The Upside: Fund feature - Unpacking Fidelity managed portfolios
Join Stewart Ng, Manager, Product Research, as he takes you inside the Fidelity Managed Portfolios lineup, managed by portfolio managers David Wolf and David Tulk.
You have financial goals, and the investments you choose should help you achieve them. Fidelity Managed Portfolios can help you do just that.
Fidelity Managed Portfolios are a suite of risk-targeted investment solutions that use tactical asset allocation to provide a range of income, balanced, growth, equity and retirement-focused portfolios. Each actively managed portfolio provides exposure to a variety of asset classes, with a specific focus on tailoring risk to meet your investment goals.
Transcript
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Hello, and welcome to the Upside Fund Feature.
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I'm Helen Pang. I'm here today with Stuart Ng.
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Stuart is a product research manager here at Fidelity.
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He covers the Fidelity managed portfolio suite which offers a range of income,
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balanced, growth and equity portfolios.
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Hi Stewart.
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Thanks, Helen, great to be here.
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The managed portfolios are a big part of what I do day to day so I'm always
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glad to talk about them.
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We've got lots to cover today.
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For the first time we're featuring an entire suite rather than a single fund.
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These are risk-targeted investment solutions.
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Stewart, can you walk us through what that actually means and what are the
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Fidelity managed portfolios and how are they structured?
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The simplest way to think about it is instead of buying one fund and
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hoping it fits your investment needs a managed portfolio is a complete
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professionally built portfolio in a single solution.
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We have a range of them from income focus all the way up to fully equity
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and each one is targeted to a specific level of risk.
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Rather than you assembling and rebalancing a number of funds yourself the
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Global Asset Allocation team does that for you, choosing underlying funds,
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the asset classes and the mix, as well as adjusting it as
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market changes. You pick the risk level that matches your goals and the
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portfolio is built around it.
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The portfolios that we're managing are offering elegant solutions to really
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complex problems. It's so unbelievably powerful, that bottom-up
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building block and how we manage the portfolios.
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I think one of the edges that we have is, you know, of course
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we're picking every underlying manager, we're picking what we lean into
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and what we lean out of but also from an out of benchmark position we can
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also choose the asset classes that we're choosing to add there as well.
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Asset allocation funds are meant to be all-weather solutions that can
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simplify investor's investment portfolio.
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Who are these portfolios best suited for and how should investors think about
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choosing the right one for them?
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Honestly, this is one of the best reasons to work with an advisor.
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These are designed to be all-weather core holdings, something that you can own
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through different environments without constantly tinkering.
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Which one is right really comes down to your timeline, your goals and how
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you actually feel in a downturn.
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An advisor helps match you to the right risk level and just as
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importantly help you stay invested when things get noisy.
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That combination is where a lot of the real value gets created.
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The Fidelity managed portfolio suite is managed by the Global Asset Allocation,
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or GAA team, with portfolio managers David Wolf and David Tulk.
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Can you tell us more about the GAA team behind this suite and how they work to
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support the strategy?
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This is where the suite really stands apart.
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The portfolios are run by our Global Asset Allocation team, David Wolf
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and David Tulk, people who has operated at the highest levels of
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this field. David Wolf for, instance, he advised the governor of the Bank of
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Canada before joining Fidelity so you've got some serious
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top-down macro expertise setting the direction.
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What makes it powerful is what sits underneath them.
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They're not picking individual stocks and bonds themselves.
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They are allocating across Fidelity's entire global research engine,
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hundreds of analysts and portfolio managers worldwide covering every region
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and asset class. Their job is to decide where and when
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to lean in and where to pull back, then channel that through some
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of the strongest underlying managers we have.
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That's really the strength of Fidelity, a small focused
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team with an enormous research bench behind them.
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There has been a lot of headline noise recently, how are the managers
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addressing that?
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Great question because there's never been more noise and a lot of it is
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designed to make you react.
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The team's philosophy is almost the opposite.
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They're not trying to trade every headline.
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They're trying to understand the deeper forces underneath them such as
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inflation, interest rates, how different parts of the world are shifting,
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and position the portfolios for where things are heading over the next several
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years, not the next few days.
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I'll let David explain it because he says it much better than I can.
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First thing I want to try to articulate, really, is just
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chasing the headlines and trying to time the market with this type
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of TACO tweet-driven universe is virtually impossible.
