During the fiscal year to date ended September 30, 2024, the Fund used futures contracts to hedge against changes in market volatility and declines in the value of the Fund’s investments and to adjust the Fund’s overall equity exposure in an effort to stabilize portfolio volatility around a target level.
At September 30, 2024, the Fund had sufficient cash and/or securities to cover commitments under open derivative contracts.
Affiliated Investments
At September 30, 2024, the value of the Fund's investment in funds that may be deemed to be affiliated was $4,015,431, which represents 6.2% of the Fund's net assets. Transactions in such investments by the Fund for the fiscal year to date ended September 30, 2024 were as follows:
| Name | Value,
beginning
of period | Purchases | Sales
proceeds | Net
realized
gain
(loss) | Change in
unrealized
appreciation
(depreciation) | Value,
end of
period | Dividend
income | Shares,
end of
period |
| Short-Term Investments | | | | | | |
| Liquidity Fund, Institutional Class(1) | $4,395,634 | $13,357,207 | $(13,737,410) | $ — | $ — | $4,015,431 | $122,824 | 4,015,431 |
| (1) | Represents investment in Morgan Stanley Institutional Liquidity Funds - Government Portfolio. |
Fair Value Measurements
U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (U.S. GAAP) establishes a disclosure hierarchy that categorizes the inputs to valuation techniques used to value assets and liabilities at measurement date. These inputs are summarized in the three broad levels listed below:
Level 1 - quoted prices in active markets for identical securities
Level 2 - other significant observable inputs (including quoted prices for similar securities, interest rates, prepayment speeds, credit risk, etc.)
Level 3 - significant unobservable inputs (including the Fund's own assumptions in determining the fair value of investments)
The inputs or methodologies used for valuing securities are not necessarily an indication of the risk associated with investing in those securities.
The following table summarizes the market value of the Fund's holdings as of September 30, 2024, based on the inputs used to value them:
| Asset Description | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Total |
| Exchange-Traded Funds | $60,718,670 | $ — | $ — | $60,718,670 |
| Short-Term Investments: | | | | |
| Affiliated Fund | 4,015,431 | — | — | 4,015,431 |
| Securities Lending Collateral | 214,751 | — | — | 214,751 |
| Total Investments | $64,948,852 | $ — | $ — | $64,948,852 |
| Futures Contracts | $5,560 | $ — | $ — | $5,560 |
| Total | $64,954,412 | $ — | $ — | $64,954,412 |
