Darius McDermott: Don't write off all absolute return funds

Three fund picks

clock • 4 min read

Darius McDermott puts the case for investors and their advisers keeping faith with the Targeted Absolute Return sector - providing they look at funds individually, rather than attempting comparisons between peers

The Targeted Absolute Return fund grouping has come in for its fair share of criticism recently. In principle, this sector is meant to be the prime hunting ground for investors who want access to funds providing low to mid-single-digit returns, with lower volatility, regardless of market conditions. In practice, however, it has proved anything but. An average return of 6.8% for funds in that sector over the five years to 1 March 2019, while not great, reinforces what these funds are supposed to do. If you look beneath the surface, however, you can see the disparity of returns - with the ...

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