beware artemis strategic assets

RobertR

I was looking for some diversity, particularly to Gold ETF's and began drip feeding in just as the fund started to go off the boil following its initial success. Pleased to see it has begun picking up again.

I did notice however that according to H-L the fund size is only £30 million which seems rather small given Littlewoods previous reputation and the fact that the fund has been consistently showing in H-L's most viewed list.

Mikeyorks

RobertR wrote: »

..... according to H-L the fund size is only £30 million which seems rather small .

That is a curiously small amount. As mine have made 36.5% since purchase (June 09) ..... I might just nudge the figure up a bit next time I do some switching.

RobertR

Ah, according to Trustnet the fund size is £701.6m. Seems a bit more realistic somehow!

sabretoothtigger

StevieJ wrote: »

I notice that Artemis Strategic Assets has been doing quite well over the past few days, are those Japan and US bonds beginning to falter.

Yep Ive noticed something also recently. I own 4 different funds with an interest in Japan and I watch the yen exchange rates and it is weaker which helps stocks.

The neptune fund is shorting yen and long sterling I think, very contrary as its been for a long time favoured the opposite but right now sterling is a bit stronger

Japan is still much cheaper then other markets even over the last year. It hasnt moved as much since 2008.

When the artemis guy sells yen bonds he is just promising to pay a yen rate 0.1% or so for the next 5 years. The risk he is taking is not great and the reward is very good.
Their bonds will be cheaper because the japanese workforce is the oldest in the world, they need the money to live off. As the rate is so low they must reduce the capital invested so lower demand, lower prices.
Only QE can reverse that and it doesnt work, cutting more slices of a cake doesnt make it any bigger I think is an analogy which fits

StevieJ

RobertR wrote: »

I was looking for some diversity, particularly to Gold ETF's and began drip feeding in just as the fund started to go off the boil following its initial success. Pleased to see it has begun picking up again.

I did notice however that according to H-L the fund size is only £30 million which seems rather small given Littlewoods previous reputation and the fact that the fund has been consistently showing in H-L's most viewed list.

Just looked, it says £695 million on H&L?

StevieJ

I was looking for downside protection with this fund, if we hit a serious downturn in the markets (like 2007-2009) I would expect this fund to take action.

I sent them an email a while back asking for clarification of their approach and they replied with the following, I was querying whether it was an ARF.

Thank you for your email. The Strategic Assets Fund currently sits in the IMA Actively Managed sector. The reason that it does not sit in the Absolute Return sector is straight forward, it is not an Absolute ReturnFund.What I mean by this is, whilst it may currently look like an absolute return fund, with various short positions, bond holdings etc, there will certainly be a time, probably as inflation kicks in and the manager becomes more bearish on equities, that the fund will be 100% invested in bonds.This is an aspect of the fund that we were keen to promote. The fund is not constrained to be just an absolute return fund. Whilst there is a time and place for absolute return funds, during periods of inflationand sustained equity growth, we believe that such funds are rather limited, and the freedom the Strat Assets fund manager has to invest in long only etc, is a selling point of the fund, that we hope will produce outperformance.
As the fund manager's presentation stated when we launched the fund, it aims to offer "protection in falling markets and participation in rising markets".

sabretoothtigger

probably as inflation kicks in and the manager becomes more bearish on equities, that the fund will be 100% invested in bonds

bonds are better in inflation, huh :huh:


depends on which bonds I guess and the interest rates

saw an old clip of schiff mentioning such things, how projected earnings must be compared to savings rates which equals the share price.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjrSsd2ipvI

Im sure the artemis guy knows what he's doing

StevieJ

Yes I think he has got that the wrong way round, it was not the manager replying, I think he was just making the point that the fund is authorised to go into lockdown mode.

StevieJ

Same point about bonds.

"Private clients have yet to change their thinking of government bonds as a safe bet. It's new rules in fixed income -- it's not necessarily a safer buy than equity."
Furthermore, equities offered a much better hedge against inflation, Andersen said, as the profits generated by companies rise with inflation, increasing valuations.
"Gold is of course the ultimate hedge against inflation. We think gold will continue to rise because of continuing uncertainty, but it's difficult to say where it will end," he said.
While private bank clients had started to pull money out of cash and invest in corporate bonds, particularly in emerging markets, they had yet to recognise the potential of equities, missing out on possible gains buried in currently low prices.

Totton

William Littlewood currently has my vote with his Strategic fund which is a core holding for my portfolios, I like the way that the fund operates.

I agree totally with Dunstonh however that this fund should not be in the Wealth 150 which is clearly a marketing tool and has some real dogs in it, e.g. PSigma Income and SVM Glocal Opps both of which have much lower ratings over at BestInvest.