MLP and could cause any such distributions received by the Fund to be treated as dividend income, return of capital, or capital gain. Therefore, if any MLPs owned by the Fund were treated as corporations or other forms of taxable entities for U.S. federal income tax purposes, the after-tax return to the Fund with respect to its investment in such MLPs could be materially reduced, which could cause a material decrease in the net asset value per share (“NAV”) of the Fund’s shares.
Sector Focus Risk. The Fund may invest a larger portion of its assets in one or more sectors, such as the financial sector, than many other mutual funds, and thus will be more susceptible to negative events affecting those sectors. Performance of companies in the financial sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others: government regulation of, or related to, the sector; governmental monetary and fiscal policies; economic, business or political conditions; credit rating downgrades; changes in interest rates; price competition; and decreased liquidity in credit markets. This sector has experienced significant losses and a high degree of volatility in the past, and the impact of more stringent capital requirements and of recent or future regulation on any individual financial company or on the sector as a whole cannot be predicted.
Non-Diversification
Risk.
Foreign Investment Risk. The prices of foreign securities may be more volatile than the prices of securities of U.S. issuers because of economic and social conditions abroad, political developments, and changes in the regulatory environments of foreign countries. Changes in exchange rates and interest rates, and the imposition of sanctions, confiscations, trade restrictions (including tariffs) and other government restrictions by the United States and/or other governments may adversely affect the values of the Fund’s foreign investments. Foreign companies are generally subject to different legal and accounting standards than U.S. companies, and foreign financial intermediaries may be subject to less supervision and regulation than U.S. financial firms. Emerging markets tend to be more volatile than the markets of more mature economies and generally have less diverse and less mature economic structures and less stable political systems than those of developed countries.
Market Capitalization Risk. Larger, more established companies may be unable to attain the high growth rates of successful, smaller companies during periods of economic expansion. The securities of small-capitalization and mid-capitalization companies may be subject to more abrupt or erratic market movements and may have lower trading volumes or more erratic trading than securities of larger, more established companies or market averages in general. In addition, such companies typically are more likely to be adversely affected than large capitalization companies by changes in earning results, business prospects, investor expectations or poor economic or market conditions.
Leveraging Risk. Certain Fund transactions, such as entering into futures contracts, options and short sales, may give rise to a form of leverage. Leverage can magnify the effects of changes in the value of the Fund’s investments and make the Fund more volatile. Leverage creates a risk of loss of value on a larger pool of assets than the Fund would otherwise have had, potentially resulting in the loss of all assets. The Fund may also have to sell assets at inopportune times to satisfy its obligations in connection with such transactions.
43
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Merger Fund |
Money Market Fund Risk. Although money market funds generally seek to preserve the value of an investment at $1.00 per share, the Fund may lose money by investing in money market funds. A money market fund’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the money market fund. The credit quality of a money market fund’s holdings can change rapidly in certain markets, and the default of a single holding could have an adverse impact on the money market fund’s share price. A money market fund’s share price can also be negatively affected during periods of high redemption pressures, illiquid markets and/or significant market volatility. Under normal market conditions, the potential for capital appreciation on these securities will tend to be lower than the potential for capital appreciation on other securities owned by the Fund.
Management and Strategy Risk. The value of your investment depends on the judgment of the Fund’s advisor about the quality, relative yield, value or market trends affecting a particular security, industry, sector or region, which may prove to be incorrect.
Portfolio Turnover Risk. Active and frequent trading of the Fund’s portfolio securities may lead to higher transaction costs and may result in a greater number of taxable transactions than would otherwise be the case, which could negatively affect the Fund’s performance. A high rate of portfolio turnover is 100% or more.
Cybersecurity Risk. Cybersecurity incidents may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to Fund assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or cause the Fund, the Advisor, the Sub-Advisor and/or other service providers (including custodians, sub-custodians, transfer agents and financial intermediaries) to suffer data breaches, data corruption or loss of operational functionality. In an extreme case, a shareholder’s ability to exchange or redeem Fund shares may be affected. Issuers of securities in which the Fund invests are also subject to cybersecurity risks, and the value of those securities could decline if the issuers experience cybersecurity incidents.
COVID-19 Related Market Events. The pandemic of the novel coronavirus respiratory disease designated COVID-19 has resulted in extreme volatility in the financial markets, a domestic and global economic downturn, severe losses, particularly to some sectors of the economy and individual issuers, and reduced liquidity of many instruments. There have also been significant disruptions to business operations, including business closures; strained healthcare systems; disruptions to supply chains and employee availability; large fluctuations in consumer demand; and widespread uncertainty regarding the duration and long-term effects of the pandemic. The pandemic may result in domestic and foreign political and social instability, damage to diplomatic and international trade relations, and continued volatility and/or decreased liquidity in the securities markets. Governments and central banks, including the Federal Reserve in the United States, took extraordinary and unprecedented actions to support local and global economies and the financial markets. This and other government intervention into the economy and financial markets to address the pandemic may not work as intended, particularly if the efforts are perceived by investors as being unlikely to achieve the desired results. Rates of inflation have also recently risen, which could adversely affect economies and markets. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic, and measures taken to mitigate its effects, could result in disruptions to the services provided to the Fund by its service providers. Other market events like the COVID-19 pandemic may cause similar disruptions and effects.
