Fixed Income Global Alpha Plus

Strategy highlights

Inception date

October 31, 1988

Benchmark

ICE BofA U.S. Treasury Bill Index

Total strategy assets

$3.5B

(as of August 2023)

Investment vehicles

  • Separate account
  • U.S. mutual fund

Uses rigorous fundamental research to implement a diverse range of strategies to enhance the fund's potential returns.

The managers actively position the portfolio to take advantage of undervalued securities from a broad range of sectors within the fixed-income universe, including government, MBS, ABS, CMO, foreign bonds, emerging-markets debt, and higher-yielding, lower-rated corporate debt.

The team seeks to manage the fund's risk exposure by maintaining a broad-based diversification and stress testing each security in the portfolio to assess the impact of worst-case scenarios on fund performance.

 

*No assurance can be given that the investment objective will be achieved or that an investor will receive a return of all or part of his or her initial investment. Actual results could be materially different from the stated goals. Investors should carefully consider the risks involved before deciding to invest. As with any investment, there is a potential for profit as well as the possibility of loss.

Assets may include accounts that are not reflected in the composite.

Investment team

Performance

Annualized composite performance (%) as of August 31, 2023

  MTD QTD YTD 1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
Fixed Income Global Alpha Plus (gross) 0.05% 1.00% 1.21% 1.12% -0.18% 0.65% 2.26%
Fixed Income Global Alpha Plus (net) 0.01% 0.90% 0.84% 0.56% -0.73% 0.10% 1.65%
ICE BofA U.S. Treasury Bill Index 0.45% 0.86% 3.16% 4.24% 1.52% 1.67% 1.08%

Calendar-year composite performance (%) as of August 31, 2023

  2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
Fixed Income Global Alpha Plus (gross) -2.06% -5.90% 0.62% 13.23% -0.34% 7.65% 6.17% -1.99% 1.89% 8.89%
Fixed Income Global Alpha Plus (net) -2.60% -6.42% 0.06% 12.61% -0.92% 7.01% 5.53% -2.66% 1.17% 8.13%
ICE BofA U.S. Treasury Bill Index 1.33% 0.05% 0.74% 2.35% 1.88% 0.81% 0.37% 0.09% 0.06% 0.09%

Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. An investment in this strategy could lose value. Most recent month-end performance is preliminary. Returns are subject to change.

Periods less than one year are not annualized. Performance is stated in U.S. dollars and includes the reinvestment of dividends and interest.

Literature

Important disclosures

The Putnam Investments Fixed Income Global Alpha Plus Composite (the “Composite”) seeks to provide a total return in excess of cash, as measured by the ICE BofA U.S. Treasury Bill Index, over a full investment cycle through an actively managed, unconstrained bond portfolio. Active risk will typically range between 400 and 1000 basis points per annum. Target ex-ante risk is not fixed; it is a function of market opportunity. The strategy pursues opportunities in credit risk - corporate (investment grade/high yield), mortgage (residential/commercial MBS), sovereign (developed/emerging market), prepayment risk (agency MBS, collateralized mortgage obligations, IOs/Pos), liquidity risk (pricing, volatility, spreads not associated with credit or prepayment risk), and term structure risk (level, slope, bend, currency, real vs. nominal rates). The Composite's benchmark is the ICE BofA U.S. Treasury Bill Index. Although accounts in the Composite pursue the same investment strategy, they may have different benchmarks. Leverage is not utilized in any account in this Composite. However, derivatives (including futures, exchange-traded or OTC options, forwards, and swaps) may be used for hedging or non-hedging purposes. The Composite comprises all fully discretionary accounts managed by Putnam Investments in this investment style and the strategy’s risk/return characteristics. The Composite inception date was October 31, 1988. The Composite creation date was January 23, 2006.

The ICE BofA U.S. Treasury Bill Index is an unmanaged index that tracks the performance of U.S. dollar-denominated Treasury bills publicly issued in the U.S. domestic market. Qualifying securities must have a remaining term of at least one month to final maturity and a minimum amount outstanding of $1 billion. 

As of February 1, 2018, the ICE BofA U.S. Treasury Bill Index replaced the BBG  U.S. Aggregate Bond Index as the benchmark for this Composite. The benchmark has been changed retroactively because this index more accurately reflects the strategy's multi-sector investment approach and more closely aligns with the goals for this strategy. The BBG  U.S. Aggregate Bond Index is an unmanaged index of U.S. investment-grade fixed-income securities. Indexes are rebalanced monthly by market capitalization.

Gross performance includes the deduction of transaction costs but does not include the deduction of management fees and other expenses that may be incurred in managing an investment account. A portfolio's return will be reduced by advisory and other fees. Net performance reflects the deduction of a model fee applied on a monthly basis, equal to the actual management fee incurred by a portfolio in the Composite or the highest management fee that would be charged to a prospect of the strategy, whichever is higher. The model fee may change over time. Actual advisory fees may vary among clients with the same investment strategy. The Composite includes all actual, fully discretionary accounts with substantially similar investment policies and objectives managed to the Composite's investment strategy. Benchmarks are generally taken from published sources and may have different calculation methodologies, pricing times, and/or foreign-exchange sources from the Composite. The effect of those differences is generally deemed to be immaterial. The securities holdings of the Composite strategy may differ materially from those of the index used for comparative purposes.