New York (HedgeCo.net) – The global meltdown in stocks has caused at least one hedge fund manager to consider increasing its allocation to equities. British asset manager and hedge fund operator Aberdeen Asset Management Plc expressed those thoughts in an interview with Bloomberg.

Hugh Young oversees Aberdeen’s global equity assets as well as property and fixed-income assets. In his interview with Bloomberg he stated, “We are not moving to cash within our portfolios,” said Young in a telephone interview on Monday. “People will say this is unprecedented volatility and are remarkably gobsmacked but it all seems familiar. Having been looking after the same funds through the 1987 crash and the Asia crisis, this is comparatively small.”

In the Bloomberg article, Young also took at jab at the monetary policies of the West, stating “Maybe the markets just need a tipping point to expose the fragility of QE,” said Young. “It’s too late for the West to scroll back and reverse the damage done from QE. We now just have to sit back, take the pain and make sure our companies are doing all the right things.”

Mr. Young may be right about QE doing as much damage as it did good, but if we are going to “sit back and take the pain”, that doesn’t sound like the time to up your equity allocation.

Rick Pendergraft
Research Analyst
HedgeCoVest