If it were easy to pick winners consistently, then gambling companies would be much less profitable than they are (Greig Cameron writes). Similarly, in investing it’s not always clear which companies will go on to be Amazon or Apple and which will fall into obscurity. Managers at many of the funds run by Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh-based asset manager, appear to have a knack of finding winners and backing them.
Its Scottish Mortgage is the largest investment trust in Britain, with a market value of more than £16 billion and a place in the FTSE 100, thanks to long-term holdings in the likes of Amazon and Tesla, the electric car and battery company. It has done well, too, by backing private groups before they
