Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning, Copley Fund Research

Steven Holden

Steven Holden is the CEO and Founder of Copley Fund Research, an independent provider of research on equity fund positioning and performance.  Set up in 2014, Copley focuses on global, global emerging market, US, Asia Ex-Japan and China active equity funds, covering over $4tr in assets across 1300 active managers.  The company provides data and analysis on market trends, manager exposures and active fund performance to an audience of investment managers, pension funds and fund selectors worldwide.  Mr Holden’s 14-year investment banking career started in 2000, where he worked for Morgan Stanley as an equity derivative trader focused on emerging markets in London.  Following this, he spent 4 years at Citibank in London and Hong Kong as an Executive Director in derivative sales, focused again on emerging markets.

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning

EM Positioning Review 2017. The Key Drivers of Performance

MSCI Emerging Markets: Another Long-Term Acceleration Phase (Part 1)

Tencent (700 HK): Buy the Dip? Not so Fast…

Copley Fund Research

Copley Fund Research provide research and data on asset allocation among Global and Emerging Market equity funds.  The analysis details absolute and relative positioning across countries, sectors and industries together with highly granular data on single stock and single fund allocations.  The data is updated monthly with time series going back to January 2011.

Global Research - Analysis of 165 prominent Global equity funds, combined AUM $335bn
GEM Research - Analysis of 127 prominent global EM equity funds, combined AUM $250bn

Asset Allocation - Global and GEM Equity

Cross Asset Strategy

Multiple Countries / Cross Asset Strategy

The drivers of returns for EM managers in 2017 were dominated by China and Technology stocks (see <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/em-positioning-review-2017-the-key-drivers-of-performance" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:16938">EM Positioning Review 2017. The Key Drivers of Performance</a>.  As we enter 2018, it’s clear that both will again play a major part in determining success for EM active managers in the year ahead.  A brief summary of key positions below, more details in the attached report.OverweightsCountries:  Russia, IndiaSectors:  Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary, FinancialsCountry/Sector:  India Financials, China Consumer Staples/Discretionary, Russia FinancialsStocks:  <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/24142" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:24142:1">Sberbank of Russia PJSC (SBER LI)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/558" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:558:1">HDFC Bank Limited (HDFCB IN)</a>UnderweightsCountries:  China, Taiwan, South KoreaSectors:  TechnologyCountry/Sector:  China Technology, China Financials, Taiwan FinancialsStocks: <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/26" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26:1">Tencent Holdings Ltd (700 HK)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/787" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:787:1">Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA US)</a>

The drivers of returns for EM managers in 2017 were dominated by China and Technology stocks (see EM Positioning Review 2017. The Key Drivers of Performance.  As we enter 2018, it’s clear that both will again play a major part in determining success for EM active managers in the year ahead.  A brief summary of key positions below, more details in the attached report.OverweightsCountries:  Russia, IndiaSectors:  Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary, FinancialsCountry/Sector:  India Financials, China Consumer Staples/Discretionary, Russia FinancialsStocks:  Sberbank of Russia PJSC (SBER LI), HDFC Bank Limited (HDFCB IN)UnderweightsCountries:  China, Taiwan, South KoreaSectors:  TechnologyCountry/Sector:  China Technology, China Financials, Taiwan FinancialsStocks: Tencent Holdings Ltd (700 HK), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA US)

EM Positioning 2018: The Big Exposures & Risks