(New York)

Momentum funds often get bad press. While they have obvious utility, a lot of people say they feed bubbles and are subject to very big losses from market corrections. That said, some funds have started to do an excellent job at both hedging and outperforming to the upside. While that might sound impossible, it is not as hard as it sounds. The key is to follow the market’s movement, but not try to predict it. In other words, in strongly upward markets, you position yourself very bullish (e.g. 200% exposure). In downward markets, you take an inverse or short exposure to profit from losses. In a decent market you simply stay at 100% long exposure. By using this approach you can participate it more of the upside and lose less on the downside.

FINSUM: This is a smart strategy and one that some momentum funds are using to outperform the market right now. It can be employed either by buying funds or with an options strategy.