Even the best fund managers are only as good as their next call. The past year was a classic stock picker’s market: the S&P/ASX 200 Index went nowhere but double-digit returns were achieved by some of the shrewdest investors. Even the top funds had their dogs, however, and, with this in mind, The Australian Financial Review asked five experts to reflect on their best and worst bets in 2014, and more important, to forecast a winner for 2015.

Allan Gray , the top-performing long-only Australian share fund over the 12 months to November according to Mercer’s survey, maintained its five-year double-digit-return record in 2014.