A. Valuation of Investments — Investments are valued in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) and the Portfolio's valuation policies set forth by, and under the supervision and responsibility of, the Board of Trustees of the Trust (the “Board”), which established the following approach to valuation, as described more fully below: (i) investments for which market quotations are readily available shall be valued at their market value and (ii) all other investments for which market quotations are not readily available shall be valued at their fair value as determined in good faith by the Board.
Under the Section 2(a)(41) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, the Board is required to determine fair value for securities that do not have readily available market quotations. Under the SEC Rule 2a-5 (Good Faith Determinations of Fair Value), the Board may designate the performance of these fair valuation determinations to a valuation designee. The Board has designated the Adviser as the “Valuation Designee” to perform fair valuation determinations for the Funds on behalf of the Board subject to appropriate oversight by the Board. The Adviser, as Valuation Designee, leverages the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Americas Valuation Committee (“AVC”) to help oversee and carry out the policies for the valuation of Investments held in the Funds. The Adviser, as Valuation Designee, remains responsible for the valuation determinations.
This oversight by the AVC includes monitoring the appropriateness of fair values based on results of ongoing valuation oversight including, but not limited to, consideration of macro or security specific events, market events, and pricing vendor and broker due diligence. The Administrator is responsible for discussing and assessing the potential impacts to the fair values on an ongoing basis, and, at least on a quarterly basis, with the AVC and the Board.
A market-based approach is primarily used to value the Portfolio's investments. Investments for which market quotations are not readily available are fair valued using prices supplied by approved affiliated and/or unaffiliated pricing vendors or third party broker-dealers (collectively referred to as “Pricing Services”), or may be internally fair valued using methods set forth by the valuation policies approved by the Board. This may include the use of related or comparable assets or liabilities, recent transactions, market multiples, book values and other relevant information for the investment. An income-based valuation approach may be used in which the anticipated future cash flows of the investment are discounted to calculate the fair value. Discounts may also be applied due to the nature or duration of any restrictions on the disposition of the investments. Valuations may be based upon current market prices of securities that are comparable in coupon, rating, maturity and industry. It is possible that the estimated values may differ significantly from the values that would have been used had a ready market for the investments existed, and such differences could be material.
Fixed income instruments are valued based on prices received from Pricing Services. The Pricing Services use multiple valuation techniques to determine the valuation of fixed income instruments. In instances where sufficient market activity exists, the Pricing Services may utilize a market-based approach through which trades or quotes from market makers are used to determine the valuation of these instruments. In instances where sufficient market activity may not exist, the Pricing Services also utilize proprietary valuation models which may consider market transactions in comparable securities and the various relationships between securities in determining fair value and/or market characteristics in order to estimate the relevant cash flows, which are then discounted to calculate the fair values.
Equities and other exchange-traded instruments are valued at the last sale price or official market closing price on the primary exchange on which the instrument is traded before the net asset values (“NAV���) of the Portfolio are calculated on a valuation date. Certain foreign equity instruments , as well as certain derivatives with foreign equity reference obligations,are valued by applying international fair value factors provided by approved Pricing Services. The factors seek to adjust the local closing price for movements of local markets post-closing, but prior to the time the NAV is calculated.
Investments in open-end investment companies, excluding exchange-traded funds ("ETFs") (“Underlying Funds”) are valued at each Underlying Fund’s NAV per share as of the report date.
Futures contracts are generally valued on the basis of available market quotations. Forward foreign currency exchange contracts are valued utilizing market quotations from approved Pricing Services.
Valuations reflected in this report are as of the report date. As a result, changes in valuation due to market events and/or issuer-related events after the report date and prior to issuance of the report are not reflected herein.
The various inputs that are used in determining the valuation of the Portfolio's investments are summarized into the three broad levels listed below.
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Level 1 — Unadjusted inputs using quoted prices in active markets for identical investments.
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Level 2 — Other significant observable inputs including, but not limited to, quoted prices for similar investments, inputs other than quoted prices that are observable for investments (such as interest rates, prepayment speeds, credit risk, etc.) or other market corroborated inputs.
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Level 3 — Significant inputs based on the best information available in the circumstances, to the extent observable inputs are not available (including the Portfolio's assumptions in determining the fair value of investments).
