Select 50: our favourite funds - selected by experts
Important information - please keep in mind that the value of investments can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest. Select 50 is not a personal recommendation to buy funds. Equally, if a fund you own is not on Select 50, we’re not recommending you sell it. You must ensure that any fund you choose to invest in is suitable for your own personal circumstances. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment you should speak to one of Fidelity’s advisers or an authorised financial adviser of your choice.
Expert recommendations to help you decide
With thousands of funds to choose from, building your portfolio can be a real challenge but Select 50 can help you choose from the range of funds available on our website.
The funds are chosen by investment experts and feature active and passive funds, investment trusts and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
We aim to limit the number of funds to 50, but at times it may be slightly more or less than this. They all represent the highest-conviction (or favourite) picks.
We partner with Fundhouse, an independent fund research company, to add independence and enhance our fund selection process.
Select 50 in the making
More than 3,000 funds, ETFs and investment trusts are screened for performance, consistency and a range of other measures. It’s not just about which funds have performed well, but why and whether it is likely to be repeatable.
This analysis is backed up by many hours of face-to-face meetings, where fund managers and their teams are questioned to ensure their process and philosophy remains on the right track.
Funds that make it onto our exclusive list do so solely based on their investment merit. There are no other considerations. We believe this is the best way to ensure that Select 50 helps our customers find funds that could help them achieve their investment goals.
Our Investment Director Tom Stevenson explains how the Select 50 can help you find funds to consider for your portfolio. He also looks at the research process and explores what it takes for a fund to be included on Select 50.
One fund combining a carefully chosen selection of investments, predominantly from Select 50.
Select 50 FAQs
Select 50 is routinely updated every quarter, though funds may be removed at any point during the year. Changes can occur for a variety of reasons, such as developing a new view on a fund or deciding that a different fund is better placed to deliver investment outcomes. Please note that if a fund you own is removed from Select 50, we’re not recommending you sell it.
Newly added funds
Following the October 2024 review, no new funds were added to Select 50.
Following the July 2024 review, the following funds were added to Select 50:
- Barings Europe Select I GBP Acc
- Fidelity Sustainable Emerging Markets Equity Fund W Accumulation Shares
- Brown Advisory US Smaller Companies Fund Sterling Class B Dis
Removed funds
Following the October 2024 review, the following fund was removed from Select 50:
- Balanced Commercial Property Trust
Following the July 2024 review, the following funds were removed from Select 50:
- Comgest Growth Europe
- Comgest Emerging Markets
- T Rowe Price US Smaller Companies
- Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust
- M&G Global Macro Bond Fund Sterling I Acc
Select 50 is designed to give you a wide range of funds to choose from, so the selection process starts with the investment categories that the funds deal in, including UK and US shares, real assets such as property, and various types of bond. Then the highest-quality funds are selected for each category, using a time-tested process.
This includes a ‘quantitative’ and a ‘qualitative’ analysis, both of which are described below. After these analyses are complete, a conclusion about the fund’s quality can be made.
Every fund on our website has a performance track record and this provides a rich source of data. This and other data are used to perform quantitative analysis. This may involve assessments of performance over different time frames and market conditions, looking at how the fund performs against peers and benchmarks, along with many other data-driven assessments.
From time to time, fund holdings will also be analysed. As well as helping narrow the fund list down, this type of analysis provides insights on other areas, such as how the fund is run, the consistency of the process, whether the manager is skilful and their approach to sustainability.
Qualitative analysis involves aspects such as meeting the key people involved in running the investment, asking them searching questions and studying the materials that accompany the fund. This is an important part of the research, as it can highlight areas a quantitative analysis may not see. For example, the quantitative analysis on a certain fund could be excellent, but the qualitative work might then uncover key personnel changes at the fund manager that could have an impact on performance in future.
Detailed qualitative due diligence is performed on Select 50 funds. During meetings with fund managers and the wider team, reviews will include the quality of the team, the investment philosophy, process consistency, if the fund managers invest in the fund, and how they are incentivised. These also assess how easily the funds can sell their holdings (a measure known as ‘liquidity’) and the sustainability credentials of the funds, together with detailed reviews of business structure, leadership and culture.
Select 50 is designed to be completely impartial. It includes funds from a range of fund managers and Fidelity is treated no differently to any other manager. Any funds selected are chosen on investment merit alone.
We partner with Fundhouse, an independent fund research company, to add independence and enhance our fund selection process.
No, the fund selection process for Select 50 is completely investment-led. There are no commercial considerations. While we believe cost is an important consideration when deciding whether to invest in a fund, we select funds for the list solely according to their investment merits.
