Buffett wisdom and hedge-fund timing

published 31 October 2005

Ashley Willing, who runs the £260m Gartmore UK Focus Fund jointly with Simon King, has a refreshingly commonsense approach to investing, says Phil David in the FT. Rather like Warren Buffett, "if he doesn't understand it, he doesn't invest in it". He keeps his portfolios small to ensure he knows his firms well, avoids following investing fads, and steers clear of derivatives: "I haven't a clue how they work".

Yet Willing nevertheless pursues an aggressively active investment strategy. Why? Because "buy and hold is a very inefficient way to invest". Stocks don't progress in a "linear fashion", so hanging on to them as if they do is pointless. Willing's answer to this is constantly to change his holdings within a basic three-pronged strategy for stock-picking. He holds long-term plays, short-term plays and maintains positions in four major sectors (oils, banks, pharmaceuticals and telecoms). The long-term picks are probably the easiest to find, he says, as there are so few good firms to choose form. A particular favourite, however, is Pay-TV, where Willing predicts constant growth, no matter what the economy does. He also likes the leisure and retail sectors, with BskyB, Compass and GUS being top picks.

Although he dislikes derivatives as overly complex, Willing does run two hedge funds in addition to the UK Focus Fund - and he thinks this gives him an edge when it comes to timing the market. "Sometimes the biggest signal comes from the short side of a hedge fund. In a hedge fund, you can't afford to let a share go down, pat yourself on the back and watch it go all the way up again." In other words, Willing likes to get the best of both worlds, by gaining when the price of a shorted stock drops in his hedge fund, and then gaining again by buying the same stock for his long fund as it bounces back