Investment funds are living the worst start of the year since 2022. In Spain, these products accumulate losses in the year of almost 10,000 million euros. Donald Trump’s closure for imposing tariffs on all countries of the world – with his consequent responses by the attacked – has triggered uncertainty, more consumer and braking investments assets more than the planet. In this complex market context, some products have managed to prevail and achieve positive results.
Even being clear that the bags will have a strong correction, it is not always easy to be able to anticipate, hit with the times or have the flexibility to seek assets or alternative strategies. That is why there are some managers who specifically design their modes of operating to stick to established volatility levels, registering funds that can buy all kinds of financial assets to adapt to each moment of the market.
1. Olea Neutral
This is the case of the neutral O oily fund, designed to try to minimize market volatility and dodge temporal losses. So far this year has been revalued 2.7% and in the last five years it has given an average return of 5.8%. Hernán Cortés, who has managed the product for years, explains that at the end of 2024 they were reducing the portfolio risk “because we saw that the bag was expensive and that the Trump administration could give many shocks.”
How to go before the storm? In Olea, specifically, the weight of the rent variable to 25% was reduced (when the historical average is 40%), the weight of the technological sector was cut – the most overvalued -, the weighting of the sovereign bonds was increased, coverage were hired to protect themselves from the devaluation of the dollar and opted for longer deadlines for fixed income. “We also had some specific actions, such as introducing some Chinese technology in portfolio, which have worked very well, as well as the use of financial derivatives such as the sale of ‘puts,” summarizes Cortés.
Share sales options –putsin jargon – they are financial contracts that give the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to sell an action at a certain price (exercise price) before a specific date. They are mainly used to protect a portfolio against falls (such as insurance) or to generate income by selling them – as is the case of Olea managers – if you are willing to buy the shares, in case they fall, at the agreed price.
2. Dunas prudent value
The Capital Dunas Asset Manager has stood out since its creation for leaving conventional schemes. Far from having a pair of stock market funds, others of fixed income in the short long term, and some mixed fund, opted for the least conventional path. They designed some products in which a theoretical objective of profitability and an acceptable fork for price oscillation were marked.
For example, in the case of its star product, dunes prudent value, it intends to achieve positive profitability in any market environment, maintaining a maximum annual volatility of 5%. Its objective is to give what the Euribor pays for 12 months plus 100 basic points. To achieve this, their managers do not look at a specific type of asset, but seek at all times the most appropriate investment.
In its almost eight years of life, the product has worked as a clock, generating accumulated profitability of 16.5% with hardly any shocks. Not even in 2022, when practically all financial assets fell to lead. So far this year adds 1.3%. As for the strategy adopted, the purchase of short and medium term bonds issued by European and North American financial entities has predominated. The extreme flexibility of the vehicle causes even a small part of the stock market, focused on 2025 in companies in the defense sector.
3. ACACIA Dynamic Income
The Acacia Dynamic Income Fund has a mixed and flexible investment format, designed to offer a higher profitability to that of traditional fixed fixed income, maintaining a moderate risk profile. In the last five years it has generated an average annual return of 5.6%, with very little volatility. And so far this year adds another 0.84%.
The product combines two strategies. A part of the portfolio is for short -term fixed income in the short term: it invests in bonds with good credit rating and nearby maturities, which provides stability and liquidity. Sophistication comes with the second part.
Fund managers are dedicated to the systematic sale of volatility: they use derivatives, mainly through the sale of options put on indices such as IBEX 35 and Eurostoxx 50. This strategy allows the fund to obtain additional income through premiums charged by these options, taking advantage of market volatility. “When there are strong falls and scares fear in the market, the actors are willing to pay us a major premium to achieve protection, so we improve the margins and recover very soon from the corrections,” they explain from the firm.
The objective is to achieve an annual unusual profitability of approximately 3%, above the 10 -year Treasury letters, with an investment horizon of 6 to 12 months.
4. UBAM Global High Yield Solutions
It is a fixed income strategy managed by Union Bancaire Privée (UBP), focused on offering liquid exposure to the global high -performance bond market (high yield), with active management aimed at maximizing risk -adjusted profitability.
Felipe Lía, responsible for this Switzerland firm in Spain, explains that in the entity “we have proven over years that the most efficient way to approach this asset is taking positions in CDs indices, which ends up being a more liquid format and gives greater return.” The manager refers to insurance against business taxes –credit default swaps (CDS) -, but in index form, not for each individualized bonus.
When moments of maximum financial tension arrive, those high profitability bonds burn in the hands of investors. No one is clear what companies may break, so nobody wants to buy their debt. In those moments the hiring of non -payment insurance is triggered. “This fund invests in CDs indices, which is where coverage is included for the most liquid companies and with the highest negotiation volume: 100 for the American index and 75 for the European,” he says.
The aforementioned fund has achieved an average annual return of 5.5% in the last five years and in the current one, it is practically flat, despite the volatility generated by the commercial war.
5 DUX MIXTO MODERATE
This is one of the best defensive mixed funds of those who are marketed in Spain, with an annual average profitability of 4.4% in the last five years and achieving a small advance in what is going on this convulsive exercise.
Among the clearest bets of this vehicle is the European stock market, with 22% of the portfolio in an index of Eurostoxx 50. Its managers also maintain a firm conviction with respect to gold, one of the assets that has best worked in the last quarters.
The fund is managed by the firm Dux Inversiones, which is now in the process of integration with Abante. According to the latest data provided by the Morningstar firm, 32% of the bottom portfolio is in the stock market, 30% in bonds and 28% in liquidity (the rest is in derivatives).
6. DWS Kaldemorgen Concept
Klaus Kaldemorgen is one of the proper names in the European asset management industry. The star manager of DWS – a signature controlled by Deutsche Bank – has always been characterized by having an own and prudent investor approach. After Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential elections, he already warned that his policies could cause a collapse in world trade.
Its flag fund, the DWS Kaldemorgen Concept, has endured very well the corrections of the first months of 2025, practically timing. Its average return in the last five years has been 5%. Its objective is to achieve positive yields in any market environment.
At present its portfolio has an important weight of gold – through quoted funds that replicate the evolution of the price of precious metal. It also continues to maintain almost 42% in the stock market, with investments in large European multinationals such as Axa, Allianz, Roche or Deutsche Telekom. In addition to some Americans, such as Alphabet or Microsoft, which are the most penalized in the background.
