Fulcrum Thematic Equity Market Neutral

The Fulcrum Thematic Equity Market Neutral Fund was launched in early August 2020 with c. $120m and is a direct carve out of the strategy from the Fulcrum Diversified Absolute Return Fund. The fund is a fundamental, discretionary equity strategy that captures long-term (2-5 year) themes in a beta neutral manner. The fund looks to maximise net returns with a volatility of 6-8%, with strict management of the net (+/-20%) while running a gross of <300%. The portfolio is highly diversified across 20-30 themes and invests in publicly-traded stocks, plus sector and country indices and options. Fawaz Chaudhry (ex-Moore Capital) leads the thematic equity team, building upon 10 years of experience running a thematic equity strategy. The investment philosophy focuses on the impact of long-term trends (economic, technological, demographic, social, regulatory and consumption), while also looking to capitalise on the second and third-order effects of structural trends as well. On average a theme is present in the portfolio for 74 weeks and the objective is to maximise exposure to the theme in a highly diversified manner. Themes can either be long or short vs. an index and also relative value in nature. Some of the current themes (at the time of writing) include; long China Technology, long Gold Royalties, short Physical Retailers, short Global Airlines, New vs Legacy Payments, LNG Producers vs Pipelines.