A 24-minute listen. 

Next up in our remote investment podcast series is James Sullivan, managing director at MitonOptimal. He tells us why looking for the perfect alternative is like the “Holy Grail” of investment, that doesn’t exist, and explains why cash is still king. 

While James and his team haven’t been “aggressively active” in markets during the current crisis, they have increased conviction in certain areas.

“Rather than having gone out and acted like a magpie, we’ve added to existing themes, such as Japanese and domestic UK equity,” he explains.

“On top of that, because market sell-off was quite phenomenal, we also bought some global beta just to capture the rally back, rather than try and be too clever with tactical asset allocation”.

Wary of asset classes – other than perhaps gold – which promise real diversification from a market drop, James is happy to hold back some cash – up to around 16% in the team’s Balanced portfolio.

“The optionality of cash and being able to deploy it when one sees fit to a market that’s 25% lower, well there’s nothing more powerful to add returns to a portfolio,” he explains.