Q1 Overview

17 apr. 2018

After an optimistic start to the year, equity investors had quite a bumpy ride during the subsequent months. In early February rapid wage-growth had triggered quite a selloff. Yet, as the month progressed markets quickly got some tailwind from positive macro-economic news that had appeared to have successfully restored investors’ confidence. This global equities’ recovery however was short lived as fears of an all-out trade war brought back the volatility. While the tariffs that were introduced in March seem large in nominal terms, in reality, they account for a very small percentage of the total US and Chinese exports. Ultimately, the current small scale of these protective measures does not mean that things cannot escalate, but we believe that there is no need to panic just yet...

In relative terms, our funds had a decent month. While our peers’ funds dropped by 3.29% on average Navigator only fell by 2.58%. Flexible, which has a protection of about 40%, obviously profited from the timing model’s more bearish views and fell by just 1.12% during the month. Year-to-date both of our funds have beaten approximately 80% of the competition and over a 5-year period this figure climbs to about 95%.

But, when you take risk into account over a five-year horizon – like it is done by the analysts of Morningstar or De Tijd/L’Echo – we often beat all of the competition... The Morningstar Luxembourg Award, that was hosted on 22/03, was the last ceremony in line where we were nominated for the Award for Best Allocation Fund and for Best Global Equity Fund with Vector Flexible and Vector Navigator. We are glad to say that we were able win both awards! This brings the total number of awards we have received in 2018 to seven. This year’s trophies include:

• Morningstar Award in France (Navigator)

• Morningstar Award in Germany (Navigator)

• Morningstar Award in Luxembourg (Navigator and Flexible)

• Morningstar Award in Belgium (Navigator and Flexible)

• De Tijd/L'Echo Award in Belgium (Flexible)

We are very happy with these recognitions of our performance and are delighted that we have been able to reward our investors for their trust. We do our utmost best to deliver these award-winning results to our investors in the years to come!