Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning, Copley Fund Research

Steven Holden

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning

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

<ul>
<li>China, India, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan remain key underweights.  Recovery in Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, and South Africa, correction in Indonesia and Mexico. Developed Markets the largest overweight for EM investors.</li>
<li>Discretionary, Staples, and Industrials the key overweights, Materials and Energy the underweights. Rotation out of Tech moves positioning from overweight to underweight for the first time since 2019.</li>
<li>Ownership climbs for Meituan and SK Hynix, Baidu and Yum China see sharp declines. Downtrends persist in Vale, Telkom Indonesia.  Recovery in SK Telekom, Garanti Bank, highs in Emaar Properties. </li>
</ul>


China, India, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan remain key underweights.  Recovery in Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, and South Africa, correction in Indonesia and Mexico. Developed Markets the largest overweight for EM investors.
Discretionary, Staples, and Industrials the key overweights, Materials and Energy the underweights. Rotation out of Tech moves positioning from overweight to underweight for the first time since 2019.
Ownership climbs for Meituan and SK Hynix, Baidu and Yum China see sharp declines. Downtrends persist in Vale, Telkom Indonesia.  Recovery in SK Telekom, Garanti Bank, highs in Emaar Properties. 


<ul>
<li>We screen for Global companies at the extreme ends of their positioning or momentum ranges among active Global equity funds.</li>
<li>Low Positioning coupled with Negative Momentum:  Intel Corporation and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation.</li>
<li>High Positioning coupled with High Momentum:  Amphenol Corporation and Iberdrola SA </li>
</ul>


We screen for Global companies at the extreme ends of their positioning or momentum ranges among active Global equity funds.
Low Positioning coupled with Negative Momentum:  Intel Corporation and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation.
High Positioning coupled with High Momentum:  Amphenol Corporation and Iberdrola SA 


<ul>
<li>Screening for stocks at the extreme ends of their positioning or momentum ranges among active Asia Ex-Japan equity funds.</li>
<li>High Positioning, Positive Momentum: KE Holdings Ltd, Shriram Finance Limited     </li>
<li>Low Positioning, Negative Momentum: Baidu Inc, BOC Hong Kong Limited    </li>
</ul>


Screening for stocks at the extreme ends of their positioning or momentum ranges among active Asia Ex-Japan equity funds.
High Positioning, Positive Momentum: KE Holdings Ltd, Shriram Finance Limited     
Low Positioning, Negative Momentum: Baidu Inc, BOC Hong Kong Limited    


<ul>
<li>As interest in the Emerging Markets Ex-China space grows, we have sourced data on 30 actively managed strategies that provide filings for us to analyse.</li>
<li>Combined AUM has gradually increased among all strategies to $1.67bn.  Remains a long behind the $17.6bn AUM of the iShares MSCI EM Ex-China ETF</li>
<li>Developed markets and Argentina O/W.  India, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan U/W.  TSMC universally owned, SK Hynix and Samsung prominent.  POSCO unloved.</li>
</ul>


As interest in the Emerging Markets Ex-China space grows, we have sourced data on 30 actively managed strategies that provide filings for us to analyse.
Combined AUM has gradually increased among all strategies to $1.67bn.  Remains a long behind the $17.6bn AUM of the iShares MSCI EM Ex-China ETF
Developed markets and Argentina O/W.  India, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan U/W.  TSMC universally owned, SK Hynix and Samsung prominent.  POSCO unloved.


EM Ex-China: First Look at Active Positioning

<ul>
<li>Active EM Funds delivered an average return of +6.85% in Q3, underperforming the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF by 0.83%, with 38.8% of funds beating the index.</li>
<li>Morgan Stanley Developing Opportunity and Aikya Emerging Markets topped the performance charts for the quarter.</li>
<li>Underweights in Alibaba Group Holding and Meituan, and overweights in SK Hynix and cash holdings hurt performance.</li>
</ul>


Active EM Funds delivered an average return of +6.85% in Q3, underperforming the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF by 0.83%, with 38.8% of funds beating the index.
Morgan Stanley Developing Opportunity and Aikya Emerging Markets topped the performance charts for the quarter.
Underweights in Alibaba Group Holding and Meituan, and overweights in SK Hynix and cash holdings hurt performance.


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.