Fund Focus: Why Schroders' Marcus Brookes finds a dearth of bearish managers unsettling

1 What has been the main driver behind the fund's outperformance? The fund was launched in April 2012 to provide a Non-Ucits Retail Scheme (NURS) version of the Managed Portfolio (launched in 2009) and, hence, bring it into line with the rest of the multi-manager range. However, the two funds are very similar in construction. In both cases, a key driver to performance has been our willingness to focus on managing downside risk and strive to achieve consistently high risk-adjusted returns for our investors. In recent years, this has often meant taking a relatively contrarian stan...