The Fund acquired the assets and liabilities of the Kellner Merger Fund, a series of Advisors Series Trust (the “Predecessor Fund”), following the reorganization of the Predecessor Fund on January 22, 2021. As a result of the acquisition, the Fund is the accounting successor of the Predecessor Fund. Performance results shown in the bar chart and the performance table below for periods prior to January 22, 2021 reflect the performance of the Predecessor Fund prior to the commencement of the Fund’s operations.
44
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Merger Fund |
Calendar-Year Total Return (before taxes) for the Fund’s Class I Shares
For each calendar year at NAV
Class I Shares | ||
Quarter
Ended | ||
( |
Quarter
Ended |
Average Annual Total Returns |
1 Year | 5 Years | 10 Years |
Class I Shares - Return Before Taxes | |||
Class I Shares - Return After Taxes on Distributions* | |||
Class I Shares - Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares* | |||
Investor Class Shares (1) - Return Before Taxes | |||
ICE BofA Merrill Lynch 3-Month Treasury Bill Index |
|||
HFRX ED: Merger Arbitrage Index (Reflects No Deductions for Fees, Expenses or Taxes) |
( |
(1) |
45
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Merger Fund |
* |
Investment Advisor
AXS Investments LLC (the “Advisor”) is the Fund’s investment advisor.
Sub-Advisor
Kellner Management, L.P. is the Fund’s sub-advisor.
Portfolio Managers
George A. Kellner, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kellner, and Christopher Pultz, Managing Director of Kellner, are the portfolio managers primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio. Messrs. Kellner and Pultz have served as portfolio managers of the Fund since January 2021 and the Predecessor Fund since inception in June 2012.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
To purchase shares of the Fund, you must invest at least the minimum amount.
Minimum Investments | To
Open Your Account |
To
Add to Your Account |
Investor Class Shares | ||
Direct Regular Accounts | $2,500 | $500 |
Direct Retirement Accounts | $2,500 | $500 |
Automatic Investment Plan | $2,500 | $100 |
Gift Account For Minors | $2,500 | $500 |
Class I Shares | ||
All Accounts | $5,000 | None |
Fund shares are redeemable on any business day the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) is open for business, by written request or by telephone.
Tax Information
The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable, and will ordinarily be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account. Shareholders investing through such tax-advantaged arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of monies from those arrangements.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
46
SUMMARY SECTION | |
The
investment objective of the AXS Multi-Strategy Alternatives Fund (the “Fund”) is
long-term growth of capital.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. Information about waivers and discounts is available from your financial professional and in the section titled “YOUR ACCOUNT WITH THE FUNDS - Purchase of Shares/Class I Shares” on page 127 and in “APPENDIX A – Waivers and Discounts Available from Intermediaries” on page 165 of the Prospectus.
Investor Class Shares* |
Class I Shares | |
(fees paid directly from your investment) |
||
Redemption fee if redeemed within 30 days of purchase (as a percentage of amount redeemed) | ||
Wire fee | $ |
$ |
Overnight check delivery fee | $ |
$ |
Retirement account fees (annual maintenance fee) | $ |
$ |
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) |
||
Management fees | ||
Distribution (Rule 12b-1) fees | ||
Other expenses | ||
Acquired fund fees and expenses | ||
Total annual fund operating expenses1 | ||
Fee waivers and expense reimbursement2 | ( |
( |
Total annual fund operating expenses after fee waivers and expense reimbursement1,2 |
* |
1 |
2 |
47
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Multi-Strategy Alternatives Fund |
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in Investor Class shares or Class I shares of the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The example reflects the Fund’s contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement only for the term of the contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement.
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
One Year | Three Years | Five Years | Ten Years | |
Investor Class Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Class I Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when
it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio
turnover may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes
when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not
reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s
performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover
rate was
The Fund employs a flexible investment strategy, meaning it has the freedom to invest globally in companies of all sizes and in all sectors, long or short, in equities, fixed income, certain derivatives, and cash. It is not restricted to any “style box” (e.g., large cap growth or small cap value). To achieve its investment objectives, the Fund invests principally in domestic and foreign equity securities (common stock and depositary receipts), exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), swaps, futures and options. The Fund may have investment exposure to a broad range of markets that are economically tied to U.S. and foreign markets (including emerging markets).
In selecting securities for the Fund’s portfolio, the Fund’s investment advisor focuses on the broad macroeconomic environment – specifically whether the equity market offers the potential for acceptable risk-adjusted returns. If so, the Fund typically invests in equities. If not, the Fund employs a market neutral strategy (a form of hedging that aims to generate returns that are independent or uncorrelated with the direction of the stock market) with respect to its equity holdings and/or invests in asset classes, including but not limited to fixed income securities of any maturity and credit quality, derivatives, and/or cash equivalents, that are not correlated with the stock market. Rules-based, quantitative systems are used to measure market risk and select individual securities.
