p id="xdx_A8B_eoef--StrategyNarrativeTextBlock_zIu1Ul7lw1Ed" style="font: 10pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"The Fund typically invests in a portfolio of common stocks of small and mid-cap (often combined as “SMID”) companies and, under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in securities of U.S. issuers that are small or mid-cap companies. The Adviser considers small and mid-cap companies for this purpose to be those companies that, at the time of purchase, are within the range of the market capitalizations of companies in the Russell 2500sup®/sup Growth Index. This 80% policy to invest in small and mid-cap companies may be changed by the Board of Trustees without shareholder approval upon 60 days’ notice to shareholders. This policy does not require the Fund to sell the security of a small or mid-cap company if such company’s market capitalization moves outside the range of the market capitalizations of companies in the Russell 2500sup®/sup Growth Index; however, additional purchases of such security will be subject to the 20% limitation for securities outside of the Fund’s small and mid-cap company portfolio. The Russell 2500sup®/sup Growth Index is a market index intended to measure the performance of the small to mid-cap growth segment of the US equity universe. As of December 31, 2025, the average weighted market capitalization of the issuers in the Russell 2500sup®/sup Growth Index was $9.2 billion./p p style="font: 10pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify" /p p style="font: 10pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, Serif; font-size: 10pt"The Adviser considers multiple factors to identify opportunities with attractive fundamental, thematic and/or technical traits. The Adviser believes earnings growth drives long-term stock performance and is influenced by changes in a company’s internal or external environment. The Adviser has identified the following key environmental conditions or “primary forces”: (i) competitive advantage, (ii) thematic forces, and (iii) cyclical business conditions./span/p p style="font: 10pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, Serif; font-size: 10pt" /span/p p style="font: 10pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, Serif; font-size: 10pt"The Adviser believes that changes in earnings power produced by competitive advantage, thematic forces, and cyclical business conditions are often not accurately captured in market prices. Thus, the Adviser believes that compelling investment opportunities are often closely associated with these identified primary forces. The Adviser believes that a portfolio of stocks positioned to benefit from one or more of these primary forces should outperform over time./span/p p style="font: 10pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, Serif; font-size: 10pt" /span/p p style="font: 10pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"The Adviser aims to construct a portfolio of stocks with key competitive advantages and favorable business conditions. Portfolio construction focuses on industry and factor exposures and seeks to optimize the attractiveness of the overall portfolio against the risks involved in sector or factor exposures that are overweighted or underweighted relative to their benchmark. An “Attractiveness Score” reflects the Adviser’s evaluation of each investment opportunity across valuation, business model, thematic timeliness, management team, and technical behavior. Thematic timeliness means how relevant a theme is to current market behavior. Technical behavior refers to the price/chart of the stock, it is a factor that evaluates price and helps the Adviser with the timing of its investments./p p style="font: 10pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify" /p p style="font: 10pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, Serif; font-size: 10pt"The Fund may sell a security if in the Adviser’s view (i) a company’s financial results fall significantly off its projected growth path, either in terms of product sales or market development, (ii) the company loses a significant competitive advantage, or (iii) the Adviser’s assessment of a company’s Attractiveness Score changes; positions may be reduced or eliminated entirely. Each investment is purchased with an open-ended time horizon, but is expected to average between one and two years. Actual time horizons range from a few months to more than four years. However, the Adviser may sell its securities, regardless of the length of time that they have been held, and may adjust the size of its positions, if the Adviser determines that it would be in the Fund’s best interest to do so./span/p