One Group Puts Market Neutral Fund into Gear

According to a news release, the new offering’s market neutral strategy is designed to perform independently from the general domestic markets to help “neutralize” volatility.

Banc One Investment Advisors – One Group’s advisor – will apply proprietary quantitative analysis to rank 1,100 to 1,300 stocks using both valuation and fundamental criteria. The 200 to 250 most attractive stocks are held in a long position and the 200 to 250 least attractive stocks are sold short, according to the news release.   The fund intends to maintain approximately equal value exposure in its long and short positions to offset the effects from stock market movements or sector swings.

In general, the fund will:

• be sector neutral
• give equal consideration to both value and growth factors
• invest in small-, mid- and large-cap stocks
• offer A, B, C or I shares
• have a $10,000 minimum investment

One Group Mutual Funds has more than $97.5 billion in assets as of March 31, 2003 and is the mutual fund family of the Bank One Corporation. More information is available at  http://www.onegroup.com/ .