AXS utilizes all or parts of a multi-faceted approach in managing the Fund, including fundamental, technical and quantitative analysis. AXS uses rules-based quantitative models that apply systematic research to provide buy and sell signals. AXS adjusts the Fund’s market exposure depending on how clearly its research reflects the market’s direction. AXS then bases its investment decisions quantitatively on a wide array of fundamental and technical factors. Fundamental factors include measures such as earnings growth rates, return on capital and dividend yield. Technical factors include measures such as price performance, volatility and trading volume.
The Fund may sell equity securities short in amounts equal to up to 50% of its net assets if AXS believes the value of the equity securities are likely to depreciate in value. In addition, the Fund may purchase and sell futures contracts, and may purchase and sell options on securities, securities indexes, and futures contracts. These types of investments produce economically “leveraged” investment results. To hedge the Fund’s short positions, the Fund may buy call options, which gives the Fund the right to buy a stock it has sold short at a predetermined price. Similarly, the Fund may sell futures to hedge a portion of the Fund’s long positions.
48
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Multi-Strategy Alternatives Fund |
As a part of its investment strategy and during periods in which the Fund has limited market exposure, the Fund may invest in money market funds or other short-term interest-bearing instruments. In pursuing its investment objectives, the Fund may engage in frequent trading.
Market Risk. The market price of a security or instrument may decline, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to general market conditions that are not specifically related to a particular company, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions throughout the world, changes in the general outlook for corporate earnings, changes in interest or currency rates, or adverse investor sentiment generally. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, the spread of infectious illness or other public health issues, or other events could have a significant impact on a security or instrument. The market value of a security or instrument also may decline because of factors that affect a particular industry or industries, such as labor shortages or increased production costs and competitive conditions within an industry.
Equity Strategy Risk. Because the Fund will normally invest a substantial portion of its assets in equity securities and equity-related instruments designed to track the performance of one or more equity indices, the value of the Fund’s portfolio will be affected by changes in the equity markets. At times, the equity markets can be volatile, and prices of equity securities can change drastically. Market risk will affect the Fund’s net asset value, which will fluctuate as the values of the Fund’s portfolio securities and other assets change. Not all equity prices change uniformly or at the same time, and not all equity markets move in the same direction at the same time. In addition, other factors can adversely affect the price of a particular equity security (for example, poor management decisions, poor earnings reports by an issuer, loss of major customers, competition, major litigation against an issuer, or changes in government regulations affecting an industry). Not all of these factors or their affects can be predicted. The value of the equity securities held by the Fund may fall due to general market and economic conditions, perceptions regarding the industries in which the issuers of securities held by the Fund participate, or factors relating to specific companies in which the Fund invests.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives include instruments and contracts that are based on and valued in relation to one or more underlying securities, financial benchmarks, indices, or other reference obligations or measures of value. Major types of derivatives include futures, options, swaps and forward contracts. Using derivatives exposes the Fund to additional or heightened risks, including leverage risk, liquidity risk, valuation risk, market risk, counterparty risk, and credit risk. Derivatives transactions can be highly illiquid and difficult to unwind or value, they can increase Fund volatility, and changes in the value of a derivative held by the Fund may not correlate with the value of the underlying instrument or the Fund’s other investments. Many of the risks applicable to trading the instruments underlying derivatives are also applicable to derivatives trading. However, derivatives are subject to additional risks, such as operational risk, including settlement issues, and legal risk, including that underlying documentation is incomplete or ambiguous. For derivatives that are required to be cleared by a regulated clearinghouse, other risks may arise from the Fund’s relationship with a brokerage firm through which it submits derivatives trades for clearing, including in some cases from other clearing customers of the brokerage firm.
ETF and Mutual Fund Risk. Investing in ETFs or mutual funds will provide the Fund with exposure to the risks of owning the underlying securities the ETFs or mutual funds hold. Shares of ETFs typically trade on securities exchanges and may at times trade at a premium or discount to their net asset values. In addition, an ETF or a mutual fund, if the mutual fund is an index fund, may not replicate exactly the performance of the benchmark index it seeks to track for a number of reasons, including transaction costs incurred by the ETF or mutual fund, the temporary unavailability of certain index securities in the secondary market, or discrepancies between the ETF or mutual fund and the index with respect to the weighting of securities or the number of securities held. It may be more expensive for the Fund to invest in an ETF or mutual fund than to own the portfolio securities of these investment vehicles directly. Investing in ETFs and mutual funds, which are investment companies, involves duplication of advisory fees and certain other expenses. The Fund will pay brokerage commissions in connection with the purchase and sale of shares of ETFs. In addition, the Fund may invest in underlying funds which invest a larger portion of their assets in one or more sectors than many other mutual funds, and thus will be more susceptible to negative events affecting those sectors.
49
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Multi-Strategy Alternatives Fund |
Foreign Investment Risk. The prices of foreign securities may be more volatile than the prices of securities of U.S. issuers because of economic and social conditions abroad, political developments, and changes in the regulatory environments of foreign countries. Changes in exchange rates and interest rates, and the imposition of sanctions, confiscations, trade restrictions (including tariffs) and other government restrictions by the United States and/or other governments may adversely affect the values of the Fund’s foreign investments. Foreign companies are generally subject to different legal and accounting standards than U.S. companies, and foreign financial intermediaries may be subject to less supervision and regulation than U.S. financial firms. Foreign securities include American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”) and Global Depositary Receipts (“GDRs”). Unsponsored ADRs and GDRs are organized independently and without the cooperation of the foreign issuer of the underlying securities, and involve additional risks because U.S. reporting requirements do not apply. In addition, the issuing bank may deduct shareholder distribution, custody, foreign currency exchange, and other fees from the payment of dividends. Emerging markets tend to be more volatile than the markets of more mature economies and generally have less diverse and less mature economic structures and less stable political systems than those of developed countries.
