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

Global Fund Positioning Update:  Japan Lows, US Highs, UK Value Rotation, Tencent & Alibaba Exit

Fast Retailing: Additional 20% Downside Is Possible As Growth Breaks Down in Uniqlo International

Battle Lines Drawn As BABA Builds Out First/Last-Mile Capacity; But Who Will Fund 75+ Bn CNY CapEx?

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)

Japan Consumer discretionary / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Among active Global managers, Japan Consumer Discretionary stocks are the 3rd largest country/sector holding in the Asia region.  Average fund weights sit behind Taiwan Tech and Japan Industrials at 1.07%, with 57.1% of the 380 funds in our analysis invested in the sector with combined AUM of $9.18bn.Measured against other Asian country/sectors, changes in fund ownership have been positive and among the highest across all measures over the last 6-months.  Against a backdrop of plummeting exposure in China Consumer Discretionary stocks, average weights, funds invested, cash flows and the balance of buyers vs sellers were all positive for Japan Consumer Discretionary stocks.  Infact, across most ownership metrics, Japan Consumer Discretionary stocks have overtaken, or at least closed to gap to China Consumer Discretionary stocks since the 'Tech Crackdown' in October of 2020.  We can see evidence of this rotation on a fund level, with Aberdeen's Global Unconstrained Fund, LBPAM's Actions Monde and BNY Mellon's Global Opportunities Fund examples of managers rotating from China Consumer Discretionary and into Japan since October 2020.Analysis taken from our Global research, covering 380 active Global strategies with combined AUM of $1.1bn

Among active Global managers, Japan Consumer Discretionary stocks are the 3rd largest country/sector holding in the Asia region.  Average fund weights sit behind Taiwan Tech and Japan Industrials at 1.07%, with 57.1% of the 380 funds in our analysis invested in the sector with combined AUM of $9.18bn.Measured against other Asian country/sectors, changes in fund ownership have been positive and among the highest across all measures over the last 6-months.  Against a backdrop of plummeting exposure in China Consumer Discretionary stocks, average weights, funds invested, cash flows and the balance of buyers vs sellers were all positive for Japan Consumer Discretionary stocks.  Infact, across most ownership metrics, Japan Consumer Discretionary stocks have overtaken, or at least closed to gap to China Consumer Discretionary stocks since the 'Tech Crackdown' in October of 2020.  We can see evidence of this rotation on a fund level, with Aberdeen's Global Unconstrained Fund, LBPAM's Actions Monde and BNY Mellon's Global Opportunities Fund examples of managers rotating from China Consumer Discretionary and into Japan since October 2020.Analysis taken from our Global research, covering 380 active Global strategies with combined AUM of $1.1bn

Japan Consumer Discretionary:  Benefiting from China's Downfall