Ruffer trust duo issue warning after best month for returns since 2008

The managers of the Ruffer investment trust fear the portfolio's strong performance in January may be a sign assets are correlated and will all plummet at the same time in a down market.

January saw the company produce a monthly return of 4.9%, the best since December 2008, and the firm said "the nature of this rise ought to be as much a cause for concern as elation." Investment directors Hamish Bailliee and Steve Russell said: "Absolute return investors should fret when all parts of the portfolio are going up together as it begs the question as to why everything will not go down together when the favourable wind ceases." However, the directors are not yet planning to rebalance the portfolio. They attribute the sharp rise to the "London bus phenomenon", where two s...