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12 November 2026

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Video: How Chris Cuffe finds fund managers who 'swing the bat'

After 40 years inside the world of managing investments and selecting fund managers, Chris Cuffe summarises his experiences into a few quick lessons. His observations are not the traditional cliches about past performance and management styles, but what really works when selecting investments.

From the Morningstar Individual Investor Conference, 29 October 2020

The Morningstar 2020 Individual Investor Conference was held over 29 and 30 October and drew over 2,000 registrations. It offered investors the opportunity to tap into the expertise and knowledge and Australia's leading investors. 

Some of the highlight sessions include:

  • Hamish Douglass from Magellan discusses the US election, long-term trends and your portfolio
  • Gemma Dale from nabtrade on the rise of the retail investor
  • Kate Howitt from Fidelity on how she selects stocks
  • David Harrison from Charter Hall Property discusses how it's all about location, location and ... strategy.
  • Anton Tagliaferro of IML on finding long-term opportunities in the current market.

Get access to all the recordings and explore all Premium benefits (including the Sharesight portfolio service) with a free Morningstar Premium trial. No credit card required.

Chris Cuffe is Founder and Portfolio Manager of the charitable trust, Third Link Growth Fund and Chairman of Australian Philanthropic Services. He is the Co-Founder of Cuffelinks, the predecessor to Firstlinks, and sits on the boards and investment committees of many companies and family offices. The views expressed are his own.

 

  •   4 November 2020
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6 Comments
Gary M
November 04, 2020

Can we have some of the names of fund managers who don't charge a management fee but only charge a performance fee?

Matt
November 07, 2020

Solaris

Ray
November 27, 2020

Matt, fyi, the Solaris - performance fee option - fund is closed to new investors

John
November 04, 2020

Chris is the Chairman of one of these funds called EGP Capital, however, it has under performed the ASX 200 Index since it commenced in August 2017. Accordingly, the manager has not received a dollar of performance fees.

Graham Hand
November 08, 2020

Thanks, John, but from their latest report, the fund is ahead of benchmark since inception:

The fund rose by 4.6% in October 2020. The fund has gained 9.28% so far in FY2021.
The benchmark rose by 1.9% in October. The benchmark has gained 1.48% so far in FY2021.
The fund has returned 18.5% since inception (15 August 2017). The benchmark has returned 17.2% since fund inception.
The contiguous performance of both EGP funds since inception (1 April 2011) is 206%. The combined benchmarks have returned 90% since fund inception.

Caesar- Longtime investor/adviser
November 06, 2020

Gary -performance only funds management are nice in theory, but in practice they rarely survive, unless some-one else is paying their cost, which in turn leads to a vested interest/conflict/or they get fees by paying no interest on cash style products, etc.. Ask -Who is paying for the funds legal/accounting/tax/compliance/pds production & updating/investment managers & support people wages/IT systems and needs/Research fees, etc

 

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