Rhode Island State Investment Commission, Providence, hired three systematic trend-following managers for the $7.8 billion Rhode Island Employees' Retirement System.
At its Wednesday meeting, the commission agreed to allocate $100 million each to Crabel Capital Management, Credit Suisse Asset Management and Welton Investment Partners, said Evan England, spokesman for state Treasurer Seth Magaziner, who oversees the commission.
These managers will run the systematic trend-following strategies within the pension fund's new $624 million crisis protection portfolio. Roughly half of the portfolio consists of long-duration U.S. Treasuries, while the other half will be in momentum strategies, such as long/short momentum-duration stocks, bonds or commodities.
The commission, which manages the pension fund assets, created the crisis protection portfolio in September to maintain stability if and when the market and the rest of the portfolio are experiencing high volatility, targeting an 8% allocation.