FERI US EquityFlex: Volatility strategies on the upswing

The FERI US EquityFlex has made an excellent start to the 2024 stock market year. In a challenging market environment, the fund has outperformed the S&P 500 (plus 5.6%) with a performance of plus 6.2% since the beginning of the year. This means that the US EquityFlex, which combines an underlying investment in the S&P 500 with an options strategy, is continuing its success story from previous years. With a performance of 32.3%, the fund outperformed the benchmark by around 6.6 percentage points in 2023 (+25.7%). Overall, the FERI US EquityFlex has achieved an annual performance of 13.9% since its launch in 2014 and an overall outperformance of around 57% compared to the S&P 500 (as at February 15, 2024). "Our innovative investment approach of capturing volatility premiums on the US equity market via exchange-traded options has proven its worth even in a difficult environment," says Rico Höntschel, Head of Volatility Strategies & Digital Assets.

The US equity market in particular currently offers a very good investment opportunity for volatility strategies. The combination of a robust US economy and declining inflation rates with the end of the interest rate hike cycle in 2023 provides a solid basis for further price increases. "With a systematically and forecast-free managed option premium strategy, investors achieve a better result on the US equity market than with a simple passive S&P 500 ETF," adds Höntschel.

FERI leads the way in the development of volatility funds

FERI was instrumental in shaping the concept of the option premium strategy with the launch of OptoFlex over 10 years ago and made it accessible to both professional and private investors. All of FERI's volatility funds have received numerous awards over the years and have regularly achieved top rankings. "Volatility is an important asset class for us. The volatility funds in the Flex family are an integral part of our multi-asset strategy. They offer attractive returns beyond traditional bond and equity investments and make a significant contribution to the stabilization and performance of portfolios," says Dr. Marcel V. Lähn, Chief Investment Officer at FERI.

The FERI US EquityFlex currently has a volume of EUR 1.4 billion. FERI manages a total of EUR 3 billion in volatility strategies with a team of 7 employees and is therefore ideally positioned for well-founded analyses and efficient implementation of option premium strategies. The funds have low costs overall and, due to their size, offer very favorable conditions in the area of execution and clearing fees. In addition, unlike some competitors, FERI acts as a direct portfolio manager, which increases efficiency and security for investors. All key processes are therefore mapped "in-house" and options orders are placed directly on the trading floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). For investors, this means having a very high-performance product in this important asset class in their portfolio from all risk and return perspectives.