Bestinvest says
By using primarily futures the manager a large degree of flexibility. By increasing the weighting to cash by up to 30% and buying longer dated futures volatility can be reduced. In the case of the latter, however, the manager is restricted by the underlying liquidity of the commodity which is a problem in several cases in this fund. Since launch the manager has effectively managed the downside of the fund but has failed to participate fully in market rallies. The fund also has a performance fee and is not available to investors using traditional UK platforms. It is also not ISA qualifying.
The manager is an experience futures trader and will use a number of techniques when managing the fund, such as investing on the flattest part of the futures curve to minimise volatility the cost through the roll yield, to help improve the performance of the fund. Otherwise the characteristics of futures mean that this fund will be volatile. In practice this fund has been volatile but not significantly more so than some of his peers who invest in direct equity. The manager is, however, unlikely to be among the less volatile in the sector.
As part of his process with regard to futures the manager makes use of technical analysis, specifically, Bollinger Bands, Stochastics, Mac-D, PTPS, moving averages and trend lines.
The manager has access to Schroders' considerable macro economists and equity researchers when composing the fund or looking for stock positions.