A long-term perspective on investment themes is a fundamental precondition for sustainable returns. Mark Oelschlager, portfolio manager of the Pin Oak Aggressive Stock Fund, views investing as buying stakes in businesses, believes in patience, and is prepared to ride market volatility.

Investing in international markets calls for a broad and deep understanding of different cultures, macro economic developments and willingness to be nimble. James L. Moffett scours the world to look for companies that are global leaders in their industries while trading at reasonable prices.

Traditional long-only mutual funds tend to be just as volatile as the market and often fail to protect investors during market downturns. Jonathan Lamensdorf, portfolio manager of the Highland Long/Short Equity Fund, is committed to generating above market returns by protecting the downside.

Even though municipal bonds are widely known for their high quality tax-free income, there is a segment in this market that is lower quality and higher yield. Not surprisingly, that higher yield tends to come with higher risk. Philip Condon and Rebecca Flinn, portfolio managers of the DWS Strategic High Yield Tax Free Fund, aim to generate higher returns than the portfolio’s benchmark while containing risk to an acceptable level.

Dynamic markets provide excellent growth opportunities to those who can discern the patterns. Steve Wegener, who is at the helm of Wegener Adaptive Growth Fund, keeps a close eye on styles as they go in and out of favor based on changes in investors’ expectations and risk tolerance.

Emerging markets hold promise for closing the gap with developed countries due to a combination of robust growth potential and bright demographic outlooks. To the fixed-income investor, these regions can be even more appealing given that interest rates in emerging market countries are generally higher than those in developed countries. Mark Venezia, portfolio manager of the Eaton Vance Emerging Markets Local Income Fund, applies in-depth fundamental analysis and a flexible approach to tap into markets that may not be in the fund’s benchmark.

Investing in bonds generally requires in-depth knowledge of the global macro-economic structure. William Chepolis and Matthew MacDonald, portfolio managers of the DWS Short Duration Plus Fund, insist that while bonds offer security in income, the vast array of choices calls for investors’ understanding of pricing and risks associated with each security.

When a good business falls out of favor, trading at a substantial discount to its long-term value, the discernible investor faces the challenge of analyzing the reasons behind this. Daniel J. O’Keefe and the team at Artisan International Value apply a disciplined approach to assess the soundness of a business as they look for companies with sustainable advantages that are trading at a discount.

As Latin America has matured in the past decade with governments following policies that encourage business creation, the region has emerged as risk-rewarding destination for savvy investors. William Landers, portfolio manager of the BlackRock Latin America Fund, explains how the fund benefits from an in-depth understanding of the region’s trends while consistently addressing stock-specific risk.

Quality growth are key words in the investment philosophy of the William Blair Growth Fund. Co-managers David Fording and John Jostrand look for companies that can sustain above-market growth rates for a prolonged period of time. With investments spread across all sectors and market caps, the portfolio managers exploit their ability to discern higher-quality and lower-risk growth.