Absolutely no return funds

It's been a good year for investors overall, but not for absolute return funds. What's gone wrong? Max King reports.

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Despite all the economic, political and market concerns, the last year has been pretty good for investors. In the 12 months to the end of July, UK equities returned 5%, global equities 18%, ten-year gilts 14% and ten-year US Treasuries 27%, all in sterling terms. A UK investor with a diversified portfolio should have returned more than 10%.

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Max King
Investment Writer

Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – two directorships are still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. See here for details of current investments held by Max.