NEW YORK, April 23, 2020 – AXS Investments, a leading alternative investment manager, announced today that the firm celebrated the 3rd anniversary of its AXS Multi-Strategy Alternatives Fund (KCMIX) on March 20, 2020 amid the Fund’s continued strong performance during one of the most highly volatile months historically. Underscoring the robustness of its time-tested liquid alternative strategy, KCMIX received an overall 4-Star Morningstar rating out of 1,214 large blend equity funds and a 3-star rating out of 1,048 funds for the three-year period, based on risk-adjusted returns as of 3/31/2020.

KCMIX is an alternative equity-focused macro fund with the flexibility to invest globally and tactically, including long/short, across all asset classes. The Fund focuses on long-term growth of capital while seeking to manage volatility and market risk, catering to investors seeking the ability to participate in the potential for upside capture while actively managing downside risk.

“AXS Investments has always been committed to creating access for investors to alternative sources of returns to help enhance portfolio outcomes,” said Greg Bassuk, Chief Executive Officer of AXS Investments. “AXS Multi-Strategy Alternatives Fund’s long and strong track record is representative of our firm’s diversified, high-quality fund lineup, and reinforces how liquid alternative investments can help investors participate in equity market upside and also protect against downside risk.”

While KCMIX, the Fund’s institutional share class, recently marked its three-year anniversary, the Fund’s retail share class (KCMTX) marked its 10th anniversary in 2018. Launched on August 4, 2008, the Fund avoided 67% of the S&P 500's loss in value during the "Financial Crisis" from its inception through the bear market bottom on March 9, 2009, and was back to breakeven in May 2009, two months later.

The AXS Multi-Strategy Alternatives Fund’s other share class, KCMTX, won the Lipper Fund Award for Best Alternative Global Macro Fund over five years in 2018 and 2019 (out of 208 eligible share classes as of 11/30/17 and 198 eligible share classes as of 11/30/18). In addition, KCMTX received an overall rating of 2 stars in the Morningstar large blend equity category. It earned a 4-star rating out of 1,214 funds and a 3-star rating out of 1,048 funds, based on three- and five-year risk-adjusted returns, respectively as of 3/31/2020.

About AXS Investments

AXS Investments is a leading alternative investment manager providing a diversified family of alternative investment funds for individual investors, financial advisors, family offices and others seeking alternative sources of growth, income and diversification. The firm empowers investors to diversify their portfolios with investments previously available only to the largest institutional and high net worth investors. The firm’s investor-friendly funds are time-tested, liquid and transparent, sub-advised by top institutional managers with long and strong track records. For more information, visit www.axsinvestments.com.

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About Morningstar Ratings

The Morningstar Rating™ for funds, or "star rating," is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The Morningstar Rating does not include any adjustment for sales loads. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five- and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics.

The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods. Morningstar Rating is for the I share classes; other classes may have different performance characteristics.

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About Lipper Fund Awards

The Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards are granted to funds and fund management firms in 20 countries worldwide for their consistently strong risk-adjusted three-, five- and 10-year performance relative to their peers, based on Lipper’s proprietary performance-based methodology. For more information, visit www.lipperfundawards.com.

Definitions

Long is the buying of a security such as a stock, commodity or currency with the expectation that the asset will rise in value. Short is a sale that is completed by the delivery of a security borrowed by the seller. Short sellers assume they will be able to buy the stock at a lower amount than the price at which they sold short.