What funds can be classed as low risk ?

Jake'sGran

earlgrey wrote: »

I notice Blackrock Absolute Alpha has uncharacteristicaly lost value every day since the beginning of this month, now 2% down. Better than the FTSE All share's 3.5% but interesting.

I have just been doing some research on Trustnet where I list my portfolio and everything seems to have lost money this month. I am not just referring to the funds in my list. There is an awful lot of information on the Trustnet site. The two that are bothering me at the moment are Jupiter Income and Artemis UK Smaller Companies. But others are still making a profit e.g. Fidelity European and M & G Global Basics. Can't win them all as they say! I could switch without cost using HL but what to? But people say don't sell in a downturn. Like the man - Aegis - said "do your research". Listening to Money Box today I heard that Gold is a good way to go and that the commodities rise won't last. Maybe Learjet would feel safe with the good yields on Utility shares. Interest article in The Times today about this.

jon3001

learjet wrote: »

If, in 2-3 years time say, the funds were still worth £14k I'd be ok with that. If they grew by 5% or more I'd be happy. If they dropped to 10k I'd be disappointed but not suicidal.

If you're prepared for a 30% drop then a rough portfolio split would be 70% 'higher risk' investments and 30% bonds.

The higher risk bucket could contain a mix of things like exposure to developed and emerging stock markets (in both large and small company sectors), commodity futures and property. This is where both your big gains and losses would stem from.

The bonds would be high quality corporate and government issues preferably with a bias towards short (<5yr) maturities. This bucket limits your downside and adds stability to the portfolio.

Rebalance back to 70/30 each year to lock in gains, take advantage of market declines and restore the portfolio's risk profile.