Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning, Copley Fund Research

Steven Holden

Steven Holden is the CEO and Founder of Copley Fund Research, an independent provider of research on equity fund positioning and performance.  Set up in 2014, Copley focuses on global, global emerging market, US, Asia Ex-Japan and China active equity funds, covering over $4tr in assets across 1300 active managers.  The company provides data and analysis on market trends, manager exposures and active fund performance to an audience of investment managers, pension funds and fund selectors worldwide.  Mr Holden’s 14-year investment banking career started in 2000, where he worked for Morgan Stanley as an equity derivative trader focused on emerging markets in London.  Following this, he spent 4 years at Citibank in London and Hong Kong as an Executive Director in derivative sales, focused again on emerging markets.

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning

Pan-Asia Radar: What's Outperforming MSCI AC Asia Ex-JP (AAXJ US), What's Crowding | Mar 30–Apr 3

Pan-Asia Radar: What's Outperforming MSCI AC Asia Ex-JP (AAXJ US), What's Crowding | Apr 6–Apr 10

Pan-Asia Radar: What's Outperforming MSCI AC Asia Ex-JP (AAXJ US), What's Crowding | Apr 13–Apr 17

A Strong Year for Emerging Markets as Tech, Taiwan & Korea Drive Record Returns

Copley Fund Research

Copley Fund Research provide research and data on asset allocation among Global and Emerging Market equity funds.  The analysis details absolute and relative positioning across countries, sectors and industries together with highly granular data on single stock and single fund allocations.  The data is updated monthly with time series going back to January 2011.

Global Research - Analysis of 165 prominent Global equity funds, combined AUM $335bn
GEM Research - Analysis of 127 prominent global EM equity funds, combined AUM $250bn

Asset Allocation - Global and GEM Equity

Cross Asset Strategy

Multiple Countries / Cross Asset Strategy

<ul>
<li>Asia ex-Japan funds returned 29.4% in 2025, with a tight dispersion and a few standout performers above 40%.</li>
<li>Tech and North Asia dominated returns, while India's flat performance created significant fund-level differentiation.</li>
<li>Relative performance was shaped by stock selection in Korea and Taiwan, offset by cash drag and missteps in India and Indonesia.</li>
</ul>


Asia ex-Japan funds returned 29.4% in 2025, with a tight dispersion and a few standout performers above 40%.
Tech and North Asia dominated returns, while India's flat performance created significant fund-level differentiation.
Relative performance was shaped by stock selection in Korea and Taiwan, offset by cash drag and missteps in India and Indonesia.


iShares MSCI All Country Asia ex-Japan ETF (AAXJ US)

iShares MSCI All Country Asia ex-Japan ETF

TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing) (2330 TT)

TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing)

A High-Return Year for Asia Ex-Japan: What Drove Performance?