The best performing funds to invest in right now

8 min Read Published: 24 Jan 2024

The best performing funds to invest in right nowIn this article, I list the best performing funds over the last 5 and 10 years. I also highlight the best investment fund managers in the UK. Yet you shouldn’t just focus on past performance over 5 or 10 years alone.

As one of the most frequently quoted investment experts in the UK national press, including The Times and The Telegraph, I will show you how to pick the best performing funds to invest now. That is very different from simply opting for the best performing funds over the last 5 or 10 years.

In fact I would invest in hardly any of the top performing funds over the last 5 or 10 years and neither should you

Funds are inconsistent and you should invest in funds that suit the current economic and investment environment. I will show you how I successfully identify the best funds to invest in with an increased chance of performing well going forward.

First of all...the funds to avoid

Before I move on to the best funds to invest in it's also important to be aware of the funds to avoid. Unfortunately, there are a number of popular funds that should be avoided as they will hit your returns. You can download a useful list of these funds which the research calls 'dog funds'. So feel free to download the guide and use it as a reference point.

Best performing investment funds to invest in

The 10 Top Performing Fund Managers

Fund managers seldom outperform the market in the short term and almost never over the long term. Yet that doesn't mean you should just invest in index trackers or Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). There is still a place for picking the best active investment fund managers. However, the top performing investment fund managers historically won't outperform the market or their peers all of the time. The table in the next section of this article emphasises the impact on the returns of your misplaced loyalty to even the best fund managers. The key is to invest in the best funds when the investment environment suits them and to ditch them when it doesn't, in favour of their peers most likely to outperform. You should NEVER invest your money with a fund manager for the long term.

The table below shows the 10 top performing fund managers over the last five years (up to January 2024). I analysed the returns of thousands of fund managers versus the level of risk they took with investors' money to arrive at the final table. The best investment fund managers do not gamble with investors' money, instead, they invest it strategically to minimise any losses. The Sharpe Ratio is a measure of the level of excess return the fund manager earns for the extra risk he/she has taken. The higher the figure the better.

Fund Manager Main fund managed Sharpe ratio
Peter Rutter / Will Kenney / James Clarke Royal London Global Equity Select 1.05
Bimal Patel / Mike Willans WS Canlife North American/WS Canlife Global Equity 0.79
Aziz Hamzaogullari TM Natixis Loomis Sayles U.S. Equity Leaders 0.77
Albert Tsuei / Peter J. Bye UBS US Growth 0.76
Stephen Kelly / David Shaw AXA Framlington American Growth 0.74
Alison Porter / Graeme Clark / Richard Clode Janus Henderson Global Technology Leaders 0.73
James Davidson Artemis Global Income 0.73
Brad Weafer IFSL Marlborough US Multi-Cap Income 0.70
Joseph Wolfe BlackRock US Dynamic 0.68
Alex Tedder TR in GB Schroder Global Equity 0.65

How to pick the best performing funds to invest in now

The key to successful investing is to pick the funds most likely to outperform their peers in the future. That is not the same as picking the funds or fund managers with the best performance over the last 5 or 10 years.

By way of example if you had picked the 10 best performing funds over 10 years leading up to January 2017 (from the UK All Companies sector) and then invested in them over the next 5 years you'd have been in for a surprise. As the table below shows, over the next 5 years you would have been better off investing in alternative funds within the same sector.

Fund Fund performance rank 2007 to 2017 (out of 134) Fund performance rank 2017 to 2022 (out of 178)
Slater Growth 1 3
Liontrust Special Situations 2 20
IFSL Marlborough Special Situations 3 8
Royal London UK Mid-Cap Growth 4 22
ASI UK Unconstrained Equity 5 90
FTF Franklin UK Mid Cap 6 25
Unicorn Outstanding British Companies 7 153
BMO UK Mid-Cap 8 152
Schroder UK Opportunities 9 168
Schroder Recovery 10 123

So how can you choose the best funds to invest in right now? The world of fund management brainwashes investors into thinking that you have to buy and hold a fund manager or fund. Yet why should you? The evidence overwhelmingly shows that no fund manager outperforms in every market condition. The fact that a fund manager or fund might top a table of the best performing managers (or funds) over 5 years is just a coincidence of the timeframe used. Use another timeframe (as shown above) and they won't come anywhere near the top. This is true of every fund, even the most popular investment funds. 

