While Lindsell Train is a name known by retail and professional investors alike, it was Groupama Asset Management hitting first place for its Avenir Euro fund that might raise an eyebrow for those following SharingAlpha’s monthly results.

As readers of fundeye are no doubt aware, SharingAlpha is a site whereby professionals in the funds industry such as fund selectors choose products and providers, building up a reputation, as well as a greater weighting for successful choices.

In the products section, Groupama AM was followed closely by well-known bond specialists Pimco with its GIS Income Fund. Tied for third was Morgan Stanley’s INVF US Advantage Fund with Seilern’s World Growth Fund, both using a growth tilt with the former, as the name suggests, focused on the US market. The latter shows the rising power of boutique firms and perhaps the expertise of those selecting the funds who do not just look at AUM when it comes to funds.

In the providers league table, following on Lindsell Train is another retail investor favourite Fundsmith. In third place is one of the US’ oldest financial institutions Capital Group, which owns American Capital.

The methodology that SharingAlpha uses to determine its fund selection criteria includes three parameters on which the overall rating is determined. These are:

• People - The experience and competitive edge of the fund manager and their team;
• Price - The cost of the fund;
• Portfolio - The way the strategy is run in terms of risk management.

The firm then calculates the average ratings assigned by its users to each fund. SharingAlpha only takes into account ratings from users that they can identify as professional fund buyers. Therefore, the results do not include ratings coming from users that are, for example, non-financial industry members or fund providers.

In the coming weeks, fundeye will be publishing interviews of those fund selectors and products most highly rated on SharingAlpha.