BACK TO REALITY—stock prices can rise

I. What is important for fund investors

• The reporting season—especially in the U.S.—took a promising course. As a result, numerous stocks in the fund (e.g., Adidas, Lam Research, Teck) from all topic areas have experienced steep upward spurts.
• The temporary slump of the FANG stocks was absorbed quite well by the markets so far thanks to an intense sector rotation. The one-sided, rather emotional focus on few growth stocks has been replaced by a more fundamental perspective.This presents a very healthy change from our perspective.
• The fund is therefore no longer placed in a waiting position. All hedging through index futures has now been removed.

II. Portfolio adjustments

The biggest change in net terms in July was the significantly increased share of stocks from Switzerland from 22% to 32%.

• We increased our shares, for example, from the Swiss companies VAT (vacuum) and Lonza (healthcare).

• In the area of materials, we cut our exposure to Barrick Gold and K + S completely after a disappointing price development. The same was true for Hapag-Lloyd in the area of transportation and movables.
• The fund investment continues to be concentrated. Our exposure occurs not only through the purchase of stocks. Single-stock futures and options are also introduced selectively. These tools increase flexibility and allow hedging not only through indexes but also for individual stocks directly in the case of a sudden decline.

• A pleasant side effect of the expansion of the from our perspective interesting participation in sectors and topics—and rooted in the core of our fund concept—was the expansion of investments not held in euro. The strong weighting of the Swiss franc in combination with the British pound sterling, the U.S. and the Canadian dollar contributed to a significantly reduced volatility of the fund price in these past days of turmoil in Turkey.

III. Outlook

• We are optimistic about the further course of the year. The statistically difficult months August and September can certainly hold unpleasant setbacks for the stock markets. However, from our view this doesn’t change the fact that there will be an upward trend until the end of the year in net terms.
• Take advantage of this phase to clean out your portfolio. More quality stocks, less illiquid stocks, and a shift in focus toward the late-cycle sectors and topics are a good idea from our perspective.