Reasonable Portfolio?

carnet

simonhgreen wrote:

Is there any hidden agenda with the Wealth 150, or can I take it that is a reasonable (that word again) referral list?

Its OK - but of necessity, nearly as conservative as other IFA recommendations .

For the real action (ie gains) you have to look elsewhere - ie DYOR.

This does not necessarily mean higher risk - but it does mean knowing the market and often going for smaller, newer funds with talented (but often, as yet, unrecognised) managers in the right sectors at the right time ie funds whose track records are sometimes not yet long enough for them to be quoted by IFA's or even yet listed in the performance stats (a few of the funds I have money with never appear in some of the performance tables).

The skill (aka hard-graft) is in identifying and investing in those funds, taking your profit and moving on before the herd picks up on them and lumps in - very often after much of the action is over .

I did look at Fid European but have also read good things about the Artemis approach & philosophy so I thought I'd give them a punt.

Yes - of the two.

I know some contributors think I could be heavier in some specific markets, which I accept, but the question I'm really asking is that do you think overall it's a reasonable portfolio given the funds & managers, and likely to be more rewarding than trackers?

Definitely - for someone new to fund investing its a very good starting point .

EdInvestor

Simon

May I suggest you just do it?

Having made your decision and then asked for comment, there's not a lot of point in saying the comment is making you confused, is there?

carnet

simonhgreen wrote:

I'm getting to the point where I'm in danger of changing my mind too often.

If you are investing, as you say, for the long term, with no thoughts of switching out of your initial funds for the foreseeable future, it is important to be happy with your choices. So its worth taking your time. With many markets currently at multi-year highs there really is no rush (if you have to invest before 5 April, hopefully there will be a couple of down days you can utilise before committing the funds .

Having said that, if you're investing through a firm like HL, where the IC's are discounted to virtually zero on the vast majority of funds, it's no big deal financially to switch fund(s) subsequently.

All successful investors have to acknowledge when they've made a mistake (and we all do) and do something about it as soon as they realise. Do not make the error of many unsuccessful investors and become wedded to your investments - especially those showing a loss - which you can't bear to sell until you've at least broken even.

Many investors fail because they sell their profit making investments and hold on to their loss making ones.

Finally, with fund investing, there are two fundamental rules that I follow;

1. Being in the right sector/asset class is much more profitable than being in the right fund and

2. Follow the fund manager, not the fund.

dunstonh

If you are planning to leave long term without switching out then you should include portfolio rebalancing and ideally include a low risk fund to balance off against. Rebalancing is provided free of charge by some of the fund supermarkets now.

simonhgreen

What can I say?

Really interesting and some great comment (not advice, I hasten to add!) which I'm sure will stand me in good stead.

Far better (& cheaper) than reading all the Sundays et al.

Thanks to all & hope to see you in the First Class lounge some day!!