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

Financials in Focus: QBE - The Long Hangover

Gravity Works As WeWork Doesn't; Now Plan B

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

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Australia Financials / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Australian Financial stocks are a lightly held.  Just 17% of the global funds in our analysis hold a position, with managers running a net underweight for the last decade.  They remain the 5th largest country/sector underweight globally.However the decline has started to reverse.  Buying in stocks such as <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/australia-and-new-zealand-banking-group-anz" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:443:1" rel="noopener">Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) (ANZ AU)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/zip-co-ltd-3708706d-4978-4e29-acbc-d9702b971da9" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:29126:1" rel="noopener">Zip Co Ltd (Z1P AU)</a> has placed active fund ownership on an upward trajectory for the first time in 5-years.Compared to Financials positioning in other countries, Australian Financials are lightly held, especially compared to US and India Financials which saw a strong resurgence post COVID.  If we add in to the mix the relatively large underweight and the fact that there is a Value rotation underway, it wouldn't be out of the question to expect Australian Financials to capture further inflows.

Australian Financial stocks are a lightly held.  Just 17% of the global funds in our analysis hold a position, with managers running a net underweight for the last decade.  They remain the 5th largest country/sector underweight globally.However the decline has started to reverse.  Buying in stocks such as Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) (ANZ AU) and Zip Co Ltd (Z1P AU) has placed active fund ownership on an upward trajectory for the first time in 5-years.Compared to Financials positioning in other countries, Australian Financials are lightly held, especially compared to US and India Financials which saw a strong resurgence post COVID.  If we add in to the mix the relatively large underweight and the fact that there is a Value rotation underway, it wouldn't be out of the question to expect Australian Financials to capture further inflows.

Australian Financials:  Big Underweight (Finally) Finding Some Love?