- Global technical equity fund has ability to go to cash

- Sub-adviser Wellington Management selected due to its expertise and long-standing relationship with John Hancock

BOSTON, Aug. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- John Hancock Funds has responded to one of the most common questions asked by mutual fund investors during last year's meltdown in the financial markets with the launch of the John Hancock Technical Opportunities Fund (JTCAX). The Technical Opportunities Fund incorporates an unconstrained, bottom-up technical approach that employs rigorous stock selection methods, but provides the fund's sub-adviser with the flexibility to invest up to 100 percent of fund assets in cash. It is intended as a specialty strategy for asset allocation in retail portfolios, given its potential diversification benefits.

"One of the questions posed to us by advisers most often since the market turmoil began two years ago has been 'why can't portfolio managers go to cash?' during a period of extreme volatility," said Keith F. Hartstein, President & CEO, John Hancock Funds. "The response, in most cases, is that mutual fund managers are mandated to remain invested in their particular style, and not to be on the sidelines in cash."

Technical analysis is a highly specialized investment discipline, often used in conjunction with, or as a supplement to, fundamental research. The Fund's portfolio management team uses technical signals such as crossing moving averages, price gaps and volume changes, as well as declining/increasing relative strength, in selecting stocks for the portfolio. The Fund's application of technical analysis is neither a quantitative approach nor a "black box" investment model. Mathematical models are not used in the Fund. Wellington Management is one of the few asset managers possessing a track record of managing client portfolios solely on the basis of technical research, and the new Technical Opportunities Fund is one of only a few retail mutual funds employing this approach.

"John Hancock Technical Opportunities offers a unique source of return generation in varied market environments. We are pleased to now have the ability to provide our advisers and their clients with the institutional-quality approach employed by Wellington Management, which has been managing technical equity portfolios for 17 years," Hartstein added.

The John Hancock Technical Opportunities Fund is managed by a three-member investment team at Wellington Management, led by Frank L. Teixeira, CMT, CFA, director of technical portfolio analysis and equity portfolio manager. Wellington Management is an independent and unaffiliated investment sub-adviser to John Hancock Funds, LLC.