Saltydog reduces its exposure to the UK
Saltydog analyst has sold underperforming funds but sticks with his winners and has bought another.
20th July 2020 13:29
by Douglas Chadwick from ii contributor
This content is provided by Saltydog Investor. It is a third-party supplier and not part of interactive investor. It is provided for information only and does not constitute a personal recommendation.
Saltydog analyst has sold underperforming funds but sticks with his winners and has bought another.Â
Towards the end of April, the three sectors focusing on UK equities (UK Smaller Companies, UK All Companies and UK Equity Income) were showing signs of a strong recovery, after the large sell-off that we had seen at the end of February and beginning of March.
From the table below you can see that, even though the UK Smaller Companies sector had gone up by 17% in the previous four weeks, it was still showing a loss of nearly 25% over 12 weeks. What we did not know was whether the recent rally would continue, or was it a temporary correction before markets fell even further.
Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
At the time, both of our demonstration portfolios were predominantly in cash, although we had made some small investments during the previous couple of weeks.
We went ahead and invested in one fund from the UK Smaller Companies sector, Liontrust UK Smaller Companies, and one fund from the UK All Companies sector, Kames UK Opportunities. At the end of May, we added another fund from the UK Smaller Companies sector, Baillie Gifford British Smaller Companies.
On 10 June, we decided to sell the Liontrust UK Smaller Companies fund. It was showing a gain of 4% at the time, but had triggered one of our ‘sell’ criteria.
We are still holding the Kames UK Opportunities fund, which is currently showing a gain of just over 13%, but last week sold the Baillie Gifford British Smaller Companies fund. It had gone down by 0.5% since we bought it, hardly the end of the world but there appear to be better opportunities elsewhere.
The Flexible Investment sector has now moved to the top of our performance table for the ‘Steady as She Goes’ Group, based on its four-week cumulative return.
Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
Last week, we invested in the Liontrust Global Alpha fund which leads in both our four-week and 26-week tables.
Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
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These articles are provided for information purposes only. Â Occasionally, an opinion about whether to buy or sell a specific investment may be provided by third parties. Â The content is not intended to be a personal recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument or product, or to adopt any investment strategy as it is not provided based on an assessment of your investing knowledge and experience, your financial situation or your investment objectives. The value of your investments, and the income derived from them, may go down as well as up. You may not get back all the money that you invest. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.
Full performance can be found on the company or index summary page on the interactive investor website. Simply click on the company's or index name highlighted in the article.