Investment Community #14

Monene Watson, CIO of Old Mutual Multi-Managers, was my special guest on the Investment Community podcast.

In this episode, Monene tells:

* How difficult it is to assess whether underperformance by a fund manager is due to a broken process (in which case the manager should be terminated), or if it’s due to a temporary shift in market dynamics (in which case the manager should be given time).

* How she respects fund managers who are self-reflective and have the ability to admit their mistakes.

* How the focus has shifted from identifying star fund managers to identifying investment teams with great cultures.

We also discussed:

* That her advice to fund managers is that they should make it easy for investors to understand that the managers know what they’re doing. They should have clarity about their edge and be able to articulate that edge.

* That there’s a big difference between assessing other investors and yourself being accountable to clients for your investment decisions.

* That it’s important to distinguish between feelings and valuations, and it’s important to understand both yourself and markets.

Monene Watson is CIO of Old Mutual Multi-Managers. She began her career in the 1990s as a performance analyst at Old Mutual Asset Management. She then went to London and worked at Merrill Lynch and Friends Provident. When she returned to South Africa she joined linked investment services provider, TMA, which was later taken over by Edge Investments. In 2013, Monene joined Symmetry Multi-Manager as head of equity manager research. Symmetry merged with Acsis in 2013 to form Old Mutual Multi-Managers, and Monene became chief investment officer in 2018.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newdigate.substack.com