Morningstar Announces Alternatives Fund Manager of the Year Nominees

The 2012 alternatives fund manager of the year nominees are:

• Michael Aronstein, MainStay Marketfield (MFLDX)-"Unlike most funds in the long-short category, this fund weathered the entire 2007-2009 financial crisis (only 29 of the category's 83 funds were around prior to 2008)," Papagiannis writes. "From early 2007 through early March 2009, the fund lost 22.8%, relative to the S&P 500's 50% dive, by shorting financial and emerging-markets stocks early on. Then Aronstein invested in cyclical stocks and shorted long-dated Treasury ETFs in 2009 and 2010, benefiting from the stock market's recovery."
• Team, Calamos Market Neutral Income (CVSIX)-"What drives performance in Calamos Market Neutral Income is the same as what drives performance across Calamos' suite of convertible-bond funds–a deep research bench and decades of experience," she writes. 
• Team, TFS Market Neutral (TFSMX)- Papagiannis notes this fund is currently the only alternative mutual fund receiving a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Gold."It's also one of the oldest in the market-neutral category, sporting an eight-year track record. The fund follows a quantitative small-capitalization equity arbitrage strategy, in a $1 long/$0.66 short ratio, looking for mispricing in three broad areas: fundamental data (earnings surprises, for example), 'follow the smart money' (insider buying, for example), and order imbalances (overbought or oversold stocks, for example)."