WEALTH WATCH
STEPHEN CRANSTON: They’re not saying cash is trash now
The fund manager mantra that the market is the only place to be was proven wrong in 2018
Most fund manager presentations are completely predictable. They will say you need to be fully invested in the market at all times. And they say cash is trash. Well, that wasn’t true in 2018, when SA cash was one of the few asset classes to make money. So I respect PSG Asset Management, which is happy to say cash plays a part in the investment process. The PSG Flexible Fund, for example, was 40% in cash when the house could find little to buy in June 2015, just before the slump in shares with the Nenegate crisis, but it held almost no cash in January 2009 after the financial crisis when there were plenty of bargains around. PSG AM used to be quite a parochial Cape Town southern suburbs business but has a more cosmopolitan flavour since it acquired Greg Hopkins as chief investment officer and Anet Ahern as CEO, both from Sanlam’s International multimanager. The Flexible fund has achieved the rare feat of outperforming the JSE since inception in 2004, even with an average cash holding...
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