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Analysis: The Tradex Global Equity Fund is only available to current and former public service employees and their families.
This global equity fund is managed by Barry Olliff of the City of London Investment Plc. Mr. Olliff conducts a top down review of the various global markets to determine which have the best potential rate of return. Once this is established, he gains that investment exposure through a mix of closed end funds and exchange traded funds.
When reviewing closed end funds, Mr. Olliff seeks out those that are trading at a discount to the net asset value (NAV), which has the potential for additional return if the gap between the trading price and the NAV narrows.
The manager has a go anywhere mandate and may invest up to 20% in emerging markets and may also invest up to 25% of the fund in individual Canadian stocks. Country exposure is capped at 35% of the fund, except for the U.S, where exposure can be higher.
As of December 31, the fund was invested 44% in the U.S., 25% in developed Europe and 14% in developed Asia. The Fund has 12% invested in the emerging markets.
Despite posting a five year loss of 5.37%, the performance of the fund has been decent on a relative basis. More often than not, this fund has outpaced the majority of its peer group. The Fund has been more volatile than both the index and its category average.
The MER of the fund is 2.76%, which is high when compared to other global equity funds.
All in, this isn’t a bad offering for public service employees. Considering the fund’s exposure to Europeand the emerging markets, we expect that the volatility of the fund will remain high for the near term. For those looking to reduce volatility, we would suggest Ivy Foreign Equity, Renaissance Global Markets or the Mutual Discovery Fund.