The Fund rose by 1.57% in October, ahead of its performance comparator of cash (as measured by the Bank of England’s Sterling Overnight Index Average (“SONIA”)) + 5%, which rose by 0.39%.

October was a positive month for the UK stock market, as measured by the FTSE 100 index which rose 2.13%. The UK did lag other developed markets, however, amid concerns over bottlenecks in the global supply chain stunting economic growth. There were also continuing concerns that labour shortages and the consequential wage growth was likely to make inflation more persistent than originally expected.

No strategies had an observation point in October, but one new strategy was added during the month, based on the FTSE CSDI index. An eight-year strategy, the index must be the same or higher than its starting level on any anniversary to mature with a gain, paying 8.08% simple for each year it is in force. We also took advantage of favourable pricing to increase the size of an existing over-the-counter strategy. With just over four months to go to its first anniversary, and the underlying index up 6.48%, this strategy was still pricing at just above par, giving the opportunity to capture a higher annualised return should the index mature at its first observation.