SHINX
Catalyst Buffered Shield Fund
MUTUAL FUND SERIES TRUST
Expense ratio1
2.35%
Net assets2
$17.98M
Holdings2
5
Category
US Equity
2025 return3
9.70%

Investment objective & strategy

As of Nov. 5, 2025 · prospectus

Objective. The Fund?s investment objective is long-term capital appreciation.

Strategy. Under normal market conditions, the Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in put and call options on exchange traded funds (?ETFs?) that track the S&P 500 Index (?Index ETFs?) and in fixed income securities. At time of purchase, the equity options component?s target allocation is between 0.5% and 7.5%, while the fixed income component?s target allocation is between 92.5% and 99.5%. The equity option component is designed to provide 100% notional exposure to the S&P 500 Index (the ?Index?), with a level of hedge on the downside and participation on the upside to a certain cap. Using a combination of put and call options on Index ETFs, the Fund?s investment sub-advisor, Exceed Advisory LLC (the ?Sub-Advisor?), initially … Under normal market conditions, the Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in put and call options on exchange traded funds (?ETFs?) that track the S&P 500 Index (?Index ETFs?) and in fixed income securities. At time of purchase, the equity options component?s target allocation is between 0.5% and 7.5%, while the fixed income component?s target allocation is between 92.5% and 99.5%. The equity option component is designed to provide 100% notional exposure to the S&P 500 Index (the ?Index?), with a level of hedge on the downside and participation on the upside to a certain cap. Using a combination of put and call options on Index ETFs, the Fund?s investment sub-advisor, Exceed Advisory LLC (the ?Sub-Advisor?), initially executes the equity options strategy by seeking to provide an investment vehicle that limits losses to 12.5% when the Index declines in value, and to participate in increases in the Index up to approximately 15%. As the Index increases in value, the strategy seeks to increase the level of hedge on the downside and the cap on the upside by rebalancing or rolling the call and put strike levels in a given maturity to higher strike levels. By rebalancing, the strategy seeks to optimize risk / reward by lowering downside risk (through buying higher strike puts) and increasing upside potential (through selling higher strike calls), thus converting a hard cap to a soft cap. There may be times that the Sub-Advisor determines not to implement the Fund?s hedging strategy. The fixed income component is designed to return a yield that is used to assist in purchasing the equity option component. The equity options strategy is intended to provide investment returns that are correlated with, but less volatile than, those of the Index. Although the option strategy includes a leverage component, the strategy also limits the Fund?s participation in Index gains. Equity Options Component The equity options strategy consists of exchange traded equity options. Options selected for the equity component generally have a duration of approximately one year. Put Options Sub-Component Put options allow the purchaser, for a premium, to ?put? a security to the seller of the option at a strike price. Put options are selected for the Fund to target participation in the Index if the Index decreases down to a maximum floor of 12.5% by selecting a short put whose strike price equals the current value of the Index and a long put whose strike price is below the current value of the Index. The Fund?s purchases and sales of put options result in ?put spreads,? which are intended to allow the Fund to mitigate losses in the equity options component when the Index declines by more than 12.5% during the terms of the put spreads. The put spreads do not guard the Fund against Index losses in the equity options component of less than 12.5%, and only seeks to guard against such losses during the terms of the put spreads. All other losses in the equity options component will be borne by the Fund and shareholders. There is no guarantee that the put spreads will limit the losses in the equity options component to 12.5%. Put options do not protect against losses in the fixed income component of the Fund?s strategy. Call Options Sub-Component Call options allow the purchaser, for a premium, to ?call? away a security from the seller of the option at a particular price, called the ?strike price.? Normally, a buyer calls away a security at the strike price if the security?s market price is greater than the strike price. The call options are selected to target participation in the Index if the Index increases up to a maximum cap by selecting a long call whose strike price equals the current value of the Index and a short call whose strike price is above the current value of the Index. In this way, the Fund seeks to participate with the market up to the maximum cap. The Fund?s purchases and sales of call options result in ?call spreads,? which are intended to allow the Fund to participate in increases in the Index up to approximately 15% during the terms of the call spreads. The objective of the call options is to provide market participation up to the maximum cap while the objective of the put options is to provide a floor to negative performance and thereby limit exposure in a materially bearish environment. However, there is no guarantee that put and call options will limit the Fund?s losses in the equity options component. Fixed Income Component The fixed income component of the Fund?s portfolio consists of domestic short to medium term, investment grade, fixed coupon, senior or subordinated corporate bonds, and government securities with a typical maturity of 5 years or less, or ETFs that invest primarily in such securities. The Fund typically invests primarily in corporate debt. Fixed income securities are selected by identifying the highest yielding securities among a peer group with similar credit quality and maturity, while also ensuring portfolio diversification in terms of credit rating and industry. Although the Fund?s strategy seeks to provide protection for large losses in the equity portion of the portfolio, an investor can still lose money on the fixed income portion such that the total loss in the portfolio as a whole could be more than the targeted 12.5%. The Fund actively trades its portfolio investments, which may lead to higher transaction costs that may affect the Fund?s performance.

Top holdings

As of March 31, 2026 · N-PORT
SecurityTickerValue% of fund
Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond ETF $6.44M 35.81%
PGIM Ultra Short Bond ETF - Old IO fund PULS $5.90M 32.81%
ISHR 1-5Y INV GR IGSB $4.35M 24.19%
FIRST AM-TR OB-X TMPXX $388.75K 2.16%
US ULTRA BOND CBT Sep25 $370.72K 2.06%
US ULTRA BOND CBT Sep25 $349.05K 1.94%
US ULTRA BOND CBT Sep25 $327.92K 1.82%
US ULTRA BOND CBT Sep25 $301.64K 1.68%
US ULTRA BOND CBT Sep25 $275.76K 1.53%
US ULTRA BOND CBT Sep25 $228.66K 1.27%
View all holdings →

Allocation by sector

As of March 31, 2026 · N-PORT
View portfolio breakdown →

Portfolio moves

Dec 31, 2025 → Mar 31, 2026
Opened
0
Exited
0
Increased
1
Decreased
0
Unchanged
4

How many positions this fund opened, exited, grew, trimmed, or left unchanged between its two most recent N-PORT snapshots — net changes between point-in-time reports, not a trade log.

View portfolio moves →

Similar funds

Funds whose portfolios most overlap this one, by weight

Footnotes

  1. Expense ratio as of November 5, 2025, from the fund's prospectus.
  2. Net assets and holdings count as of March 31, 2026, from the fund's N-PORT filing.
  3. Total return for calendar year 2025, before tax and after fund expenses. Computed by compounding the twelve monthly total returns the fund reported in its SEC N-PORT filings for 2025 (the latest prospectus does not yet chart this year).

Machine-readable: JSON · Markdown. Programmatic access via the agent surface.