Alpine Dynamic Transformations Fund seeks capital appreciation by investing in U.S. and foreign companies that the Adviser believes offer superior growth potential because they’re entering or on the verge of entering an accelerated growth period catalyzed by transformation or innovation. The manager will be Stephen Lieber, Alpine’s 81-year-old Chief Investment Officer and co-manager of the tepid Dynamic Balance fund. Just another plug for the liberal arts: Mr. Lieber received a Bachelor’s degree in English (with honors) from Williams College, and attended the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Expenses, after waivers, of 1.35%. Minimum initial investment is $1,000.

Aston/M|B Enhanced Equity Income Fund will seek total return by investing primarily in a diversified U.S. stock portfolio and by writing covered call options on a substantial portion of the Fund's long equity portfolio. Option premiums and dividend income are expected to constitute a significant portion of total return. Managers will be Ronald Altman and Paul Pfeiffer, both of whom have a lot of investment experience but none in running a fund. Expenses, after waivers, of 1.10%. Minimum investment are $2500 for regular accounts, $500 for retirement, college and gift accounts.

Autopilot Managed Growth Fund describes itself as a "multi-cap equity fund." You might think that the "Autopilot" moniker implies some sort of passive investing strategy. Oh, no, it means something closer to "don’t bother us," as in " [t]he adviser's goal is that shareholders will put their investment in the Fund on ‘autopilot’ by investing for the long term and deferring day-to-day investment decisions to the active management of the adviser." I was kinda hoping that the adviser’s goal would be enriching his shareholders. Silly Dave. The managers are John D. Rhoads ("Until 2007 he was a Certified Financial Planner . . . currently, Mr. Roads is a member of the National Association of Active Investment Managers"), David Lucca ("he is registered under the Commodities Exchange Act as an associated person"), and Peter Mauthe (also an "associated person"). Expense ratio is 2.37%. The minimum initial $10,000 for regular accounts and $4,000 for retirement plans and automatic investment plans.

Dorfman Value Fund will pursue long-term capital appreciation by investing in undervalued US and foreign stocks. The manager will look mostly are p/e, p/b and p/s ratios. John Dorfman is the portfolio manager.  He runs Thunderstorm Capital, which manages about $200 million for rich folks. He was also a columnist for the Wall Street Journal (’97 – ’02) and Bloomberg (’97 – ’07), he’s written nine books and served as an analyst and portfolio manager at Dreman Value Management from 1997 to 2002.   Mr. Dorfman is a graduate of Princeton University and holds a M.F.A. from Columbia University (I’ll consider that a liberal arts plug if he does well, otherwise forget I mentioned it). 1.99% e.r. The minimum initial investment in the Fund is $10,000 for IRA, Keogh and UTMA accounts, and $25,000 for all other accounts.

Fidelity Dynamic Strategies Fund seeks to maximize total return by investing in a mix of stocks (including domestic, international and emerging markets), bonds (short-term, high yield and inflation protected bonds, and floating rate loans), and cash-like instruments. They’re looking to outperform a benchmark that’s 50% stocks, 40% bonds and 10% cash. Andrew Dierdorf and Jurrien Timmer will manage the fund. They haven’t run a fund before but appear to be relatively high-powered quant geeks at Fido. 1.02% e.r., $2500 minimum, reduced to $200 for IRAs with the proviso that you then need to invest at least $200/month until you reach $2500.

Kinetics Multi-Disciplinary Fund will look for total return consistent with capital preservation. It seems mostly to focus on short-term bonds. The fund will have a net long fixed-income bias, but opportunistically hedges its fixed-income positions with options, derivatives and/or short positions.  It may also invest in distressed debt (i.e., debt rated below B- by S&P) and equity securities. The managers will be Murray Stahl (co-Founder of Horizon Asset Management, and Co-Portfolio Manager for the Kinetics Paradigm, Small Cap Opportunities, and Market Opportunities funds), and Paul Berman (who has been specializing in M&A and distressed debt sorts of stuff). Expenses not to exceed 1.74%. The minimum initial investment for both regular accounts and individual retirement accounts is $2,500 ($2,000 for Coverdell Education Savings Accounts).

Leuthold Global Fund will seeks total return by investing flexibly between global stocks (30-70% of the portfolio), bonds (30-70%) and money market instruments (10-20%). The fund will be quantitatively driven and can short stocks. It will be run by a team of the usual suspects (Steve Leuthold, Douglas Ramsey, Matt Paschke). Expense ratio of 2.07%, assuming 0.2% expenses to repay dividends on shorted stocks. $10,000 investment minimum, $1000 for IRAs or Coverdells. They expect to launch in late January.

Oberweis Asia Opportunities Fund invests in the stocks of companies incorporated in Asia, trading on Asian exchanges or deriving at least half their business from Asia. The prospectus notes "many of the companies also meet certain of the Oberweis Octagon investment criteria," which sounds kinda mushy. The fund will be managed by a team whose members also manage China Opportunities and International Opportunities. 2.49% expense ratio, with a minimum investment of $1,000, $500 for IRAs and $100 for accounts with an automatic investment plan.

ProFunds China, UltraChina, Short China, and UltraShort China will allow unusually well-informed (or spectacularly delusional) investors who are confident that they know what’s going to happen in the world’s most opaque market to make leveraged, inverse, and leveraged inverse bets on its direction. Expenses not set. $15,000 investment minimum.

Satuit Small Cap Fund will be a small cap blend fund run by Robert Sullivan, manager of Satuit Microcap. In one of those incredibly weird contortions, this fund has a seven year track record, and a miserable one at that. Up until November1st, this was the World Genomics fund, which has an annualized loss of 18% per year since inception. Satuit just bought it and, with a straight face, declared, "The Fund has the same investment strategy as the Predecessor Fund. However, the Predecessor Fund's investment strategy was to invest at least 80% of the Fund's assets in genomics related issues." Including large caps such as Amgen. Large cap biotech. Small cap diversified. Yeah, those seem about the same. The major upside is that Satuit Microcap is excellent (five-star, top decile returns) but has a 5% front load, the avoidance of which takes some effort. This seems to be a no-load fund (but a 2% redemption fee on shares held less than one year) run with the same strategy. I’m hopeful of talking with the manager in early December and I’ll pass along what I’ve learned in the January Annex. 1.90% expense ratio, $1000 minimum.

Vanguard Managed Payout Growth Focus, Managed Payout Growth and Distribution, and Managed Payout Distribution Focus funds are part of the new wave of funds concerned with the income distribution, rather than capital accumulation, phase of one’s investing career. Each fund combines a managed distribution policy (to provide investors with regular cash flows) with "an endowment-like investment strategy." The funds will distribute 3%, 5% or 7% of the account balance each year, depending on the fund. The portfolios invest very broadly, monthly payments are stable throughout the year and then adjusted in January to reflect the fund’s performance over the preceding three years (which, by the way, are the same rules that govern Augustana’s college endowment). Of necessity, the funds need to pursue market neutrality and Vanguard rightly describes their portfolio management as "complex." Expense ratio of 0.58%, $25,000 minimum investment.