Top trades powering SLI's GARS fund in Q4

Standard Life Investments' £8.7bn Global Absolute Return Strategies fund took profits in one of its major trades amid elevated market volatility over the summer.

Guy Stern, head of multi-asset investment at SLI, said the multi-asset team closed and took profits in its long European equity variance strategy, one of its most significant trades, after it contributed 1.9% of performance to the fund over the three months to 30 September. "As markets sold off you got quite a violent jump in the value of price volatility and it went right through our price target," said Stern. The team continue to employ many of the themes that have helped the fund outperform the IMA Absolute Return sector since launch but are now refining many of their core strategi...