Quick fund facts - Index and explanation

Is the launch date of the original unit trust whose track record has been maintained after conversion into the OEIC (if applicable).
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The yardstick against which the fund is measured.
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A second yardstick against which the fund is measured, used as a market proxy.
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Is as at the last working day of the month.
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• OEICs

  Is the sales fee charged when shares in a fund are bought. The fee is a percentage of the amount of money being invested and is added to the net asset value price.
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• Managed funds

  Is the sales fee charged when units in a fund are bought. The fee is a percentage of the amount of money being invested and is added to the creation value. This is different from the bid/offer spread which is the percentage difference between the offer price and the bid price. It is made up of the initial charge and the difference between the creation price and the bid price and is calculated on the offer price.
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Is as at the last working day of the month.
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One or more share classes may be issued in respect of each OEIC fund. Most funds currently offer two share classes: class 1(’retail’), with a minimum investment; and class 2 (’institutional’), with a larger minimum. Each class generally offers either net income or net accumulation shares. In some cases, gross income or gross accumulation shares are also available, for eligible investors only (mainly UK corporate and non-resident private investors). The managed funds are unit trusts and are issued with a single class of units.
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Is the cut off date, after which new investors are not entitled to that income payment.
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Is the date when accrued income is paid to investors.
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The amount of income an investment delivers after the reduction of charges (but not tax) expressed as a percentage of the amount invested. Quoted as an annualised figure.
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Measures the total return after the deduction of charges (but not tax), taking into account any income, capital gain or loss on the underlying securities if they were held to redemption. Quoted as an annualised figure. The Gross Redemption Yield is shown for bond funds only.
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States whether the Fund is available as a Personal Equity Plan Transfer and/or an Individual Savings Account.
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• 3 year investment performance chart

  Gives the cumulative 3 year (or since launch if shorter) performance of the fund together with its IMA Sector.
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• Discrete performance year by year table

  Shows the fund performance using discrete 12-month returns over five successive years (where available).
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• Cumulative performance

  Shows the fund return over a set period.
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Shows the 10 largest investments in percentage terms of the total value of the fund. It does not include cash.
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Shows the breakdown of the fund by its sector/country constituents. It includes cash.
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Shows how many investments are held in the fund. It does not include cash.
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Plots the fund versus the sector median and shows how much more or less the fund has returned compared to the sector median. Launch is equal to first month since launch.
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The degree of risk in a portfolio is usually associated with the degree of uncertainty in the return achieved (the risk/reward principle) and is generally defined by the volatility in its return over several consecutive time periods. The most common measure of volatility is the standard deviation.
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Seeks to give an indication of just how far away from an average rate of return the actual investment return might deviate over any given period, measured over historical periods.
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Is a measure of risk and is the fund’s annualized standard deviation calculated from the latest 3 years’ worth of monthly returns. The measure indicates the likely variability of a fund’s annual return.
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Shows how much more or less volatile the fund has been relative to the average. For example if the fund’s volatility is 9% and the benchmark’s is 10% then the relative volatility is 0.90.
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Indicates how closely the fund tracks the sector median. It is the standard deviation of the monthly returns of the fund divided by the monthly returns of its benchmark. The lower the number the closer the fund follows its benchmark.
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Is a risk-adjusted return statistic. It measures the fund’s return over and above cash (excess return over a risk free asset) divided by the absolute volatility of the fund. It shows the trade-off between risk and return. The greater the number, the better the return the fund has delivered given the risks within the fund. This measure is from the cash-investor’s perspective.
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This statistic is commonly used to measure a fund manager’s skill against the benchmark. The out/underperformance of the fund relative to its peer group is divided by the tracking error. Therefore, anything positive is above average and anything negative is below average. The larger the number the better.
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A measure of relative risk that gives an indication of the extent to which the returns of a fund are sensitive to movements in the markets in which it is invested (or traded). A ß of value 1 indicates the fund will move in line with the market. A figure greater than 1 indicates that the fund will tend to outperform in a rising market and underperform in a falling one. i.e. is more volatile than the market. The reverse applies to a ß of less than 1.
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Shows how much the fund’s return has exceeded the return of its benchmark, in risk adjusted terms. In other words, it gives the added value of the fund over the risk beta adjusted benchmark.
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Reflects how much of a fund’s return is determined by the benchmark’s return. The maximum R2 is 1. This means that 100% of a fund’s movement is determined by the benchmark. An R2 of 0.5 means that 50% of a fund’s movement is as a result of the benchmark. A number progressively lower than 1 shows that the fund’s return becomes more independent.
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Is the average life of each bond in the portfolio, weighted by value.
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Is a measure of risk for fixed interest securities. This is the present value weighted average term to maturity, taking into account the volume and timing of cashflows emanating from bonds held in the portfolio. For example two bonds may mature in 10 years. But the higher coupon version will have a lower duration, and therefore lower risk, because a higher proportion of the cashflows, coming from the bond, will occur earlier.
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Each fund in the league table is plotted with the x-axis being the absolute volatility and the y-axis being the absolute return of the fund. Given that low volatility and high return is desirable, the further top-left a fund, the better. Calculations are based on the latest 3 years’ worth of monthly returns.
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This scatter plot illustrates the outperformance of each fund in the league table against that fund’s tracking error. Again, the further topleft a fund is, the better. Calculations are based on the latest 3 years’ worth of monthly returns.
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Shows the largest ten overweight stock positions relative to the index which are held in the fund. This is only meaningful for single country funds.
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Shows the largest ten underweight stock positions relative to the index which are held in the fund. This is only meaningful for single country funds.
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Shows the deviation of the fund’s holdings in a particular industry/country from the index/sector average. It shows where our industry/ country investment positions are placed.
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