Fund Evaluator:

Catalyst Buffered Shield Fund A Overview

Catalyst Buffered Shield Fund A (SHIEX) is an actively managed Nontraditional Equity Equity Hedged fund. Catalyst Mutual Funds launched the fund in 2015.

The investment seeks long-term capital appreciation. Under normal market conditions, the fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in put and call options on exchange traded funds (“ETFs”) that track the S&P 500 Index (“Index ETFs”), and in fixed income securities. Using a combination of put and call options on index ETFs, the fund's investment sub-advisor, Exceed Advisory LLC initially executes the equity options strategy by seeking to provide an investment vehicle that limits losses to 12.5% when the index declines in value, and to participate in increases in the index up to approximately 15%.

About Catalyst Buffered Shield Fund A (SHIEX)

There are 1 members of the management team with an average tenure of 11.30 years: Joseph Halpern (2015). 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%. Catalyst Buffered Shield Fund A has 26 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 106.3% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Catalyst Buffered Shield Fund A is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the Nontraditional Equity fund group. Catalyst Buffered Shield Fund A has 19.8% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 4.6%. There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 83.3% (63.4% domestic bond, 19.8% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Catalyst Buffered Shield Fund A has 12.1% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $4 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.

SHIEX 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 Catalyst Buffered Shield Fund A expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Equity Hedged category. Catalyst Buffered Shield Fund A has an expense ratio of 1.60%, which is 15% 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. A portfolio turnover rate cannot be currently calculated for Catalyst Buffered Shield Fund A. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 69% for the Equity Hedged category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Catalyst Buffered Shield Fund A returned 0.2%, which earned it a grade of C, 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.

Catalyst Buffered Shield Fund A has a trailing yield of 2.65%, which is above 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.

Catalyst Buffered Shield Fund A Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 4.9%, 0.5 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of C. The fund has returned 9.9% over the past year (grade of D), 11.1% over the past three years (grade of C) and 4.9% per year over the past five years (grade of D) and 6.9% per year over the past 10 years (grade of C).

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