Fixed Income Securities Risk. The prices of fixed income securities respond to economic developments, particularly interest rate changes, as well as to changes in an issuer’s credit rating or market perceptions about the creditworthiness of an issuer. Generally fixed income securities decrease in value if interest rates rise and increase in value if interest rates fall, and longer-term and lower rated securities are more volatile than shorter-term and higher rated securities.
Issuer-Specific Risk. The value of a specific security can be more volatile than the market as a whole and can perform differently from the value of the market as a whole. The value of securities of smaller issuers can be more volatile than that of larger issuers. The value of certain types of securities can be more volatile due to increased sensitivity to adverse issuer, political, regulatory, market, or economic developments.
Leveraging Risk. Certain Fund transactions, such as entering into futures contracts, options and short sales, may give rise to a form of leverage. Leverage can magnify the effects of changes in the value of the Fund’s investments and make the Fund more volatile. Leverage creates a risk of loss of value on a larger pool of assets than the Fund would otherwise have had, potentially resulting in the loss of all assets. The Fund may also have to sell assets at inopportune times to satisfy its obligations in connection with such transactions.
Portfolio Turnover Risk. Active and frequent trading of the Fund’s portfolio securities may lead to higher transaction costs and may result in a greater number of taxable transactions than would otherwise be the case, which could negatively affect the Fund’s performance. A high rate of portfolio turnover is 100% or more.
Short Sales Risk. In connection with a short sale of a security or other instrument, the Fund is subject to the risk that instead of declining, the price of the security or other instrument sold short will rise. If the price of the security or other instrument sold short increases between the date of the short sale and the date on which the Fund replaces the security or other instrument borrowed to make the short sale, the Fund will experience a loss, which is theoretically unlimited since there is a theoretically unlimited potential for the market price of a security or other instrument sold short to increase. Shorting options or futures may have an imperfect correlation to the assets held by the Fund and may not adequately protect against losses in or may result in greater losses for the Fund’s portfolio.
50
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Multi-Strategy Alternatives Fund |
Management and Strategy Risk. The value of your investment depends on the judgment of the Fund’s advisor about the quality, relative yield, value or market trends affecting a particular security, industry, sector or region, which may prove to be incorrect.
Market Capitalization Risk. Larger, more established companies may be unable to attain the high growth rates of successful, smaller companies during periods of economic expansion. The securities of small-capitalization and mid-capitalization companies may be subject to more abrupt or erratic market movements and may have lower trading volumes or more erratic trading than securities of larger, more established companies or market averages in general. In addition, such companies typically are more likely to be adversely affected than large capitalization companies by changes in earning results, business prospects, investor expectations or poor economic or market conditions.
LIBOR Risk. Many financial instruments, financings or other transactions to which the Fund may be a party use or may use a floating rate based on the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”). In July 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority, the United Kingdom’s financial regulatory body, announced that after 2021 it would cease its active encouragement of banks to provide the quotations needed to sustain LIBOR. The publication of LIBOR on a representative basis ceased for the one-week and two-month U.S. dollar LIBOR settings immediately after December 31, 2021, and it is expected to cease for the remaining U.S. dollar LIBOR settings immediately after June 30, 2023. Any potential effects of the transition away from LIBOR on the Fund or on certain instruments in which the Fund invests can be difficult to determine, and they may vary depending on factors that include, but are not limited to, (i) existing fallback or termination provisions in individual contracts and (ii) whether, how, and when industry participants develop and adopt new reference rates and fallback provisions for both legacy and new products and instruments. The transition process may involve, among other things, increased volatility or illiquidity in markets for instruments that currently rely on LIBOR, and there may be a reduction in the value of certain instruments held by the Fund.
Cybersecurity Risk. Cybersecurity incidents may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to Fund assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or cause the Fund, the Advisor, the Sub-Advisor and/or other service providers (including custodians, sub-custodians, transfer agents and financial intermediaries) to suffer data breaches, data corruption or loss of operational functionality. In an extreme case, a shareholder’s ability to exchange or redeem Fund shares may be affected. Issuers of securities in which the Fund invests are also subject to cybersecurity risks, and the value of those securities could decline if the issuers experience cybersecurity incidents.
