I think these funds are useful as a risk hedge — there is some non-zero risk every year that the economy will collapse. If you invest in a fund that will help offset some of that risk by performing above average in a downturn, you might want to do it as part of a portfolio strategy.

Nobody should be putting their life savings into one of these. Hedge funds like this aren’t for that; they’re a risk management lever that gets set according to the economic model an investor is using.