HL US Fund – meet the managers

This video has various screen captures, along with a voice over. Descriptions of what is shown in the video are described below:

Ziad Abou Gergi, Senior Fund Manager at Hargreaves Lansdown: ‘We’ve researched the markets and partnered with a team of portfolio managers who each use a different investment strategy, aiming to make money in the market no investor can afford to ignore - the US.’

Question: Is it hard to outperform the US market?

Ziad: ‘But of course, the US market being the biggest Market in the world it is very well monitored as you said the market is more efficient than other markets, but it doesn't mean that the market is fully efficient. So, what does that mean that? Actually, the focus for us is not necessarily on how big the out performance against the index is going to be but what we are focusing on is that our performance is consistent over time.

Thomas Wells, Fund Manager at Hargreaves Lansdown: ‘I mean in academic terms they describe the US as being efficient and this means the information is integrated into share prices very quickly. This does mean that it is difficult to outperform but that's why we've gone about, and we've partnered up with four best-in-class managers out there who when we put these managers together, we believe are able to outperform.’

Question: What makes the HL US Fund unique?

Ziad: ‘Factors that are unique to this fund. First of all, is that it gives a core exposure to the US market in a simple structure. Now what I mean by core is there is no significant style bias within the fund. The fund will be invested in value stocks at the same time as growth stocks so the clients they don't have to worry about if the market is driven by any particular style because the fund is diversified across all these styles. By partnering and bringing to our client the best portfolio managers that are investing in the US and in this structure - I think that you don't find that many funds available to our clients that do the same job.’

Question: How important is past performance?

For us performance is only a guide, what we really focus on is choosing or partnering with portfolio managers that actually have the expertise, they have the strong processes, and they are evolving in structure that incentivizes these portfolio managers to deliver value to their clients. So, these are the factors that we are interested in finding because these factors can deliver good performance over the long term.’

This video is not personal advice. If you’re not sure what’s right for you, seek advice. Investments can rise as well as fall in value, so you could get back less than you invest.

The HL US fund is run by our sister company Hargreaves Lansdown Fund Managers Ltd.