How has Tim Russell's successor fared amid market downturn?

Steve Cordell, who took over the Cazenove UK Absolute Target fund from Tim Russell last year, delivered more than 10% to investors overall even as markets dived.

Cordell (pictured), who took over the £139m fund officially in June last year after Russell's departure, has delivered a positive return of 5.43% to investors since the handover, compared to a 6.19% fall in the FTSE All Share.

Over the whole of 2011, the fund returned 10.73% versus a loss of 3.46% for the index (net of fees).

Cordell said the shorts in the portfolio - predominantly in the mining and industrial metals sectors - drove the fund's outperformance in 2011, with the highly cyclical miners tumbling sharply as the market sold off in the autumn.

"Miners delivered a quarter of our return in 2011, and its fair to say it would have been worth around three quarters of our overall return if Tim was still running it," Cordell said.

Looking into 2012, Cordell said a key call for investors is when to sell out of defensive stocks which have dominated markets.

"We are thinking about which defensives to add to the short book now," he said.

"The premiums they [defensives] are at now is enough, and we have been shifting away from that and going into cylicals."

Following the sell-off in markets across Europe seen at the tail-end of last year, Cordell is also looking at opportunities on the Continent, and he now has around 16% of the fund in European stocks.

"The fund will have 80% in the UK at all times, but I am introducing some European names now. Most of the mid caps in Europe have good liquidity, and that gives you an advantage over the UK mid-cap names, some of which have a liquidity problem," he said.