“We have neither initiated any new holding, nor disposed of any existing holding since the start of the crisis. This is the case not just for your Fund, but across all of Lindsell Train Limited’s Global, UK and Japanese equity portfolio.”

Thanks Tom! Yes, it’s been pleasing to see how well they’ve held up relative to world market indices. It’s been a slightly unusual bear market, though, so there may be a limited read across to who does well in the next few, but who really knows!

Blue Whale does seem to be playing its cards closer to its chest even though they do plenty of general PR. That may change over time I guess. For those of us that like to see the underlying holdings and get a feel for the amount of portfolio turnover, it’s definitely more of a black box at this stage. It may get a bit more coverage when it hits the 3-year mark later this year.

I must admit that I try to fight the urge to do anything too clever when it comes my own portfolio these days as that’s when I’ve come unstuck in the past! But it is hard to beat the S&P/NASDAQ when the biggest tech companies are driving it forward. I don’t think that will continue indefinitely, hence my plan to add stuff like Murray International into the mix.

BGUS and MNL seem like decent back-up options and I might even get a small stake in the latter to help me understand it better.

Don’t know too much about CQS Global but will try and check it out — thanks for the suggestion.

@GT

Thanks! Yes, Fundsmith seems to be marginally more active and I know LT’s perservance with Pearson has put off a few folks. I tend to be a little more naive/forgiving on the basis that in any portfolio there will always be a few choices you don’t agree with or fully understand.

You might be right about the comparison — it seems to be the largest UK equity/total return funds but I suspect the comparison was first chosen on the basis that it was likely to make them look pretty good.

I think the reason Terry Smith doesn’t include LT Global Equity in his comparison of other big UK funds is that the LTGE fund is registered in Dublin. From memory he usually includes LT UK Equity though.

To try and look at the ‘silver lining’ of 2020 – it’s been another chance to see how these two funds perform when things head down (as we’ve long seen how they do when things go up).

Traditionally the theory was that funds could outperform either in a bull or bear market, but not both. So far, these two funds suggest that they may be very rare exceptions.

Given how ‘fashionable’ tech and healthcare are at present, it’s not a surprise that Fundsmith has pulled ahead of Lindsell recently.

Blue Whale continues to intrigue – I just don’t know how I’ll reach a high conviction in Mr Yiu and team. The appeal with Fundsmith and Lindsell is that they have very clearly articulated their investment philosophy (Lindsell have done it much better with all their papers). I don’t feel Blue Whale have quite achieved that yet.

Currently I see it as a useful ‘tool’ for obtaining more quality US tech exposure, but I am still not sure whether it’s simpler to buy a NASDAQ 100 ETF instead. Let’s not forget the US indices are incredibly hard to beat.

I wish I could find something ‘cleverer’ to do for my exposure to the US and Europe, but at present, the blend of Fundsmith and Lindsell seems eminently sensible, bolstered with some Blue Whale and Smithson.

The ‘watchlist’ I suppose would be the BG USA trust and Manchester & London, but the former I think has too many variables (I think the likes of Tesla and Shopify could easily either be heroes OR zeroes) and the latter remains in the ‘too hard’ pile.

Finally you might like the CQS Global fund if you don’t know it, very much in the style of Fundsmith.
https://cqsnewcityequity.com/fund-centre/global-equity-fund/

Thanks db. And just to clarify, as Clive has already said in his comment above, these are both open-ended funds rather than investment trusts.

Although I do focus on investment trusts on this blog, I also cover funds and ETFs at times, usually either ones that I own or am interested in.

Buying these two investment trusts – and only these two trusts – would be both simple and give a nice portfolio of diversified companies.

Investors could do worse

Thanks Geraint. Blue Whale seems to trade more actively than both Fundsmith and LT Global so I suspect its holdings information could date rather quickly but I may see if I can get something on it.

They seem to give even less info than Fundsmith when it comes to the monthly factsheet so although they do list the top 10 they just give them in alphabetical order rather than position size.