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We spend a lot of time listening to experts within Fidelity,
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the world around. There's an emergent class of retired US army
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generals and admirals who offer their services to try and provide the
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understanding. The conclusion really is there is no
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clear answer as to how these events will proceed from here.
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What we wanna do is we wanna take a bit of a step back and just try to
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understand the deeper fundamentals and I think that's always good advice to
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investors everywhere.
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We think that this is a world that's more subject to inflation,
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inflationary bursts, inflationary shocks, and that has a myriad of implications
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for how we want to invest and how we wanna asset allocate within the funds that
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I'm responsible for.
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It's kind of scary but we think we have an understanding of the underlying
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dynamics involved. We can't predict Iran and we can exactly predict
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AI but we can have an understanding of the risks that are associated with
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those. Ao far we seem to be doing a pretty good job of navigating
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those risks.
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These portfolios are actively managed, what does that process look like?
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It's a continuous discipline process, not a
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set it and forget it. Every portfolio has a long term neutral mix,
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say 60% stocks and 40% bonds for the balanced ones.
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That's the anchor. The team can then tilt around that within
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set limits based on where they see risk and opportunity,
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adding to an asset class they like and trimming ones that they don't.
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They're constantly testing those views against the research and they rebound so
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the portfolio doesn't drift from your risk level.
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You get two things at once, a stable foundation and
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active decisions layered on top.
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My job is ultimately a risk control and
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portfolio construction job.
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We have all the equity managers choosing the stocks and that's all very
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exciting and that drives return but we're the ones putting the package
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together, make sure that we're able to harness those returns while still
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managing the overall risk for the portfolios.
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One of the ways that you manage risk, at least historically,
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you have some bonds with your stocks and bonds hedge stocks when you have
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equity drawdowns, and that's fine.
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In an inflationary world, as we talked about earlier, bonds are not gonna
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protect you so you need other things to protect you.
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One of those things is commodities.
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If you think about it, if you're worried about an inflationary shock you kinda
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want the thing that's part of the inflation and that's commodities.
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We've allocated there as well.
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Let's look at some performance data.
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The original six Fidelity managed portfolios are 5-star rated and the suite has
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been delivering strong performance.
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Can you please tell us a bit more about that?
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The numbers back it up. As of the end of May all six of our original
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portfolios are 5-star rated by Morningstar.
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They have delivered that consistently across both
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short and long term timeframes, including a full 15-year
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track record through multiple cycles.
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To me, that kind of consistency over that long period of time isn't luck,
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it's the process showing up.
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I think you made the point that the economy is not the market and that's
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certainly true. There's also the notion that the market can move well in
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advance of developments in the economy as well.
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We want to try to take that forward-looking perspective when it comes to
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investing the funds. Just a comment on the economy.
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I take all your points, my back is also feeling a little sore as well,
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the notion the things don't feel particularly great now.
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Growth happens on the margin.
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A big part of our outlook is that things don't have to feel great today
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but we just have to get the sense that things are improving so that tomorrow
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will feel a little bit less bad than it does today.
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That line, things moving from very bad to less bad, that can be quite
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powerful. As asset allocators we have to be thinking about where things are
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heading, not where things are right now.
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Things moving very bad to less bad, that's a great line but it also explains
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why none of us are in sales, I think.
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What about the positioning and outlook?
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Where do the managers see opportunities?
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This is the part I find more interesting right now.
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The team's view is that we've entered a different kind of world, more
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fragmented, more prone to inflation shocks, than the last few decades.
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That changes the playbook.
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Two themes that stand out, one is commodities and real assets
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including gold as a different kind of protection that bonds used to
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provide. The other is Canada.
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After years of being cautious the team has actually turned more constructive.
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I'll let David and David walk through the thinking because this is where the
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macro work really shows.
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Just going back to geopolitics, I think you can imagine a scenario that at
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some point the conflict in Iran goes away but it would be
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also prudent to think that there's probably a lingering geopolitical
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risk premium priced into oil and the world will look for more
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sources of reliable resource industries.
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Canada scores very highly, I think, on that list.
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You can image that investors overseas, even within Canada, are
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going to now have that renewed incentive to invest within that
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industry. That's a theme that we really want to reflect in our positioning.
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The notion of that commodity piece, and there's a lot
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more that we'll unpack along those lines, that gives us the motivation after a
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long period of being very concerned about Canada to now display some latent
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optimism where in quarters past we had trimmed the underweight and now we're
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comfortable expressing an outright overweight.
