Fensham Howes in the press - Financial Times
28th December 2008
The Financial Times recently published the following letter written by Colin Barrett, Principal at Fensham Howes.
Colin was writing in response to an article written by Jason Britton, Chief Executive at boutique "fund of fund" manager T.Bailey.
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Unfavourable odds for consistently beating the All-Share
Published: December 27 2008 02:00 | Last updated: December 27 2008 02:00
From Mr Colin Barrett.
Sir,
In his piece “Trackers are Crackers” (Money, December 13/14) Jason Britton asserts that while it would have been very hard to pick one of the nine (out of 177) actively managed funds that have outperformed the FTSE All-Share since March 2000, one would have had a “much better chance” of selecting one of the 89 (out of 177) that outperformed from March 2000 to March 2003; one of the 78 (out of 236) that outperformed from March 2003 to July 2007; and one of the 71 (out of 317) that have outperformed from July 2007 to November 2008.
So the overall chance of me achieving a return consistently above the FTSE All-Share during the whole period by picking “successful” active fund managers from this pool? A shade over 3.5 per cent – not quite the “much better” I was hoping for.
Colin Barrett,
Harrogate,
North Yorks, UK
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