...and what the other experts think

PORTFOLIO MANAGER: PETER SLEEP, SEVEN INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

‘I HAVE no concerns about Scottish Mortgage’s size, concentration on tech, or its focus on China. The size of the trust is a bonus at the present time. It allows the managers to reduce fees and more importantly ensures the shares are liquid and easy to sell.

‘China is one of the world’s high growth markets and Scottish Mortgage has done a great job in finding some dynamic companies – the likes of Alibaba and Meituan-Dianping. Having said that, it owns Ant Group whose stock market listing has just been pulled. This demonstrates some of the dangers of investing in China and unlisted stocks.’

FUND ANALYST:

RYAN HUGHES, AJ BELL

‘ULTIMATELY, Scottish Mortgage takes an unusually long-term investment approach and one that should be applauded. However, investors need to be comfortable with this and set their own time horizons accordingly.

‘If investors do shift their focus to value rather than growth companies, Scottish Mortgage will in all likelihood underperform. But this only reiterates the importance for investors to have diversification in their portfolios.

‘We remain very comfortable with the approach taken by James Anderson and Tom Slater, but any new investor buying today needs to accept that the companies in the trust are on high valuations.

‘They need to take a long-term view alongside the managers and understand that short-term underperformance is entirely possible.’

WEALTH MANAGER: INTERACTIVE INVESTOR

‘DO we still have conviction in Scottish Mortgage? Yes. Should it be a core investor holding? No, it should be a satellite portfolio holding. It’s racy.’

(Scottish Mortgage remains on Interactive Investor’s ‘super 60 investment portfolio ideas’ as an ‘adventurous’ option.)