Altegris Advisors Enters Regulated Mutual Fund Business

Alternatives firm Altegris Advisors plans to turn many of the strategies it runs in the private placement space into retail funds.

Alternatives firm Altegris Advisors is planning to enter the regulated mutual fund business — turning many of the strategies it runs in the private placement space into retail funds and ramping up marketing campaigns to get the word out. “The more there’s been a difficult period for stocks, the more people are striving for returns [and] it’s more likely that alternative return streams are being put into portfolios,” says executive vice president Richard Pfister.

La Jolla, California–based Altegris plans to fill the demand for returns with the noncorrelated managed-futures mutual fund it launched in September, as well as others it has in the works. Many of the broker-dealers and investment advisers with which Altegris works have requested access to the firm’s strategies for their nonaccredited investors, Pfister says. “It’s a demand thing — they’ve not had a lot of choices that are of this quality,” he asserts. Up next: The firm is looking at launching long-short equity and fixed-income funds, as well as an event-driven fund and possibly a diversified strategy.

Theo Gallier, CIO of advisory firm Private Ocean, says his firm does not invest in hedge funds as a matter of policy. However, he adds, it is interested in alternative investments in mutual or exchange-traded fund formats. “We do believe strongly in the diversification effect of managed futures and other so-called alternatives in ETFs and mutual funds where there is not a high correlation to stocks and bonds,” he says. “And we are always on the lookout for additional funds.”

— Fund Action

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