A good while back I put up a post on all the ways I liked Platinum Capital. I hope some of you were suitably convinced to have invested. Just as Kier Neilson (the firm's founder) made his name in the 1987 crash, this is how Platinum international fund has performed recently. The Y-axis doesn't seem to have come out - but the lines start at $10,000 and Platinum is now at ~ $9,000 with the index at ~ 7,250. Of course cash might have been better, but then you've gotta be in it to win it!
They didn't stuff up much on the way down, but they didn't go anywhere on the way up either.
The bull run started in March 2003. PIF was at about $1.45, and it's now at about $1.55, and it paid out about $0.80 over that period. Just keeping it simple, assume distributions weren't reinvested, and just held as currency. That's a return of about 9.2%.
Colonial First State wholesale Geared Share Fund, by way of comparison, started at about $1.75, and is now at about $1.85. But, it paid out $3.35 over the same period. Using the same assumptions, that's a return of about 22%.
As you say, you've got to be in it to win it, and PIF wasn't in it.
And by way of disclosure, I should add that I held units in both of these trusts over the period in question, and I'm not associated with Platinum, Colonial or any other financial services company.