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 Metals and Mining:  Active Fund Ownership Surges to 7-Year High

Global Metals and Mining:  Reluctantly Grinding Higher

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

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Kenya Metals and mining / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<p>The Steel industry group is building momentum.  The turnaround started in April of last year after a severe drop post the early stage of COVID, but it is far from reaching even the previous highs of late 2018.  Only 55% of the funds in our analysis hold exposure to the Steel industry, 10% lower than in December 2018 and some 40% lower than early 2008.</p><p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/vale-sa-7721577f-6c6a-4536-a829-92551c2bcd7f" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27725:1" rel="noopener">Vale SA (VALE3 BZ)</a> , <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/posco" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:208:1" rel="noopener">Posco (005490 KS)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/kumba-iron-ore-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:25094:1" rel="noopener">Kumba Iron Ore (KIO SJ)</a> are the favoured stocks within the sector, with <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/vale-sa-7721577f-6c6a-4536-a829-92551c2bcd7f" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27725:1" rel="noopener">Vale SA (VALE3 BZ)</a> representing a good size underweight, on average.  All 3 stocks are still someway from previous peaks in ownership, so if this is a cycle similar to the one that lasted between early 2016 and late 2018, EM fund ownership has a lot further to run.</p>

The Steel industry group is building momentum.  The turnaround started in April of last year after a severe drop post the early stage of COVID, but it is far from reaching even the previous highs of late 2018.  Only 55% of the funds in our analysis hold exposure to the Steel industry, 10% lower than in December 2018 and some 40% lower than early 2008.Vale SA (VALE3 BZ) , Posco (005490 KS) and Kumba Iron Ore (KIO SJ) are the favoured stocks within the sector, with Vale SA (VALE3 BZ) representing a good size underweight, on average.  All 3 stocks are still someway from previous peaks in ownership, so if this is a cycle similar to the one that lasted between early 2016 and late 2018, EM fund ownership has a lot further to run.

EM Steel: Gaining Strength