This morning RCM Technology Trust (RTT) issued their interim report for the six months to 31st May 13. As readers will already know, as I have declared it numerous times, I have been a NED at RTT since 2007. Indeed, it has been an extremely interesting – and rewarding – experience. I’ve always believed that Directors (incl. NEDs) should have‘skin in the game’. I invested in RTT the moment I joined the board and my shares have doubled since. Indeed they are up 34% in Calendar 2013 YTD. This performance, over any period of time you wish to take since 2007, has beaten 1) the Dow Jones World Technology Index (the benchmark for RTT) and 2) its main competitors – Polar and Herald. Actually by what one might call ‘a country mile’.
RTT is ‘index aware’ not an ‘index tracker’. Indeed most of the stocks RTT invests in are either not in the index at all or are very different weightings. RTT got out of Apple (the largest weighting in the Index) back in the autumn of 2012. Conversely, the very best performer has been Tesla (see my weekend post - Tesla – What a beauty) , the electric car and powertrain manufacturer, which has more than doubled in the last 6 months. Tesla is not in the Index at all. Other ‘rewarding’ holdings have been SunPower (solar electricity systems), Cree (LED lighting) and Western Digital (hard drives). The main holdings are in mid caps – which to Walter Price, the Fund Manager, still means stocks with a market cap >$1b. Apart from Tesla, the two biggest holding in the fund which runs to c70 different stocks, currently are Google and Cisco.
Not my role to give investment advice, but RTT is an interesting proposition for anyone looking to exposure in tech without the trouble of being an active ‘stock-picker’