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

Our Screening Process Methodology for Picking Top Small Cap Stocks in KOSPI in 2025

Korea Small Cap Gem #31: Daesang - A Consistently Profitable F&B Company Run by the Lim Sisters

Lotte Chilsung Beverage - Its Land in Seochogu, Seoul Is More Than 3x Its Market Cap

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>Small cap Emerging Market funds have outperformed their large-cap peers over the past 10 years.</li>
<li>Yet small and midcap exposure decreased to near record levels last year, in spite of managers maintaining an overweight position versus the benchmark.</li>
<li>We screen for well owned and small/midcap stocks that are showing strong momentum among managers.</li>
</ul>


Small cap Emerging Market funds have outperformed their large-cap peers over the past 10 years.
Yet small and midcap exposure decreased to near record levels last year, in spite of managers maintaining an overweight position versus the benchmark.
We screen for well owned and small/midcap stocks that are showing strong momentum among managers.


Active GEM Funds: The Small Cap Effect