Hargreaves Lansdown and Unit trusts

cepheus

I realise Unit Trusts are financial instruments which are generally used for long term investments however the relatively low charges between buying and selling these with HL appear to make them suitable for shorter term strategies. The fact that they are only bought/sold at 12am isn't necessarily a major problem, however it takes 5 days between the purchase of units to when they are cleared and can be sold. With present volatile markets this means it is impossible to place any meaningful stop to prevent serious erosion of capital.

Is anyone aware of a Unit trust service in which they can be sold after 1 day in an emergency, or is the 5 day rule standard in the unit trust industry?

Aegis

If you're looking for a product that can be sold quickly, then unit trusts are not right for you. They are no good for short term trading at all.

Take a look at investment trusts. They have listed shares and can therefore be traded instantly. This might be more suitable for what you have in mind...

As always, do your own research until you're happy.

cheerfulcat

Yes, investment trusts or ETFs for intraday pricing and dealing.

cepheus

Yes I have used investment trusts for many years, but the spreads are high, stamp duty costs as well so a round trade is typically 1-2% possibly 3-4% when the market is moving fast. A few companies offer spread bets on investment trusts but this only overcomes the stamp duty.

I am really trying to trade UTs about 5-10 times a year each and normally they would be OK for this level of trading, but with the market gapping and wipsawing wildly during the past few weeks they have become totally inpractical with a 5 day 'paralysis' period. Even ITs would have been a problem.