Thomson says he has learnt from the mistakes he made following the Lehman Brothers crash, and will continue to back defensively minded companies that can perform well in any market. "My only real blemish as manager [of Rathbone Global Opportunities] came in 2008, but in many ways it was the most useful period of my career," he explained. "It showed me that I needed to add more balance and diversity in the portfolio."
"I didn’t have enough companies that could swim against the tide if things took a turn for the worse. I’ve now put this right."
While the manager believes markets could rally in the short-term, he expects setbacks to continue to plague the market over the next few years.
"I think the rollercoaster is set to continue," he said. "Though a lot of economic indicators are improving, I think markets will stay unpredictable for the foreseeable future."
In 2008, Thomson lost investors 39.39 per cent – more than twice as much as his FTSE World benchmark. However, he has followed this disappointing period with first-quartile performance in each of the last three calendar years.
According to FE Analytics, Rathbone Global Opportunities has returned 60.79 per cent in the last three years, outperforming its sector average and benchmark by 34 and 29.6 per cent respectively, with less volatility.
Performance of funds vs sector and benchmark over 3-yrs
Source: FE Analytics
In spite of the huge losses suffered in 2008, the fund is still a top-quartile performer over a five-year period, and since Thomson began running the fund in November 2003.
Significantly, in the three years prior to 6 January 2009, the fund was more volatile than both its sector average and benchmark.
Thomson began adding more defensive names to the portfolio in 2009, which he topped up in May of last year.
"It was around this time that I began to get nervous about cyclicals," he said. "A lot of companies in economically sensitive areas were starting to put out profit warnings, which led me to up my cash weighting to 20 per cent and add exposure to weatherproof names."
This, of course, was well timed by Thomson, and is one of the main reasons why Rathbones Global Opportunities performed better than the majority of its peers during last summer’s volatility.
He points to Swedish Match, which makes flavoured cigars and the chewing tobacco alternative "Snus", as a stock that typifies his all-weather approach.
"This is a company that boasts defensive pricing power as well as innovation," he said. "All of my weatherproof names need to have the ability to deliver good growth, as well as protect against the downside, and this is exactly what Swedish Match does."
"It has delivered some really exciting products since I added it to my portfolio back in 2009, which are now starting to become a cult-hit in the US," he added.
Thomson has no direct exposure to retail banks, peripheral Europe or mining, which he sees as too risky in the current climate. He is also wary of low-growth areas such as utilities and telecoms, even though they performed very well in 2011.