e-fundresearch.com: How do you plan to make money in the fixed income universe in 2015 to benefit from currency and to what extent has the ECB’s QE announcement influenced your portfolio positioning?
Phil Milburn: If 2014 was the year for long only benchmark funds then 2015 will hopefully be the year of active management. Benchmark returns were so strong in 2014 that it has overshadowed performance from good stock selection. We will continue to make returns from stock selection in 2015 - but ECB QE will encourage us to look again at the euro market -- opportunities will continue to arise and it is difficult to ignore the very strong technical dynamic of the ECB buying E 60bn of bonds every month.
e-fundresearch.com: To what extent does fund size impact the efficiency and effectiveness of your investment strategy?
Phil Milburn: We believe there is a “right size” of fund for any given strategy – and neither efficiency nor effectiveness comes from funds being too big. A fund can become too large and managing those inflows can distract managers from the aims and purposes of a fund. We communicate what we believe the right size of a fund should for a given strategy. We think that changing the fund dynamic to suit further fund flows is disingenuous and managers should be more open of what is achievable.
e-fundresearch.com: Thank You!
