Absolute return funds have remained popular with investors this year after a host of political and economic headwinds dented sentiment, although the sector has faced criticism from those who believe they do not always achieve what they set out to do.
While past performance is no guide to future returns, we looked across the members of the sector to see which have been able to make a positive return in each of the full calendar years since 2011. This period covers a range of conditions – the eurozone debt crisis falls of 2011, the bull years of 2012 and 2013, and the tough 2014 and 2015.
Performance of sector since 1 Jan 2011
Source: FE Analytics
We found that only eight funds managed to stay in positive territory in each of the past five years and are still up over 2016 to date following the uncertainty created by the UK’s referendum on its European Union membership and the US presidential election.
In the following gallery-style article, we reveal exactly which funds achieved this – ranked in reverse order of their total return over the whole period.
