Posted inHead To Head

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Fidelity Strategic Bond vs M&G Optimal Income

This week's Head-to-Head sees the Fidelity Strategic Bond Fund take on the M&G Optimal Income Fund.
by Fund Selector Asia
When have the funds underperformed?

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While the Head-to-Head underperformance analysis section can sometimes become a bit of an evisceration, with the Fidelity and M&G funds this just is not possible, as McDermott explained.

“The Fidelity fund underperformed slightly during 2012 and 2013,” he said. “The M&G fund underperformed slightly last year. However, neither have ever underperformed by much – bad performance for them is being close to the sector average so it is all relative!

Prior added: “M&G – prolonged periods of underperformance have been pretty non-existent over the life of the fund, but where there have been any it has been driven in the main by the peers being more aggressive in high yield exposure where this fund has been resolutely exposed to Investment grade at its core.

“Relative to the IA Sterling Strategic Bond average, Fidelity has been the less volatile of the two, average with only a few incidents of underperformance. The key to both these periods – 2013 and recently in 2015 – lay anchored in the DNA of the fund as a conservative, traditional bond fund with longer duration and lower exposure to high-yield which impacted negatively relative to peers.”

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