80-20 Investor Best of the Best Selection – May 2025 Update

Commentary

The BOTB outperformed its benchmarks, during an extremely volatile month, and almost broke back to positive territory. The BOTB was helped by its reduced US equity exposure as well as its bias towards UK equities, European equities and global equity income funds. However, despite this, of the 29 funds in April's BOTB selection only 16 funds retained their place in May. This demonstrates just how much market sentiment continues to shift.

Digging deeper into the performance of the funds within the BOTB during April, the table below highlights the top performers. There were some outstanding performances for funds focused on European equities and UK equities.

Fund	April 2025 % return
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	4.39
Barings German Growth Trust	4.03
Artemis SmartGARP UK Equity	3.69
Artemis Income	2.61
L&G European Equity Income	2.11

At the other end of the scale you can see that there were some significant falls for those funds with exposure to emerging markets assets, Chinese equities and energy stocks fared the worst as Trump's trade war escalated.

Fund	April 2025 % return
CT Emerging Market Bond	-3.47
Jupiter China	-4.1
BNY Mellon US Equity Income	-6.3
Baillie Gifford China	-7.23
WS Guinness Global Energy	-12.25

In terms of April's asset mix, there has been a further shift away from US equities with UK and European equities being the main beneficiaries. UK equities are now the largest component of the equity portion of the BOTB closely followed by European equities.

Below I list this month's selection in full with the 16 funds that regained their place in black while the new additions are in green. As usual, I have included the full list sorted alphabetically by name and then by risk category.

May's Best of the Best Selection - (A-Z by fund name)

(funds unchanged from last month are in black while new additions are in green):

Name	Sector	ISIN Code	Risk
Artemis Global Income	Global Equity Income	GB00B5N99561	Medium risk
Artemis Income	UK Equity Income	GB00B2PLJJ36	Medium risk
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	Europe Excluding UK	GB00B2PLJD73	Medium risk
Artemis SmartGARP UK Equity	UK All Companies	GB00B2PLJM64	Medium risk
Aviva Inv Multi Strategy Target Return	Targeted Absolute Return	GB00BMTRW090	Lower risk
Barings German Growth Trust	Specialist	GB0000822576	Higher risk
BNY Mellon Global Infrastructure Income	Infrastructure	GB00BDR8GH68	Higher risk
Close Diversified Income Portfolio	Mixed Investment 20-60% Shares	GB00B708TJ43	Lower risk
CT High Yield Bond	Sterling High Yield	GB0008371014	Lower risk
CT Latin America	Latin America	GB0001531754	Higher risk
CT Monthly Extra Income	Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares	GB0008370826	Medium risk
Fidelity Japan	Japan	GB00B882N041	Higher risk
Jupiter China	China/Greater China	GB00B1DTDX49	Higher risk
Jupiter UK Income	UK Equity Income	GB0004791389	Medium risk
L&G European Equity Income	Europe Excluding UK	GB00BF18C898	Medium risk
Man Income Fund	UK Equity Income	GB00B0117C28	Medium risk
Man Sterling Corporate Bond Fund	Sterling Corporate Bond	GB00BNLYQX62	Lower risk
Ninety One Global Franchise	Global	GB00B7VHRM91	Higher risk
Ninety One Global Special Situations	Global	GB00B29KP103	Higher risk
Ninety One UK Special Situations	UK All Companies	GB00B1XFJS91	Medium risk
Premier Miton Global Infrastructure Income	Infrastructure	GB00BD3H9L21	Higher risk
Premier Miton Multi-Asset Absolute Return	Targeted Absolute Return	GB00B5PXJK10	Lower risk
Premier Miton Strategic Monthly Income Bond	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00BMWVS110	Lower risk
Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select	Targeted Absolute Return	GB00BNY7YM73	Lower risk
Schroder European	Europe Excluding UK	GB00B76V8C37	Medium risk
Schroder High Yield Opportunities	Sterling High Yield	GB00B83RDY83	Lower risk
Schroder Strategic Bond	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00B7FPS593	Lower risk
Schroder Sustainable Bond	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00B57BFC79	Lower risk
Vanguard FTSE Developed Europe ex-UK Equity Index	Europe Excluding UK	GB00B5B71H80	Higher risk
WS Morant Wright Nippon Yield	Japan	GB00B42MKS95	Higher risk

May's Best of the Best Selection - (grouped by risk)

(funds unchanged from last month are in black while new additions are in green):

