Fund Evaluator:

IPS Strategic Capital Absolute Ret Instl Overview

IPS Strategic Capital Absolute Ret Instl (IPSAX) is an actively managed Nontraditional Equity Equity Hedged fund. WP Trust launched the fund in 2016.

The investment seeks total return. The fund's primary strategy consists of selling and purchasing put and call options on equity indexes and exchange traded funds. The sale of put options generates income for the fund, but exposes it to the risk of declines in the value of the underlying assets. The risk in purchasing options is limited to the premium paid by the fund for the options. The sale of call options generates income for the fund but may limit the fund's participation in equity market gains. The fund's investment adviser seeks to reduce the overall volatility of returns by managing a portfolio of options. It is non-diversified.

About IPS Strategic Capital Absolute Ret Instl (IPSAX)

There are 1 members of the management team with an average tenure of 10.29 years: Dominick Paoloni (2016). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 1 primary benchmark: S&P 500 (TR) (1970) index with a weighting of 100%. IPS Strategic Capital Absolute Ret Instl has 38 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 130.8% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a nondiversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

IPS Strategic Capital Absolute Ret Instl is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the Nontraditional Equity fund group. IPS Strategic Capital Absolute Ret Instl has 0.5% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 103.0%. There is 0.5% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 0.0% (0.0% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). IPS Strategic Capital Absolute Ret Instl has -3.5% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $40 million in total assets, which is below the $432 million average for the Equity Hedged category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

IPSAX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The IPS Strategic Capital Absolute Ret Instl expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Equity Hedged category. IPS Strategic Capital Absolute Ret Instl has an expense ratio of 1.51%, which is 9% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a D. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. IPS Strategic Capital Absolute Ret Instl has a portfolio turnover rate of 115%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 69% for the Equity Hedged category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, IPS Strategic Capital Absolute Ret Instl returned -0.9%, which earned it a grade of D, as the Equity Hedged category had an average return of -0.0%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

IPS Strategic Capital Absolute Ret Instl has a trailing yield of 0.25%, which is below the 0.94% category average. The fund normally distributes its income annually and its capital gains annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

IPS Strategic Capital Absolute Ret Instl Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned -0.9%, 6.3 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of F. The fund has returned 2.7% over the past year (grade of F), 9.6% over the past three years (grade of D) and 5.4% per year over the past five years (grade of D) and 5.8% per year over the past 10 years (grade of D).

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