Altshuler Doesn't Count on Luck

On October 10, TheMarker published an article on the management fees that Israeli mutual funds charge. It also mentioned Altshuler Shaham's Sufa as an expensive investment vehicle that charges its clients 4% management fees a year.

The article dubbed the fund managers "particularly brazen" and declared their fees to be scandalous. The author, Eytan Avriel, also wrote, "If the funds were to charge the sky but deliver it too, fine. But they don't."

The article did not mention the outstanding returns achieved by the Altshuler Shaham Sufa fund from its establishment to date. Nor did it mention that despite the high management fees, the fund is one of the best, if not the best, in the entire mutual fund sphere.

The article also said that luck plays an important role in the results of mutual funds.

If we had relied on luck, Sufa could not have outperformed. In my opinion, the role of luck is secondary. The more important thing in investment management is creativity and the ability to think "outside the box".

A good investment manager has to think two steps ahead, to know the market and all the instruments at his disposal.

The support staff of the investment manager are trained analysts and skilled traders, who execute the manager's strategy.

I dearly hope that with the help of our big team, which works 16 hours a day to maximize Sufa's returns, we can continue to outperform, including in comparison with ETFs, in the years to come.

The following table lists the returns that Sufa has achieved in recent years compared with the TA-100 index. Note that these are net returns, minus all fees: this is what investors take home. The numbers speak for themselves.