According to a news release, the fund ranks number one of 18 funds in the Lipper Long-Short Fund Universe for total annualized returns since inception on October 1, 2002, through March 31.

The Bull Path Long Short Fund adopts a strategy developed and run by Bull Path Capital Management since 2002. During that time, the company said, the strategy has consistently delivered returns above its benchmark by utilizing a fundamentally-driven, bottom-up investment process that does not employ leverage.

Focused on U.S. mid-capitalization stocks, the strategy seeks out companies with recurring high margins, revenues or strong franchise positions while also favoring issues with strong barriers to entry and successful, entrepreneurial management teams. Stock selection is carried out by a team of sector-specific analysts, each of whom focus on covering no more than 25 companies in such industries as health care, media, telecommunications, financial services, energy services, restaurants and retail, the announcement said.

Stocks are subject to a proprietary risk scoring process and are typically monitored for months before positions are taken. Stringent bottom-up analysis also is conducted in establishing short positions, with emphasis placed on factors such as near-term operating conditions and other events that may impact the company.

“Investors have been traumatized by the events of the past 18 months, including the sobering performance of many long-only, ‘buy and hold’ strategies, and wondering how and when they can reenter the market,” said Rob Kaimowitz, portfolio manager of the fund and founder of Bull Path Capital Management, in the announcement. “We believe investors will be attracted to the performance characteristics of long-short funds which aim to capture the market’s upside while mitigating risk in a market sell-off.”

Kaimowitz said investors who may have previously considered long-short hedge funds should consider investing in this strategy through a mutual fund structure because of lower minimum investments, lower fees, full transparency and the assets being held in a trust bank.

The I-share class requires a minimum of $100,000 or a $50,000 minimum with participation in the automatic investment plan, the investment said.