I'm talking to some people to maybe help out managing a large account in the future. Since there is a lot of knowledge on this forum I would like bounce some ideas back and forth. At the moment I have no idea how the portfolio is structured, I have a meeting next Thursday, and at that meeting I would like to make a few suggestions/ give them some of my ideas. 1)I'm a big fan of The Templeton Global Bond Fund (7.67% p.a. since 1986) 2)Bridgewater Pure Alpha and All Weather have my interest too, if anyone has the investment minimums, performance since inception and max drawdowns, I would appreciate it. 3) Individual stocks for the longer term are difficult at the moment, valuations are getting a bit frothy. I still like UN here, especially with the 3% dividend. I will add more thoughts in the comments later. 4) Was thinking about an active swing trading strategy with a 2-3 day holding time using SPY. Using max 1% of portfolio, I have this strategy, but I hope it won't be too difficult to explain. 5) Having a small percentage of short individual stocks. I was thinking of only the worst of the worst. But not every investor is open for this, so I must first gauge interest. 6) I would really like to invest in Baupost, but since they are returning money, the chances are slim to none. 7) Schroder, Investco, Axa and Morgan Stanley Bond Funds. 8) 1-5% Gold, it's in a bull market now. 9) If anyone know of any good European and US real estate funds? 10) Trend follow funds a) Chesapeake : The Equiniox Fund did 12.09% yearly, the last 5 years. b) I like Transtrend: They did 11.9% a year (since 1995) with a 15% maximum drawdown. Which is great, although their last 2 years haven't been so good) c) I'm looking into the MAN AHL and GLG Partners funds. But they seem to have a lot of them. If anyone has any favourites? Please note that off topic remarks will be ignored. Thank you.
I think #4 is going to be harder than you imagine, and frankly if I was screening candidates to run a large portfolio, this would give me pause. PS What concerns me most is your time frame. Trying to catch 2-3 days swings?
How much is a large amount? Some of these funds are not trivial to enter and require 9 figure investments.
Call me Old School but,...Vital is to first have a working narrative of what the funds/managers are seeking to accomplish. Then grouping the funds according to their juxtaposed behavior -- which move together, which move in opposition, which are uncorrelated entirely. At that point, I think a whiteboard and some arrows and circles would make it an easy hour's work (to be confirmed with a variance/covariance spreadsheet).
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article61192.html The 10 Key Charts For Global Multi-Asset Investors In 2018
Along the lines of what tommcginnis said, it might be wise to mostly do some listening and really understand what their problems are and what they need help with. Based on that, perhaps a follow up meeting with a well thought out proposal with data to back it up. Maybe that meeting has already happened. Whatever the case, a professional proposal with charts, graphs etc would likely go a long way.
@Chuck Krug before offering solutions I would first ask them what the objective of the account is, and what problems the account is currently facing.