Traditionally seen as a safe haven in times of market volatility, multi-asset funds (which mix equities, bonds and other assets) saw their resilience severely tested in the first quarter of this year. Our cover story (pages 6-8) examines how multi-asset funds are impacted when markets are hit by stormy conditions.
Despite this year’s challenging trading conditions, inflows into multi-asset funds and strategies have nevertheless accelerated. In investors’ eyes, the opportunity to diversify risk and the promise of investment gains, combined with reduced volatility, continue to prove attractive.
Another article examines some of the reasons why, despite some high-profile casualties in recent years, multi-asset funds (or balanced funds, as they used to be known) are likely to retain their popularity for the forseeable future.
Meanwhile, the third feature in this special report (pages 10-12) examines the growing popularity of factor-based multi-asset funds – which seek to identify and benefit from systematic characteristics or factors that make assets outperform – and asks whether they could eventually present a challenge to traditional funds.
Mark Latham, Deputy Editor, Funds Europe
©2018 funds europe
