The sharp decline in Chinese share prices has increased the volatility of world stock markets with many of the main indices losing ground in the last few weeks. One of the best ways to protect your capital against these sorts of events is to have a good absolute return fund at the heart of your…
There are so many funds that invest in the UK stock market that it can be difficult to find one that offers a different type of exposure with the potential to significantly outperform. Few are contrarian enough to really deliver, but that is certainly not the case with CF Miton UK Value Opportunities. This relatively…
A closed-ended fund that invests in a Berlin-focused portfolio of German residential properties has recently listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. Phoenix Spree Deutschland has been operating in Germany since 2006, but can now be traded in the UK using the ticker PSDL. The fund currently owns 114 different properties. These…
The largest investment trust in the global growth sector is Scottish Mortgage, yet the fact that it has total assets of more than £3.7bn hasn’t stopped it from delivering a market beating return. Over the last decade the share price is up almost 310%, comfortably ahead of the 118% produced by the fund’s FTSE All-Word…
Neil Woodford’s equity income fund has just celebrated its first birthday with a sector topping annual return of 17.2%. This was more than 10% higher than the average UK equity income fund and comfortably ahead of his two former Invesco Perpetual mandates. Since it was launched on the 2nd of June 2014, CF Woodford Equity…
Many of the top performing funds including Woodford Equity Income and Terry Smith’s Fundsmith Equity hold extremely concentrated portfolios. These highly regarded managers have taken on board the point made by Warren Buffett that wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing. Empirical studies suggest that once you get…
The main focus of the markets is the growing realisation that Greece could default on its debt obligations and leave the euro. Negotiations have stalled and it may be impossible to reach agreement on the cash for reforms deal with the EU and IMF. If that is the case the country would not be able…
Two of the strongest performing markets in recent years have been Europe ex UK and Japan. Analysis by FE Trustnet suggests that the average open-ended fund in each of these sectors has returned 65.6% and 53.8% respectively over the last 36 months, but it could have been even better. Most of these funds do not…
As seen in this month’s Master Investor Magazine There are many different ways that active fund managers approach the challenge of beating the market. Some are mainly price driven and will buy a stock even if they don’t rate the business as long as they think they can make money out of it. Others take…
A few months ago I came across an interesting report that examined which managers have the highest personal stakes in their funds. It is an important issue because those with a considerable exposure have an added incentive to ensure that they work in their investors’ best interests, yet you rarely hear anything about it. The…
