p id="xdx_A8B_eoef--StrategyNarrativeTextBlock_z9VSHoPpgGak" style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt"The Adviser uses a matrix of “top-down” macro models and “bottom-up” micro stock selection models to determine weighting in countries, sectors and individual securities. The Adviser believes government policies are a precursor to change, and as a result, it monitors and tracks the fiscal and monetary policies of the world’s largest countries both in terms of economic stature and population. The Adviser focuses on historical and socioeconomic cycles, and it applies both statistical and fundamental models, including “growth at a reasonable price” (GARP), to identify companies with superior growth and value metrics. The Adviser overlays these explicit knowledge models with the tacit knowledge obtained by domestic and global travel for first-hand observation of local and geopolitical conditions, as well as specific companies and projects./span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt" /span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt"span id="xdx_903_eoef--StrategyPortfolioConcentration_c20260501__20260501__dei--LegalEntityAxis__custom--S000004784Member_zSOSkaBJ6Oe1"Under normal market conditions, the fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets in equity and equity-related securities of companies principally engaged in the exploration for, or mining and processing of, precious stones and minerals, including but not limited to, gold, silver, platinum group, palladium, rare earth minerals, and diamonds. The fund may invest in these precious minerals directly and/or in equity and equity-related securities, such as exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) that represent interests in, or related to, these precious minerals. /spanThe equity and equity-related securities in which the fund primarily invests include common stocks, preferred stocks, convertible securities, rights and warrants, options and depository receipts (American Depository Receipts (ADRs) and Global Depository Receipts (GDRs)). The fund also participates in private placements, initial public offerings (IPOs), and long-term equity anticipation securities (LEAPS)./span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt" /span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"spanspan style="font-size: 11pt"The fund may invest in warrants to gain exposure to individual securities in the gold and precious minerals sector over the long term. Warrants allow the fund to imitate a purchase or sale of a stock for a fraction of its price (premium) and hold that option for a long period of time before it expires. The fund may also receive warrants when it participates in a private placement. The issuer of the private placement may provide a warrant as an incentive for investing in the initial financing of a company./span/span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"spanspan style="font-size: 11pt" /span/span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"spanspan style="font-size: 11pt"The fund may also short positions in the fund’s portfolio that are considered by the Adviser to be overvalued in an effort to realize a valuation discrepancy. A short position generally involves the sale of a security that the fund has borrowed (but does not own) with the expectation that the price of the security will decrease in value, enabling the fund to repurchase the security later at the lower price. /span/span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt"The fund focuses on selecting junior and intermediate exploration companies from around the world. Junior exploration companies typically have small market capitalization and no source of steady cash flow, and their growth generally comes from a major mining discovery. Therefore, the risk and opportunities are substantially greater than investing in a senior mining company with proven reserves. The volatility of these smaller mining companies is typically greater than that of senior producers./span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt" /span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt"In making security selections for junior and intermediate mining investments, the Adviser looks for companies with proven management who have a strong track record in developing and producing mining companies and whose potential mining assets and financial structure have upside leverage to a rising commodity price. The Adviser’s stock selection process for established mining companies looks to identify companies with robust reserve growth profiles and strong cash flows./span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt" /span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt"The fund will invest in securities of companies with economic ties to countries throughout the world, including emerging markets and the U.S. Under normal market conditions, the fund will invest at least 40% of its assets in securities of companies that are economically tied to at least three countries other than the U.S. The fund may invest in companies which may be domiciled in one country but have economic ties to another country. In determining if a company is economically tied to a country, the fund will consider various factors, including the country in which the company’s principal operations are located; the country in which the company’s mining or natural resource reserves are located; the country in which at least 50% of the company’s revenues or profits are derived from goods produced or sold, investments made, or services performed; the country in which the principal trading market is located; and the country in which the company is legally organized./span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt" /span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt"Although the fund has greater latitude to invest its assets in different precious minerals or metals stocks, it currently has significant investments in gold sector stocks. Gold companies include mining companies that exploit gold deposits that are supported by co- products and by-products such as copper, silver, lead and zinc, and also diversified mining companies which produce a meaningful amount of gold./span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt" /span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt"The fund is non-diversified and, therefore, may invest a greater percentage of its assets in a particular issuer in comparison to a diversified fund./span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt" /span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt"The fund also may purchase call and put options, and enter into covered option writing transactions. In addition, the fund may invest up to 15% of its net assets in illiquid securities./span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt" /span/p p style="font: 11pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif; margin: 0pt 0; text-align: justify"span style="font-size: 11pt"The Adviser uses a matrix of statistical models to monitor market volatility and money flows, and as a result, the fund may at times maintain higher than normal cash levels. For example, the Adviser may take a temporary defensive position when the securities trading markets or the economy are experiencing excessive volatility, a prolonged general decline, or other adverse conditions./span/p