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City’s Calder plans to boost US equity holdings
City Asset Management’s James Calder has said he is aiming to up his US equities weighting in his retail discretionary portfolios.
Mr Calder said he is currently in the process of deciding which funds to use to boost his US weighting by 50 per cent in his £4m Elite Cam Balanced Discretionary Portfolio and £3.6m Elite Cam Cautious Discretionary Portfolio funds.
The manager said he was aiming to have 12 per cent in the US in Balanced, from its current 8 per cent weighting, and 7 per cent in Cautious compared with its current weighting of 5 per cent.
“This view of the US is becoming a consensus trade but these can be right,” he said. “The US economy is looking much better than its other developed counterparts with the unemployment rate coming down and US company balance sheets in a good state.”
In fixed income, Mr Calder said he is sticking with Legal & General Investments’ £1.5bn Dynamic Bond fund manager Richard Hodges in spite of a tough 2011.
The vehicle ranks in the second quartile over three years to January 20 according to Morningstar but over one year has fallen to fourth quartile with a 2.1 per cent loss compared with the IMA Strategic Bond sector’s average gain of 4 per cent.
“We have held Richard’s funds since we launched our funds and while performance was uncharacteristically poor last year we are still happy to hold the fund,” he said.
“Some portfolios don’t work over the whole cycle and the fund had a poor 2011 but we’re happy to back it for 2012.”
