Alternative Investment Strategies

Alternative investment strategies offer an effective way to diversify a portfolio. The primary objective of alternative investment strategies is to generate positive returns regardless of the state of the market. These alternative investments are based on strategies that use leverage, arbitrage, derivatives and long or short positions.

We offer the following types of alternative investment strategies:

Hedge funds
Private equity
Structured products

When suitable, alternative investments can provide the following benefits:

Increased diversification
Reduced portfolio volatility
Non-correlation to other investments

One of our preferred hedge fund investments is highlighted below.

Vertex Fund

Issuer: Vertex One Asset Management Inc.
Type: Flow-Through Limited Partnership
Fund Size: $875 million.
Min. Initial Investment: $25,000.00 per Unit.
Objectives: Absolute returns of 10% plus with a Beta of 0.5 or less to market indices over the longer term.
Investment Style: Multi Strategy fund with opportunistic approach. Focus is on event driven strategies with a long bias.
Investment Strategies: Risk Arbitrage, Long, Distressed Situations, Option Strategies, and Special Situations
RRSP Eligible: Yes

Performance Update: May 2009