Aperture Discover Equity Fund: Commentary for Q2 2023

Quarter in Review

During the second quarter of 2023, the Fund and small cap market experienced a fair amount of month-to-month volatility as significant cross currents remain. We outperformed the benchmark by roughly 210bps net of fees during the second quarter with a reasonably healthy breadth of return, outperforming in 4 of 6 sectors of focus. Of note, we had 10 positions that generated double digit % returns during the quarter, offset by three double-digit % detractors. The Fund outperformed most meaningfully in both consumer and industrials, two sectors which comprise 65% of our total current exposure. 

While the Fund’s absolute and relative returns were strong for the quarter, it was volatile month to month, lagging the index meaningfully in May and then recovering and outperforming meaningfully in June. Over a two-month period, the Fund outperformed the benchmark by roughly 1%. We raise this point again because, as we’ve discussed in prior letters, we do not think month-to-month returns are especially informative for the Discover Equity strategy. Our concentrated approach, disciplined investment criteria focused on well-positioned companies experiencing long-term dynamic change, and multiple year investment time horizon are designed to provide a healthy but, at times, uneven long-term alpha stream.

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