COVID-19 Related Market Events. The pandemic of the novel coronavirus respiratory disease designated COVID-19 has resulted in extreme volatility in the financial markets, a domestic and global economic downturn, severe losses, particularly to some sectors of the economy and individual issuers, and reduced liquidity of many instruments. There have also been significant disruptions to business operations, including business closures; strained healthcare systems; disruptions to supply chains and employee availability; large fluctuations in consumer demand; and widespread uncertainty regarding the duration and long-term effects of the pandemic. The pandemic may result in domestic and foreign political and social instability, damage to diplomatic and international trade relations, and continued volatility and/or decreased liquidity in the securities markets. Governments and central banks, including the Federal Reserve in the United States, took extraordinary and unprecedented actions to support local and global economies and the financial markets. This and other government intervention into the economy and financial markets to address the pandemic may not work as intended, particularly if the efforts are perceived by investors as being unlikely to achieve the desired results. Rates of inflation have also recently risen, which could adversely affect economies and markets. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic, and measures taken to mitigate its effects, could result in disruptions to the services provided to the Fund by its service providers. Other market events like the COVID-19 pandemic may cause similar disruptions and effects.
51
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Multi-Strategy Alternatives Fund |
The Fund acquired the assets and liabilities of the KCM Macro Trends Fund, a series of Northern Lights Fund Trust (the “Predecessor Fund”), on October 18, 2019. As a result of the acquisition, the Fund is the accounting successor of the Predecessor Fund. Performance results shown in the bar chart and the performance table below for periods prior to October 18, 2019, reflect the performance of the Predecessor Fund.
Calendar-Year Total Return (before taxes) for Investor Class Shares
For each calendar year at NAV
Investor Class Shares | ||
Quarter
Ended | ||
( |
Quarter
Ended |
Average Annual Total Returns (for Periods Ended December 31, 2022) |
1 Year | 5 Years | 10 Years |
Since Inception ( |
Investor Class Shares - Return Before Taxes | ( |
- | ||
Investor Class Shares - Return After Taxes on Distributions* | ( |
( |
||
Investor Class Shares - Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares* | ( |
|||
Class I Shares - Return Before Taxes | ( |
- | ||
HFRX Equity Hedge Index |
( |
- |
* |
52
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Multi-Strategy Alternatives Fund |
Investment Advisor
AXS Investments LLC (the “Advisor”) is the Fund’s investment advisor.
Portfolio Managers
Parker Binion, Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has served as a portfolio manager of the Fund’s portfolio since October 2019 and the Predecessor Fund’s portfolio since January 2016 and is primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
To purchase shares of the Fund, you must invest at least the minimum amount.
Minimum Investments | To
Open Your Account |
To
Add to Your Account |
Investor Class Shares | ||
Direct Regular Accounts | $1,000 | $100 |
Direct Retirement Accounts | $1,000 | $100 |
Automatic Investment Plan | $1,000 | $100 |
Gift Account For Minors | $1,000 | $100 |
Class I Shares | ||
All Accounts | $5,000 | None |
Fund shares are redeemable on any business day the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) is open for business, by written request or by telephone.
Tax Information
The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable, and will ordinarily be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account. Shareholders investing through such tax-advantaged arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of monies from those arrangements.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
53
SUMMARY SECTION | |
The investment objective of the AXS Sustainable Income Fund (the “Fund”) is to seek to generate current income.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below.
Class A Shares2 |
Class I Shares | |
(fees paid directly from your investment) |
||
Maximum sales charge (load) imposed on purchases (as a percentage of offering price) | ||
Redemption fee if redeemed within 30 days of purchase (as a percentage of amount redeemed) | ||
Wire fee | $ |
$ |
Overnight check delivery fee | $ |
$ |
Retirement account fees (annual maintenance fee) | $ |
$ |
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) |
||
Management fees | ||
Distribution and service (Rule 12b-1) fees | ||
Other expenses | ||
Total annual fund operating expenses1 | ||
Fees waived and/or expenses reimbursed | ( |
( |
Total annual fund operating expenses after waiving fees and/or reimbursing expenses1 |
1 |
2 |
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The example reflects the Fund’s contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement only for the term of the contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement.
54
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Sustainable Income Fund |
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
One Year | Three Years | Five Years | Ten Years | |
Class A1 | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Class I | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
1 |
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when
it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio
turnover may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes
when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not
reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s
performance. During the fiscal year ended September 30, 2022, the Fund’s
portfolio turnover rate was
In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the Fund primarily invests in a portfolio of U.S. dollar-denominated corporate debt securities issued by Next Economy™ companies (described below). The Fund intends to invest in notes, bonds, debentures and commercial paper, which are the most common types of corporate debt securities. The Fund may invest in U.S. dollar-denominated securities of issuers domiciled outside of the United States.
AXS Investments LLC, the Fund’s investment advisor, has engaged Green Alpha Advisors, LLC (“Green Alpha”) and Uniplan Investment Counsel, Inc. (“Uniplan”) as sub-advisors to the Fund (each a “Sub-Advisor” and collectively, the “Sub-Advisors”). Green Alpha is responsible for identifying a universe of Next Economy™ companies and Uniplan is responsible for selecting the Fund’s portfolio investments from the Next Economy™ companies identified by Green Alpha, determining which portfolio investments will be sold by the Fund, and executing transactions for the Fund’s portfolio.
