Infovest21 Survey: Funds of funds have mixed views about their future…feel most positive about event driven/special situations

In Infovest21's just-released sentiment survey of funds of funds, one-half of the respondents were positive on the outlook for funds of funds while the other half were neutral.

Those who were neutral cited continued consolidation as well as more funds of funds moving to consulting and other related services as they seek new revenue sources. Those that were positive highlighted improving asset inflows.

Lois Peltz, president of Infovest21, said, “All the funds of funds in the survey easily differentiated themselves against their peers. Responses included focusing on smaller emerging managers, being long-term focused, regionally oriented, niche strategy oriented or having a concentrated portfolio.”

Strategy outlook
When asked about their outlook of 22 strategies over the next three months, the majority of funds of funds felt “somewhat positive” about 13 strategies. Those strategies receiving the highest ratings were distressed, event driven/special situations, foreign exchange, global macro and volatility arbitrage. In each of these strategies, 54% of the funds of funds felt “somewhat positive. 50% of the funds of funds felt “somewhat positive” about managed futures.

Looking out over the next 12 months, fund of funds’ sentiment became even more positive for event driven/special situations. 38% of the funds of funds, the majority of those responding for that strategy, felt “very positive” about the strategy. 38% also feel “very positive” about emerging markets but the majority, 46%, feel “somewhat positive” about emerging markets.

Full survey results are available in the November issue of Investor Focus. Infovest21 conducts this survey every three months. This period, over 60% of the respondents had assets between $100 and $499 million while one-quarter had assets between $500 million and $999 million. Another 8% had assets over $1 billion while another 8% had assets below $100 million.