AXA Framlington Global Technology Fund Class Z - Income (GBP)

The fund's significantly outperformed the broader Technology and Telecoms market, both since launch in April 1999 and since Jeremy Gleeson became lead fund manager in July 2007. Our analysis puts this down to the manager's ability to select companies with strong long-term growth potential. Remember past performance isn't a guide to the future.

The team behind the fund focus on investing in companies with progressive, quality management and high potential growth and profitability prospects. This may include exposure to smaller companies and some emerging markets, which both add risk. The managers feel that technology and innovation can drive change across the whole economy and investing over the long term is key.

The managers aim to build strong, long-lasting relationships with both the companies and their management teams, as they feel this provides an opportunity for higher levels of engagement, better insight into the company's actions and access to more accurate and honest information.

Trust in management and being able to understand the reasons behind strong or poor performance is key for long-term investing. Acting too rashly by removing or adding to the fund's investments may hinder performance, so a long-term focus has been embedded in the managers' investment process. On the other hand, higher-risk start-up or 'blue sky' companies are avoided by the managers. They believe these are largely unprofitable and tend to disappoint in the early stages.

The United States is home to some of the best-known and fastest growing technology companies in the world, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the managers invest the majority of the fund here. The rest of the fund is invested in companies across the UK, Europe and Asia.