Next Economy™ companies are publicly traded companies that, in Green Alpha’s view, are creating or enabling solutions to major sustainability systemic risks including, but not limited to climate change, resource degradation and scarcity, widening inequality and resulting erosion of social cohesion, and costs associated with human disease. Green Alpha believes that the global economy has and will continue to evolve by factoring in these systemic risks, and that creative solutions to these systemic risks are becoming the major drivers of economic growth and generate investment returns. Green Alpha creates and maintains a list of Next Economy™ companies from multiple industries and economic sectors derived from a proprietary set of qualitative and quantitative criteria. Green Alpha’s qualitative analysis includes a review of the following information with respect to a company: (i) its business plan, activities and operating policies, (ii) strength of its management team, (iii) its corporate governance practices, (iv) its brand and product reputation, (v) its competitive positioning, (vi) its industry growth probabilities, (vii) its market size analysis, (viii) an assessment of barriers to entry, (ix) an assessment of aggregate sustainability risks, and (x) its defensible patents and intellectual property. Green Alpha’s bottom-up quantitative fundamental analysis evaluates each company’s financial condition and seeks to identify quality companies that: (i) are high growth companies as indicated by sales growth and a decrease from current price/earnings ratios to forward price/earnings ratios as revenues and earnings grow, (ii) have compelling valuations for proven and expected growth, within acceptable levels of risk, (iii) have strong balance sheets, and (iv) demonstrate capital stewardship as reflected in the rate of return on invested capital and the company’s capital allocation priorities. Green Alpha’s top-down analysis seeks to identify Next Economy™ companies by evaluating (i) how solutions to major systemic risks can be deployed in specific sectors and industries, (ii) which solutions are most innovative and scalable, (iii) which solutions-driven companies are leaders among their peers (i.e., managements who are willing to engage in thinking and actions that differ in a positive manner from their industry peers), and (iv) what percentage of each company’s revenue is attributed to solutions to major systemic risks.
From the universe of Next Economy™ companies identified by Green Alpha, Uniplan applies bottom-up analysis to identify corporate debt securities that display stable to improving credit metrics that are not declining in a material way or improving over time relative to their industry peers. Uniplan uses data from company filings to analyze the financial statements within a credit framework based on the Altman Z Score and other credit metrics that reflect the financial stability of the company. These corporate debt securities may have fixed or variable rates of interest. While the Fund may purchase debt securities of any maturity, under normal market conditions, the Fund will generally invest in securities that have an expected redemption through maturity, call or other corporate action within the short (three years or less) to intermediate term (three to ten years).
55
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Sustainable Income Fund |
Corporate debt securities may be rated investment-grade or below investment-grade (often called “high yield securities” or “junk bonds”). While the Fund may invest in corporate debt securities of any credit quality, under normal market conditions, the Fund will primarily invest in high yield securities. High yield securities are rated below Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Service, Inc. (“Moody’s”), or below BBB by S&P Global Ratings, a division of McGraw Hill Companies Inc. (“S&P”) or Fitch Ratings, Inc. (“Fitch”), or if unrated, are determined by Uniplan to be of comparable credit quality.
The Fund may purchase shares of exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) to gain exposure to the types of debt securities in which the Fund primarily invests to manage the Fund’s cash holdings. ETFs are investment companies that invest in portfolios of securities that are often designed to track particular market segments or indices. ETF shares are listed on stock exchanges and can be traded throughout the day at market-determined prices.
The Sub-Advisor may sell all or a portion of a position of a portfolio holding of the Fund when, in its opinion, one of more of the following occurs: (i) the security no longer meets the criteria of a Next Economy™ company (ii) there is a negative change in the Uniplan’s fundamental assessment of a security; (iii) the Uniplan identifies more attractive investment opportunities for the Fund; or (iv) the Fund requires cash to meet redemption requests.
Market Risk. The market price of a security or instrument may decline, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to general market conditions that are not specifically related to a particular company, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions throughout the world, changes in the general outlook for corporate earnings, changes in interest or currency rates, or adverse investor sentiment generally. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, the spread of infectious illness or other public health issues, or other events could have a significant impact on a security or instrument. The market value of a security or instrument also may decline because of factors that affect a particular industry or industries, such as labor shortages or increased production costs and competitive conditions within an industry.
Fixed Income Securities Risk. The prices of fixed income securities respond to economic developments, particularly interest rate changes, as well as to changes in an issuer’s credit rating or market perceptions about the creditworthiness of an issuer. Generally fixed income securities decrease in value if interest rates rise and increase in value if interest rates fall, and longer-term and lower rated securities are more volatile than shorter-term and higher rated securities.
High Yield (“Junk”) Bond Risk. High yield bonds are debt securities rated below investment grade (often called “junk bonds”). Junk bonds are speculative, involve greater risks of default, downgrade, or price declines and are more volatile and tend to be less liquid than investment-grade securities. Companies issuing high yield bonds are less financially strong, are more likely to encounter financial difficulties, and are more vulnerable to adverse market events and negative sentiments than companies with higher credit ratings.
Credit Risk. If an issuer or guarantor of a debt security held by the Fund or a counterparty to a financial contract with the Fund defaults or is downgraded or is perceived to be less creditworthy, or if the value of the assets underlying a security declines, the value of the Fund’s portfolio will typically decline.
