In January the average prudential balanced portfolio returned 1.32% (December: 0.40%). Top performer is EMH Prescient (2.19%); while Momentum (0.55%) takes the bottom spot. For the 3 month period Prudential, takes top spot, outperforming the ‘average’ by roughly 1.4%. On the other end of the scale Momentum underperformed the ‘average’ by 1.4%.

What is your investment strategy?

If you followed investment markets more generally and latest investment returns of pension fund portfolios more specifically, you will be forgiven for your concern about the seemingly poor short-term investment returns of your Benchmark Default portfolio or any other portfolio you may have chosen to invest in, for that matter. However before you go off on a tangent because of these disappointing short-term results, you must ask yourself whether you have defined your investment strategy? What is your investment horizon? If you want positive returns for the next 6 to 12 months, do not invest in prudential balanced portfolios but rather in cash!