Volatile funds over achieve

Given the highly volatile and low income environment, we put managed funds to the test based on Financial Express' data. We found that the most volatile funds produced double digit returns (above 18 per cent), over three years while the least volatile funds produced single digit yields.

Of all the 677 funds that focused on investing in Australia, the least volatile fund was Perpetual's wholesale alternative income fund, followed by Merlon's absolute return fund and Perpetual's pure equity alpha fund.

Of the top 10 least volatile funds, over the past year, Affluence's investment fund generated the best yield of 9.09 per cent, followed by Perpetual's wholesale alternative income fund (with 7.95 per cent).

AMP Capitals' investors rest infrastructure fund had the third best return with 7.09 per cent, followed by Macquarie's dividend run up fund which generated under five per cent, with 2.71 (see below).

Least volatile Australian managed funds based on Financial Express

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Meanwhile, the top 10 most volatile Australian managed funds were dominated by Colonial First State, which had six funds, followed by Perpetual, which had two.

Of those 10, the most volatile fund was AMP's Generations Colonial First State Geared Australian Shares, followed by Colonial First State's First Choice Wholesale Geared Fund, and MLC's Navigator Access Perpetual Geared Australian Equity fund (see below).

Most volatile funds based on Financial Express

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But they all generated returns below zero per cent over the last 12 months.

However, if you looked at those top 10 funds over three years, every single fund generated an annualised return of over 18 per cent.

The top five performers were Colonial First State with their First Choice Wholesale Geared Share fund, which generated 53.35 per cent, followed by CFS' First Choice Geared Share Fund (with 48.37 per cent), CFS's Geared Share MIF (with 48.03), and their geared share option MIF (with 46.16 per cent).

Perpetual's Wholesale Geared Australian share fund rounded out the top five with 31.03 per cent.