underperform in comparison to securities in
general financial markets, a particular financial market or other asset classes due to a number
of factors, including inflation (or expectations for inflation), deflation (or expectations for deflation), interest rates, global demand for particular products or resources, market instability, financial system instability,
debt crises and downgrades, embargoes, tariffs, trade wars, retaliatory trade measures, sanctions
and other trade barriers, supply chain disruptions, regulatory events, other governmental trade or
market control programs and related geopolitical events. In addition, the value of the
Fund’s investments may be negatively affected by the occurrence of global events such as war, terrorism, environmental disasters, natural disasters or events, country instability, and infectious disease epidemics
or pandemics or the threat or potential of one or more such factors and occurrences.
Value Investing Risk. A value stock may decrease in price or may not increase in price as anticipated by the adviser if other
investors fail to recognize the company’s value or the factors that the adviser believes
will cause the stock price to increase do not occur.
Large Cap Company Risk. Because the Fund invests in large cap company securities, it may underperform other funds during periods when the Fund’s large cap securities
are out of favor.
Smaller Company Risk. Investments in securities of smaller companies (mid cap and small cap companies) may be riskier, less liquid, more volatile and more vulnerable to economic, market and industry changes than securities of
larger, more established companies. The securities of smaller companies may trade less frequently
and in smaller volumes than securities of larger companies. As a result, changes in the price of securities issued by such companies may be more sudden or erratic than the prices of securities of larger companies,
especially over the short term. These risks are higher for small cap companies.
Long/Short Strategy Risk. The success of the Fund’s
strategy depends on the adviser’s ability to profit from differences in the returns of
certain securities by maintaining long and short positions. There is no guarantee that the returns on the Fund’s long or short positions will produce positive returns and the Fund could lose money if either or both the
Fund’s long and short positions produce negative returns. It is possible that the Fund’s long equity positions will decline in value at the same time that the value of its short equity positions
increases, thereby increasing potential losses to the Fund. Seeking short exposure may be
considered an aggressive investment technique. Any income, dividends, or payments by the assets underlying the Fund’s short positions will negatively impact the Fund. Additionally, the long/short positions may
subject the Fund to greater volatility and loss. These risks are in addition to those risks with
direct investments in securities described herein, including leverage risk and the risks
described under “Derivatives Risk” and “Short Selling Risk.”
Short Selling Risk. The Fund will incur a loss as a
result of a short sale or other short equity position if the price of the security sold short
increases in value between the date of the short sale and the date on which the fund purchases the
security to replace the borrowed security or is required to pay under the swap agreement. In
addition, when the Fund engages in short sales, a lender may request, or market conditions may
dictate, that securities sold short be returned to the lender on short notice, and the Fund may
have to buy the securities sold
short at an unfavorable price. If this occurs, any anticipated gain to the Fund may be reduced or eliminated
or the short sale may result in a loss. The Fund’s losses are potentially unlimited in a
short sale transaction or other short equity position. Short sales or other short equity
positions are speculative transactions and involve special risks, including greater reliance on the adviser’s ability to accurately anticipate the future value of a security. Furthermore, taking short positions in
securities results in a form of leverage which may cause the Fund to be more volatile.
The Fund may engage in transactions through which it obtains synthetic
short exposure to equities through derivative investments (such as swaps). A synthetic short position replicates the economic effect of a transaction in which the Fund sells a security it does not own but has borrowed. The Fund
will lose money when the value of the reference asset rises. This effectively results in similar
risk exposures as would be the case if the Fund entered into a physical short position on the
underlying security, including the risk of total loss.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives, including swaps, may be riskier than other types of investments and may increase the volatility of the Fund. Derivatives may be sensitive to
changes in economic and market conditions and may create leverage, which could result in losses
that significantly exceed the Fund’s original investment. The Fund may be more volatile than if the Fund had not been leveraged because the leverage tends to exaggerate any effect on the value of the
Fund’s portfolio securities. Certain derivatives expose the Fund to counterparty risk,
which is the risk that the derivative counterparty will not fulfill its contractual obligations (and includes credit risk associated with the counterparty). Certain derivatives are synthetic instruments that attempt to replicate the
performance of certain reference assets. With regard to such derivatives, the Fund does not have
a claim on the reference assets and is subject to enhanced counterparty risk. Derivatives may not
perform as expected, so the Fund may not realize the intended benefits. When used for hedging,
the change in value of a derivative may not correlate as expected with the security or other risk
being hedged. In addition, given their complexity, derivatives expose the Fund to risks of mispricing or improper valuation. Derivatives also can expose the Fund to derivative liquidity risk, which includes risks involving
the liquidity demands that derivatives can create to make payments of margin, collateral, or
settlement payments to counterparties, legal risk, which includes the risk of loss resulting from insufficient or unenforceable contractual documentation, insufficient capacity or authority of the Fund’s
counterparty and operational risk, which includes documentation or settlement issues, system
failures, inadequate controls and human error. Certain of the Fund’s transactions in
foreign currency derivatives and other derivatives could also affect the amount, timing and character of distributions to shareholders which may result in the Fund realizing more ordinary income and short-term
capital gain subject to tax at ordinary income tax rates than it would if it did not engage in
such transactions, which may adversely impact the Fund’s after-tax returns.
Swap Agreement Risk. In addition to the risks associated
with derivatives in general, the Fund may also be subject to risks related to swap agreements.
The Fund may use swaps to establish both long and short positions in order to gain the desired
exposure. Because certain swap agreements are not cleared and exchange-traded, but are private contracts into