Going in search of absolute returns

Product providers are finding investors less than receptive to the argument they have lost them less money than the index would have done over the past two years. Two years of negative returns and the possibility of a third is making fund sales difficult, with intermediaries and product providers alike forced to tell clients that a fund returning -10% over one year should be considered a good performer, outperforming the FTSE All-Share by some 3%. Presenting performance and managing money on a relative basis became increasingly popular during the bull market run of the 1990s, especially...