Asset Allocator

This week we catch up with Ben Seager-Scott, the newly-installed chief investment officer at Mazars. In this week's edition of the podcast, which is supported by Artemis, he has a chat with Joseph Wilkins and David Thorpe about how he's been reacting to shifting central bank rhetoric, why he's not worried about inflation proving sticky, what he's making of the equity rally and why he's sceptical a...

On this week's podcast Dave Baxter, funds editor on the Investors Chronicle, and David Thorpe, contributing editor on Asset Allocator, discuss why DFMs are feeling more positive about equities amid the hope that a hard landing has been avoided. They also discuss the rising average exposure to commodities among allocators in our database and the recent surge in the price of gold, plus they talk abo...

UK equity funds have suffered their fair share of outflows in recent years - though the FTSE 100 recently hit an all time high and many describe UK equities as incredibly cheap. In this edition of the podcast, which is supported by Artemis, David Thorpe and Joseph Wilkins talk to Ed Legget, who runs the Artemis UK Select fund, about the future prospects of UK equities. They discuss why some UK equ...

This week Shanti Kelemen, chief investment officer at M&G Wealth, joins Joseph Wilkins and David Thorpe to discuss US equities and the extent to which she's worried about volatility caused by the looming presidential election. They also discuss the state of the wider US economy and whether the divergence between inflation and interest rate expectations are causing her to shift her fixed income...

A lot of the talk relating to changes in monetary policy rotate around their effect on bonds and equities, but this week we have a chat with Bill Dinning, chief investment officer at Waverton, who is paying keen attention to the effect they will have on real assets. We spoke to Dinning about why he is seeing an opportunity in real assets, how he's adjusting his fixed income allocations and why he'...

For some time the UK has been described as a bargain, but average exposures to the home market in the Asset Allocator database have not budged. In this week's podcast, which is supported by Artemis, David Thorpe and Joseph Wilkins are joined by Darius McDermott, who advises the Chelsea Managed Funds range, to discuss the extent to which the UK is currently a bargain compared to the US. They also d...

This week Asset Allocator acting editor Damian Fantato has a chat with funds correspondent Joseph Wilkins and contributing editor David Thorpe about Tam Asset Management's seed funding of future fund management talent. They also discuss the British Isa, which was launched earlier this month at the Budget, and the use of UK equities by some portfolio managers. Then they discuss bonds, alternatives...

Investing in emerging markets was once seen as a commodity play but on this week's podcast, which is supported by Artemis, we have a chat with Raheel Altaf, who runs the Artemis SmartGarp Global Emerging Market Equity fund to discuss how this has changed. He joined David Thorpe, contributing editor on Asset Allocator, and Joseph Wilkins, funds correspondent on Asset Allocator, to talk about the ch...

When high profile fund managers leave big companies to set up on their own, it is often assumed the assets will follow them almost automatically. But this week Joseph Wilkins and David Thorpe have a chat with Mark Preskett, portfolio manager at Morningstar, to discuss the challenges of operational due diligence on boutique fund houses which have been set up by one fund manager. They also discuss w...

The debate around China versus India has been a biggest party in town lately, as far as emerging markets are concerned. This week Joseph Wilkins and David Thorpe are joined by Will Bartleet, chief investment officer at Pacific Asset Management, who has a higher exposure to emerging markets than his peers, to discuss his views on the region. They also discuss his large exposure to global equity fun...

One of the topics of debate in recent months has been the long-term investment case for China versus India. This week Dave Baxter, funds editor on the Investors Chronicle, Asset Allocator funds reporter Joseph Wilkins and contributing editor David Thorpe have a chat about the choices allocators are making in respect of India and China, and how this is reflected in the emerging market funds they ar...

What with the strong performance of the US market driven by a handful of tech stocks and the looming presidential election, it might feel at times that the US is never far from the news. So on this week's podcast, which is supported by Artemis, David Thorpe and Joseph Wilkins are joined by Cormac Weldon, head of US equities at Artemis, to dissect matters. They discuss the state of the US economy,...

There has been a lot of talk about concentration risk and the rise of the Magnificent Seven stocks but this week we talk to Richard Philbin, chief investment officer for investment solutions at Hawksmoor, who takes a different view and argues in favour of US concentration risk. He joins Joseph Wilkins and David Thorpe and they also discuss the challenges of the outsourced chief investment officer...

