The Saltydog Investor strategy aims to boost fund investors’ returns via a simple momentum strategy: buy what’s rising, and avoid what’s falling. You can read more here. Saltydog’s Richard Webb looks at the latest updates to their cautious portfolio, the ‘Tugboat’.
As ‘momentum’ investors, we look for the best-performing sectors (using Investment Management Association definitions), pick the top funds in each, and average out their performance to see which area of the market – from least risky to most risky – is performing most strongly.
Our latest analysis shows that all sectors rose for the second week in a row (for the week to 8/5/13). In our ‘Slow Ahead’ group (containing the least-risky sectors), the top sector was ‘Sterling Corporate Bonds’. In the slightly higher-risk ‘Steady As She Goes’ group, ‘UK Equity Income’ and ‘UK Equity and Bond Income’ are leading the way.
But the top sector, by a long way, is in the most volatile ‘Full Steam Ahead’ group. Japanese equities have beaten all others in recent months: the top six funds have each returned more than 20% in the last 12 weeks.
How does this affect our ‘Tugboat’ portfolio? We have reflected the resurgence in the ‘Steady As She Goes’ sector by hanging on to the Chelverton UK Equity Income Fund (up 24% since we bought it seven months ago). We have now added the Cazenove UK Equity Income Fund, investing £5,000 (10% of the portfolio).
Our top performer, the Legg Mason Japan Equity Fund, is up over 20% in less than two months, and we have raised our holding. We believe in cutting our losses and letting our winners run – and we’re keen to let this one run.
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| Saltydog Group | Fund | % | Last week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safe Haven | Cash | 27% | 43% |
| Slow Ahead | Fidelity Moneybuilder Income (Acc) | 20% | 20% |
| Slow Ahead | Henderson Long Dated Credit | 16% | 16% |
| Steady As She Goes | Chelverton UK Equity Income | 7% | 7% |
| Steady As She Goes | Cazenove UK Equity Income | 10% | 0% |
| Full Steam Ahead | Legg Mason Japan Equity | 14% | 7% |
| Full Steam Ahead | Neptune Japan Opportunities | 7% | 6% |