Fantasy fund manager: miners and metals off to flying start

Top portfolio returns

Taking an early lead in this year’s competition is presenter and podcaster Peter Higgins. Peter bet big on commodities with his investments in two mining trusts, Blackrock World Mining and CQS Natural Resources Growth & Income.

Despite the “metals meltdown” at the end of January, the record gains since the start of the year still made commodities the best performing investment trust sector, with the average commodities investment trust gaining 13.8% by 31 January.

All Peter’s trust selections made money: Rockwood Strategic, the UK smaller companies trust, gained 3.1%, while shares in [insert link here: Vietnam Enterprise Investments rose by 1.5%. That gives him a portfolio return of 7.1% and takes his fantasy £10,000 investment to £10,714.

Sitting in second place is last year’s winner, investment journalist Moira O’Neill, with a portfolio gain of 6.2%.

Moira not only has exposure to the best performing sector through her pick of Golden Prospect Precious Metals, she also chose Templeton Emerging Markets which had an excellent month, up 11.9%. Global emerging markets was the second-best performing sector in January, with the average trust rising in value by 9.6%. Emerging markets have been boosted in recent months by a weakening dollar, relatively cheap valuations and a rotation into the sector as investors diversify away from expensive US stocks.

Legendary personal finance journalist Jeff Prestridge is currently in third place, with a very healthy monthly gain of 4.5%.

Top investment trusts

With the record-breaking run in gold and other metals dominating most of January, it is no surprise to see that the best performing trust is invested in metals and miners. Shares in BlackRock World Mining gained the most, up 13.8%. It invests in not just gold but copper and other industrial metals, so was a slightly more insulated from the gold price crash which began on 30 January.

Strong performers came from all over the world. Templeton Emerging Markets, which invests primarily in Asia with big weightings to China, Taiwan and South Korea, was up by 11.9%, and CQS Natural Resources Growth & Income was up by 10.1%, helped by its mining and metals exposure, although it also invests in numerous global energy companies which helped protect it from the worst of the gold and silver sell off.

Other notable performers included Henderson Smaller Companies, the UK small cap trust, which gained 8.4%. Indeed, the UK Smaller Companies sector saw the average trust gain 5.7%, beating all other UK sectors and outperforming small cap sectors in the US, Europe and Asia.

This year’s competition has got off to a flying start, but the bulk of the metals sell off actually took place at the beginning of February, so it will be interesting to see how that impacts the leaderboard next month. Will Peter Higgins’ big bet on commodities backfire? Follow his progress and that of the other contestants on the AIC website every month. 

All data to 31 January 2026. All returns in GBP. The information and trust selections are for entertainment purposes only and do not constitute investment advice or personal recommendations. The opinions expressed are those of the individual writers and not of the AIC. You should not make investment decisions based solely on this information and you should seek independent financial advice to identify investments that suit your own personal circumstances and needs. See our full terms of use.