Any firm that claims to be “an alternative to alternative investment management” should, at the very least, produce thought provoking investment strategies, if not stellar investment performance.

This is certainly the case at the London-listed Ruffer Investment Company (RIC), arguably the flagship vehicle of Ruffer LLP, which has acquired a justified reputation for managing client money in a more idiosyncratic way than most of its peers.

RIC has just posted a net asset value (NAV) return of 7.3 percent for the first quarter of 2021 and a 22.7 percent return over the past 12 months by holding a multi-asset class port...