Short positions pay off for Cazenove's Marriage

Cazenove's Paul Marriage said the short positions in his Absolute UK Dynamic fund have helped limit the effects of the August sell-off but warned September could be "similarly tough".

Marriage, who also runs the UK Smaller Companies fund at Cazenove, acknowledged his funds have not been completely immune to the sell-off and said he has been buying on weakness. Marriage’s outperformance has propelled his funds to the top of their respective IMA sectors over one year, with the longer-running smaller companies fund also top quartile over three years. UK Smaller Companies has returned 35.6% in the year to 24 August against a sector average of 15.1%, according to FE, with Absolute UK Dynamic returning 21.9% versus an absolute return sector average of 2%. The manager sai...