56
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Sustainable Income Fund |
Interest Rate Risk. Generally fixed income securities decrease in value if interest rates rise and increase in value if interest rates fall, with longer-term securities being more sensitive than shorter-term securities. For example, the price of a security with a three-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 3% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. Generally, the longer the maturity and duration of a bond or fixed rate loan, the more sensitive it is to this risk. Falling interest rates also create the potential for a decline in the Fund’s income. Changes in governmental policy, rising inflation rates, and general economic developments, among other factors, could cause interest rates to increase and could have a substantial and immediate effect on the values of the Fund’s investments. In addition, a potential rise in interest rates may result in periods of volatility and increased redemptions that might require the Fund to liquidate portfolio securities at disadvantageous prices and times.
ESG Risk. The Sub-Advisor’s consideration of ESG criteria in making its investment decisions may limit the types and number of investment opportunities available to the Fund and may affect the Fund’s exposure to risks associated with certain issuers,industries and sectors. While the Sub-Advisor considers data from company filings in identifying Next Economy™ companies, its evaluation is often subjective and therefore the securities of certain issuers may be excluded and the Fund may forgo opportunities to invest in securities that might otherwise be advantageous to buy.
Liquidity Risk. The Fund may not be able to sell some or all of the investments that it holds due to a lack of demand in the marketplace or other factors such as market turmoil, or if the Fund is forced to sell an illiquid asset to meet redemption requests or other cash needs it may only be able to sell those investments at a loss. In addition, the reduction in dealer market-making capacity in the fixed income markets that has occurred in recent years has the potential to decrease the liquidity of the Fund’s investments. Illiquid assets may also be difficult to value.
LIBOR Risk. Many financial instruments, financings or other transactions to which the Fund may be a party use or may use a floating rate based on the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”). In July 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority, the United Kingdom’s financial regulatory body, announced that after 2021 it would cease its active encouragement of banks to provide the quotations needed to sustain LIBOR. The publication of LIBOR on a representative basis ceased for the one-week and two-month U.S. dollar LIBOR settings immediately after December 31, 2021, and it is expected to cease for the remaining U.S. dollar LIBOR settings immediately after June 30, 2023. Any potential effects of the transition away from LIBOR on the Fund or on certain instruments in which the Fund invests can be difficult to determine, and they may vary depending on factors that include, but are not limited to, (i) existing fallback or termination provisions in individual contracts and (ii) whether, how, and when industry participants develop and adopt new reference rates and fallback provisions for both legacy and new products and instruments. The transition process may involve, among other things, increased volatility or illiquidity in markets for instruments that currently rely on LIBOR, and there may be a reduction in the value of certain instruments held by the Fund.
Foreign Investment Risk. The prices of foreign securities may be more volatile than the prices of securities of U.S. issuers because of economic and social conditions abroad, political developments, and changes in the regulatory environments of foreign countries. In addition, changes in exchange rates and interest rates may adversely affect the values of the Fund’s foreign investments. Foreign companies are generally subject to different legal and accounting standards than U.S. companies, and foreign financial intermediaries may be subject to less supervision and regulation than U.S. financial firms. Further, the Fund’s investments certain instruments such as floating rate bonds and syndicated bank loans may be subject to risks associated with the use of LIBOR.
ETF Risk. Investing in an ETF will provide the Fund with exposure to the securities comprising the index on which the ETF is based and will expose the Fund to risks similar to those of investing directly in those securities. Shares of ETFs typically trade on securities exchanges and may at times trade at a premium or discount to their net asset values. In addition, an ETF may not replicate exactly the performance of the benchmark index it seeks to track for a number of reasons, including transaction costs incurred by the ETF, the temporary unavailability of certain index securities in the secondary market or discrepancies between the ETF and the index with respect to the weighting of securities or the number of securities held. Investing in ETFs, which are investment companies, involves duplication of advisory fees and certain other expenses. The Fund will pay brokerage commissions in connection with the purchase and sale of shares of ETFs.
57
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Sustainable Income Fund |
Management and Strategy Risk. The value of your investment depends on the judgment of the Sub-Advisor about the quality, default risk, relative yield, value or market trends affecting a particular security, industry, sector or region, which may prove to be incorrect.
Cybersecurity Risk. Cybersecurity incidents may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to Fund assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or cause the Fund, the Advisor, and/or other service providers (including custodians, sub-custodians, transfer agents and financial intermediaries) to suffer data breaches, data corruption or loss of operational functionality. In an extreme case, a shareholder’s ability to exchange or redeem Fund shares may be affected. Issuers of securities in which the Fund invests are also subject to cybersecurity risks, and the value of those securities could decline if the issuers experience cybersecurity incidents.
COVID-19 Related Market Events. The pandemic of the novel coronavirus respiratory disease designated COVID-19 has resulted in extreme volatility in the financial markets, a domestic and global economic downturn, severe losses, particularly to some sectors of the economy and individual issuers, and reduced liquidity of many instruments. There have also been significant disruptions to business operations, including business closures; strained healthcare systems; disruptions to supply chains and employee availability; large fluctuations in consumer demand; and widespread uncertainty regarding the duration and long-term effects of the pandemic. The pandemic may result in domestic and foreign political and social instability, damage to diplomatic and international trade relations, and continued volatility and/or decreased liquidity in the securities markets. Governments and central banks, including the Federal Reserve in the United States, took extraordinary and unprecedented actions to support local and global economies and the financial markets. This and other government intervention into the economy and financial markets to address the pandemic may not work as intended, particularly if the efforts are perceived by investors as being unlikely to achieve the desired results. Rates of inflation have also recently risen, which could adversely affect economies and markets. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic, and measures taken to mitigate its effects, could result in disruptions to the services provided to the Fund by its service providers. Other market events like the COVID-19 pandemic may cause similar disruptions and effects.
