Adviser Summer 2018

Performance Line Chart Fantasy Funds – the results 21 May 2018 Pricing Spread: Bid-Bid ● Data Frequency: Daily ● Currency: Pounds Sterling ● Portfolio Name: FF Indices

In July last year readers of Adviser were invited to enter our Fantasy Funds competition for the chance to win an Apple i-watch. Entrants were asked to choose from a range of funds to invest a fantasy amount of £100,000. The portfolios were then monitored for six months.

The valueofunits can fall aswell as rise. Pastperformanceshouldnotbe seen asan indicationof futureperformance How have the markets performed? The FTSE World Index grew by 5.71% over the period, supported by low unemployment, consumer spending confidence, stronger than expected growth in China and Corporate Tax cuts in the US. However, inflationary pressures have contributed to a recent market sell off so did this affect our investors final results? The graph above illustrates the performance of the main indices over the period August 2017 to February 2018. Emerging Market Equities delivered the highest returns over the period even though they were the worst performing sector for February 2018. Readers who took a more cautious stance by diversifying into fixed interest, gold and property found that whilst they delivered positive returns overall, they were unable to compete with the more rapid growth of the equity based portfolios in a period of rising markets.

challenging and fortunately ‘fantasy’ competition. I was lucky on this occasion but in reality it could have gone the other way!” The Fantasy Funds competition was great fun for everyone but ‘the clue is in the name’ it was a competition, and did not use real funds. If you are thinking of investing your own money then it is strongly recommended that you consult an independent, qualified and experienced financial planner, who can look at the whole of the market, and not just a limited number of funds. Scrutton Bland’s financial advisers will also run a risk management profile with you to determine your approach to different classes of funds. For more information Contact Jonathon Clarke at jonathon.clarke@ scruttonbland.co.uk or tel 01223 928065 .

Emerging Market Equities Fund is ranked top quartile, 7/60 in its sector YTD and it outperformed all other EM funds in the competition. Peter also made a prudent tactical fund switch in November 2017 when he switched out of Smith & Williamson Global Gold and Resources and BlackRock Global Equities, as these both subsequently fell by -1.35% and -0.38% respectively. He replaced them with funds which respectively grew by 5.72% and 2.5% so his decision paid off!

The benefits of diversification

How did our fund managers perform? All of our competition entrants did really well and all made a profit on their £100,000. The top performer and winner of the Apple i-watch was Peter from Clacton-on-Sea, aka Morpheus. Our winner, Peter’s portfolio was weighted most heavily towards Emerging Markets followed by Japanese and European Equities. He also chose some top performing funds. One of his choices, The UBS Global

Interestingly both the top performing and the bottom performing ‘Portfolio Managers’ in our competition were adversely affected by investing a minimum of 10% of their portfolios into the Jupiter India Fund. The Jupiter India Fund has an excellent reputation historically, but delivered a negative performance of -4.57% over the period, significantly underperforming its peers in the sector. This highlights the importance of suitably diversifying your Fund Managers as well as asset classes, to reduce the risk of poor stock picking. Peter was delighted to have won and told Adviser: “It is tempting to take a sporting approach to investment but on this occasion I did my homework and took care to select from among those funds on your list with the best track records. But I also chose others for stability and as a hedge against a potential downturn. Thank you for the opportunity to take part in this

Ranking

Portfolio Manager

Return

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Morpheus

£107,520 £106,040 £105,430 £105,230 £104,190 £103,720 £103,330 £101,710 £101,530 £100,069

Merseamillsy

Williami

Chrisfuller

Mickeyrobert5

Skygod59 CautiousK

When-will-i-retire

Chubbysmith Jlambourne

10

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