2017 was a strong year for the 60 guru-inspired investment strategies tracked by Stockopedia - but they’ve come under pressure in the first half of 2018. After last year’s benign market conditions, uncertainty set in during February and March. On reflection it barely registered as a correction, yet the sense of unease at the time was very real. It seems many investors, analysts and commentators are expecting a significant drop sooner rather than later - but what we got in February wasn’t it.
Last year it was growth and momentum that were the big investment style winners. Even value strategies started to fire again after a long spell on the sidelines. That was particularly driven by rising commodity prices pushing up the valuations of a lot of mining and energy stocks. From a market perspective, it was smaller shares and small-cap indices that led the way in 2017.
In 2018, some of those trends have continued. The Alternative Investment Market hit a new five-year high in June. Meanwhile, the index of the largest 100 AIM stocks rose by 17.5 percent during the first six months. AIM has historically been quite sensitive to investor confidence, so on the current evidence it appears that sentiment is still pretty upbeat.
Index / Strategy Composite | H1 2018 | 12 Months Performance |
+0.6pc | +3.9pc | |
-0.8pc | +4.0pc | |
+0.5pc | +7.7pc | |
-1.5pc | +3.6pc | |
+5.1pc | +17.5pc | |
+3.1pc | +12.2pc | |
+1.7pc | +12.3pc | |
-3.9pc | -0.7pc | |
Guru Strategy Composite | +2.4pc | +13.0pc |
+2.2pc | +13.7pc | |
+5.9pc | +20.5pc | |
+10.5pc | +24.2pc | |
+1.6pc | +11.2pc | |
-4.3pc | +8.8pc | |
+0.4pc | +2.3pc |
About the Guru Strategies
We’re now in the seventh year of tracking the Guru Strategies in the UK, with slightly less history for Europe and the States. Over time, these models have become a useful way of seeing what’s working in the market, and how different styles react to different conditions.
Not only do they show what’s working, but they also show when trends start to change. They cover a range of approaches used by some of the world’s best known investors. Each one is classified under a specific style - ranging from Quality, Growth, Value, Bargain, Income and Momentum.
In terms of the mechanics, each strategy has its own set of rules, and we constantly screen the market for…
