The long andshort of it

You cannot spend 'relative pounds' - it is one of those truisms that are levelled against fund manag...

You cannot spend 'relative pounds' - it is one of those truisms that are levelled against fund managers who defend their negative returns by saying they fell by less than their benchmark. More than 80% of the funds we follow lost money for investors over the past year (including our fund). Investors have been switching money into absolute return vehicles in recent years. Is this a sensible reaction to falling markets or will they suffer in the long run? Arguably, the trend towards investing in funds with absolute return objectives only really began to gather pace following the collapse of...