US asset allocation falls short in 2005

Last year was a great year for active asset allocation. This was because the US, which has a 50% wei...

Last year was a great year for active asset allocation. This was because the US, which has a 50% weighting in the FTSE world, went more or less nowhere. However Japan, which accounts for about 10% of the index, soared. Many smaller markets were equally dynamic. Russia, for example, rose over 80%, but has no weighting at all in the index. Anyone who was overweight in the latter two markets will have been well on their way to beating their benchmarks. How are we faring in the opening months of 2006? Japan's rally has faltered which is unsurprisingly for a mature market. It gained +40% ove...