All Weather Fund

A mutual fund that tends to perform reasonably well during both favorable and unfavorable economic and market conditions. This type of investment result is accomplished, in most cases, through portfolio diversification, by employing a combination of asset classes, and/or using a variety of hedging strategies.

In the universe of mutual funds, there is no formal "all weather fund" category. However, a number of fund types qualify for the moniker because of the nature of their portfolios and/or how they are managed.

For example, a simple balanced fund (stock and bond) with a 60% equity and a 40% fixed-income portfolio comes close to fitting the all-weather description. An asset-allocation fund (stock, bond and cash equivalents) will also qualify if the proportional representation of its asset classes falls into the moderate style.

More recently, long-short funds, which combine long and short stock positions that adjust to market conditions, appear to have potential for benefiting investors on the upside and protecting them on the downside of market moves.