- VT De Lisle America is a US small-cap value fund and has had a strong run in recent times
- We look at the process behind the fund and the decisions that lie ahead for its manager
In private, many an active manager might wearily confess that the US has not been the market in which to go against the grain in recent years. It’s well-known that stockpickers have struggled to beat the S&P 500 over the past decade in particular, given its skew to the seemingly unassailable tech megacaps and sheer market efficiency. From value managers to those moving down the market cap scale, investors going against the tech majors, or simply avoiding them, have not always had the best time of it.
Such investors also tend to attract less attention than funds that bet big on the largest US stocks, such as Baillie Gifford’s big US and global portfolios. But some funds have quietly generated excellent performance in recent times, and may well have an enhanced appeal as questions arise about the future outlook for yesterday’s winners.