The Fund commenced operations and offered shares of the Fund
for public sale following the reorganization of the SKY Harbor Short Duration
High Yield Partners, L.P., a Delaware limited partnership which commenced
operations on
58
SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Sustainable Income Fund |
Calendar-Year Total Return (before taxes) for Class I Shares
For each calendar year at NAV
Class I Shares | ||
Quarter
Ended | ||
( |
Quarter
Ended |
Average Annual Total Returns (for period ended December 31, 2022) |
One
Year |
Five
Years |
Since Inception (02/01/2013) |
Class I - Return Before Taxes | ( |
||
Class I - Return After Taxes on Distributions* | ( |
( |
|
Class I - Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares* | ( |
( |
|
ICE
BofA 1-3 Year US Corporate & Government Index (B1A0)
|
( |
* |
Investment Advisor
AXS Investment LLC (the “Advisor”) is the Fund’s investment advisor.
Sub-Advisors
As sub-advisor, Green Alpha Advisors, LLC identifies a universe of Next Economy™ companies for potential investment by the Fund. As sub-advisor, Uniplan Investment Counsel, Inc. selects the Fund’s portfolio investments from the Next Economy™ companies identified by Green Alpha, determines which portfolio investments will be sold by the Fund, and executes transactions for the Fund’s portfolio.
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SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Sustainable Income Fund |
Portfolio Manager
Richard Imperiale, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Compliance Officer and Portfolio Manager of Uniplan, has been primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio since June 2022.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
To purchase shares of the Fund, you must invest at least the minimum amount. Currently, Class A Shares are not available for purchase.
Minimum Investments | To
Open Your Account |
To
Add to Your Account |
Class A Shares | ||
Direct Regular Accounts | $2,500 | $500 |
Direct Retirement Accounts | $2,500 | $500 |
Automatic Investment Plan | $2,500 | $100 |
Gift Account For Minors | $2,500 | $500 |
Class I Shares | ||
All Accounts | $5,000 | None |
Fund shares are redeemable on any business day the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) is open for business, by written request or by telephone.
Tax Information
The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable, and will ordinarily be taxed as ordinary income, qualified dividend income or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account. Shareholders investing through such tax-advantaged arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal of monies from those arrangements.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
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SUMMARY SECTION | |
The investment objective of the AXS Thomson Reuters Private Equity Return Tracker Fund (the “Fund”) is to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the price performance of a specific benchmark designed to track the aggregate performance of U.S. private equity-backed companies. The Fund’s current benchmark is the Thomson Reuters Private Equity Buyout Index (the “Underlying Index”).
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below.
Class A Shares |
Class C Shares |
Class I Shares | |
Shareholder Fees |
|||
Maximum sales charge (load) imposed on purchases (as a percentage of offering price) | |||
Maximum deferred sales charge (load) (as a percentage of the lesser of the value redeemed or the amount invested) | |||
Redemption fee if redeemed within 30 days of purchase (as a percentage of amount redeemed) | |||
Wire fee | $ |
$ |
$ |
Overnight check delivery fee | $ |
$ |
$ |
Retirement account fees (annual maintenance fee) | $ |
$ |
$ |
Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
|||
Management fees | |||
Distribution and service (Rule 12b-1) fees | |||
Other expenses | |||
Total annual fund operating expenses | |||
Fees waived and/or expenses reimbursed2 | ( |
( |
( |
Total annual fund operating expenses after waiving fees and/or reimbursing expenses2 |
1 | |
2 |
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SUMMARY SECTION | AXS Thomson Reuters Private Equity Return Tracker Fund |
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The example reflects the Fund’s contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement only for the term of the contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement.
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
One Year | Three Years | Five Years | Ten Years | |
Class A Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Class C Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Class I Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
One Year | Three Years | Five Years | Ten Years | |
Class C Shares | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when
it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio
turnover may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes
when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not
reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s
performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover
rate was
The Fund seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the price performance of the Thomson Reuters Private Equity Buyout Index (the “Underlying Index”). The Underlying Index seeks to replicate the aggregate gross performance of U.S. private equity-backed companies by exclusively holding publicly listed assets. These publicly listed assets may be companies of any market capitalization; however, it generally focuses on companies with large capitalizations. The Fund does not invest in private equity funds or private equity companies.
In seeking to track the Underlying Index, the Fund invests in publicly-traded equity securities that are either components of the Underlying Index or are determined by the Fund’s investment advisor to have substantially similar risk and return characteristics, in the aggregate, as the Underlying Index. Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in the component publicly listed assets included in the Underlying Index. This policy is not fundamental and may be changed by the Board of Trustees upon 60 days’ written notice to shareholders.