On trackers

With much fanfare, in the Scottish press at least, Alliance Trust made it into the FTSE 100 earlier ...

With much fanfare, in the Scottish press at least, Alliance Trust made it into the FTSE 100 earlier this month. For a brief moment I felt a bit daft for selling the last of our holding in November last year when the shares were on a 17% discount. The gyrations in markets have had a muted effect on Alliance, which, with its new absolute return benchmark, has been moving money away from equity markets. It worked its way to the top of the FTSE 100 reserve list just as Kelda's takeover completed. As FTSE 100 tracker funds bought shares, Alliance's discount narrowed, dipping below 13% at...