Objective

Hussman Strategic Market Cycle Fund seeks to achieve long-term capital appreciation, with added emphasis on the protection of capital during unfavorable market conditions.

Investment Strategy

The Fund’s portfolio will typically be fully invested in common stocks favored by Hussman Strategic Advisors, Inc., the Fund’s investment manager, except for modest cash balances arising in connection with the Fund’s day-to day operations. When market conditions are unfavorable in the view of the investment manager, the Fund may use options and index futures, or effect short sales of exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), to reduce the exposure of the Fund’s stock portfolio to the impact of general market fluctuations. When market conditions are viewed as favorable, the Fund may use options to increase its exposure to the impact of general market fluctuations.

Security selection

In general, the stock selection approach of the investment manager focuses on securities demonstrating favorable valuations and/or market action. The primary consideration used in assessing a stock’s valuation is the relationship between its current market price and the present value of expected future cash flows per share. Other valuation measures, such as the ratio of the stock price to earnings and stock price to revenue, are also analyzed in relation to expected future growth of cash flows in an attempt to measure underlying value and the potential for long-term returns. The analysis of market action includes measurements of price behavior and trading volume. The investment manager believes that strength in these measures is often a reflection of improving business prospects and the potential for earnings surprises above consensus estimates, which can result in increases in stock prices.

Variable exposure to general market fluctuations

Historically, different combinations of valuation, market action and other factors have been accompanied by significantly different stock market performance in terms of return/risk. The investment manager expects to intentionally “leverage” or increase the stock market exposure of the Fund in environments where the expected return from market risk is believed to be high, and may reduce or “hedge” the exposure of the Fund’s stock portfolio to the impact of general market fluctuations in environments where the expected return from market risk is believed to be unfavorable.

Specific strategies for “leveraging” or increasing stock market exposure may include buying call options on individual stocks or market indices and writing put options on stocks which the Fund seeks to own. The maximum exposure of the Fund to stocks, either directly through purchases of stock or indirectly through option positions, is not expected to exceed 150% of its net assets. This means that the value of the underlying positions represented by options is not expected to exceed 50% of the value of the Fund’s net assets at the time of investment.

Specific strategies for reducing or “hedging” market exposure may include buying put options on individual stocks or stock indices, writing covered call options on stocks which the Fund owns or call options on stock indices, or establishing short futures positions or option combinations (such as simultaneously writing call options and purchasing put options) on one or more stock indices considered by the investment manager to be correlated with the Fund’s portfolio. In addition, the Fund may seek to hedge by effecting short sales of ETFs. The Fund may use these strategies to hedge up to 100% of the value of the stocks that it owns. However, the Fund may experience a loss even when the entire value of its stock portfolio is hedged if the returns of the stocks held by the Fund do not exceed the returns of the securities and financial instruments used to hedge, or if the exercise prices of the Fund’s call and put options differ, so that the combined loss on these options during a market advance exceeds the gain on the underlying stock index.

Because of the Fund’s ability to establish leveraged and hedged investment positions, Fund performance may significantly deviate from that of the major stock indices for substantial portions of the market cycle. When market conditions are favorable in the view of the investment manager, the use of options to increase market exposure may amplify the Fund’s sensitivity to general market fluctuations for meaningful periods of time, and the Fund may experience a net loss of time-value on purchased options. When market conditions are unfavorable in the view of the investment manager, the Fund may experience limited, zero, or possibly negative correlation with general market fluctuations for meaningful periods of time, and the Fund may experience a net loss of time-value on purchased options.

Minimum investment

Regular accounts: $1,000
IRA and Gift to Minors accounts: $500