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Its Not Harry

Comment and opinion for retail investors in the UK

Is the UK in Europe for investors? Depends where you are sitting!

19th June 2018 by Mark Potter Leave a Comment

Rant time:

I read a short article from a respected (US based but strong in the UK) research firm this morning suggesting European stocks were cheap, relatively (to what? the US as it turned out).  This is the sort of new item that gets recycled into the finance sections of the national media without too much, if any, further research.

I was curious to check out a specific fund listed as a good way of exploiting this apparent opportunity.  The fund (which I will not name as I don’t see it as being in any way useful to my readers) is effectively US run, although based notionally in Dublin.  It has 30% of its holdings in the UK and incidentally a surprisingly big block of supermarket stocks.

You need to know the perspective of your analysts and fund managers:  to a US investor, the UK is just part of the European investment universe.  You don’t need telling why that might not be the viewpoint of a Brit!

Have no doubt:  geographically filtered funds are best managed by people who come from, or who have at least absorbed over many years the culture of the market they are investing in.

Filed Under: Rants

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