A Structural Analysis of Alternative Fund CRSAX
Commodity return
The Credit Suisse Commodity Return Strategy (CRSAX) is an alternative mutual fund that uses commodity return strategy to achieve its investment objectives.
The primary holdings of CRSAX include various commodity-indexed, structured notes and fixed-income instruments, including US government and agency securities, corporate bonds, debentures, and notes, and short-term deposits.
Market performance comparison
The above graph compares the performances of CRSAX and the PIMCO Commodities PLUS Strategy Fund (PCLAX) with the S&P 500 (VFINX).
The graph depicts the price movement of $100 invested in the two funds and the index simultaneously from January 1 to December 9, 2015. The S&P 500 has given a total year-to-date (or YTD) return of 2.2% to the investor, whereas the CRSAX and the PCLAX have performed negatively, with YTD returns of -24.4% and -24.7%, respectively.
Note that a major deviation in CRSAX’s and S&P 500’s performances came during the period of June to July 2015, when news about China’s slowdown came around. Since then, the downward trend has only continued.
Low-cost fund
The CRSAX is an open-ended mutual fund that currently manages net assets worth $3.9 billion. The net expense ratio of the fund is 1.1%, lower than many similar alternative funds.
The top ten holdings of CRSAX form 29% of its portfolio. Its holdings consist of commodity-indexed, structured notes of BNP Paribas (BNP) and Deutsche Bank (DB) and time deposits of State Street (STT).
US agency obligations of the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FMCC) are also present in CRSAX’s portfolio.
Browse this series on Market Realist: