AR funds investing in cash will make palatable returns

ON ASSET ALLOCATION

Charles Stanley's Shauna Bevan discusses why she has increased exposure to absolute return funds and equities.

2010 was the year the phrase risk-on/risk-off became shorthand for commentators trying to describe an environment in which investors appeared to find it difficult to make up their minds. By the end of the year, the global economy was in recovery mode and the asset class of choice was equities. However, a remarkable 7.09% return for the FTSE World index has gobbled up some of the value investors could claim to have identified at the beginning of that month. So far, the same index has declined by 0.51%. Perhaps investors are starting to question how sustainable the recovery can be. Forecas...