Sarasin Agrisar - one to watch maybe ?

wombat42_2

dunstonh wrote: »

It was never safe or stable. It is a very high risk fund.

Rubbish. Have finance or housing stocks done any better ?

The fund has done no better or worse as you would expect in the current conditions in which pretty much everything there is is being liquidated including commodities.

As you yourself say, equities is a 5 to 10 year investment. It is particularly true for this fund. We are likely to have 2 or 3 years deflation (no good for commodities) followed by about 5 or more years of inflation or hyperinflation (good for commodities and caused by supply destruction during the deflation period, continued growth by China, massive printing of money and debt by the US, falling dollar).

wombat42_2

pjbltd wrote: »

Well I'm down 32% from when this fund launched.

Obviously not as stable/safe as some of us thought.

The fund manager recently gave a comment on HL's site:

http://www.h-l.co.uk/news/fund-manager-comments/articles/803/rq/article

^The way he talks about the "Green Man" gives me the impression he is either a complete "cowboy" fund manager or has gone senile .

Going to have to hold for the long term now.

Do some research and dont look at this fund in isolation. Considering the recent financial meltdown the fund has performned as you might have expected - no better no worse. It is a long term investment with a lot of potential over a 5 to 10 year timeframe..

dunstonh

Rubbish. Have finance or housing stocks done any better ?

Risk is not about what it can do going up. The fact is that it is high risk. Its high potential but that doesnt matter. Property share funds and financial focused funds are also high risk. Many focused funds are.

wombat42_2

dunstonh wrote: »

Risk is not about what it can do going up. The fact is that it is high risk. Its high potential but that doesnt matter. Property share funds and financial focused funds are also high risk. Many focused funds are.

Yes and relatively speaking property and finance shares have done much worse than agricultural shares and property and finance shares were previously considered low risk. Obviously opinions differ and there is no certainty but there is the possibility of excellent potential in agricultural shares over the next 5 to 10 yeasr.

thrupence

pjbltd wrote: »

Well I'm down 32% from when this fund launched.

Obviously not as stable/safe as some of us thought.

The fund manager recently gave a comment on HL's site:

http://www.h-l.co.uk/news/fund-manager-comments/articles/803/rq/article

^The way he talks about the "Green Man" gives me the impression he is either a complete "cowboy" fund manager or has gone senile .

Going to have to hold for the long term now.

I wouldn't be so dismissive about the Green Man stuff. Whilst it's a language that seems archaic to us now, it's the language and iconography of peoples who understood the fundamentals in their own time and real close up!

People have always needed food. It's just that we've got quite distant from its production and few of us have known scarcity...

pjbltd

Thanks for all the feedback. I thought also because it was backed by Rabobank, the world's only AAA bank, a pretty dull but safe Dutch agricultural bank, that this fund wouldn't be so volatile.

What is Sarasin's exact connection to Rabobank?

Instead of archaic I found the green man stuff more patronising!

wombat42_2

pjbltd wrote: »

Thanks for all the feedback. I thought also because it was backed by Rabobank, the world's only AAA bank, a pretty dull but safe Dutch agricultural bank, that this fund wouldn't be so volatile.

What is Sarasin's exact connection to Rabobank?

Instead of archaic I found the green man stuff more patronising!

Well it isnt as volatile as the Eclectica Agriculture fund which has fared even worse of late as it is more specifically commodity orientated. The Sarasin fund is more diverse and less specialised - including agricultural infrastructure, machinery, tractors and farming land.

cloud_dog

Regarding 'safe' and 'risk' I just think people have lost sight of what risk means and how it can manifest itself. In these times fundamnetals, and even demand to a great extent, go out of the window.

Whilst these funds may invest in agriculture, they invest (primarilly) in equity based investments. Atm when people (institutions) need money what is the easiest thing to liquidate....... equity based investments, ergo lots of selling the price falls irrespective of value or fundamentals.

I have an investment in Aricom PLC, a Iron mining company focussed in east Russia. They have loads of cash to finance getting their mine in to production (not all of it but a lot of cash $400+ million). Now with proven assets under their belt you would think the SP should be someting tangible but noooooooooooooooo.................... The cash value per share is worth 17p per share, they currently trade at 10p - go figure

cloud_dog

purch

what is the easiest thing to liquidate.......

Again that is something that often hasn't been taken into account when the current market volatility is discussed.

The hugely leveraged positions in many asset classes, Equity's and Commodity's are being unwound.....which in many cases is making analysis of these markets, both technical and fundamental almost irrellevant.

wombat42_2

purch wrote: »

Again that is something that often hasn't been taken into account when the current market volatility is discussed.

The hugely leveraged positions in many asset classes, Equity's and Commodity's are being unwound.....which in many cases is making analysis of these markets, both technical and fundamental almost irrellevant.

Irrelevant for now but fundamentals should kick back in eventually and sanity and rationality return.