Barry Norris: A look back at the worst year ever

Macro volatility

Barry Norris, co-manager of the £227m Argonaut Absolute Return fund, takes a look back at "the most challenging year in the 16 years [he] has been running money".

2016 has thrown up unique challenges for active managers operating different strategies often irrespective of views on market direction. Generally, the more active the manager the worse the year. Mr. Market has made a fool out of us: for me it has been the most challenging year in the 16 years in which I have been running money. The central tenet of our investment process is to look for earnings surprises: the identification of stocks which are likely to earn significantly more or less profit than the market is currently forecasting. This beat or miss relative to medium term expectati...