‘I don’t have to pretend I like something’: tips from fund manager David Coombs for ordinary investors

  • Rathbones’ head of multi-asset investing at the Investing Show

The big advantage of being a multi-asset fund manager is one that ordinary investors share, says David Coombs of Rathbones: ‘I don’t have to pretend to like anything.’

As head of multi-asset investments, David is in charge of the team responsible for managing Rathbones’ discretionary funds – and this can mean holding shares, bonds, gold or more esoteric investments.

‘You have the ultimate open field where you can invest – any asset class, any country, any type of company,’ David tells This is Money’s Simon Lambert at the Investing Show.

He adds, “I never have to buy bad companies just to have a diversified portfolio because I have so many other levers to pull.”

David describes himself as a ‘fast profit taker’ who would rather cash in on some profits when investments do well than risk them evaporating.

He joins Simon on the Investing Show to reveal how he took an unusual route from leaving his A-levels and getting a job in a bank to eventually becoming a fund manager – and what he learned along the way.

He discusses where he sees investment opportunities now, how the Magnificent Seven has become an asset class, why he is interested in resilient global companies with good exposure to China and doesn’t buy into the argument that the UK stock market is a must-have. bargain, but is a fan of British profit machine retailer Next.

> Watch the Investing Show on YouTube

Profit machine: Although David Coombs does not see the UK market as particularly attractive, he does hold retailer Next in high regard

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