SBI Strategy Indices

Updated: June 30, 2010

SBI Strategy Index Fact Sheet

About the Indices

SBI Strategy Indices are benchmarks created specifically to help investors determine the investment strategy being pursued by active equity managers. The SBI Strategy Indices are comprised of all open-end active mutual funds pursuing a stated investment strategy.

Unlike traditional benchmarks, SBI Strategy Index composition is not determined by an index committee but by active equity managers' stated investment strategy, which can be found in the funds' prospectuses. Identifying and categorizing managers by their investment strategy leads to more meaningful peer groups within the equity universe.

AthenaInvest maintains and publishes 10 SBI US Equity Strategy Indices and 10 SBI International Equity Strategy Indices.

Index Report Download Area

Index Methodology

Criteria for Index Inclusion

In order for a mutual fund to be included in a particular SBI Strategy Index, it must be an active open-end mutual fund with a stated investment strategy. AthenaInvest's Strategy Identification Process excludes Index Funds, ETF's, Asset Allocation, Life Cycle, and other passively managed or mixed-asset class funds from the SBI Strategy Indices. More information about AthenaInvest's Strategy Identification Process can be found at www.athenainvest.com.

The underlying composition of mutual funds in a particular SBI Strategy Index changes when new funds pursuing that strategy are identified. The equity holdings of the mutual funds change over time, and AthenaInvest does not control for the composition or characteristics of the securities that make up SBI Strategy Indices, including sector weighting, market capitalization, or other stock characteristics.

Criteria for Index Removal

Once a mutual fund is strategy identified and becomes part of a particular SBI Strategy Index, there are only two reasons for removal:

1. The fund's stated investment strategy changes and as a result it is identified as pursuing a different strategy in which case it will be included going forward in its new strategy, or
2. The fund closes.

Calculation of Index Performance

Monthly returns for each of the 20 SBI Strategy Indices, 10 US Equity and 10 International Equity, are calculated as a simple average of the monthly across share class fund returns in that strategy. Returns are net of all automatically deducted fees including management fees, administration fees, 12b1, trading costs, and other fees.

The SBI Strategy Indices were launched in May 2009 and cover the time period from January 1980 through the present on a monthly basis. Not all indices start in January 1980 due to the lack of strategy identified funds in earlier years. The Strategy Identification Process began in 2007, so funds that did not exist then are excluded from the indices.