Skip to main content
award winning funds

Alexander Lane takes a two-pronged strategy when trying to snap up winners for his Dynamic Power Small Cap Fund.

"I consider myself to be a conservative growth manager," says the portfolio manager with Goodman & Co. Investment Counsel Ltd., which runs Dynamic funds.

He likes to buy secular growth firms that are less economically sensitive, but are "great companies" with strong margins, free cash flow, good balance sheets, and long-term track records of rising revenue and profits.

But he also looks for cyclical stocks that can have run up nicely over the shorter term because of drivers such as a rising commodity prices or order books, and give the fund some extra zip. "I like to buy my cyclicals when they have been hit hard, and are out of favour," Mr. Lane said.

"Just as important as buying them right is selling them right" so that profits can be redeployed back into the secular growth stocks that have not been on a roll, said the 35-year-old manager.

The complete list of Lipper funds of the year award winners

  • Top mutual funds over one year
  • Top funds over three years
  • Top funds over five years
  • Top funds over 10 years
  • Group award winners


His fund won Lipper awards in the Canadian focused small-to-mid-cap equity group for three and five years. It posted an average annual loss of 1.8 per cent for the three years ended Dec. 31, 2009, compared with a loss of 1.6 per cent for the BMO Nesbitt Canadian Small Cap Index. Over five years, the fund has an average annual return of 6.4 per cent.

He suggested that his preoccupation with risk may stem from his family influence: His father was once chief investment officer and a value manager with a major insurance company. "I used to watch Wall $treet Week with him on Friday nights when I was small," Mr. Lane recalls.

He expects commodity stocks to do well in the first part of this year, but give way to defensive stocks mid-year as investors become more concerned by weaker economic growth. Technology and industrial sector stocks should improve throughout the year, he said.

Cat:e528746c-3414-401a-b14b-50247e3bdf01Forum:726cb897-65e7-4529-a1da-c5192c9aa85a

Interact with The Globe