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The slide is a great window into how the team is actually expressing those
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views right now. Quick way to read it, anything above the line is where they're
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making a bigger bet than their benchmark, anything below is where they're
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holding back. A few things stand out.
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On stocks the headline is Canada.
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They're meaningfully overweight and that's a real turnaround from a year ago as
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when they were actually underweight.
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That's the renewed confidence in Canada I mentioned.
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At the same time, they've trimmed the US a touch where valuations
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are stretched. On bonds, this is where it gets interesting.
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They're well below their benchmark overall, especially in traditional
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global government bonds.
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As David will explain hose just aren't the reliable shock
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absorber they used to be.
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Where they are putting money to work is in areas that actually pay you for
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the risk, like credit and short term bonds that are less exposed
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to rate swings.
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The part that really reflects a new playbook is over here.
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They're overweight gold, alternatives and the Canadian dollar.
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Those are the diversified differently positions, protection
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that doesn't lean on the old stock-bond relationship.
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David explains the why behind all of it really well.
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The biggest thing for us as asset allocators is a
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more chopped up world is a world that's going to be more prone to
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inflationary shocks.
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You think for 30 years the world got more integrated, it got more efficient,
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it got less costly, that's something that will tend to put downward pressure
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on inflation.
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Corresponding to that 60-40 works pretty well in that world because
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stocks and bonds are negatively correlated so when you do have drawdowns, when
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you get a growth scare, bonds tend to do relatively well.
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Now all of that is going in reverse.
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DT mentioned the correlation, what that means is bonds are likely no
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longer going to be hedging your stocks.
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We saw that in 2022 with the inflationary shock, we seem to be seeing
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it again. That means for us as asset allocators we want to think
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about diversification differently, more creatively.
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One of the places that leads us to is commodities.
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So commodities are something that we've been buying into for some time,
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our gold position, in particular, which has helped us a lot over the past
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year, year and a half or so.
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A way to think about it is inflation is, obviously, not
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good for fixed income, and it tends to be not good for fixed income at the
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same time as it's not good for equities, so you need to own something else.
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The something else you want to be a real hard asset.
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Ideally, you want it to be something that is actually part of what's inflating.
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Again, that's led us to commodities.
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That's all for today's show. Please follow us on our socials including
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As always, working with a financial advisor is among the best investments you
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can make. Thanks for watching and I hope you'll join us again on The Upside.
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00:14:10,783 --> 00:14:13,619
Fidelity Mutual Funds
and ETFs are available by working
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00:14:13,619 --> 00:14:17,022
with a financial advisor
or through an online brokerage account.
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00:14:17,022 --> 00:14:20,559
Visit fidelity.ca/howtobuy
for more information.
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00:14:20,559 --> 00:14:24,930
While on fidelity.ca, you can also find
more information on future live webcasts,
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00:14:24,930 --> 00:14:29,802
and don't forget to follow Fidelity Canada
on LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram or X.
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00:14:29,802 --> 00:14:32,204
We'll wrap things up today
with a quick disclaimer.
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00:14:32,204 --> 00:14:34,540
The views and opinions
expressed on this podcast
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00:14:34,540 --> 00:14:36,008
are those of the participants,
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00:14:36,008 --> 00:14:39,912
and do not necessarily reflect
those of Fidelity Investments Canada ULC
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00:14:39,912 --> 00:14:41,113
or its affiliates.
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00:14:41,113 --> 00:14:43,616
This podcast is for informational
purposes only
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00:14:43,616 --> 00:14:47,052
and should not be construed as investment,
tax or legal advice.
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00:14:47,052 --> 00:14:50,289
It is not an offer to sell or buy,
or an endorsement, recommendation
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00:14:50,289 --> 00:14:53,392
or sponsorship of any entity or securities
cited.
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00:14:53,392 --> 00:14:55,361
Read a funds prospectus before investing.
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00:14:55,361 --> 00:14:57,062
Funds are not guaranteed.
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00:14:57,062 --> 00:15:00,532
Their values change frequently
and past performance may not be repeated.
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00:15:00,532 --> 00:15:04,770
Fees, expenses and commissions
are all associated with fund investments.
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00:15:04,770 --> 00:15:06,972
Thanks for tuning
in. We'll see you next time.

