Asset Allocator

This week Joseph Wilkins and Dave Baxter are joined by Stuart Clark, who runs the Quilter Wealthselect portfolios. They discuss what a Trump presidency might mean and what parallels can be drawn between gold's surge over the course of this year and the performance of cryptocurrencies. Clark also explains how he is allocating to fixed income in a world of falling rates and budget deficit concerns....

The outlook for the UK economy is a topic that has consumed endless column inches – particularly in the wake of last week's Budget. On this week's podcast, which is sponsored by Artemis, we are joined by Ed Legget, manager of the Artemis UK Select fund, and Chris Fleming, deputy chief investment officer at Square Mile, to consider the outlook. They discuss the ripple effects of Labour's first Budg...

Chris Robinson joined Premier Miton over the summer to run the company's new MPS. This week he catches up with David Thorpe and Joseph Wilkins to discuss this approach to picking funds, what he looks for and why he's so pleased with one of his Japanese equity picks. They also discuss China versus India, why he is underweight Europe and the outlook for the UK. The Asset Allocator Podcast is a weekl...

The Chinese government's sudden U-turn on fiscal stimulus has got a lot of heads scratching recently - including among those who debate the future prospects of the country's economy. This week David Thorpe and Joseph Wilkins are joined by Nathan Sweeney, multi-asset chief investment officer at Marlborough, to discuss whether the stimulus will change his calculus on whether or not to allocate to Ch...

News that the regulator will be changing cost disclosure rules has been welcomed as a lifeline by the investment trust sector. But will it be the silver bullet some claim? This week David Thorpe, Joseph Wilkins and Damian Fantato discuss whether it will boost investment trust ownership among portfolio managers. They also discuss the potential problem of "monocrop" portfolios and they wade into the...

This week David Thorpe and Joseph Wilkins are joined by Chris Metcalfe, chief investment officer at Iboss, to discuss the impact of China's economic stimulus on Europe and other regions. They also discuss whether property is still investable in light of Dynamic Planner's decision to remove it from its risk models. And they discuss how to manage concentration risk concerns from clients. The Asset A...

This week Dave Baxter, Joseph Wilkins and David Thorpe discuss the malaise which is affecting the world of sustainable portfolios and what that means for the sector. They also discuss the slow start to life which Ark's ETFs have endured and the company's recent launch of a "model portfolio". And they discuss City Asset Management's decision to call time on UK equity income holdings and what that s...

This week David Thorpe and Joseph Wilkins are joined by James Saunders, head of portfolio management at Tatton Investment Management. They discuss his principles for selecting a fund, how he mitigates risk and how he balances risk versus volatility. James also explains what what he thinks really drives returns: fund selection or asset allocation. The Asset Allocator Podcast is a weekly series aime...

This week we are joined by Ryan Hughes, investment director at AJ Bell, to discuss whether the recent volatility seen in markets is likely to be a permanent feature. He also discusses with David Thorpe why AJ Bell is so keen on emerging markets at the moment and what purpose, if any, he sees for the growing number of active ETFs. The Asset Allocator Podcast is a weekly series aimed at discretionar...

The debate of where we sit in the growth vs value cycle and the cyclical vs defensive cycle is often a hotly contested one. This week Joseph Wilkins and David Thorpe are joined by Ryan Paterson, portfolio manager at Schroder Investment Solutions, to discuss where he thinks we currently sit in these cycles and what action he's taking in response. They also discuss some recent changes he has made to...

The Asset Allocator Podcast is back from its summer break and this week David Thorpe and Joseph Wilkins are joined by Damian Fantato, acting editor of Asset Allocator, while Dave Baxter goes on holiday to Sri Lanka. They discuss whether equal-weight indices are the solution to concentration concerns, if China is too big to ignore for DFMs and they have a look at what did and didn't do well during...

As markets take a pause for breath, we have a chat with Alex Funk, who is newly-installed as head of investments at Portfoliometrix. He chats with Joseph Wilkins and David Thorpe about the MPS solutions he has inherited and he reflects on the recent market volatility. They also discuss where he is seeing risk on the horizon and whether he is planning on tweaking his new portfolios. The Asset Alloc...

