Insights

Risk appetite returned to financial markets in September, after the US and China announced that another round of trade talks will be held in early October. The defensive yen therefore underperformed amid optimism for a breakthrough, while trade-sensitive currencies such as the aussie managed to stabilize, albeit near decade lows.

In Europe, the ECB cut rates and launched another dose of QE to boost the ailing economy, which is on the verge of a technical recession. The euro fell to multi-year lows, something that the US dollar took advantage of, ending higher overall despite a Fed rate cut and the prospect of President Trump being impeached. The best performer was the pound though, which rallied in relief after Parliament passed a law making a no-deal Brexit in October illegal, wrestling back control of the exit process.

The Fund strategy could not capitalize gains amid mixed trading signals caused by political developments and disruptions during the build-up of the signals. The algorithms could not maintain lasting market positioning and suffered increased transaction costs due to frequent market repositioning. This is reflected in the reduction of the NAV which lies lower at the end of September. This reduction is controlled and is within the expected bounds of the strategy performance as shown in the monthly performances table.