Not all DFMs think fixed income – especially in the US – is a particularly nice place to be over the coming months, given the expectation for further interest rate cuts. 

The team at Quilter Wealthselect have acted upon this sentiment by selling up a wodge of their bond exposure and using the proceeds to top up their alternatives holdings. 

In practice this means a proportionate 4 per cent reduction in fixed income holdings in Quilter Wealthselect's balanced portfolio.

“With fixed income yields already pricing in numerous cuts, we felt now was the right time to reduce our overweight position and shift the funds into liquid alternatives to broaden the diversification properties of the non-equity holdings in the portfolio,” said Stuart Clark, lead portfolio manager.

That said, he remains keen to get back involved with fixed income should the opportunity arise.

They’ve also cut down their exposure to gold – via the Quilter Investors Precious Metals fund – as the recent spike in prices gave them an opportunity to spread some profits into equities.

Quilter had a couple of other concerns around the precious metal that fuelled the cut – namely, strong price moves and a buoyant investor appetite put them off further investment. 

This tapering down is the direct opposite to what multi-asset provider Robeco is doing – they’ve recently added a tactical gold position in response to the very same news. 

"Central bank demand, growing Asian wealth and right-wing liberals are the main reasons to be bullish," said Arnout van Rijn, fund manager of their sustainable multi-asset strategy.