The Fund seeks its investment objective by investing in securities, derivatives and other instruments to establish long and short investment exposures around the world. Total return is defined as income plus capital appreciation. The Fund normally invests in multiple countries and frequently has significant exposure to foreign currencies and investments. The Fund normally invests at least 40% of its net assets in foreign investments. The Fund’s long and short investments are primarily sovereign exposures, including currencies, interest rates and debt instruments issued or guaranteed by sovereign entities (including U.S. Treasuries). The Fund may invest in instruments of any credit rating, including those rated below investment grade (rated below BBB by either S&P Global Ratings or Fitch Ratings, or below Baa by Moody’s Investors Service, Inc.) or in unrated instruments considered to be of comparable quality by the investment adviser (often referred to as “junk” instruments). The Fund may have significant investment in a geographic region or country and typically a portion will be invested in emerging market countries. Emerging market countries include so-called frontier market countries, which generally are considered by the portfolio managers to be less developed countries that (i) are not included in the J.P. Morgan Government Bond Index: Emerging Markets (JPM GBI-EM) Global Diversified (Unhedged) (the “Index”); or (ii) represent 2% or less of the Index. The Fund is “non-diversified,” which means it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer than a “diversified” fund.

The Fund may also invest in other foreign and domestic securities and other instruments, including mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”) and asset-backed securities, stripped securities, loans, bank instruments, municipal securities, corporate debt, other fixed-income securities, equity securities and commodities-related investments.

The Fund may invest in a wide variety of derivative instruments.  The Fund expects to achieve certain exposures through purchasing and selling derivative instruments, including (but not limited to) forward foreign currency exchange contracts; futures on securities, indices, currencies, commodities, swaps and other investments; options; and interest rate swaps, cross-currency swaps, total return swaps and credit default swaps, which may create economic leverage in the Fund.  The Fund may engage in derivative transactions to seek to enhance total return; to hedge against fluctuations in securities prices, interest rates or currency exchange rates; to change the effective duration of its portfolio; to manage certain investment risks; and/or as a substitute for the purchase or sale of securities, currencies or commodities.  The Fund’s use of derivatives is frequently extensive and there is no stated limit on their use.  

The Fund may engage in repurchase agreements, reverse repurchase agreements and short sales.  The Fund also may enter into forward commitments to purchase or sell instruments.

The Fund employs an “absolute return” investment approach.  This means that the Fund benchmarks itself to an index of cash instruments, rather than a stock or bond market index, and seeks to achieve returns that exceed its benchmark and are largely independent of broad movements in stocks and bonds.  The Fund’s benchmark is the ICE BofA 3-Month U.S. Treasury Bill Index.

In managing the Fund, the investment adviser utilizes macroeconomic and political analysis to identify investment opportunities throughout the world, including both developed and emerging markets.  The investment adviser seeks to identify countries and currencies it believes have potential to outperform investments in other countries and currencies, and to anticipate changes in global economies, markets, political conditions and other factors for this purpose.  The portfolio managers may also consider financially material environmental, social and governance factors in evaluating an issuer. These considerations may be taken into account alongside other fundamental research in the investment selection process.

The Fund primarily invests its assets in the Portfolio, a separate registered investment company with the same investment objective and policies as the Fund, but may also invest directly in securities and other instruments.  The Portfolio may gain exposure to commodities by investing up to 25% of its total assets in Eaton Vance GMAP Commodity Subsidiary, Ltd. (the “Subsidiary”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Portfolio organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands, which invests primarily in commodities-related investments, as well as securities and other instruments in which the Portfolio is permitted to invest.