Harmony Portfolios

Bigger than the Roman Empire

Julius Davison, Director, Intelligent Investments Discretionary Investment Management, Market commentary , ,

unnamed-5It is common belief that bigger is better, but we do not always endorse that.

One of our functions is to choose which managers to trust our clients’ capital with: manager selection is not a scientific process, there is not a unique set of rules to “evaluate them all” and parameters to analyse are countless. Among these, we consider size (be it of the strategy, the investment team or the firm) to be a meaningful factor.

Lorenzo La Posta of Momentum Global Investment Management, one of our UK regulated, discretionary fund managers shares their view. Click here to learn more.

 

Advertisements

Brexit Panic

Julius Davison, Director, Intelligent Investments Brexit, Discretionary Investment Management , , , ,

The past couple of years since the UK public’s vote to leave the European Union has been a trying and confusing time for British politics. In the past 24 hours we have finally seen the substance of the deal behind the agreement reached between Prime Minister Theresa May’s negotiating team and those representing the EU27.

brexit-referendum-uk-1468255044bIX.jpgThe publication of the proposed deal has taken UK politics from a period of uncertainty to arguably its most chaotic in peace time. How should investors react, is now a time to panic? James Klempster (CFA) Head of Investment Management of Momentum Global Investment Management, one of our UK regulated, discretionary fund managers shares their view. Click here to learn more

FAANGtastic Returns

Julius Davison, Director, Intelligent Investments Discretionary Investment Management, Market commentary , , , , , , ,

FAANG-StocksThe high performing FAANG stocks – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google – have led the market higher over the past 12 months. Their high valuations – Amazon is currently trading at a price-to-earnings ratio (PE) of 195 – and high-tech bent has resulted in inevitable comparisons with the Dotcom bubble at the turn of the century. We do not believe we are in for a repeat of this particular boom and bust cycle, and while we are cautious on the broader US market, we are happy for our managers to continue taking appropriate risks where they see opportunities.

Richard Stutley (CFA) of Momentum Global Investment Management, one of our UK regulated, discretionary fund managers shares their view. Click here to learn more.

UK Equities: Unloved and Underrated

Julius Davison, Director, Intelligent Investments Brexit, Discretionary Investment Management , ,

BrexitWith Brexit looming many of our clients have asked us how we are managing exposure to UK assets within our global portfolios. The challenge of positioning portfolios appropriately for Brexit, be it to mitigate risk or take advantage of potential opportunities, is tough as the negotiations could go either way: an acceptable future trade relationship with the EU or a no-deal outcome. These potential outcomes would have substantially different implications for investors.

Andrew Hardy (CFA) of Momentum Global Investment Management, one of our UK regulated, discretionary fund managers shares their view. Click here to learn more.

Macro Matters

Julius Davison, Director, Intelligent Investments Market commentary , , , ,

When we raise the issue of the importance of macro, we sometimes get the response: ‘no one has a good record predicting macroeconomic variables like GDP growth’; ‘where do you start when it comes to the many interrelated factors that influence inflation?’; or more bluntly ‘why bother?’.

Jernej Bukovec (CFA) of Momentum Global Investment Management, one of our UK regulated, discretionary fund managers shares their view. Click here to learn more.

Dodgeball

Julius Davison, Director, Intelligent Investments Discretionary Investment Management, Market commentary , ,

There are a number of different ways that investors can lose money. Some are risks that are inherent in investing such as having to convert a paper loss into an actual loss because you have to liquidate a holding which is underwater which would likely recover if given time. There are many other ways to lose client money which are permanent. These are often a result of careless strategy selection rather than market characteristics.

James Klempster (CFA) of Momentum Global Investment Management, one of our UK regulated, discretionary fund managers shares their view. Click here to learn more.

China Awakens

Julius Davison, Director, Intelligent Investments Discretionary Investment Management, Market commentary , , , ,

unnamed-3.jpgIf you checked the MSCI Emerging Market Index last Friday, you would have noticed the inclusion of 226 new A-Shares of Chinese companies into the benchmark. This is the first step of a very gradual introduction which will continue in September and A-shares only represent 0.4% of the index at present.

While it might seem insignificant, it has triggered a wave of forced buying by passive strategies and could ultimately have a large impact on the composition of the index and investors’ investment universe. In fact, if all those stocks were fully included along with additional mid cap names over time, China could come to represent 50% of the Emerging Markets of which 28% from A-Shares!

What does this mean for your portfolio? Click here to learn more.