Castlestone Management has introduced the Dublin-listed fund, Aliquot Active Commodity Index Fund. The fund aims to offer access to the commodities market via a UCITS framework, explained Matthew Sena, a portfolio co-manager.

“The opportunities to gain exposure to this asset class have been very limited,” Sena noted. The firm worked with regulators in Ireland to develop a fund that offers investors actively-managed commodities exposure. It employs exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded commodities as a means to mirroring the exposures of the offshore Aliquot Commodity Fund.

The fund has the flexibility to alter exposure to individual commodities, which enables better risk management. The firm selected commodities because historic data suggests that commodity futures are negatively correlated with equities. In addition, commodities have maintained their value in terms exchange rate for other goods and services and have returned an average of 18.96% annually since 2002.