Argo, GameStop, Fundsmith Equity: most popular funds, shares and investment trusts of 2021

When coming up with your own investment strategy, it can be useful to consider what other investors are doing too.

Of course, what works for someone else might not fit with your own plans, but equally, there may be good reasons that particular stocks and funds are catching the eye of so many of your investing peers.

Now AJ Bell has published the details of the funds, shares and investment trusts that have been the most popular with its members as we approach the end of ISA season.

Let’s take a look at who is in there, how they compare to last year, and perhaps why they are winning the backing of investors

The most popular funds of 2021

We will start with funds. The table below details the 10 top-selling funds on AJ Bell in this period for both 2020 and 2021. 
 

As you can see, Fundsmith Equity remains a big draw among AJ Bell investors.

The fund is run by Terry Smith, perhaps the nation’s most well-known and respected fund manager following the implosion of Neil Woodford.

It’s been a steady performer for a long time and has had a good year, growing 18% over the last 12 months.

But what’s really striking is the sheer number of Baillie Gifford funds in the table for this year, with the firm boasting half of the 10 top sellers.

Baillie Gifford has built up an impressive reputation for consistency.

A recent study by FundCalibre looked at the various investment houses, and how their funds have performed against the sector averages over the last five years.

And Baillie Gifford romped to top spot, with its funds outperforming sector averages by an incredible 82% over that time period.

That’s impressive in itself, let alone the fact that it has 16 funds on the go ‒ far more than most of its rivals in that particular study.

The most popular shares

Now let’s have a gander at those top-selling individual shares from the early months of 2020 and 2021.

That 2021 list tells us an awful lot about the world we are in right now.

Argo Blockchain is a firm that works on cryptocurrency mining and has clearly been a huge beneficiary of the Bitcoin surge we’ve seen this year already.

To put it into context, the value of a single share in Argo has jumped from 33p back at the start of the year to £2.70 today.

Second spot is taken by GameStop, the video game retailer which of course was at the centre of the ‘wallstreetbets’ sub-Reddit controversy, when thousands of investors across the world backed the business in a bid to take on the short-selling hedge funds.

Tesla, the big name in electric cars, has also moved up the top 10 compared to last year, while pharmaceutical giant Glaxosmithkline has perhaps been targeted by investors as the world looks to vaccines to get us out of the pandemic.

Investment trusts

Finally, here are the big selling investment trusts of the year to date.

Scottish and Scottish Mortgage once again share the top two spots, albeit having swapped positions since last year.