beware artemis strategic assets

Mikeyorks

StevieJ wrote: »

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

I noticed that whilst checking my portfolio an hour ago. But - honestly - whilst I give initially crap advice about SA Returns ...... it was showing at £30M last night. And despite promising to lift it ...... I hadn't got round to shovelling the extra £665M in!

StevieJ

New video updates from Littlewood on H&L.

http://www.h-l.co.uk/news/latest-videos/littlewood-my-strategy

mike88

The post which started this thread off is utterly ridiculous as the two funds are entirely different with separate managers. Its comparing apples with oranges. Then someone pops up and says they have heard nothing positive about Littlewood. Where has this poster been? Then somebody pops up and says that the Strategic Assets fund has not performed well. Is he for real? A 19.1% return in year 1 from this kind of fund is excellent in my view.

I do agree however that HL should avoid plugging new funds with no track record. But investors must do their own research and make up their own minds surely? If people can't be bothered to investigate or simply take HLs reccommendations at face value then they should put their money in the Bank and avoid stock markets at all costs.

StevieJ

I think most of us like this fund.

bendix

mike88 wrote: »

I do agree however that HL should avoid plugging new funds with no track record. .

Not sure I agree. I've been with ASA since day one and have been very happy with it. I had no track record to look back on, but i was aware of Littlewood's record and I liked the stated strategy of the fund. That was enough to get me onside.

HL weren't out of place marketing it on that basis, at the time.

Old_Slaphead

StevieJ wrote: »

I think most of us like this fund.

Sure do - tho' I got in late at circa 58p

StevieJ

I checked this fund today, I thought they must have had a good day with their shorting of US,UK and Japan govt bonds and the upward swing in world markets over the past couple of days. I was quite surprised, they are actually down, now I am confused

http://www.artemisonline.co.uk/investor/prices

Jegersmart

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

There are many reasons why these two things are not necessarily a problem. I hold no brief for Artemis, but have occasionally used their funds and not found them to be 'dogs'.

I have no idea of the 'purpose' or make-up of this particular hedge fund, but to understand the markets properly, it is important to understand what a hedge fund is. Sometimes people WANT them to go down.

If I make tractors, out of steel, and have contracted to sell a few of them to Canada, then I make a profit ONLY if the Canadian $ is of the same value when they pay me next year, and ONLY if I can still get the steel from Russia at the price I think I can.

So what do I do? I buy a Hedge Fund. One that trades on the Canadian $, and another on Russian Steel. So if the Canadian $ weakens against the £, and Russian Steel prices go through the roof, then I lose money on the tractors, but make my profit on the hedge fund.

Similarly, if the $ and Steel go in the 'correct' direction (for my tractor business), then boy! Have I made a big profit on my tractors, but OK, the extra is balanced by what I lost on the hedge fund.

As a corrollary to this, I am aware (and this may or may not be the case here) that the little 'boys in the city' wrap up so-called hedge funds as 'Investments'. They are NOT. They are a hedge and must 'hedge' against something. Their objective is to strike a (number of) 'position(s)', which by definition will go one way, or the other. If used properly, you may want the position to go one way. I may want it to go another.

So in my book (and that of most rational people) a "hedge fund" is NOT an Investment. It is a gamble. A bet. Sometimes it is necessary and desirable to take on the bet, since it can be 'insurance'.

This is fundamentally incorrect, a hedge fund invests money in a variety of instruments and can go long or short and use leverage. It certainly is not a way to hedge any particular exposure unless you happen to know what the fund will be doing and that this strategy will stay in place for the "duration" - i.e. the duration for which one needs a hedge.

In any case, what you have written is complete nonsense.

J

Jegersmart

StevieJ wrote: »

I think most of us like this fund.

Hi

Looks to me like the performance over the last year has been minus 5% or so which doesn't look great to me, although not a dog as others have stated.

If you look at the holdings currently, it reads a bit like a blue chip large cap fund although the short government debt piece might be interesting to some.

I have never used this fund, and am unlikely to do so in the short term because so far it looks to me like the returns do not match the risk profile.

all imho ofc.

J

sabretoothtigger

Check the prices today as well, funds lag usually especially international as Japan only traded friday this morning in my view