Positioning
In terms of the current makeup of the fund, Chatfeild-Roberts says the one of the critical things has been and will continue to be the dollar.
“In the noughties the dollar was weak, so everything that was a beneficiary of the weak dollar, emerging markets, eastern Europe, oil, mining were strong and we took advantage of that. Since 2011, however, the dollar has been strong.
Since 2011, however, the dollar has been strong and, particularly in the past year and a half, Chatfeild-Roberts said, the funds have been positioned to take advantage of that strength.
“We have plenty of developed market equities, very little in emerging markets equities, a couple of percent in Asia and, in the higher risk funds, about a percent in Latin America,” he said.
On the fixed interest side, the funds are only exposed to corporate fixed interest, split between high yields and investment grade. But, Chatfeild-Roberts said, currently western sovereign debt holds no appeal.
In terms of new funds, he said, the team has recently added the TwentyFour Dynamic Bond Fund to the Jupiter Merlin Income portfolio and the Hermes Multi Strategy Credit Fund to the Merlin Income and Merlin Conservative portfolios.
