Equinox Fund Management Announces Launch of Equinox Commodity Strategy Fund

DENVER, June 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Equinox Fund Management, LLC, a sponsor of alternative investment funds ("Equinox"), today announced the launch of Equinox Commodity Strategy Fund ("the Fund"), a market-neutral mutual fund designed to produce returns by exploiting potential inefficiencies in the systematic selling and repurchasing of expiring futures contracts commonly employed by long-only commodity strategies. The Fund has three classes of shares, with the symbols EQCAX, EQCCX and EQCIX.

The Fund offers investors an opportunity to diversify their current holdings in long-only commodity funds and ETFs, by employing a long-short investment program.

The Fund's investment program is designed to address three challenges common to long-only commodity funds:

1. The high level of volatility inherent in many long-only commodity funds;
2. The increasing correlation of long-only commodity funds to other asset classes – a problematic trend due to the fact that many investors seek out commodity funds for their lack of correlation; and
3. The systematic negative roll yields that long-only commodity funds and ETFs often face in commodity markets with rising price curves (markets in "contango").*

Robert Enck, President and CEO of Equinox, hailed the Equinox Commodity Strategy Fund as a natural extension of the firm's focus on innovation and deliberate design: "At Equinox, we keenly appreciate both the opportunities and challenges of investing in commodities. We have created the Equinox Commodity Strategy Fund as a means to address critical issues of volatility, correlation, and index integrity, while providing investors with an investment that draws upon our knowledge and experience in the commodity markets."

Markets in contango pose particular difficulties for long-only funds. Because futures contracts are sold and repurchased, forward prices commonly can be higher than spot prices. Accordingly, an investor desiring to hold a long position past the expiration of the current futures contract must sell that contract at a lower price and pay a higher price to buy a new one to maintain exposure to the commodity. The resulting systematic loss, or tracking error, is known as "negative roll yield."

Rich Bornhoft, CIO of Equinox Fund Management, said, "The objective of the Fund is to avoid incurring negative roll yield in contangoed markets by investing in a proprietary index that employs algorithms to optimize the manner and timing in which futures contracts are bought and sold. The Fund also seeks to profit in each commodity market it trades by using a number of other enhanced algorithm-based rolling mechanisms."

The Fund employs a market neutral strategy that is equally long and short each commodity. It uses a targeting mechanism to dampen volatility, the goal of which is a standard deviation of 6% or less. The strategy seeks to profit in rising or falling market environments, while providing low-to-negative correlation to traditional investments.

About Equinox Fund Management

Equinox Fund Management, which manages over $1.1 billion in assets, specializes in the design and distribution of innovative alternative investment products for both accredited and non-accredited investors in the United States. Its senior leadership has been involved in the commodities and futures markets since 1979, providing the firm with unusual insight into under-served markets in the alternative investment sector. In addition to the Equinox Commodity Strategy Fund, Equinox sponsors MutualHedge Frontier Legends Fund and The Frontier Fund, a public managed futures fund with daily liquidity.

*Contango: A market configuration in which futures contract prices increase as maturities get longer. Source: sgindex.com.

Securities offered through Bornhoft Group Securities Corporation, Member FINRA.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS.

There is no guarantee that managed futures or the funds sponsored by Equinox Fund Management, LLC will meet their intended objective; accordingly, investors could lose a substantial portion, or even all, of their investment. This is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy.

Mutual funds involve risk including possible loss of principal.

Although the Equinox Commodity Strategy Fund intends to follow a long/short market-neutral strategy, exposure to the commodities markets may subject the Fund to greater volatility than investments in traditional securities. Because the Fund anticipates entering into one or more commodity-linked derivative instruments, a loss may be sustained as a result of the failure of another party to a contract to make required payments or otherwise comply with a contract's terms. The use of derivatives, such as swap agreements, options, warrants, futures contracts, and structured notes, presents risks different from, and possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in traditional securities. The use of derivatives can lead to losses because of adverse movements in the price or value of the underlying security, commodity, asset, index or reference rate. Derivative strategies often involve leverage, which may exaggerate or magnify a loss, potentially causing the Fund to lose more money than it would have lost had it invested directly in the underlying security. Also, a liquid secondary market may not always exist for the Fund's derivative positions at times when the Fund might wish to terminate or sell such positions. Fixed income securities are subject to credit risk and interest rate risk. There can be no assurance that the strategies reflected in the Reference Index and Underlying Index will be successful. The Fund is managed with a passive investment strategy, attempting to track the performance of the Reference Index. This approach differs from that of an actively managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform some benchmark index. Maintaining an investment in a specific component regardless of market conditions or performance could cause the Fund's return to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy. The Fund's portfolio composition and performance may not match, and may vary substantially from, that of the Reference Index for any period of time. The Fund is non-diversified. A non-diversified fund's greater investment in a single issuer makes the fund more susceptible to financial, economic or market events impacting such issuer. There is a risk that the investments that the Fund holds are bought and sold in a frequent manner, thereby increasing Fund expenses and resulting in lower investment returns. The Fund could be considerably more volatile than a broad-based market index or other mutual funds that are diversified across a greater number of sectors. Changes in the laws of the United States and/or the Cayman Islands, under which the Fund and Subsidiary, respectively, are organized, could result in the inability of the Fund and/or Subsidiary to operate as described in this Prospectus and could negatively affect the Fund and its shareholders.

Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the Equinox Commodity Strategy Fund. This and other important information about the Equinox Commodity Strategy Fund are contained in the Prospectus, which can be obtained by calling 1-888-643-3431. The Prospectus should be read carefully before investing. The Equinox Commodity Strategy Fund is distributed by Northern Lights Distributors, LLC Member FINRA. Equinox Fund Management, LLC and Bornhoft Group Securities Corporation are not affiliated with Northern Lights Distributors, LLC.

SOURCE Equinox Fund Management

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