Darius McDermott: Will 2022 be the final chance for absolute return funds?

Cutting through the absolute return noise

clock • 4 min read

Darius McDermott looks at the 'maligned' world of absolute return funds which, he says, may need to bin the word 'absolute'. However, he adds investors could miss a trick next year by not cutting through the noise to find some defensive options...

It's hard to call a sector maligned when it has almost £50bn of assets under management - but it's precisely how I'd describe Targeted Absolute Return funds. They were the sugar-coated pill to come out of the Global Financial Crisis for investors. Yes, returns would be lower, but they would be more consistent. More than a decade later and we know this is not how it has (largely) played out. I've talked before about the different types of vehicles in the sector, with long-only, long-short, UK centric, global and fixed interest funds just some of the beasts sitting there. It makes no se...

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