With investors navigating geopolitical uncertainty, shifting interest rates and sharp moves across global markets, portfolio construction has become increasingly important in 2026.
We asked investment professionals which portfolios were attracting client money, which investments had performed well this year and what had driven their performance.
The responses show that there has been no single investment strategy driving returns. Instead, investors have been exposed to a range of approaches, including global macro funds, private debt, structured products, multi-asset portfolios and global equities.
Lee Cairn, partner, shareholder and senior wealth adviser at Anchor, highlighted three very different investments that have worked well in 2026: the Renegade Global Macro Hedge Fund, the Skybound Prism Income Fund and a structured product linked to SpaceX.
At Absa Investments, Ricardo Smith, chief investment officer, highlighted multi-asset balanced portfolios, income-enhanced solutions and global equity portfolios.
The different strategies demonstrate how investment managers are using different asset classes and approaches to address growth, income, diversification and capital preservation.
Renegade Global Macro Hedge Fund
Cairn's first selection is the Renegade Global Macro Hedge Fund, which has gained 17% in US dollars in 2026.
Cairn says: “A macro hedge fund is a fund which trades on macro themes (tariffs, oil prices, the legalisation of trading marijuana stocks in the US etc) and can position itself to make money regardless of the direction of the macro market.”
He says these funds are particularly suited to periods when markets are volatile and heavily influenced by economic and political developments.
“These funds thrive in markets which are volatile, irrational, and driven by emotion.”
According to Cairn, 2026 has provided a strong environment for the strategy because of the number of macroeconomic factors being driven by the Trump administration.
“2026 has been a great year for this style as the Trump administration has driven so many of these macroeconomic factors just mentioned.”
The Renegade fund is up 17% in US dollars this year.
Its strongest year was 2022, when the fund gained 61.4%, while world markets fell by 18%.
Cairn cautions, however, that the fund should not be viewed as a substitute for traditional equity exposure.
“This fund is not meant to take the place of equities in a portfolio. It is meant to complement an equity portfolio.”
That distinction is important because the fund's role is to provide a different source of potential returns rather than replace shares altogether.
Its performance in 2022 illustrates the potential diversification benefit. While global markets were falling, the macro strategy generated a substantial positive return.
Skybound Prism Income Fund
Cairn's second selection is the Skybound Prism Income Fund, a global private debt fund focused on generating US dollar income.
He describes the fund as follows: “A global private debt fund which creates USD income through a globally diversified portfolio by lending funds to global entities.”
The fund is also designed to have a different relationship with equity markets.
“This fund is uncorrelated to equity markets.”
Cairn says the current interest-rate environment has created an opportunity for private debt strategies to generate relatively high levels of US dollar income.
“We are now in a world with higher rates, leading to the opportunity for a fund like this to extract 7% to 8% USD per year.”
According to Cairn, the fund has never recorded a negative year.
The strategy therefore provides a different proposition from the Renegade fund. While the macro fund seeks to benefit from changing economic conditions and market volatility, the Prism Income Fund is focused on generating income through lending.
For investors, the two can therefore serve very different roles within a diversified portfolio.
The SpaceX structured product
The third investment Cairn highlighted is not a fund but a structured product linked to SpaceX.
The product was developed after substantial investor interest in buying shares in the newly listed US company.
Cairn says the concern was the price investors were prepared to pay amid the excitement around the listing.
“There was an incredible amount of hype on this company's IPO. And many clients were wanting to buy shares, regardless of the valuation.”
The investment team's concern was the price being paid for future earnings.
“Our concern is always in paying a premium for the future profits of a company.”
Instead of simply buying the shares, the team developed a structured product with a defined return and a degree of protection against a decline in the underlying share price.
Cairn describes the product as follows: “It is a note linked to the performance of the newly listed Spacex in the US.”
Under the terms supplied by Cairn, the product will pay clients 22% a year for three years, even if the SpaceX share price falls by 50%.
“And so we came up with the below, which will pay our clients 22% per year, for the next 3 years, even if the value of the Spacex share price falls by -50%.”
Cairn says the product was an example of the investment team's approach to developing alternatives to simply buying an asset that has attracted significant market enthusiasm.
“We were very proud of this innovative thinking.”
Absa sees demand for diversified portfolios
While Cairn's selections include alternative investment strategies and a structured product, Absa Investments is seeing strong interest in a broader range of portfolios.
Smith says the group is seeing strong interest in multi-asset balanced portfolios, income-enhanced solutions and global equity portfolios.
He says the demand is being driven by both market conditions and investors' longer-term requirements.
“This is largely a combination of the current macro and geopolitical backdrop as well as investor needs for diversification, income provision, capital preservation and real wealth creation over the long-term.”
Absa's multi-asset balanced portfolios are built around diversification and are intended to participate in market gains while offering protection during periods of heightened volatility.
“Our multi-asset balanced portfolios are anchored in diversification, whose core objective is to participate on the upside when markets rally whilst protecting on the downside during periods of heightened market volatility.”
The second category is income-enhanced solutions.
“Our income enhanced solutions aim to provide a superior yield to traditional instruments whilst ensuring positive returns in absolute terms, which is crucial in tight interest rate markets.”
This approach puts income at the centre of the portfolio strategy, rather than relying exclusively on capital growth.
Global equities remain important
Absa is also seeing demand for global equity portfolios, which provide exposure to a range of sectors and investment themes.
Smith says these portfolios are positioned to participate in growth areas such as technology and artificial intelligence while also providing exposure to established and defensive sectors.
“Our global equity portfolios aim to positively participate in global themes such as tech and AI, traditional sectors in finance and healthcare as well as defensive sectors like consumer staples – ensuring geographic, sector, quality, growth and value diversification within listed global equity markets.”
This gives investors exposure across sectors, geographies and investment styles rather than concentrating the portfolio around one theme.
Matching portfolios to investor objectives
Although the portfolios highlighted by Cairn and Smith are very different, both responses point to the importance of looking beyond headline performance.
A macro hedge fund, private debt fund and structured product have different objectives and risks from a balanced portfolio or global equity fund.
For Smith, the investment decision should be linked to what the client is trying to achieve.
“Strong historic performance over the medium-term and long-term, meeting our clients' objectives in-line with our outcomes-based advice process, with a clear link to what our clients are trying to achieve.”
He says Absa's approach is to provide solutions across different risk profiles and investment objectives.
“We offer an end-to-end investment preposition for our clients across the risk-spectrum, philosophies, investment vehicles, distribution channels and investment objectives to solution for our clients’ needs.”
For investors, the different strategies highlighted by the two investment professionals underline an important point: performance needs to be considered in the context of the role an investment plays in a portfolio.
The Renegade fund has benefited from a volatile macroeconomic environment. The Skybound Prism Income Fund is focused on generating US dollar income through private debt, while the SpaceX structured product was designed around a specific company's share-price performance.
Absa's portfolios take a broader approach, combining diversification, income and global equity exposure.
The strongest-performing investment is not automatically the most appropriate one for every investor. What matters is understanding what is driving the return, what risks accompany it and whether the investment fits the investor's objectives, time horizon and tolerance for risk.
In 2026, the opportunities have been spread across very different parts of the market. For investors, the challenge is not simply identifying where returns have been strongest, but understanding why they have been achieved and whether that performance can play a useful role in a properly constructed portfolio.
THE NATIONAL