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, market volatility strikes again. This week Joseph Wilkins and Dave Baxter are joined by Freddy Colquhoun, investment director at JM Finn, to discuss this week's market volatility, his views on the economic outlook and whether there are any asset classes he thinks are particularly compelling at the moment. They also discuss his views on the...

Many of the discussions which are held about portfolios at the moment centre around macro questions. This week David Thorpe and Joseph Wilkins are joined by Ernst Knacke, head of investment research at Shard Capital, to discuss what he views as the greatest threat facing portfolios in the current environment and how he is safeguarding against it. They also discuss his use of alternatives such as m...

Some investors might wonder what the point is of trying to outperform the US market when simply buying an S&P 500 tracker has delivered pretty substantial returns. But this week David Thorpe, Dave Baxter and Joseph Wilkins discuss the few active outperformers in the US market and how they have achieved this. They also discuss whether portfolio managers are losing faith in Japan, which just a f...

The recent success of the so-called magnificent seven stocks has caused plenty of pause for thought so far this year. In the latest edition of the Asset Allocator Podcast, we speak to James Crocker of Albert E Sharp about why he's so nervous about the magnificent seven and their influence on the wider stock market. They also weigh up the impact of a looming shift in monetary policy to cutting inte...

This week Joseph Wilkins and David Thorpe are joined by Jonathan Griffiths, investment product manager at EBI, to discuss the growing use of factor tilts and which ones he particularly keen on at the moment. They also discuss the AI boom and how he is approaching that within his portfolios and what he makes of the looming SDR regulations for portfolio managers. The Asset Allocator Podcast is a wee...

In this podcast, Asset Allocator chief reporter Joseph Wilkins, contributing editor David Thorpe and Jason Borbora-Sheen talk about the importance of diversification when it comes to fixed income portfolio construction, and how to understand the current concerns around sticky inflation and a higher-for-longer rate environment. Borbora-Sheen, who is a portfolio manager in the multi-asset team at Ni...

This year has so far been dominated by two-high profile examples of the rule at play: Ben Whitmore’s forthcoming departure from Jupiter, and Mike Riddell’s more abrupt exit from Allianz. Plus Peter Rutter has left Royal London to set up on his own and Peter Saacke has left Artemis to become a maths teacher (a career trajectory also being followed by Baillie Gifford's Torcail Stewart). On this week...

Many investors focus on the ups and downs of particular countries and regions, but in a globalised world themes are becoming an increasingly important factor in allocation. This week, while David Thorpe enjoys himself in Portugal, Dave Baxter and Joseph Wilkins are joined by Natasha Ebtehadj who runs the Artemis Global Select fund, to discuss the themes which are driving her investment decisions....

One of the challenges faced by investment managers lately has been the relative attractiveness of money market funds, given the current macro environment. This week David Thorpe and Joseph Wilkins are joined by Peter Dalglish, Parmenion's chief investment officer, to discuss the pros and cons of these funds. They also discuss how he is allocating through a year full of elections and political risk...

One of the long-running trends in the world of portfolio management has been the gradual fall in average allocations to UK equities. In this week's edition of the podcast, which is sponsored by Artemis, Joseph Wilkins and David Thorpe are joined by Henry Cobbe, head of research at Elston Consulting, to discuss the outlook for UK equities. They also discuss the dominance US equities have over globa...

The pros and cons of paying an active manager to hunt down outperformance are often hotly debated, and this week we join in. In the latest edition of the Asset Allocator Podcast, Dave Baxter, Joseph Wilkins and David Thorpe debate some recent comments by Sparrows Capital's chief investment officer that hunting down alpha is, ultimately, futile. They also discuss the legacy of Neil Woodford on fund...

Bonds have been a very eventful place to be over the past 12 months or so and on this week's podcast, which is supported by Artemis, we have a chat with David Ennett, manager of Artemis High Income and Artemis Strategic Bond, about high yield bonds. He has a chat with David Thorpe, contributing editor on Asset Allocator, about why they are particularly attractive at the moment, how the make up of...

One of the latest entrants to the portfolio management market in the UK has been Soderberg & Partners, the Swedish wealth manager which has already bought up several firms. This week Joseph Wilkins and David Thorpe talk to the head of Soderberg & Partners Asset Management, Fredrik Borjesson, about his new portfolio proposition, home bias, Nordic equities and the next generation of portfoli...