Why absolute returns?

The challenges investors face in achieving their long-term objectives have grown as high correlation becomes an ever more entrenched feature of the investment landscape. By seeking to reduce unrewarded risk, while continuing to target consistently positive returns, the absolute return approach is designed to match the needs of investors both in the short and long term.

Absolute return funds are able to do this by applying a diverse and evolving range of investment strategies that when fully assembled aim to generate positive returns whatever the market conditions. These strategies are specifically chosen to work well together so that if an individual strategy produces a negative return it can be expected to be compensated for by positive returns from other strategies.

With a typically broad remit, the breadth of opportunity means that managers can respond quickly to changing conditions and avoid assets that become correlated. It also moves the fund management focus to delivering maximum risk-adjusted rewards; because the return target is fixed a successful manager seeks to deliver it with as little risk as possible.