Fund Focus: Steven Richards on security selection versus asset allocation

clock • 4 min read

Steven Richards, manager of Thesis Optima Growth, talks to Professional Adviser about the key drivers behind the fund's performance and his outlook for 2015...

1. What has been the main driver behind the fund's outperformance? We have benefitted more from security selection than asset allocation over the past five years as the active managers that we invest in have generally bettered their benchmark indices. That said, we progressively increased to a higher equity exposure as the recovery continued, to take advantage of rising stock markets. Our currency positioning has also aided performance. Hedging the euro and yen positions, while maintaining exposure to the dollar, has played out favourably. An opportunistic sale in private equity ...

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