Threadneedle's Cobon bucks the trend with tactical play on sterling

Threadneedle's head of interest rates and currency Matthew Cobon has initiated a tactical ‘long sterling' trade in the view the currency's recent slump is overdone.

The manager (pictured) opened the position within his £403m Absolute Return Bond fund on 1 February after the pound fell 6% against the euro and neared a six-month low against the dollar in January. Fund managers and investment bank analysts have been united in their negative views on sterling’s prospects for 2013, but Cobon is taking the other side of the trade in the short term. “We trade sterling quite tactically. It has been beaten up due to the unwinding of safe haven trades and the improvement in the euro. When the euro rose to 0.87 against sterling, we sold EUR/GBP on 1 Februar...