What’s Hot, What’s Not: Japan and UK up, Gilts down

• Liontrust Japan Opportunities (the renamed Neptune Japan Opportunities fund following Liontrust’s acquisition of Neptune) tops the table.
• Two UK All Companies funds and two UK Smaller Companies funds make the top table. (Although L&G UK Alpha Trust is more like a smaller company fund with 74% in small and micro caps).
• We review the latest funds and numbers for the Dynamic UK Portfolio here. 
• A UK property shares fund is also in the Hot table. These returns are driven by the share prices of property companies and so have equity-like volatility vs. the steadier returns of bricks-and-mortar property funds. 
• An absolute return fund is back in the top table. We don’t like to see these kinds of ups and downs from a fund in a supposedly lower risk sector. Buyer beware. 
• A flexible investment fund, a climate change fund and a biotech fund make up the rest of the top funds. 
• We’ve written a lot on biotech (see here). Great potential and great returns but very volatile.

• Gilt and Index-Linked Gilt funds make up 80% of the bottom 10 funds.
• The worst fund - Vanguard UK Inflation-Linked Gilt Index – was up over 10% during the last 6 months but fell sharply since September.
• A US fund and a global bond fund make up the rest of the bottom table.
• The Fidelity fund is a Value fund – buying what the market thinks is cheap without good reason – and doesn’t hold any of the favoured Growth stocks (Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google).
• This might surprise you, after the strong Value bounce earlier in September - but the recovery has not been sustained.
• For more on Value investing have a look at our recent blog.

• The 5 Deadly Sins
• Dynamic Global Portfolio review 
• The Age Guide Portfolio

What's Hot

What's Not