Go with dangerous stock: Hunter Hall

Ethical fund manager Hunter Hall Investment Management has urged investors to stay in the market and ride out volatility with a portfolio of “dangerous stock”.

Speaking to a room of advisers and media in Sydney yesterday, Hunter Hall chief Peter James MacDonald Hall said investors should adopt a long-term view and take advantage of opportunities such as disaster, oil and gas, food — soft commodities — and land, and emerging markets.

“The real way to make money in the stock market is to buy dangerous stock,” he said.

And the core task is to preserve capital, according to Hall, who advised investors to think long term.

“If you go too fast you will get derailed,” he said.

Hall and a panel of Hunter Hall investors agreed that the best way to survive the bear market is to follow a value strategy, retain cash, avoid equities with debt and diversify a portfolio.

“In property it’s location, location, location, in investment it’s performance, performance, performance,” he said.

“Look for stocks that earn good returns on operating capital, it’s a sign of a good business,” Hall said.

In a month that saw continuing market volatility, the Hunter Hall Global Deep Green Trust, which was launched in November last year, rose 0.8 per cent.

By comparison, its benchmark, the MSCI in Australian dollars, was down 5.1 per cent.