Fantasy fund manager: portfolios struggle in a volatile month for markets

Top portfolio returns 

Jeff Prestridge is holding on to his lead despite his best performing holding, Seraphim Space, falling by a whopping 24.9% in June. Still, the trust is still up 56.5% since the start of the year. Elsewhere in Jeff’s portfolio, market jitters took their toll and his portfolio fell by a total of 7.4% last month. However, Jeff’s portfolio is still comfortably up since the start of the year, generating a gain of £2,294 on his fantasy £10,000 investment. 

Hot on Jeff’s heels is first-time investor Lynne Beattie, who eked out a 0.4% gain last month across her portfolio, and is now less than £250 behind Jeff with a gain of £2,052 on her notional £10,000. That equates to a 20.5% return since the start of the year. Her fantasy £10,000 is now worth £12,052.

Gavin Lumsden, Head of News at QuotedData, was allowed to choose a new trust when the best performer in his portfolio, Augmentum Fintech, was acquired by a private equity firm in May. His notional investment in the trust was valued at £3,050, which he then reinvested into Herald Investment Trust, the global smaller companies fund run by high-flying fund manager Katie Potts. Unfortunately, Herald saw its share price fall 4.7% in June, so Gavin remains at the foot of the table for the time being.

Freelance personal finance journalist Holly Mead saw the biggest portfolio gain over the past month, with her trusts creeping up by a total of 1.1% in a what was a tough month for markets.

Top investment trusts so far this year 

Some of our contestants have had the foresight, good judgement or plain good luck to select some spectacularly high performing trusts this year.

The best performer at the halfway stage is Seraphim Space, which has returned 56.5% in the first half of the year and is largely responsible for Jeff Prestridge leading the competition. 

It is closely followed by Holly Mead’s pick of Polar Capital Technology, which is up by 53.7% and then Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust, which has gained 42.9%. Allianz Technology Trust in Lynn Beattie’s portfolio is up 42.7% and then comes Schroder Asian Total Return, again in Lynn Beattie’s portfolio, which is up 27.8%. 

Lynn selected her trusts by “googling and looking on the AIC’s website”, which goes to show that a lack of experience does not mean you can’t do some thorough research and pick strong performing investments. Of course it should be remembered that investing is about the long term, so a good six months is no indication of what her portfolio might do in the coming five to ten years. For the purposes of this competition, however, things are looking good for Lynn. Could she even catch up with Jeff? Come back next month and find out!