Founders Fund

September 30, 2025

Fund Overview

• The Founders Fund is a balanced fund with a target asset mix of 60% stocks and 40% fixed income. To gain these exposures, it invests in Steadyhand’s other funds.
• Tom Bradley, Steadyhand’s Co-Founder, manages the fund along with Salman Ahmed, CIO. They have considerable scope to adjust the portfolio, although without extremes in valuation and investor sentiment, their bias is to stay near the target mix.

Portfolio Specifics

• The Founders Fund continued to ride the stock market wave. It was up 2.6% in the third quarter and 7.2% year-to-date.
• All the underlying funds have contributed this year. So far, the small-cap funds have led the way, along with the Global Equity Fund. The Equity Fund, our best performer for many years, had a tough third quarter, which held back Founders’ returns.
• It’s been a dynamic year in the markets, and as a result, Founders shifted gears a few times. In the first part of the year, the focus was on dialling down the risk by reducing equity allocations, but after markets sold off in mid-April due to President Trump’s Liberation Day, we reversed course. We added to stocks by shifting money from the Savings Fund to the Equity and Global Equity Funds, a move triggered by extremely negative investor sentiment (a reverse indicator) and more reasonable valuations due to the market’s overreaction. The purchases proved timely as stocks rallied dramatically. In the third quarter, however, we reversed course again, leaning against strong markets and bringing the equity allocation down to slightly below target (59%).
• The fund’s fixed income holdings haven’t nearly kept up with stocks (the bonds in Founders were over 3% year-to-date), but we remain positive on their outlook and added slightly to the Income Fund in the quarter. As a reminder, bonds provide an above-inflation yield and will be a good diversifier when stocks are weak and negativity is rampant. We have a meaningful position in the Savings Fund for similar reasons – income and downside protection. It doesn’t have the same return potential as our other funds, but it enhances Founders’ diversification and liquidity (which we tapped into in April).
• The largest transactions in the underlying funds during the quarter include the purchase of RICHEMONT (Switzerland), DAIEI KANKYO (Japan) and NETSKOPE (U.S.); and the sale of DANAHER (U.S.) and EMCOR (U.S.).

Positioning

• As outlined in Bradley’s Brief, we see the potential returns for cash, bonds and stocks being more tightly bunched than usual. Therefore, despite the current excitement around stocks, Founders will maintain a full position in cash and bonds and continue to use strong markets and fund flows to gradually reduce the stock allocation.
• As we always remind our clients, Founders returns are driven by the six underlying funds. Their strategies are laid out in the pages that follow.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with mutual fund investments. Important information about the Steadyhand funds is contained in our Simplified Prospectus. Please read the prospectus before investing. Mutual funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently, and past performance may not be repeated.