Jon, I happen to have funds in Trimark Fund right now.
My technique has varied over time, but right now here is my approach. I establish my allocation percentages in three categories (Fixed income, Canadian equity, Foreign equity). Then, in each of those three categories, I split my deposit between an index fund and the actively managed fund (available in my Manulife package) that has performed best over the last 5 years, provided it has beaten its index.
In the foreign equity category, my funds are currently split between ML Trimark Fund and ML BGI Interest’l Equity Index Fund.
As I recall, over the last troubled year, in Canadian equity my index fund outperformed the one actively managed by Fidelity but on the foreign front, Trimark Fund lost less than the index fund. (P.S. The Manulife server was down last night when I wanted to check this. It turns out that, as of March 31, the Fidelity fund had actually outperformed the index fund by an even better margin than Trimark Fund had done in the international category. Unfortunately, Trimark's IMF is high and that narrows the gap there.)
My technique has varied over time, but right now here is my approach. I establish my allocation percentages in three categories (Fixed income, Canadian equity, Foreign equity). Then, in each of those three categories, I split my deposit between an index fund and the actively managed fund (available in my Manulife package) that has performed best over the last 5 years, provided it has beaten its index.
In the foreign equity category, my funds are currently split between ML Trimark Fund and ML BGI Interest’l Equity Index Fund.
As I recall, over the last troubled year, in Canadian equity my index fund outperformed the one actively managed by Fidelity but on the foreign front, Trimark Fund lost less than the index fund. (P.S. The Manulife server was down last night when I wanted to check this. It turns out that, as of March 31, the Fidelity fund had actually outperformed the index fund by an even better margin than Trimark Fund had done in the international category. Unfortunately, Trimark's IMF is high and that narrows the gap there.)
