Female stock pickers do better than men
FEMALE fund managers have outperformed their male colleagues so far this year, according to research. The investment industry has had a rollercoaster ride since the start of the pandemic, trying to cope with volatile markets and spot the next big trends. But Goldman Sachs found that women have done best. The average female-managed fund has lagged its benchmark by 0.6pc this year – while the average fund with no woman as a manager underperformed by 1.6pc. The investment bank told clients: ‘ Female- managed funds withstood many of the market swings.’ A number of senior women in UK financial services made their name in fund management, including Dame helena Morrissey, Nichola pease and Nicola horlick. Currently the likes of Aberdeen Standard’s Lesley Duncan, and the herald Investment Trust’s Katie potts, are at the top of their game.
The edge which women have was still evident when Goldman adjusted for the riskiness of different funds.
part of their stronger performance was due to the types of stocks which the female-managed funds tend to hold.
They have a greater exposure to the tech sector, which has been booming as investors have piled in to take advantage of the expected growth of companies like Amazon and Apple.
Male-managed funds, on the other hand, prefer investing in financial companies.
Despite the better performance which women have achieved, there are still few female fund managers around.
Goldman said that out of the 496 largecap funds it has analysed recently, 14 have an all-female fund manager team, and 380 have an all-male team.
And even though they tend to perform better, the female-managed funds have seen investors pull more money out since the start of the year than their male-managed counterparts.