80-20 Investor Best of the Best Selection – February 2021 Update

Commentary

Following on from a strong December performance the BOTB had a fantastic January as you can clearly see from the chart below which shows the BOTB versus the average sector performance of professionally managed mixed-asset funds with varying equity exposures as well as the FTSE 100 (just for context). January was generally considered a tough month for investors as illustrated by the negative returns from the professionally managed benchmarks below but the BOTB bucked that trend.

The biggest drivers of outperformance were holdings with exposure to technology stocks, emerging market equities as well as Asian equities, as shown in the table below. The laggards were European stocks (Baillie Gifford European fell 1.94% in January) as well as bond funds which fell in the face of rising yields and rising inflation expectations.

Fund Total return % in Jan 2021 Allianz Total Return Asian Equity 7.91 Baillie Gifford Positive Change 7.67 Fidelity China Consumer 6.76 FSSA Greater China Growth 5.79 Baillie Gifford Long Term Global Growth Investment 5.48 Barings Eastern Trust 5.46 FP Octopus UK Micro Cap Growth 5.38 Baillie Gifford Pacific 5.37 Invesco Global Emerging Markets (UK) 5.05

It is no surprise that after such a strong month that 21 funds within the BOTB remain the same from last month.