Brandywine Asset Management’s (B.A.M) Symphony globally-diversified investment program gained +0.33% in August and the aggressively-traded Brandywine Symphony Preferred gained +0.40% during the month.
Despite the worst performance for the S&P 500 of the past three years, highly volatile energy markets and weak commodity prices, Brandywine once again posted profits that were uncorrelated with most other investment managers. We analyze this performance in this month’s report, which can be viewed below.
Performance Summary
Brandywine’s Symphony globally-diversified investment program gained +0.33% in August and the aggressively-traded Brandywine Symphony Preferred gained +0.40% during the month.
The Benefits of Brandywine’s Non-Correlation
August was another differentiating month for Brandywine. Our positive performance was in sharp contrast to the substantial volatility and negative returns suffered by investors in the world’s stock markets.
The benefit of this non-correlation is starkly evident in the following statistics:
As can be seen, adding 20% B.A.M to an investment in the S&P 500 both increases returns and decreases risk. This is de-spite the fact that the S&P 500 total return index is just one month past its highest-ever monthly close and Brandywine is in our largest drawdown to date. In other words, because of our non-correlation with stocks, Brandywine adds value to stock portfo-lios not only when we’re outperforming stocks, but even when we underperform. If Brandywine can add this much value when we’re down, think of the value we add when we’re performing strongly.
In addition, Brandywine provides the same diversification value to a portfolio of CTAs, as the major CTA indexes all dropped during August while Brandywine gained.
And the longer-term benefits of including Brandywine are just as positive:
Allocating 20% of a CTA portfolio (also referred to as managed futures) to B.A.M also both increases returns and decreases risk. And for long-term investors our current drawdown may present an excellent entry opportunity for a new investment.
As a bonus, Brandywine can be added to your portfolio without requiring any reallocation of existing assets. We can be purely additive. Call or email us to find out how.
