Two of Britain’s most acclaimed star fund managers – Terry Smith and Nick Train – are both struggling with a multi-year spell of disappointing returns. Yet they are reacting in very different ways. Smith seems inclined to blame passive investing, company management, the state of the economy, analysts, the state of the market in general and practically everybody else, as seen in his latest letter. Conversely, Train has castigated himself and apologised at length for letting investors down, as anybody who attended the Finsbury Growth and Income (LSE: FGT) meeting this month will know.
The truth surely lies between the extremes. Train has made mistakes in stock selection, but so has Smith (as we all do). At the same time, both have…
