Confidence leads to quality
Delivering its best positive performance over a calendar year of a 32.9 per cent return in 2014 has elevated the Aspect Diversified Futures Fund to winner of the Alternative Investments category in the Money Management/Lonsec Fund Manager of the Year awards.
Aspect Capital chief executive, Anthony Todd, said unwavering confidence in its core trend following models, despite the alternative market being dominated by momentum strategies, paid off despite challenging conditions for several years in the run-up to 2014.
He said during the past year the group released three strategy upgrades, enhanced investment models, and included 14 new markets in its investment.
While the absolute level of performance in the fund was important, so too was the quality of returns.
"The experience of 2014 has vindicated our enduring commitment to trend following. Our strategy has captured diversified opportunities both on the long and the short side across a multitude of financial and commodity assets."
The AQR Wholesale Managed Futures Fund has continued its successful run in this category, which it won in 2014, with AQR head of wholesale, Simon Wills, stating the group uses its own research to create a pure-play investment vehicle to build portfolio and generate returns with low correlations to traditional asset classes.
According to Wills, this research is built into the portfolio, which is traded globally via proprietary systems that reduce the cost of trading.
"We believe these efforts have maximised the trend-following returns our investors desire and contributed to the success of our strategy."
Knocking back 97 per cent of investment opportunities considered across its private markets platform and staying disciplined, and not being lured up the risk ladder in pursuit of extra return has benefited the Partners Group Global Value Fund, which was also a finalist in this category in 2014.
Partners Group managing director, Martin Scott, said favouring mid to small cap businesses across Asia and North America but with a cautious outlook on markets as volatility persisted over the past year resulted in the fund returning 18.3 per cent net of fees, exceeding its performance objective of 10-12 per cent per annum.
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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