Name	Sector	ISIN Code	Risk
Aviva Inv Multi Strategy Target Return	Targeted Absolute Return	GB00BMTRW090	Lower risk
Close Diversified Income Portfolio	Mixed Investment 20-60% Shares	GB00B708TJ43	Lower risk
CT High Yield Bond	Sterling High Yield	GB0008371014	Lower risk
Man Sterling Corporate Bond Fund	Sterling Corporate Bond	GB00BNLYQX62	Lower risk
Premier Miton Multi-Asset Absolute Return	Targeted Absolute Return	GB00B5PXJK10	Lower risk
Premier Miton Strategic Monthly Income Bond	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00BMWVS110	Lower risk
Premier Miton Tellworth UK Select	Targeted Absolute Return	GB00BNY7YM73	Lower risk
Schroder High Yield Opportunities	Sterling High Yield	GB00B83RDY83	Lower risk
Schroder Strategic Bond	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00B7FPS593	Lower risk
Schroder Sustainable Bond	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00B57BFC79	Lower risk
Artemis Global Income	Global Equity Income	GB00B5N99561	Medium risk
Artemis Income	UK Equity Income	GB00B2PLJJ36	Medium risk
Artemis SmartGARP European Equity	Europe Excluding UK	GB00B2PLJD73	Medium risk
Artemis SmartGARP UK Equity	UK All Companies	GB00B2PLJM64	Medium risk
CT Monthly Extra Income	Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares	GB0008370826	Medium risk
Jupiter UK Income	UK Equity Income	GB0004791389	Medium risk
L&G European Equity Income	Europe Excluding UK	GB00BF18C898	Medium risk
Man Income Fund	UK Equity Income	GB00B0117C28	Medium risk
Ninety One UK Special Situations	UK All Companies	GB00B1XFJS91	Medium risk
Schroder European	Europe Excluding UK	GB00B76V8C37	Medium risk
Barings German Growth Trust	Specialist	GB0000822576	Higher risk
BNY Mellon Global Infrastructure Income	Infrastructure	GB00BDR8GH68	Higher risk
CT Latin America	Latin America	GB0001531754	Higher risk
Fidelity Japan	Japan	GB00B882N041	Higher risk
Jupiter China	China/Greater China	GB00B1DTDX49	Higher risk
Ninety One Global Franchise	Global	GB00B7VHRM91	Higher risk
Ninety One Global Special Situations	Global	GB00B29KP103	Higher risk
Premier Miton Global Infrastructure Income	Infrastructure	GB00BD3H9L21	Higher risk
Vanguard FTSE Developed Europe ex-UK Equity Index	Europe Excluding UK	GB00B5B71H80	Higher risk
WS Morant Wright Nippon Yield	Japan	GB00B42MKS95	Higher risk

The funds that dropped out of the Best of the Best Selection

For reference, the funds from last month that dropped out of the 80-20 Investor Best of the Best list are listed below:

Name	Sector	ISIN Code	Risk
Baillie Gifford China	China/Greater China	GB00B39RML74	Higher risk
Barclays UK Equity Income	UK Equity Income	GB00B44VWM29	Medium risk
BNY Mellon US Equity Income	North America	GB00BGV53H32	Higher risk
CT Emerging Market Bond	Global EM Bonds - Blended	GB0002365608	Lower risk
Fidelity Responsible Global Equity Income	Global Equity Income	GB00BPGC5764	Medium risk
Invesco Asian (UK)	Asia Pacific Excluding Japan	GB00B1W7HW60	Higher risk
Invesco High Yield (UK)	Sterling High Yield	GB00B3RW7649	Lower risk
Jupiter Merian Global Equity	Global	GB00B1XG8F22	Higher risk
Man High Yield Opportunities Fund	Sterling High Yield	GB00BJK3W057	Lower risk
Man Japan Core Alpha	Japan	GB00B0119B50	Medium risk
Royal London Short Duration Credit	Sterling Strategic Bond	GB00BJ4KW800	Lower risk
Schroder European Alpha Plus	Europe Excluding UK	GB00B7LDKR32	Higher risk
Troy Asset Management Ltd Trojan Ethical	Flexible Investment	GB00BKTW4R13	Medium risk
WS Guinness Global Energy	Commodity/Natural Resources	GB00B56FW078	Higher risk

The Asset mix

The current asset mix of the new Best of the Best Selection is shown below with last month's figures in brackets:

• Global Fixed Interest 19% (23%)
• UK Fixed Interest 3% (3%)
• Alternatives 12% (5%) - includes absolute return strategies
• North American Equities 8% (11%)
• Emerging Market Equities 3% (0%)
• Asian Equities 0% (4%)
• European Equities 17% (15%)
• Japanese Equities 7% (7%)
• UK Equities 23% (14%)
• Cash 0% (3%)
• China Equities 4% (6%)
• Property Equities 0% (0%)
• Other International Equities 4% (5%)
• Commodities and Energy 0% (4%)

80-20 Investor's outperformance continues

As you know the Best of the Best Selection is the shortlist of the best funds highlighted by our 80-20 Investor algorithm split into high, medium and low-risk categories. This shortlist is updated at the start of every month.

The green line in the chart below (click to enlarge) shows how a portfolio would have performed since inception (in August 2014) if it had been split equally between the Best of the Best Selection funds and then switched each month when each new shortlist was published. I have also charted the performance against that of the average cautious managed fund (blue line) and the average managed fund with up to 85% equity exposure (red line). In reality, the 80-20 Investor's asset allocation typically lies between these two as it usually has 40-60% exposure to equities at any one time. So they provide a good comparison of how fund managers with a similar remit have fared over the same period.

As you can see, since launch in August 2014 the 80-20 Investor BOTB has outperformed the average managed fund and the market.

 

 

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