Member Info for in4themoney

Well the Navidia impact on SMT fizzled out pretty quickly. Down today.

@Dontshootme. I completely agree re Lawrence and Slater - both could do with showing some contrition for the shocking performance of their fund over the last two years. They still don't get the fact they have been responsible for not putting in mitigations to stem the slump. I have no faith in either honestly. Now that there are a couple new Non Execs perhaps they can grasp the nettle.

I agree I sounded very negative in my earlier post. Everyone has their opinion. I am deeply disappointed with the management team at SMT. They have more or less sat on their hands and watched the value of the portfolio go down the tube. They are paid to manage and they've not been doing that. So it will be index funds for me in the future. Have you noticed there was very little comms for two years from SMT when they were flying high. All of a sudden they are trying to talk up (justify) their investments - there seems to be a media blitz by them at the moment. That tells me they are rattled and know people are worried...

If you think these jokers have done a good job then you good luck my friend. They have been one of the worst-performing funds in their sector two years in a row. Shares price down from £15 to £6. Apart from dumping a NED (who spoke the truth and ruffled some feathers), the people to blame are still in situ. Heads should roll and lets get some competent investment bankers in there. From what I can see SMT is a cozy, operation filled by mates (white, male, Scottish) from the same Uni's. There is little or no diversity in culture or thinking.

"The problem for Ballie Gifford rusts is that unlike the ftse 100 who simple eject 10 percent of their constituents every 12 months to cover up the incompetents, fund managers blather in about the long term investment. There is no such thing. Half the ftse 100 hasn’t progressed in 25 years and most has regressed. They are right that it is all about stock picking, but it is also about timing . They seem to be drawn to getting this completely wrong in every country across every sector. That really takes some talent. Ballie are an absolute disgrace, that’s all there is to it. No excuses"
I totally agree with you. IMO they need to take a scythe to holdings and cull the underperforming ones. I don't agree with their strategy of increasing the unlisted securities either, it just gives them more wriggle room to hide their underperformance. I would suggest a three stage plan for them:
1. Get rid of anything that has underperformed for the last two years,
2. Reduce the % of unlisted holdings to 15% in line with market expectations,
3. Form a base for the portfolio with solid / performing/listed holdings of 35% e.g. Apple, Microsoft etc etc
4. Get in to AI.

If they raised the amount to say 50% it would change the risk profile for a lot investors and they might not be comfortable with that.

They have an update to shareholders today at 2pm. I wonder what story they will come up with to explain their disastrous performance.

@Walp I agree with your general market comments. However ATT and PCT have fallen only by a fraction of how far SMT has.
3 months SMT -7.5%, PCT +14% ATT +8,
1 yr SMT -35%, PCT -12%, ATT -4.5
2yrs SMT -41%, PCT -8.5%, ATT +1.5%
I wonder if the can explain this at their webinar next week.

This also may interest some:

https://citywire.com/investment-trust-insider/news/james-carthew-where-scottish-mortgage-s-board-is-falling-down/a2412157

This may interest some people:
https://citywire.com/investment-trust-insider/news/james-carthew-where-scottish-mortgage-s-board-is-falling-down/a2412157?re=107175&refea=1830560

My mistake, meant SMT not Scottish Widows.

A a non exec Bhide was doing his job - to question the board's strategy. There is too much group thinking going on at Scottish Widows. Bhide was and is totally right to question - that's his job. Fiona McBain is the one that should walk imo. She's had oversight of this strategy since Anderson left.

I agree with Bide, in that SMT seem to think that going heavy on unlisted securities is the way forward. I think they aim for 30%? They should have told investors ahead of doing it to give us a chance to get out. 30% is way too high imo. 10% - 20% would be enough imo. Further, its time someone fell on their sword (or is pushed) at SMT for their frankly disastrous performance in the last 18 months (-50%). People need be shown the door.

I completely agree with you lordlodsoflolly. They have increased their share of unlisted holdings and it makes the market nervous. I too would prefer them to reduce their unlisted holding to a more sensible level in the mid to high teens?

Thank you for the link. Its really informative. Tech is only 15.3% of the portfolio, as you say it depends on how you define tech. But let's accept it's 15.3%.
Neverthless, it seems to me the 'management' team has not done a very good job at all over the last year. They are paid professionals who should have locked in the gains in 2021. Instead, they have watched the share price tumble from £15 to £7. Recently they have started put about videos/comms about how they are looking for the next Unicorns. This is just noise to cover their poor performance. They should tell the shareholders how they have managed to reduce the share by price 50% . They IITU the S&P tracker has lost barely lost 10% in the same period. So much for professional management. I would like them to conttinue looking for unicorns but balance the portfolio.

Tech has taken a battering over the last 12 months as we know. But nothing lasts forever and they will rise again.
I would contend that SMT is a tech fund in all but name. Looking at their top 10 holdings which make nearly 41%. Only one of these I would say is a not tech (Kerring).
Moderna Inc 10.62
ASML Holding NV 6.68
Illumina Inc 3.95
Meituan Class B 3.49
Tesla Inc 3.24
MercadoLibre Inc 3.07
Kering SA 2.75
Tencent Holdings Ltd 2.53
PDD Holdings Inc ADR 2.45
Amazon.com Inc 2.18
Total 40.96
Compare this to its stablemate BG American Fund - all the top ten are Tech companies imo
Moderna Inc 8.73
The Trade Desk Inc Class A 6.78
Shopify Inc Registered Shs -A- Subord Vtg 6.36
Amazon.com Inc 5.08
Tesla Inc 4.77
CoStar Group Inc 4.62
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc 4.41
Netflix Inc 3.89
Watsco Inc Class A 3.34
NVIDIA Corp 3.26
Total 42.5

The S&P 500 Tech Sector is up 150% over the same periodans beats SMT over 3 and 1 years. So personally, I think SMT have overplayed its hand they should have diversified when they were streaks ahead or taken out options on their holdings. It's a schoolboy error imo.