Revealed: Odey And Schroders' Income Duo Lose FE Alpha Manager Status In Latest Rebalance

This year has seen well-known names such as Crispin Odey, JOHCM's Ben Leyland and Schroders' Kevin Murphy and Nick Kirrage lose their place, while 43 new names have been added this time.

Murphy and Kirrage, who run the £2.1bn Schroder Income and £1.2bn Schroder Recovery funds, take a value approach that has suffered lately, according to FE research manager Charles Younes.

He said: "Managers with a value bias have fared badly this time around, highlighted by managers who favour this style, such as Kevin Murphy and Nick Kirrage of Schroders and Martin Walker of Invesco Perpetual dropping out.

"FE Alpha Manager ratings take a career view, suggesting that even over the long term, value investing has not offered managers huge scope to outperform."

New entrants

Meanwhile Michael Lindsell, who runs the £189m Lindsell Train Japanese Equity fund and co-manages the group's £3.8bn Global Equity fund alongside Nick Train, has been awarded Alpha Manager status for the first time. 

Other new entrants in this rebalancing include Polar Capital's Guy Rushton, who runs the group's UK Absolute Equity fund, which was among the top-performing products of 2017, Daniel Mahony, Polar's Global Healthcare Trust manager, and J. P. Morgan Asset Management's Shrenick Shah, who runs the £1bn JPM Global Macro Opportunities fund.

In sector terms, the Investment Association's UK Smaller Companies peer group leads the way with the biggest percentage of FE Alpha Managers at 33%. This is the second year running the sector has topped the table.

Ruffer: The 'intensely interesting' opportunity in Japan

Asia Pacific inc Japan managers also shone with 29% awarded the title, followed by European Smaller Companies managers at 28%. Comparatively, only 4% of Global Equity Income managers became an FE Alpha Manager, while few bond managers made the grade.

Rob Gleeson, head of FE research, said: "Smaller companies, emerging markets and Europe have been a more reliable hunting ground for alpha managers.