Fundsmith....

Hoenir

SouthLondonUser said:

There is also the issue of succession: the guy is old, lives in some tropical island away from the City or Wall Street, when is he retiring and what's the succession plan?

I'm sure that Fundsmith has some talented individuals on it's books. All of whom benefiting from working with him. 

aroominyork

I just charted Fundsmith against IWFQ, iShares' World Quality Factor ETF which seems a good benchmark for Fundsmith's style of investing. 18 months is, of course, just 18 months, but it's not pretty reading for Terry Smith.

masonic

The run of underperformance appears to have started in August 2021. He could perhaps go drown his sorrows with Nick Train.

aroominyork

Interestingly, IWFQ has outperformed a global index fund over the last three years - up 47% compared to VWRL's 40% - so people holding quality as a diversifier to a global index fund have done nicely even while the broader index has been rising. To save anyone checking, IWFQ's top four holdings are Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Meta!

Linton

Over 10 years:



Perhaps it is significant that IWFQ has about 30% more Tech than Fundsmith. I find it somewhat odd that IWFQ includes about 4.5% NVIDIA.  Surely its performance is due to being in the right place at the right time rather than being a proven "quality" stock.

aroominyork

masonic said:

The run of underperformance appears to have started in August 2021. He could perhaps go drown his sorrows with Nick Train.

And over that drink they can debate Diageo, which Train still holds but Smith has exited. 

Johnnyboy11

aroominyork said:

I just charted Fundsmith against IWFQ, iShares' World Quality Factor ETF which seems a good benchmark for Fundsmith's style of investing. 18 months is, of course, just 18 months, but it's not pretty reading for Terry Smith.

Ouch! And for real returns over that period, deduct 35% (RPI). Terry's shareholder meeting being held later this month should be worth watching...

RolandFlagg

Not sure why anyone would hold this over the IITU (aka XLK) or Nasdaq, or The L&G Global Tech Fund.

InvesterJones

RolandFlagg said:

Not sure why anyone would hold this over the IITU (aka XLK) or Nasdaq, or The L&G Global Tech Fund.

That's easy to answer - people who don't want a 100% tech fund would be more interested in Fundsmith, which has holdings like Novo Nordisk, Visa etc. in it's top 10 holdings.

jimjames

masonic said:

The run of underperformance appears to have started in August 2021. He could perhaps go drown his sorrows with Nick Train.

Although Nick Train might be drowning less sorrows over the last 12 months performance compared to Fundsmith. Over that time FGT up over 14%, Fundsmith just over 7%