Scottish Mortgage celebrates success from unquoteds but 'true acid test' yet to come

Suffered price drop in Red October

The board of the £8.3bn Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust has said it now has enough "sensible data" to show its unlisted investments are proving fruitful, although some analysts have warned investors not to be "too focused on league tables" and that the trust is still prone to extreme volatility - as seen recently during so-called Red October.

Run by James Anderson (pictured right) and Tom Slater of Baillie Gifford, the trust's unlisted positions - including those that have since become public - have delivered a 419% total return between June 2010 - when the first unlisted position was taken - to 30 September 2018, according to its latest results. This compares to a total return for the entire portfolio of 344% over the same period and a 163% gain from its benchmark, the FTSE World index. Unquoteds made an absolute contribution to portfolio returns of 17% over this time, which increases to 30% when including returns from those...