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 Tech:  Fund Allocations Hit All-Time High

Int'l Compass: Overweight EM; Actionable Themes in Europe and Japan

China Online Gaming: Structural Shifts Reinforce Tencent and Netease. Tencent Remains Our Top Pick

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

<p>Global Emerging Market fund managers are, on average, underweight technology stocks.  In fact, though tech positioning among EM managers is at its highest in absolute terms, it is at its lowest in relative terms when measured against the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.  In this report, we analyse the level to which this record tech underweight has affected average fund performance this year, whilst also highlighting the sectors that have contributed positively.  On a stock level, underweights in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/26" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26:1">Tencent Holdings Ltd (700 HK)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/787" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:787:1">Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA US)</a> have caused the most pain, yet this isn't the case for all managers.  Baillie Gifford and Hermes stand out as early allocators of tech, long before it became the dominant force it is today.</p>

Global Emerging Market fund managers are, on average, underweight technology stocks.  In fact, though tech positioning among EM managers is at its highest in absolute terms, it is at its lowest in relative terms when measured against the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.  In this report, we analyse the level to which this record tech underweight has affected average fund performance this year, whilst also highlighting the sectors that have contributed positively.  On a stock level, underweights in Tencent Holdings Ltd (700 HK) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA US) have caused the most pain, yet this isn't the case for all managers.  Baillie Gifford and Hermes stand out as early allocators of tech, long before it became the dominant force it is today.

General Interface Solution Holding (6456 TT)

EM Tech: The Pain Trade Of 2017