The sharpness with which young fund managers attack on investment is impressive. The Wonder Equity Mixed Fund Index, which represents the performance of active equity funds, has rebounded 18% since the bottom in early February. This round of rebound can be said to be the largest rebound of active equity funds in recent years.
Many fund managers seized the opportunity of this rebound to draw a beautiful upward curve in the net value of their managed products. In particular, young fund managers are the most outstanding. Many "newcomer" fund managers have emerged, capturing the hearts of holders with their excellent performance, and the scale of management has grown against the trend in the first quarter of this year. However, high returns are inevitably accompanied by high volatility, and the performance of "newcomer" fund managers is unstable, and the net value of the products under management fluctuates greatly, which makes fund holders "terrified".
"Newcomer" fund managers act as "pioneers" of the rally
In the short-term ranking of public fund performance, there will always be "new faces", which seems to have become a common phenomenon.
As of May 5, the performance of Tibet Dongcai Digital Economy Preferred Fund A rose 28.86% during the year, ranking first in the performance list of active equity funds this year. Luo Qing, the fund manager of the fund, has been a fund manager since March 2022, with more than 2 years of tenure and more than 7 years of experience in the securities industry.
In recent years, the structural situation of the A-share market has become prominent, the performance of public funds has been differentiated, and the rise of some emerging tracks has exacerbated the extreme differentiation of the performance of active equity funds. With an accurate grasp of investment opportunities in the new track, some "newcomer" fund managers who have not been in the fund manager for a long time continue to emerge, and the net value of the fund products under management shines.
As Luo Qing mentioned in the fund's first quarterly report, the TMT sector is also greatly differentiated, and AI, especially the sub-sectors supported by performance, such as optical modules, continue to hit new highs, but most stocks still have a large drawdown since the beginning of the year. From the optical module in February to the Sora Wensheng video in early March to Kimi in mid-to-late March, the stock prices of related stocks have seen a short-term surge and plummet.
The young fund manager who also bet on the AI track and achieved good results is Liu Huiying of Nuoan Fund. Liu Huiying joined Sino Asset Management in December 2020 and started as a fund manager in August 2022, serving for less than two years. The algorithms, applications, and computing power of the AI track under her management have been actively rewarded, and the results have been 24.4% year-to-date.
Yin Zhibin of Oriental Alpha Fund and Guo Yunsong of Bank of China Fund have been fund managers for about half a year, and the fund products under management have risen by 22.29% and 14.88% respectively this year, ranking at the top of the performance list. It can be said that at the beginning of his debut, he started the highlight moment of his career.
In addition, Xu Tuo of Yongying Fund, Yuan Li of China Southern Asset Management and Rong Zhineng of Baoying Fund have been fund managers for less than three years and have achieved good results this year.
Young "newcomer" fund managers have performed well and are also favored by holders, and funds are pouring in. The data shows that the scale of high-performance products managed by Luo Qing, Liu Huiying, Xu Tuo and Yuan Li all achieved contrarian growth in the first quarter of this year. Among them, Liu Huiying's latest total management scale has exceeded 20 billion yuan, becoming the fund manager with the shortest tenure of 10 billion yuan.
High volatility makes holders say "can't stand it"
"Newcomer" fund managers have achieved ultra-high performance by relying on the products they manage, and have conquered the hearts of many people. Rather than its lack of rich "investment history", holders seem to care more about performance.
In particular, the rise of emerging industries makes investors feel "excited" due to their active innovation and broad development prospects. For holders with a very high risk appetite, funds that concentrate on holding stocks to chase high returns are still their favored objects.
From the perspective of fund managers, the Internet-based fund sales are superimposed on the extreme structural market, and funds that mainly invest in emerging industries are more likely to obtain high exposure, and fund managers are more likely to get out of the circle. Some "newcomer" fund managers who have no investment experience in traditional industries travel lightly and are less constrained when investing in emerging industries, which is also conducive to getting out of the circle.
However, high returns are inevitably accompanied by high volatility, and the performance of "newcomer" fund managers is unstable, and the net value of the products under management fluctuates greatly, which makes fund holders "terrified".
For example, although the fund managed by Luo Qing, manager of Tibet Dongcai Fund, ranked first in the active equity list this year, the fund also experienced a maximum drawdown of 48.35%, close to halving. Yang Qiupeng, who has served as a fund manager for less than two years, has achieved 19.09% of the results of Changsheng Internet + A under his management this year, and has also had a maximum drawdown of 49.18 in the past two years.
There is a constant influx of "new" people
In recent years, the total scale of public funds has expanded rapidly, and the number of public fund products has exceeded 11,000, according to data released by the Asset Management Association of China a few days ago, as of the end of March 2024, the net asset value of public funds in mainland China has reached 29.2 trillion yuan, both of which are at a historically high position.
At the same time, the pool of fund managers is constantly expanding. Especially with the rise of emerging industries in recent years, fund companies have a strong demand for talents with emerging industry research and investment backgrounds, and the emergence of new faces in the fund manager team has become inevitable.
According to the data, at the end of 2014, the number of domestic public fund managers exceeded the 1,000 mark for the first time in history. In 2019, there were more than 2,000 fund managers. In June 2022, the number of fund managers exceeded 3,000 for the first time. As of May 5, 2024, the number of fund managers has reached 3,761, of which 1,624 have served as fund managers for less than three years, accounting for 43%.
With factors such as the cold of fund issuance and the unsatisfactory performance of active equity funds, the number of first-time fund managers has declined. A third of this year has passed, and the number of first-time fund managers is only 152, the lowest level in recent years. Although the proportion of "newcomer" fund managers is gradually decreasing, the absolute number remains high.
In the eyes of industry insiders, the continuous influx of "newcomers" and the growth of the number of fund managers will increase the competition of the industry team, which is conducive to the healthy development of the capital market. While outstanding young fund managers display their talents, there will also be fund managers who are trapped in poor performance and "leave the market".
It is worth noting that the "newcomers" who continue to pour into the team of fund managers, although they are not experienced enough in investment, are not young in industry research, and some are even well-known in the industry.
For example, Yung Zhineng of Baoying Fund has been a fund manager since March 2023 and has been a fund manager for just over 1 year. In fact, he has eight years of experience in the securities industry, he is a master's degree in electronic science and technology from Zhejiang University, a network engineering project manager at Guangdong Electric Power Design and Research Institute, a researcher in the home appliance industry at GF Securities, a communications industry researcher at China Investment Securities, and a co-chief of the communications industry at Tianfeng Securities, and joined Baoying Fund as an industry researcher in December 2020.
Xu Tuo has served as a fund manager for less than three years, but has 11 years of experience in the securities industry, and has worked in investment research in CITIC Securities, China Europe Fund, and ABC Huili Fund.
In particular, some fund managers with industrial background and sell-side researcher background have accumulated rich research experience before managing products, and are familiar with stock selection and industry trend judgment, which can effectively make up for the lack of investment experience in the early stage of their investment career.
Editor-in-charge: Tactical Heng
Proofreader: Tao Qian