Can You buy shares in the FTSE as a whole

sabretoothtigger · 24 February 2009 at 8:47PM

l&g will also give back management fees for this year if you invest before april and leave it there till year end.
I would recommend gradually investment rather then lump sums though

sh856531 · 24 February 2009 at 9:40PM

My best friend has an index tracker with Fidelity.

Even before the 30% loss due to the banking crises, it didn't seem to have netted her any money though. I've never really been convinced by the whole "index trackers generally beat managed funds" thing but I know a lot of people say that. I'm not sure if its going to apply to the FTSE any time soon though.

Anywho - I think that my friends tracker is wrapped in an ISA so she doesn't have to pay tax on it. However you decide to get your tracker remember to look into getting it ISA'd if possible.

S

dunstonh · 24 February 2009 at 9:49PM

I've never really been convinced by the whole "index trackers generally beat managed funds" thing but I know a lot of people say that. I'm not sure if its going to apply to the FTSE any time soon though.

They dont. They beat managed funds with identical objectives. Problem is that managed funds dont often have the same objectives. FTSE all share tracker is consistently mid table and FTSE100 tracker has spent most of the last 15 years at the bottom. FTSE250 tracker had a good run in the growth years though.

sh856531 · 24 February 2009 at 11:06PM

dunstonh wrote: »

FTSE all share tracker is consistently mid table and FTSE100 tracker has spent most of the last 15 years at the bottom. FTSE250 tracker had a good run in the growth years though.

Hi Dunston,

Thanks for that. Do you happen to have a link to where I could find the sorts of tables you're refering to?

Many thanks

Simon

Tim_Nicholas · 25 February 2009 at 6:49AM

I have a Barclays Share ISA account... will look and see what I can do with it

dunstonh · 25 February 2009 at 10:20AM

. Do you happen to have a link to where I could find the sorts of tables you're refering to?

Take a look at Trustnet. I pay for the commercial version of it which is more detailed but the free consumer one is very good as it costs nothing. As a guide, look at the L&G index tracker funds and see for yourself where they come out over the years. Its an eye opener for those that read the MF blurb on how good trackers are.

http://www.trustnet.com/

Here are the stats that have been mentioned which you can verify independently by looking at trustnet or morningstar.

I have put the percentile in brackets. Sector average is mid table so would be 50. If a fund is (1) that makes it top. If it is (100) it makes it bottom. Each year is the discrete performance (that year only) I have also topped it off with the 10 year cumulative figures (if you started 10 years ago what would you have averaged)

[php]Year Sector Average L&G 100 L&G all share

1996 16.62 13.75 (73) 15.15 (60)
1997 18.29 26.99 (13) 22.01 (46)
1998 9.78 15.22 (23) 13.13 (35)
1999 26.07 17.30 (89) 23.18 (54)
2000 -4.58 -9.78 (89) -5.73 (53)
2001 -14.67 -15.41 (68) -13.17 (38)
2002 -23.55 -23.88 (58) -22.97 (42)
2003 22.66 15.32 (96) 19.99 (57)
2004 12.65 8.69 (85) 11.88 (48)
2005 21.23 17.94 (83) 21.11 (43)
2006 17.46 12.39 (89) 16.42 (53)
2007 1.62 4.83 (34) 4.45 (37)
10 year cumulative
5.55% 3.18% (94) 5.68% (46)

[/php]

So, we can see from those figures supplied by Financial Express that neither the FTSE100 or FTSE index trackers from L&G have managed to enter the top 10% of funds at any point since 1996. The L&G 100 did come close in 1997 by hitting 13% but over 10 years but spent most of the time at the bottom end. It had a cumulative return that put it ranked at 94%. You would have had a harder job picking a managed fund that fell into the bottom 6%. Also, the all share can be seen to be more consistent at the mid table range as you would expect.

donkeyballs · 25 February 2009 at 11:21AM

What you want is an ETF that tracks the FTSE100 index.
They work kind of like funds but they are traded as shares so you can follow your investment during the day just like a normal share.

The cost is also much much lower than a fund, typically between 0.3 and 0.5 % for index linked ETFs and if you're aim is to just track an index you also minimize the risk of a fund manager making stupid decisions that will affect your investment performance.

I've used this one from Barclays iShares in the past. It costs 0.4 % in management fee and currently pays 5.62 % dividend, which needless to say is much better than any interest paid on cash on deposit at the moment.
Just make sure that you check out tax liabilities etc. etc. before.

Do your own research, as they say.

http://uk.ishares.com/fund/fund_overview.do?fundId=157498

sabretoothtigger · 14 March 2009 at 9:41PM

Blue on this chart is FTSE all share vs Orange for an Asian index tracker excluding Japan

Canada index vs

caveman38 · 15 March 2009 at 8:40AM

This might be a silly question. You can buy shares in companies that are in the FTSE, but can you buy shares in the FTSE itself hoping for the number of points to increase ?

Ready to be corrected, but. You can trade in the indexes by using CFD's and spreads. These can be used to BET on the indexes either rising or falling.
Someone more versed than me can explain in more depth - or warn against.

cepheus · 15 March 2009 at 9:49AM

can you buy shares in the FTSE itself

Yes iShares FTSE 100 is what you are looking for. You buy them from any stockbroker (not just Barclays) here is a list. The FTSE100 is the first in the list

http://www.stockbrokers.barclays.co.uk/content/Public/Products_And_Services/ETF_factsheet.htm

iShares FTSE 100 is an exchange traded fund (ETF) managed by Barclays Global Investors and is listed
on the London Stock Exchange. That means you can buy shares in iShares FTSE 100 through a broker
as you would buy any ordinary share.

Can You buy shares in the FTSE as a whole

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