US equities did very well during 2023 which means valuations are now high. This raised the question of what the investment case might be for investing in stocks which might be overvalued. In this edition of the Asset Allocator Podcast, which is sponsored by Artemis, Joseph Wilkins and David Thorpe are joined by Alex Harvey, senior portfolio manager at Momentum. They discuss US equities, the outloo...

The start of the year sees the publication of the traditional letter from Terry Smith, manager of Fundsmith Equity - the biggest fund in the UK retail market and one of the most popular in the Asset Allocator database. Fundsmith remains popular despite its three years of underperformance and this week David Thorpe, Joseph Wilkins and Dave Baxter get together to discuss why. They also discuss the m...

The world of fixed income investing has been in flux for several years due to a succession of events including the 2022 "mini" Budget, rising interest rates to tackle spiralling inflation and wider political instability. This week we are joined by Stephen Snowden, head of fixed income at Artemis and manager of the Artemis Corporate Bond fund - the most popular corporate bond fund in our database,...

James Penny, chief investment officer at Tam Asset Management, talks to Asset Allocator funds correspondent Joe Wilkins and Investors Chronicle's Dave Baxter about market distortions over the past 12 months and where investors should allocate in 2024. While the so-called 'Magnificent Seven' are "priced for absolute perfection", according to Penney, some economists still think there will be a hard...

In this first edition of the Asset Allocator Podcast of 2024, which is supported by Artemis, David Thorpe and Joseph Wilkins are joined by Jason Day, senior investment manager at Abrdn. They discuss how Jason is viewing fixed income as we enter the new year with yields having pushed higher over 2023 and why he thinks this represents a "major reset". Jason then explains his thinking on UK equities...

As the year draws to a close, Dave Baxter, David Thorpe and Joseph Wilkins gather around a microphone with some mince pies to discuss a recent report into the fastest growing DFMs and the UK equity funds which have lost and gained popularity among allocators. They also make some outlandish predictions for 2024 in what is Asset Allocator's final podcast of 2023. The Asset Allocator Podcast is a for...

At the start of 2023 it seemed rising interest rates were putting an end to the golden era of tech stocks, but these companies have actually surged with the Nasdaq up 47 per cent so far this year fuelled by the explosion of interest in artificial intelligence. This week David Thorpe and Joseph Wilkins are joined by David Coombs, head of multi-asset at Rathbones, to debate whether this AI-fuelled s...

This week David Thorpe and Dave Baxter are joined by contributor Joseph Wilkins. They discuss the shifts in allocation seen in cautious portfolios in recent months, with equities down and fixed income remaining static. They also discuss the fact DFMs have been finding it particularly hard to pick out-performing Japanese equity funds plus they consider the rising popularity of M&G Japan. The As...

This week David Thorpe is joined by Haig Bathgate, head of investments at Atomos, to discuss why he's so positive on China at the moment and the potential impacts of the geopolitical tensions between China and the West. They also discuss the recession outlook for the West and whether we have reached peak rates in the US and UK. The Asset Allocator Podcast is a fortnightly series aimed at discretio...

This week David Thorpe, contributing editor of Asset Allocator, and Dave Baxter, funds editor on the Investors' Chronicle, discuss the most popular funds held in income portfolios. They look at the UK equity income funds which are attracting the most attention and then they look further afield at the use of emerging market funds for income and the role of China. The Asset Allocator Podcast is a fo...

This week David Thorpe, contributing editor at Asset Allocator, and Dave Baxter, funds editor on the Investors' Chronicle, are joined by Roger Aliaga-Diaz, global head of portfolio construction at Vanguard. They discuss the challenges posed to products like Vanguard Lifestrategy by the breaking of the correlation between equities and fixed income, and whether this shift is likely to be permanent o...

Asset Allocator has recently started gathering and analysing DFM sentiment to different asset classes. In this week's edition of the podcast David Thorpe, contributing editor of Asset Allocator, and Dave Baxter, funds editor on the Investors' Chronicle, have a chat about what we found. They discuss the fact allocators are overwhelmingly positive towards Japanese equities and they debate whether th...