Strategy. The Fund seeks primarily to implement its strategy by investing in convertible securities, including convertible preferred securities, and establishing short positions, or hedges, in the common stock or American Depositary Receipt (ADR) of the issuers of the convertible securities. The short positions are intended to reduce the Funds exposure to decreases in the price of the related common stock. The Fund seeks to hedge its long positions in this way on a security-by-security basis. The Fund may also use other instruments to establish hedges, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs), options, including non-deliverable options (NDOs), and foreign currency forward contracts, as appropriate, to reduce unwanted exposures. The term convertible security refers to a bond or a preferred stock (including a trust preferred … Show more… The Fund seeks primarily to implement its strategy by investing in convertible securities, including convertible preferred securities, and establishing short positions, or hedges, in the common stock or American Depositary Receipt (ADR) of the issuers of the convertible securities. The short positions are intended to reduce the Funds exposure to decreases in the price of the related common stock. The Fund seeks to hedge its long positions in this way on a security-by-security basis. The Fund may also use other instruments to establish hedges, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs), options, including non-deliverable options (NDOs), and foreign currency forward contracts, as appropriate, to reduce unwanted exposures. The term convertible security refers to a bond or a preferred stock (including a trust preferred security) that can be converted into shares of a companys common stock. The Funds strategy is managed on a day-to-day basis by SSI Investment Management LLC, the sub-advisor to the Fund. The Fund may also implement other investment strategies, depending on market conditions, including investing in convertible securities with attractive yields and relatively little equity price sensitivity, selling call options against the related equities and convertible bonds to receive the value of the option (also known as covered-call writing), and investing in non-convertible bonds and preferred stock that offer attractive yield and relative value as compared to other investment alternatives. The investment focus will shift through market cycles as opportunities change. Pursuant to its strategy, the Fund seeks returns that exceed prevailing short-term interest rates, such as the return on 90-day U.S. Treasury bills, from three primary sources: 1) interest and dividend income on convertible securities and other fixed-income instruments; 2 ) interest rebates on short positions; and 3 ) net capital gains from trading profits. In combining long positions in convertible securities with short positions in common stock of the issuers of those securities, the Fund seeks to maintain a hedged convertible investment portfolio with income and returns which are generally less volatile than and have low correlation with the broader capital markets, short-term interest rates and capital markets indices (absolute returns). The Fund generally invests in convertible securities that are part of an issuance of at least $ 125 million in size and are issued by companies with market capitalizations between $500 million and $10 billion. The convertible securities are typically callable by the issuer and are not limited as to duration or maturity. The issuers of the convertible securities in which the Fund will invest may include U.S. or non-U.S. companies, real estate investment trusts (REITs), and emerging-market companies. The instruments may be denominated in U.S. or foreign (non-U.S.) currencies, and may be traded on ?U.S. or foreign exchanges. Foreign currency exposures are typically hedged back to the ?U.S. dollar using transactions in foreign currency futures and forward contracts. The Fund may also engage in foreign currency transactions on a spot (cash) basis at the rate prevailing in the currency exchange market. The Fund may hold investment-grade, below investment-grade (i.e., high yield or junk bonds) and unrated securities that are deemed by the sub-advisor to be of equivalent quality. A significant portion of the Funds holdings is expected to be unrated. The sub-advisor performs fundamental credit analysis to examine each issuers credit quality and relative value based on internally and externally generated research, nationally recognized credit rating agency research, if available, and company financial statements, among other sources. The Funds holdings may include variable and floating-rate coupon, zero-coupon instruments and restricted securities, such as those issued under Rule 144A of the Securities Act of 1933. To a lesser extent, the Fund may invest long or short in ETFs to adjust or hedge exposures. The Funds holdings may include secured, partially secured, and unsecured obligations. The unsecured obligations in which the Fund invests may also be referred to as debentures. The Fund may also invest in long or short positions in derivative instruments, such as futures, forwards, swaps, options and warrants, to hedge exposures in the Fund. Futures contracts generally include those based on ? U.S. treasuries and foreign currencies, forward contracts are generally forward currency contracts (including NDFs), swaps generally include interest rate and credit default swaps, options generally include call and put options (including NDOs), and warrants are generally similar to long-dated call options. On a short-term basis, the Fund may invest cash balances in other investment companies, including a government money market fund advised by the Manager, with respect to which the Manager receives a management fee. The sub-advisor seeks to identify convertible security investments by assessing, among other attributes, the quality, income, liquidity and equity sensitivity of the security (i.e., the sensitivity of a convertible securitys price to changes in the price of the issuers common stock). The sub-advisor also considers the availability of the common stock that it intends to short. After acquiring a convertible security, the Fund establishes a short position in the common stock, ?ADR, call option or other equity-related instrument of the same issuer. The Fund may also establish short positions in ETFs. The size of each short position is based on the sensitivity of the convertible securitys price to changes in the price of the issuers common stock. As a result, the Funds short positions will generally be smaller on a dollar value basis than its long positions since a convertible securitys price is typically less sensitive than that of the common stock. The Fund may also invest in non-convertible bonds and preferred stock. Such investments would typically not include a short position in a related equity instrument. When implementing its covered-call writing strategy, the Fund seeks to sell call options related to its equity and convertible bond holdings. In doing so, the Fund seeks to minimize its exposure to changes in the underlying equity price yet retain the proceeds received from selling the option (the option premium). Typically, higher volatility in equity prices leads to larger proceeds from selling options. The sub-advisor considers selling a convertible security and closing the related short position when it identifies other more attractive investment opportunities, when it anticipates a potentially unfavorable change in the structure of a convertible security or the underlying company or to satisfy shareholder redemptions, among other reasons. The Fund may engage in active and frequent trading of portfolio securities to achieve its principal investment strategies. Show less