Architas' Rock: How we are using alternatives to dampen volatility

‘How we are using alternatives to dampen volatility’

Caspar Rock, chief investment officer at Architas Multi Manager, tells Investment Week why he has been increasing allocations to alternative assets, outlines his key concerns for 2015, and gives his response to the recent spate of fund manager departures.

Are you concerned about the pickup in manager moves over the past 18 months? Looking at the statistics of the ten main [recent] manager moves, if you had stayed with the manager that took over, you would have been better off. It is important to ask questions though: who is the replacement manager and are they good? Why do you hold the fund, and will it still fit in the portfolio after the change of manager? We do not ‘shoot first and ask questions later'. For example, in the case of the Schroder UK Growth trust, there was a change of investment style with the new manager, and this ...