The high conviction portfolio with a "no excuses" approach

There are a lot of excuses in markets, with fund managers blaming shifts in the market's preference for style as the reason for their poor performance or negative macro headwinds for periods of return rout. 

In comparison, T. Rowe Price's Peter Bates argues that it is portfolio managers' job to manage these shifts in markets - after all, that's what investors are paying fund managers for - and believes investors can do this by building a style-blended, high-conviction portfolio of around 35 stocks.

"I call it a portfolio of no excuses," he says. 

It's a strategy that has served him well, with Bates revealing he's been investing with a public track record for more than nine years - and hasn't underperformed the market in a single year since then. 

"It's the process of focusing on qualitatively good businesses that have positive change catalysts, valuing businesses and buying them when it's right and then making sure I don't get tilted on the macro, either factors or cyclical risk," Bates explains. 

In this Fund in Focus, Bates shares how he filters the global universe to identify these high-quality stocks, reveals where he sees the most opportunity today - including across artificial intelligence, healthcare innovation, and a shift to reshoring/deglobalisation, and shares some of the stocks that he believes have durable growth tailwinds behind them. 

Fund Profile 

• Name of the fund: T. Rowe Price Concentrated Global Equity Fund
• Asset Class: Global equities
• Year listed: 15 December 2021
• Description of strategy: An actively managed, style-balanced, high-conviction global equity fund that aims to deliver consistent positive excess returns over a full market cycle.
• Investment objective: Long-term capital appreciation
• Role the fund plays in a portfolio: Core
• Link to fund page: HERE

Timecodes: 

• 0:00 - Intro 
• 0:19 - Why a style-balanced approach can help investors manage extreme market fluctuations 
• 1:26 - How Bates filters the global universe 
• 3:16 - Why a high-conviction approach is best when it comes to global investing 
• 4:44 - The secret sauce to global investing 
• 5:40 - Where Bates sees the most opportunity today 
• 6:56 - Select opportunities in Japan
• 8:22 - Why the Fund is OW financials and healthcare
• 9:27 - A stock Bates has recently sold out of and why
• 10:58 - The role the T. Rowe Price Concentrated Global Equity Fund plays in a portfolio 

Learn more

Peter's portfolio is a high conviction global equity strategy that aims to provide long-term capital appreciation. The portfolio typically invests in mid to large cap companies in recognised markets throughout the world, including developing countries. For more information, please visit the T. Rowe Price website, or the fund profiles below. 

Managed Fund

T. Rowe Price Concentrated Global Equity Fund - S class

Global Shares

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Managed Fund

T. Rowe Price Concentrated Global Equity Fund - I Class

Global Shares

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