Helios Flexi Cap Fund is bold and beautiful, guns 10 per cent alpha in first year

It's not every day that a flexi-cap fund delivers 10 per cent alpha in its first year. Helios Flexi Cap Fund, which completes its first year in November , is only the 12th such fund to do so. That's not the only feather in Helios Flexi Cap Fund's cap. For starters, the fund invested 100 per cent of its investors' money in the market at a time when many other funds sat on cash due to concerns over market valuations. Secondly, despite boldly deploying all the money in a seemingly expensive market, Helios Flexi Cap Fund fell just 3.1 per cent in October, compared to the overall market tumbling more than double that, at 6.5 per cent. For those confused as to what's so remarkable about this, here's a cricketing analogy: Helios swung its bat to a century on a seaming and swinging pitch, whereas the cautious market's defensive shot was nicked to the slips. Bold as Helios Helios also did some out-of-the-box thinking. It invested 15-20 per cent of its assets in companies that were held by less than 20 diversified equity schemes. Even now, Helios has a fifth of the money in 20 such unusual stocks. And boy, have they delivered? Six such stocks held since inception have contributed to 80 per cent of the alpha. These Super Six stocks have played a