Morgan Stanley Investment Management Launches Commodities Alpha Fund

Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) has launched the Morgan Stanley Commodities Alpha Fund, an actively managed mutual fund that offers high net worth investors the opportunity to gain direct access to the potential return and portfolio diversification benefits of the commodities market and the expertise of MSIM's Quantitative and Structured Solutions investment team, according to the firm.

"The Commodities Alpha Fund gives investors the potential to capture the returns of a global, diverse and growing market that has a low correlation with equity and bond market returns," says Justin Simpson, global head of the quantitative and structured solutions team and lead portfolio manager. "For investors seeking to diversify their portfolio, we believe this strategy may be an attractive opportunity for direct, actively managed exposure to the commodities asset class with the potential for incremental returns," he says.

The Commodities Alpha Fund seeks to generate the returns of the Dow Jones AIG Commodity Index (DJAIG) 1 and to produce incremental returns from an actively managed multi-strategy alpha engine. It pursues continuous exposure to the commodities market (such as agriculture, energy, industrial metals, livestock and precious metals) through investments in commodities-linked instruments, as well as fixed income securities, including money market instruments, according to Morgan Stanely. The Fund will also strive for above-market returns from multiple proprietary quantitative trading strategies designed to exploit inefficiencies or anomalies in the commodities marketplace, such as price curves, price change and volatility.