Hedge Clippings | 19 December 2025

It's too early to give clear accolades for the best performing funds for the year, but it's obviously clear that digital assets have been the worst performing peer group year to date, with an average performance of -13% to the end of November, and little chance to recover over the next 10 days. However, it does emphasise that a single year doesn't, or shouldn't, define digital funds, which returned 68% in 2024, and 86% in 2023 - and in keeping with their volatile nature, fell 50% in 2022.

Over 7 years on a cumulative basis, funds in the digital asset peer group have returned 49.17%, clearly eclipsing the various equity peer groups - small cap, large cap, alternative, local and global - which have ranged between 10 and 12% annualised over the past 7 years, which in itself is a pretty attractive return. Over the past 12 months to the end of November, the average across all Equity Peer Groups has returned over 15%.

Equities have certainly run hard, although sector-related, and averages don't really tell the whole story. Within all equity-based peer groups, over the past 12 months the worst-performing fund in the Top 20 funds returned 38.5%, with the Top 4 (all unsurprisingly resources-based) all exceeding 100%.

The question for 2026 will be, can the equity party continue after 3 strong years, as that appears to be the recent cycle - three strong years followed by a negative one, such as 2022 and 2018, where all equity groups gave away at least a portion of the previous three years' gains?  That's when diversification ticks in.

For details of all the above, visit www.fundmonitors.com or directly to the Peer group comparison page https://www.fundmonitors.com/peergroups.php.

We're approaching the end of the year, but Hedge Clippings is not quite ready to call it quits just yet. Given the tragedy and shock of Sunday's Bondi mass shooting, we were going to leave politics and interest rates alone this week, save to say that apparently the UK, US and others have issued a travel advisory to their citizens suggesting Australia is not a safe destination. Sadly. We never thought we'd hear that, but maybe we all need to work harder at being truly tolerant, irrespective of our views, background, religion or ethnicity, and understand how lucky we are - or should be - to live here.

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November 2025 Performance News

Altor AltFi Income Fund

Argonaut Global Gold Fund

Bennelong Twenty20 Australian Equities Fund

Insync Global Capital Aware Fund

Glenmore Australian Equities Fund

Argonaut Natural Resources Fund

Cyan C3G Fund

Insync Global Quality Equity Fund

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DAFM Digital Income Fund (Digital Income Class)

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Capitalizing on volatility in sustainable equities -

a strategic approach to uncertainty

Janus Henderson Investors

December 2025

(7-minute read)

Funds operated by this manager:

Janus Henderson Australian Fixed Interest Fund , Janus Henderson Conservative Fixed Interest Fund , Janus Henderson Diversified Credit Fund , Janus Henderson Global Natural Resources Fund , Janus Henderson Tactical Income Fund , Janus Henderson Australian Fixed Interest Fund - Institutional , Janus Henderson Conservative Fixed Interest Fund - Institutional , Janus Henderson Cash Fund - Institutional , Janus Henderson Global Multi-Strategy Fund , Janus Henderson Global Sustainable Equity Fund , Janus Henderson Sustainable Credit Fund

Disclaimer:

This article reflects the views of the author(s) at the date of publication and does not necessarily represent those of FundMonitors.com. It is provided for general information only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Market data, views, and forward-looking statements were current as at 1 October 2025 and may change without notice.

Past performance is not indicative of future results. Readers should consider their own objectives and obtain professional advice before making investment decisions.

1Citrini, 'Stargate: A Citrini Field Trip', (7 November 2025).

Active investing: An investment management approach where a fund manager actively aims to outperform or beat a specific index or benchmark through research, analysis, and the investment choices they make. The opposite of passive investing.

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI): A form of AI with the ability to understand, learn, and apply knowledge in a way that is indistinguishable from a human.

Artificial Intelligence (AI): The simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and learn.

Balance sheet leverage: The use of borrowed funds in addition to equity to finance the purchase of assets.

Bottom-Up stock picking: An investment strategy that focuses on analyzing individual stocks and their fundamentals rather than considering broader economic or market factors.

Capital expenditure: Money invested to acquire or upgrade fixed assets such as buildings, machinery, equipment, or vehicles in order to maintain or improve operations and foster future growth.

Helicopter money: A type of monetary policy that involves printing large sums of money and distributing it to the public to stimulate the economy.

Inflation: The rate at which the prices of goods and services are rising in an economy. The consumer price index (CPI) and retail price index (RPI) are two common measures; the opposite of deflation.

Large Language Models (LLMs): A type of AI model that is trained to understand and generate human language text.

Liquidity/Liquid assets: Liquidity is a measure of how easily an asset can be bought or sold in the market. Assets that can be easily traded in the market in high volumes (without causing a major price move) are referred to as 'liquid'.

Midterm Election: An election that occurs in the middle of a president's term, often leading to changes in the composition of Congress.

The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) is a major U.S. federal statute enacted on 4 July 2025. The bill represents the centerpiece of President Donald Trump's second-term legislative agenda and includes sweeping changes across tax policy, social programs, and federal spending priorities.

Passive investing: An investment approach that involves tracking a particular market or index. It is called passive because it seeks to mirror an index, either fully or partially replicating it, rather than actively picking or choosing stocks to hold. The primary benefit of passive investing is exposure to a particular market with generally lower fees than you might find on an actively-managed fund, the opposite of active investing.

Payment in Kind (PIK): A type of financing where interest payments are made in the form of additional debt rather than cash.

Pretend and Extend: A strategy used in credit markets where lenders extend the terms of a loan to delay recognising a problem loan as non-performing.

Private credit: Non-bank lending provided by private institutions, often involving loans to small and medium-sized businesses.

Sharpe ratio: This measures a portfolio's risk-adjusted performance for the purpose of measuring how far a portfolio's return can be attributed to fund manager skill as opposed to excessive risk taking. A high Sharpe ratio indicates a better risk-adjusted return.

Treasuries/US Treasury securities: Debt obligations issued by the US government. With government bonds, the investor is a creditor of the government. Treasury bills and US government bonds are guaranteed by the full faith and credit of the US government. They are generally considered to be free of credit risk and typically carry lower yields than other securities.

Valuation metrics: Metrics used to gauge a company's performance, financial health, and expectations for future earnings, e.g. P/E ratio and ROE.

Volatility: The rate and extent at which the price of a portfolio, security, or index, moves up and down. If the price swings up and down with large movements, it has high volatility. If the price moves more slowly and to a lesser extent, it has lower volatility. The higher the volatility, the higher the risk of the investment.

All opinions and estimates in this information are subject to change without notice and are the views of the author at the time of publication. Janus Henderson is not under any obligation to update this information to the extent that it is or becomes out of date or incorrect. The information herein shall not in any way constitute advice or an invitation to invest. It is solely for information purposes and subject to change without notice. This information does not purport to be a comprehensive statement or description of any markets or securities referred to within. Any references to individual securities do not constitute a securities recommendation. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. The value of an investment and the income from it can fall as well as rise and you may not get back the amount originally invested.

Whilst Janus Henderson believe that the information is correct at the date of publication, no warranty or representation is given to this effect and no responsibility can be accepted by Janus Henderson to any end users for any action taken on the basis of this information.