First Investors Covered Call Strategy Fund

C000167794 Fund Overview

First Investors Covered Call Strategy Fund is a US mutual fund managed by First Investors Equity Funds, categorised as Developed ex-US Blend / Core Equity. ABC INVEST provides holdings, performance, costs, cashflows, risk data, prospectus documents and SEC filings, sourced from SEC filings.

• Type: US mutual fund
• Manager: First Investors Equity Funds
• Category: Developed ex-US Blend / Core Equity
• Assets under management: $281.13M
• SEC CIK: 0000886048
• SEC series ID: S000053335
• Share class ID: C000167794

C000167794 Investment Objective and Strategy

First Investors Covered Call Strategy Fund describes its objective and strategy as follows, from its latest prospectus filed with the SEC by First Investors Equity Funds.

Investment objective

The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation.

Principal investment strategy

The Fund invests in a portfolio of equity securities and writes (sells) call options on those securities. Under normal circumstances, the Fund will write (sell) call options on at least 80% of the Funds total assets. The Fund will normally write (sell) covered call options listed on U.S. exchanges on the equity securities held by the Fund to seek to lower the overall volatility of the Funds portfolio, protect the Fund from market declines and generate income. The call options written (sold) by the Fund will generally have an exercise price that is above the market price of the underlying security at the time the option is written (sold). The Funds equity investments will consist primarily of common stocks of large-size U.S. companies, certain of which may pay dividends, and U.S. dollar-denominated equity securities of foreign issuers (i.e., American Depositary Receipts (ADRs)), traded on U.S.

securities exchanges. To a lesser extent, the Fund may also invest in and write (sell) covered call options on securities of mid- and small-capitalization issuers and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track certain market indices, such as the S&P 500. The nature of the Fund is such that it may be expected to underperform equity markets during periods of sharply rising equity prices; conversely, the Fund seeks to reduce losses relative to equity markets during periods of declining equity prices. A call option gives the purchaser of the option the right to buy, and the writer, in this case, the Fund, the obligation to sell, the underlying security at the exercise price at any time prior to the expiration of the contract, regardless of the market price of the underlying security during the option period.

Covered call options may be sold up to the number of shares of the equity securities held by the Fund. In selecting investments, the Funds subadviser considers the following, among other criteria: a) companies in an industry with a large market share or significant revenues that fit the Funds investment strategy; b) companies with new products or a potentially positive change in management; c) recent or anticipated fundamental improvements in industry environment; and d) in some circumstances, companies that are out of favor. Call options written by the Fund are designed to create income, lower the overall volatility of the Funds portfolio and mitigate the impact of market declines. The Funds subadviser considers several factors when writing (selling) call options, including the overall equity market outlook, sector and/or industry attractiveness, individual security considerations, and relative and/or historical levels of option premiums.

The Fund may sell a security based on the following, among other criteria: a) a defined deterioration in operating fundamentals and/or a significant negative outlook from management; b) a large appreciation in the stock price leads to overvaluation relative to itself and its peers historically; c) significant management turnover at the senior level; or d) a change in the stage of the market cycle. The subadviser considers the period from one recession to the next recession a full market cycle. The subadviser writes call options based upon the subadvisers outlook on the economy and stock market and analysis of individual stocks, which can impact the strike price and expiration of a call option. Generally, higher implied volatility will lead to longer expirations, locking in potentially higher call premiums, whereas lower implied volatility will tend to lead to shorter-dated options.

The writing of covered call options may result in frequent trading and a high portfolio turnover rate.

C000167794 Costs and Fees

C000167794 costs about $103 per $10,000 invested per year in fund expenses.

• Net expense ratio: 1.03%
• Gross expense ratio: 1.03%
• Portfolio turnover: 107%
• Brokerage commissions: 20.38 bps of average net assets (SEC N-CEN)

C000167794 Cashflows

Over the 12 months to 2019-09, First Investors Covered Call Strategy Fund had net outflows of $38.59M, from monthly SEC N-PORT filings.

C000167794 Debt Constituents

No individual debt constituents are reported in First Investors Covered Call Strategy Fund's latest SEC N-PORT filing.

C000167794 Prospectus and SEC Filings

Official First Investors Covered Call Strategy Fund filings on SEC EDGAR — prospectus, portfolio holdings and annual reports.

• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2019-02-22
• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2018-02-20
• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2017-02-22
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2019-11-29
• Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2019-12-13
• Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2018-12-14

Related Funds

Other Developed ex-US Blend / Core Equity funds tracked on ABC INVEST:

• State Street International Stock Selection Fund (SSAIX)
• Columbia Pyrford International Stock Fund (PISJX)
• Core Market Neutral Fund (STTKX)
• Long Cramer Tracker ETF (LJIM)
• Baillie Gifford International Smaller Companies Fund (BICKX)

Data Sources

ABC INVEST compiles this page from public filings made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through EDGAR: portfolio holdings and monthly cashflows from Form N-PORT, expenses and returns from fund prospectuses (Form 485BPOS) and the SEC DERA Risk/Return Summary data sets, annual data from Form N-CEN, and shareholder reports from Form N-CSR.