Andrew Mitchell unpacks Ophir's huge returns, says market can rebound from tariff war

It's hard to argue with a fund manager that's delivered investors a compound return of 22.4% per year after fees since setting up its flagship Australian small-cap fund in 2012.

The exceptional performance is the work of Andrew Mitchell and Stephen Ng the co-founders of Ophir Asset Management and two of its senior stock pickers that run the market-thumping Ophir Opportunities Fund. 

In this video, I was lucky enough to sit down with Andrew and ask him about Ophir's funds and how his investment team produces remarkable returns over a long period of time. 

Mitchell and his investment team all start work from their Sydney office at 7am or before to get an early grip on global markets and talk about stocks to potentially buy or sell for their funds.  

He says the current downturn in share markets sparked by US President Trump's tariff rollercoaster is more likely to prove a short and sharp correction, rather than a prolonged downturn. 

As a self-confessed student of market history he says the past shows how the global economy regularly goes through exogenous shocks such as a tariff war or the Asian financial crisis in 1997, with relatively quick rebounds. 

For now he puts Trump's tariffs into the exogenous shock category, but warns if they spill over into increased unemployment or a US recession then investors should prepare for a deeper correction.

Shares in Life360 are up 10-fold in five years as the family tracking app boasts nearly 80 million monthly active users and Mitchell says he still likes the business and its potential for growing earnings to translate into a rising share price. 

Moreover, he says the Life 360 app is largely growing by word of mouth as one family has an average five members on it who then tell other friends about its benefits. This means the app's user growth has accelerated, although it has not had to seriously lift its spend on advertising and marketing.