BNY Mellon Focused Equity Opportunities Fund

The fund seeks capital appreciation.

To pursue its goal, the fund normally invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities. The fund invests, under normal circumstances, in approximately 25- 30 companies that are considered by the investment adviser to be positioned for long-term earnings growth. The fund may hold growth or value stocks or a blend of both. The fund may invest in the stocks of companies of any size, although it focuses on large-cap companies (generally, those companies with market capitalizations of $5 billion or more at the time of purchase). The fund invests primarily in equity securities of U.S. issuers, but may invest up to 25% of its assets in the equity securities of foreign issuers, including those in emerging market countries.

The investment process begins with a topdown assessment of broad economic, political and social trends and their implications for different market and industry sectors. The investment adviser seeks to develop strategic investment themes and identify secular and cyclical changes within sectors and industries. Next, the investment adviser uses a bottom-up, fundamental approach to analyze individual companies in the sectors and industries identified as most attractive given the competitive landscape and business trends. The fund’s portfolio manager then selects the 25-30 best opportunities from the companies identified in the prior step.

The portfolio manager monitors sector and security weightings and regularly evaluates the fund’s risk-adjusted returns to manage the risk profile of the fund’s portfolio. The portfolio manager adjusts exposure limits as necessary. The fund typically sells a security when the portfolio manager believes that the investment themes have changed or there has been a negative change in the fundamental factors surrounding the company, sector weights change to reflect a revised macro-economic view, the company has become fully valued or a more attractive opportunity has been identified.

The investment adviser does not use benchmark indices as a tool for active portfolio management of the fund. Traditional benchmark indices, however, may be helpful in measuring investment returns, and the fund’s investment returns generally will be compared to those of the S&P 500® Index, an unmanaged index designed to track the performance of largecap U.S. stocks.