Barry Norris: My three-year epiphany that led to this year's double-digit gains

Absolute Return fund up 22.6% YTD

Looking beyond stockpicking and focusing more on portfolio management, as well as holding a more diversified portfolio of smaller positions in the short book, means Argonaut's Barry Norris is confident his Absolute Return fund will outperform both through the current coronavirus pandemic and over the next market cycle.

The FP Argonaut Absolute Return fund, which Norris has managed since 2009, is up 22.6% year-to-date at time of writing (23 March), having more than doubled the second-best performing fund in the IA Targeted Absolute Return sector over this time frame. As a point of comparison, the MSCI World and FTSE 100 indices are down 18.1% and 30.4% respectively, according to data from FE fundinfo. "If you look at my returns year to date, you might just think I made a massive punt on the market going down. But actually we have been up during 80% of the days this year, which means we have been maki...