FTSE at 3700 and no winners.

Dithering_Dad

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Yes please, if it's not too much hassle for you to do.

No probs NDG, I log in there every morning, even though I know it's not good for my nerves to be fretting on a day to day basis about so long a term investment as a pension. It'd only take a min to post the results in here, it's all anonymous and to be honest it'd pass the time quite nicely.

Here are the figures so far...

Closing price Weds 22nd October.
£63,746.55 - Amount my pension pot would be if I had left it alone.
£75,314.02 - Amount in my Cash Fund.

Closing price Thursday 23rd October
£62,252.37 - Amount my pension pot would be if I had left it alone.
£75,314.02 - Amount in my Cash Fund.

Closing Price Friday 24th October
£61,893.00 - Amount my pension pot would be if I had left it alone.
£75,362.45 - Amount in my Equities fund.

The first figure shows what my pension would now be if I had left it alone, (like so many do with pension investments) and not moved it into a cash fund for protection, the second shows the current amount.

As of Friday evening, I was £13,469.45 better off by having taken an active role in my pensions investments. My aim is obviously to increase this figure.

Generali

Be very careful DD. The market has a long way still to fall IMO.

Have you thought about hedging your bet?

Jonbvn

Wow, I see even HSBC & Santander are taking a hammering today. No stock seems immune.

Dithering_Dad

Hi Gen,

I agree that the market has a way to fall.

I therefore have the option of leaving my money in the Cash fund until I feel the bottom of the market is reached. I won't make any money, but I also won't lose any either.

Another option is to move my pension money back into my original funds and hope that if the major global crashes are out of the way, the fund managers will be able to navigate their way through the recession and purchase shares that will do well long term (after all they do this for a job and have more information at their finger tips than I do).

The final and more interesting option would be to try and ride the rises and falls of the market, obviously buying at the peaks and selling again in the troughs. This is very difficult to do when I can only buy funds at closing prices, but is do-able if there are huge swings.

sabretoothtigger

Santander are being shorted, they have made large purchases of failed banks with some toxic debt where they had none before apparently? Also the spanish market is suffering.
The hong kong stockmarket fell over 10% today while the sp500 looks willing to do the opposite

obviously buying at the peaks and selling again in the troughs

I suggest you do the opposite

payless

Assuming you are having to tell them before close - and then prices are based on close , and that each transactions costs in some way , then I can't see this being a clever way forward ( pot luck to have gained) IMO much better to leave in either cash or equities , then hedge using a spread betting firm, or consider an active SIPP where you can trade real time.

Dithering_Dad

payless wrote: »

Assuming you are having to tell them before close - and then prices are based on close , and that each transactions costs in some way , then I can't see this being a clever way forward ( pot luck to have gained) IMO much better to leave in either cash or equities , then hedge using a spread betting firm, or consider an active SIPP where you can trade real time.

My transactions are free, but I agree with you that my current pension arrangement is not ideal for active self-management. I have been waiting for the change in the law that allowed Protected Rights to be placed into a SIPP, now that it is in force (from 1st October 2008), I'll start looking into whether this would be a better vehicle for my pension.

My current thinking is to wait a couple of months to see how other people fare with moving their PR and follow suit if it goes well.

mewbie_2

One comment if I may. Seems normally sensible cautious and prudent people can move large amounts of money in and out of shares and call it investing. I used to call it that too. However, I think a more honest description would be gambling.

Not criticising, I fess up to it myself, but it can get you hooked with I imagine the same buzz as any gambler gets when his horse comes in, or doesn't.

Er. I should also say I am calling the bottom... again.. and expect to be calling it... again... several times over the next few weeks / months. Hopefully I won't have run out of money to 'invest' by then.

edit: Just needed to say that Japan stockmarket was once 40,000, now 7,000. Not sure why I needed to say it, just keeps me awake at night sometimes.

Californication

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

My transactions are free, but I agree with you that my current pension arrangement is not ideal for active self-management. I have been waiting for the change in the law that allowed Protected Rights to be placed into a SIPP, now that it is in force (from 1st October 2008), I'll start looking into whether this would be a better vehicle for my pension.

My current thinking is to wait a couple of months to see how other people fare with moving their PR and follow suit if it goes well.

I've transferred an old pension with PR to a Hargreaves Landown SIPP and it all seems to work really smoothly. Also, their charges look very reasonable.

--C

Generali

mewbie wrote: »

Just needed to say that Japan stockmarket was once 40,000, now 7,000. Not sure why I needed to say it, just keeps me awake at night sometimes.

I bought in at about 39,950. At least the JPY appreciated against the GBP on the way down which mitigated my losses.