So if you can't rely on long term performance tables to pick funds that are more likely to perform well in the future then how can you do it?

The key to investing is to choose the best funds to invest in for the current environment and to use a process that screens out the noise and emotional headlines and focuses on the fundamentals. It's a very simple process that I explain in a short email series How to become a successful DIY investor. In the emails I show you:

  • The most important investment lesson you will ever learn based on over 100 years of research and experience
  • The simple and easy to use tool that will help you beat the market
  • The investment process fund managers want to keep to themselves.
  • How to know which funds to buy and which to sell, in minutes.

I have used the technique to help investors outperform the market and professional fund managers using only a few minutes a month, using 80-20 Investor. You can read their reviews of 80-20 Investor as well as see the performance in the widget at the foot of this article. I also successfully run £50,000 of my own money live on the site to show how simple it is. 80-20 Investor helps you to simply decide the funds to invest in via your existing fund platform. Find out more about how the service works and take advantage of a 30 day FREE trial.

Invest with confidence

Our 80-20 Investor DIY investor service provides:

  • Guidance on investing your own money
  • Complete transparency
  • Helpful community of DIY investors
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The top-performing funds over 5 years and 10 years

The tables below show the best performing funds to invest in over 5 years and 10 years. All these funds can be held in a Stocks and Shares ISA or a Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP). The percentage return shown is the total return figures which assumes all income and dividends are reinvested. The funds are grouped by fund sector so you can see the best performing funds for the most popular fund sectors.

While the funds below would have been the best funds to invest in over the last 10 years and 5 years, within their respective sectors, there is no evidence that they will continue to perform well as I explained earlier. In fact, taking such a long term view masks long periods of underperformance as I explained in the section above, titled How to pick the best performing funds to invest in now.

The data below shows the 5 and 10 year performance periods up to November 2023.

The top-performing funds over 10 years

Asia Pacific Excluding Japan

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Baillie Gifford Pacific 147.19
Jupiter Merian Asia Pacific 138.89
Invesco Asian (UK) 136.39
Schroder Asian Alpha Plus 122.22
Fidelity Sustainable Asia Equity 121.71
Average 92.82

Europe Excluding UK

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
IFSL Marlborough European Special Situations 194.28
Liontrust European Dynamic 192.78
Man GLG Continental European Growth 187.28
BlackRock Continental European 182.66
BlackRock European Dynamic 172.4
Average 94.37

Japan

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
M&G Japan Smaller Companies 194.77
Fidelity Japan 166.82
WS Morant Wright Nippon Yield 159.52
Janus Henderson Japan Opportunities 148.61
M&G Japan 146.77
Average 110.03

Mixed Investment 0%-35% Shares

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Royal London Sustainable Managed Growth Trust 53.61
7IM Income Portfolio 44.81
BlackRock Consensus 35 43.90
Omnis Investments Ltd Omnis Managed Cautious 41.08
L&G Mixed Investment 0-35% 38.72
Average 24.27

Mixed Investment 20%-60% Shares

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Royal London Sustainable Diversified Trust 98.92
Artemis Monthly Distribution 81.19
AXA Global Sustainable Distribution 77.39
Rathbone Active Income and Growth Fund 68.30
Barclays Wealth Global Markets 3 65.21
Average 37.17

Mixed Investment 40%-85% Shares

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Royal London Sustainable World Trust 176.15
COIF Charities Investment 134.5
Orbis Global Balanced 130.54
Liontrust Sustainable Future Managed 114.81
Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity 114.24
Average 61.68

North America

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Thesis TM Natixis Loomis Sayles U.S. Equity Leaders 381.39
Ninety One American Franchise 349.49
UBS US Growth 348.83
AXA Framlington American Growth 334.52
Baillie Gifford American 334.47
Average 230.86

Sterling Corporate Bond

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Schroder Sterling Corporate Bond 49.40
Royal London Corporate Bond 41.54
Royal London Sterling Credit 38.20
L&G Active Short Dated Sterling Corporate Bond 32.35
BlackRock Corporate Bond 32.32
Average 22.99

Sterling High Yield

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Schroder High Yield Opportunities 63.63
abrdn High Yield Bond 43.71
Invesco High Yield (UK) 41.69
AXA Global High Yield 39.52
IFSL Marlborough High Yield Fixed Interest 37.28
Average 33.19

