For funds, life begins at the age of three. That’s when you accumulate a performance track record and enough business to avoid your group pulling the plug. It’s also the earliest time that most fund selectors will consider a strategy for their buy lists.

Not every fund reaches this landmark in the same shape. Some have lit up their sectors with performance, while others limped over the line. Meanwhile, some sales departments will still be sweating over every dollar of assets under management, as others reach three years ready to steal market share from incumbents.

Each month Citywire Amplify will highlight funds that have recently crossed the threshold and turned in top-quartile performances in the process.

Twenty-eight Ucits funds chalked up their first three-year numbers last month while delivering top-quartile returns.

The largest of these portfolios is the $1bn Antecedo Defensive Growth fund, an interesting tech fund. It uses an options overlay to boost income as well as protect on the downside. Its 69.5% gains over the past three years put it in the fourth percentile within Citywire’s Technology sector, having held up very well during the selloff in big tech. However, the fund is only available in Germany.

Next up is CPR’s $830m Smart Trends portfolio (to be found in Citywire’s Alternative Ucits – Multi Strategy sector). The Luxembourg-domiciled fund of funds is widely available across the continent and is on the defensive end of the spectrum, with big stakes in money market and absolute return mandates.

Candriam’s Belfius Equities Climate fund ($680m) is a newcomer to the rapidly growing Ecology sector. Given that most of the large portfolios in this space are now capacity-constrained, and the sector continues to take in new money, good performance like this will draw in more assets.

Eaton Vance Emerging Market Debt fund is another fund which catches the eye. The sector (Morningstar’s Global Emerging Markets Bond) is very hot among investors and the fund’s performance is second percentile in the sector over the past three years, restricting losses to just 2.2% vs a 20% decline in the JPM EMBI Global Diversified index.

The last of the significant portfolios is the $190m PGIM Wadhwani Keynes Systematic Absolute Return fund. In addition to being a mouthful, the fund is up 20.6% over the past three years in our Global Macro category, good enough for a 15th-percentile berth.

All Alternative Ucits categories have experienced significant interest amid the market volatility. With the strategy available across the European continent, it stands to reason that it is assets will grow.