Gosling's Grouse: Trust in me

Trust in me

At a recent debate I attended, the motion was simple: "Investment trusts have outlived their usefulness", and was overwhelmingly defeated.

Not surprising, as a good chunk of the audience was directly connected to the investment trusts industry, being either fund managers, board members, or IT brokers – and, as they say, “turkeys don’t vote for Christmas”. Many of the other participants were either professional or personal investors in closed-ended funds. The motion was proposed by David Stevenson in his role as the arch Contrarian – not because he passionately believes in the motion, as he has considerable personal investment in the sector, but he got the debate going nicely. He was opposed convincingly by the IMA’s Dani...