There is no sugar coating the obvious. In a complete reversal of our strong absolute and relative results from 2015, this year was an outright disappointment for the Broadleaf Growth Equity Portfolio and many other growth fund managers. While we were essentially flat for the full year, the degree to which we underperformed in 2016 set a new record for us, essentially dragging down our longer term numbers to below the market’s for all but the longer term ten year and since inception figures.
The primary reason for our underperformance in 2016, in hindsight, was largely a function of a continued rally from the market’s more cyclical sectors following the early year swoon, exacerbated by the post election Trump rally from the financial sector, where we have little portfolio exposure. In a sentence, this year’s underperformance was largely a function of what we don’t own, rather than what we do.
Whether or not the current rally continues into 2017 remains to be seen, but as for 2016, we’re happy to be moving on!
For further information on the quarter and our investment outlook, please view a printable version of this Review: Fourth-quarter-2016-commentary-performance.