Schroders' Brookes: It's been no diamond year, but we will be proved right

Schroders' multi-manager Marcus Brookes has underperformed this year across his Multi-Manager Diversity strategies, but says his investment thesis will be proved correct in time.

Brookes (pictured) attributes the drop in performance to his bearish view on bonds, especially UK gilts. Unexpectedly, core sovereign debt has produced some of the strongest returns this year. The multi-manager also has over a third of his portfolios in cash, as well as holding some managers with extremely high cash allocations, such as J.P. Morgan's bond veteran Bill Eigan. That means, in some cases, Brookes and co-manager Robin Mcdonald's cash holding is closer to the 40% mark. "We have not had a diamond year, because we are pretty bearish on bonds, and they have just gone up thi...