Sterling Strategic Bond

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
AXA Framlington Managed Income 55.64
Close Sustainable Select Fixed Income Fund 49.28
Invesco Monthly Income Plus (UK) 44.36
Schroder Strategic Bond 42.23
Artemis High Income 40.37
Average 23.72

UK All Companies

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Slater Recovery 130.49
Royal London Sustainable Leaders Trust 129.66
WS Evenlode Income 119.13
Artemis SmartGARP UK Equity 108.02
Liontrust Special Situations 103.63
Average 46.82

UK Smaller Companies

Fund 10 Year Fund Performance %
Liontrust UK Smaller Companies 134.80
Fidelity UK Smaller Companies 128.27
ES R&M UK Listed Smaller Companies 99.14
WS Amati UK Listed Smaller Companies 94.53
WS Gresham House UK Micro Cap 94.40
Average 57.30

The top-performing funds over 5 years

Asia Pacific Excluding Japan

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Baillie Gifford Pacific 52.56
Fidelity Asia Pacific Opportunities 46.34
Jupiter Asian Income 45.95
BNY Mellon Asian Opportunities 41.52
iShares Pacific ex Japan Equity Index (UK) 37.30
Average 21.37

Europe Excluding UK

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Liontrust European Dynamic 100.28
BlackRock Continental European 98.87
BlackRock European Dynamic 83.60
SVM Continental Europe 73.76
WS Ardtur Continental European 73.36
Average 47.73

Japan

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Fidelity Japan 87.67
M&G Japan Smaller Companies 64.00
CT Japan 60.74
Janus Henderson Japan Opportunities 51.08
WS Morant Wright Nippon Yield 50.00
Average 37.29

Mixed Investment 0%-35% Shares

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
VT Chelsea Managed Cautious Growth 23.15
7IM Income Portfolio 20.54
SJP Conservative International Growth 18.60
Royal London Sustainable Managed Growth Trust 16.97
True Potential Investments True Potential Close Brothers Cautious Income 16.92
Average 7.41

Mixed Investment 20%-60% Shares

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Royal London Sustainable Diversified Trust 38.79
L&G Future World Global Opportunities 35.86
VT Chelsea Managed Monthly Income 34.64
Barclays Wealth Global Markets 3 30.73
Schroder MM Diversity 29.12
Average 14.58

Mixed Investment 40%-85% Shares 

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Royal London Sustainable World Trust 64.76
COIF Charities Investment 55.78
Thesis Juniper 53.05
Janus Henderson Global Responsible Managed 50.14
Orbis Global Balanced 49.89
Average 26.98

North America

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Thesis TM Natixis Loomis Sayles U.S. Equity Leaders 118.05
UBS US Growth 116.99
AXA Framlington American Growth 116.82
Ninety One American Franchise 108.06
Royal London US Growth Trust 105.16
Average 83.39

Sterling Corporate Bond

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Schroder Sterling Corporate Bond 16.60
M&G Short Dated Corporate Bond 12.31
Royal London Corporate Bond 10.62
M&G Strategic Corporate Bond 9.20
L&G Active Short Dated Sterling Corporate Bond 8.42
Average 2.67

Sterling High Yield

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Schroder High Yield Opportunities 25.76
M&G Global Floating Rate High Yield 24.08
Invesco High Yield (UK) 23.84
abrdn High Yield Bond 20.85
IFSL Marlborough High Yield Fixed Interest 19.31
Average 16.32

Sterling Strategic Bond

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Jupiter Monthly Income Bond 29.98
Schroder Strategic Bond 27.50
L&G Strategic Bond 25.32
Invesco Monthly Income Plus (UK) 24.30
BNY Mellon Inflation Linked Corporate Bond 21.72
Average 8.04

UK All Companies

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Artemis UK Select 61.32
Artemis SmartGARP UK Equity 53.33
Invesco UK Opportunities (UK) 50.14
Royal London Sustainable Leaders Trust 50.03
MI MI Chelverton UK Equity Growth 47.95
Average 21.11

UK Smaller Companies

Fund 5 Year Fund Performance %
Fidelity UK Smaller Companies 59.79
Liontrust UK Micro Cap 57.16
VT Teviot UK Smaller Companies 52.98
ES R&M UK Listed Smaller Companies 35.76
Liontrust UK Smaller Companies 34.80
Average 15.55%