How do the five giants of the absolute return sector compare?

The IA Targeted Absolute Return has consistently been one of the best-selling sectors all year and August alone saw inflows of some £480m.  The attraction to investors of these funds has been the promise of returns well above cash for limited amounts of volatility, and sophisticated investment processes aiming to exploit opportunities across all asset classes.  The 'giants' of the sector, which tend to dominate fund flows, are shown in the table below and a detailed analysis of these strategies shows performance has been mixed over different time periods. In particular, hindsight reve...