Schooner Funds Celebrates Three Year Anniversary of Their Flagship Mutual Fund, and the Launch of Their Newest Alternative Mutual Fund

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite a difficult market, it's been smooth sailing for Schooner Investment Group's flagship mutual fund, The Schooner Fund (Ticker: SCNAX). The Fund recently celebrated its three-year mark.   The Schooner team has been very happy with its performance relative to its benchmarks, the S&P 500 Index and Morningstar's Long/Short category.  In addition, Schooner Fund recently received third party analysis and ratings from Morningstar, and Lipper after achieving its three year track record.

While traditional long-only mutual funds are inherently subject to market volatility, they are rarely able to take advantage of volatility pricing. The Schooner Fund represents a new breed of funds which attempts to profit from market fluctuations while aiming to limit the downside risks of a long only portfolio.

The Schooner Fund combines the structure of mutual funds with the trading strategies and risk mitigation techniques utilized by hedge funds.  Schooner's strategy is built around equity volatility trades utilizing U.S. large cap stocks, options and convertibles. The firm's fund managers are hedge fund veterans with long track records of working with equity derivative strategies.

Greg Levinson, Chief Investment Officer and SCNAX Portfolio Manager since August 2008, is pleased with the Fund's results to date and comments, "Our objective from inception has been to outperform both the S&P 500 Index and other funds in our peer group over a full market cycle, and do it with meaningfully less volatility and dramatically lower drawdown risk. We are extremely happy with our results."

Schooner Investment Group continues to see increasing advisor use of liquid alternative products, and anticipates the trend to continue for years. "We have every intention of being a significant player in this space," adds Levinson. Most recently the firm launched their second mutual fund, The Schooner Global Absolute Return Fund (Ticker: SARIX), and has new products and strategies in the works for 2012 release. "As demonstrated with the Schooner Fund, we seek to bring a fresh perspective to delivering risk adjusted returns. We continue to develop complementary products that we believe address advisor needs…our goal is to not just be a player, but a leader, in the alternative mutual fund marketplace!"  For more information, contact Schooner at 484-580-8086 or visit www.schoonermutualfunds.com. 

Before investing, carefully consider Schooner Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Please see the prospectus containing this and other information. To obtain a prospectus please visit www.schoonermutualfunds.com and download a copy or call (866)-724-5997.  Read it carefully before investing.

The S&P 500 Index is a broad based unmanaged index of 500 stocks, which is widely recognized as representative of the equity market in general.

The Schooner Fund investing involves risk; principal loss is possible.  Investments in debt securities typically decrease in value when interest rates rise. This risk is usually greater for longer-term debt securities.  The fund may also use options and futures contracts, which have the risks of unlimited losses of the underlying holdings due to unanticipated market movements and failure to correctly predict the direction of securities prices, interest rates and currency exchange rates. The investment in options is not suitable for all investors. The fund may hold restricted securities purchased through private placements. Such securities can be difficult to sell without experiencing delays or additional costs.

The Schooner Global Absolute Return Fund will invest in derivatives, including futures, swaps and forward foreign currency contracts, which may be more volatile than investments directly in the underlying securities, involve additional costs and may involve a small initial investment relative to the risk assumed. In addition, derivatives are subject to futures risk, swap agreement risk, liquidity risk, interest rate risk and credit risk. Exposure to commodity markets through investments in commodities futures contracts may subject the Fund to greater volatility than investments in traditional securities. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates will affect the value of what the Fund owns and the Fund's share price. The Fund invests in foreign securities which involve political, economic and currency risks, greater volatility and differences in accounting methods. Investments in debt securities typically decrease in value when interest rates rise. This risk is usually greater for longer-term debt securities. Short selling involves the risk of potentially unlimited increase in the market value of the security sold short, which could result in potentially unlimited loss for the Fund. Because the Fund invests in ETFs, it is subject to additional risks that do not apply to conventional mutual funds, including the risks that the market price of an ETF's shares may trade at a discount to its net asset value ("NAV"), an active secondary trading market may not develop or be maintained, or trading may be halted by the exchange in which they trade, which may impact a fund's ability to sell its shares. The Fund is non-diversified, meaning it may concentrate its assets in fewer individual holdings than a diversified fund. Therefore, the Fund is more exposed to individual stock volatility than a diversified fund. This investment may not be suitable for all investors. Investments in absolute return strategies are not intended to outperform stocks and bonds during strong market rallies.

©2011 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely.  Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Schooner Investment Group, LLC is the advisor for Schooner Fund, which is distributed by Quasar Distributors, LLC.

Not FDIC insured; no bank guarantee; may lose value. The Schooner Growth and Income Fund was renamed the Schooner Fund on 9/28/2010.

SOURCE Schooner Investment Group, LLC