Staggered by my investment portfolio

Stavros_3

My story starts towards the end of 2008. I had a very large sum tucked away in a fixed rate savings account of 7%. Then the rates started to go south and we entered recession, the FTSE was almost rock bottom and so I looked at my options. I had never invested before so I had a long discussion with an IFA we had known for years. My biggest concern to him was "Is it wise to start investing as we are entering a recession" He persuaded me with graphs, figures, history (the usual stuff) that there was no better time.

After the usual risk assessment I decided to go from cash deposits to investments, our risk was assessed as medium so with a lot of trepidation my IFA went with a large well known wealth management company for a minimum of 5 years. My portfolio is extremely diverse with only a small percentage in equities.

Now 7 months down the line I have just checked my portfolio on line and my capital has increased by 9.5% to date excluding dividends!!!. I am well impressed, if not surprised. Yes I appreciate and understand that this could, and may go down, but I'm staggered to say the least at how well so far its doing.

Did anyone else, like me take the jump into investing whilst going into recession?.

gozomark

My portfolio is extremely diverse with only a small percentage in equities.

whats the rest in ?

Stavros_3

gozomark wrote: »

My portfolio is extremely diverse with only a small percentage in equities.

whats the rest in ?

UK Equity
Global Equity
UK Corporate Bonds
Overseas Bonds
Hedge Funds
Structured Products
Port Funds
Cash

Wookey

Starting from scratch and knowing nothing about the markets and reading thru posts on here and doing my own research, by CoB on friday i'm approx 90% up, this is mostly down to one stock, i've done a small amount of selling/rebuying back shares to increase the holding on it, i haven't invested a penny though that i couldn't afford to lose.

Aegis

Stavros wrote: »

My story starts towards the end of 2008. I had a very large sum tucked away in a fixed rate savings account of 7%. Then the rates started to go south and we entered recession, the FTSE was almost rock bottom and so I looked at my options. I had never invested before so I had a long discussion with an IFA we had known for years. My biggest concern to him was "Is it wise to start investing as we are entering a recession" He persuaded me with graphs, figures, history (the usual stuff) that there was no better time.

After the usual risk assessment I decided to go from cash deposits to investments, our risk was assessed as medium so with a lot of trepidation my IFA went with a large well known wealth management company for a minimum of 5 years. My portfolio is extremely diverse with only a small percentage in equities.

Now 7 months down the line I have just checked my portfolio on line and my capital has increased by 9.5% to date excluding dividends!!!. I am well impressed, if not surprised. Yes I appreciate and understand that this could, and may go down, but I'm staggered to say the least at how well so far its doing.

Did anyone else, like me take the jump into investing whilst going into recession?.

I already had an investment lump sum, but when the market crashed I took the opportunity to invest at a higher rate than normal, and my investments from this year are seeing a growth of somewhere in the region of 20%. Total portfolio is still down from its high, but those investments at the bottom of the market are going to make my return to break-even much faster.

Aegis

Stavros wrote: »

UK Equity
Global Equity
UK Corporate Bonds
Overseas Bonds
Hedge Funds
Structured Products
Port Funds
Cash

Do you know what the percentages of those sectors are?

Lokolo

I have 8.92% over 13 months.

Although that was negative 2 weeks ago!

malik999

Lokolo wrote: »

I have 8.92% over 13 months. Although that was negative 2 weeks ago!

Percentages are all relative / meaningless. I am sure someone could quote their portfolio/investments have increased by 90%.........(They bought a tenners worth of lloyds shares).

Lokolo

malik999 wrote: »

Percentages are all relative / meaningless. I am sure someone could quote their portfolio/investments have increased by 90%.........(They bought a tenners worth of lloyds shares).

Meaningless? Its not meaningless at all, thats how you measure growth....?

jon3001

Stavros wrote: »

Did anyone else, like me take the jump into investing whilst going into recession?.

Sure. I'd been investing for some time anyway. But lately I've increased my investment levels and diversified into even riskier assets.

Valuations are way below their long-term averages. If you're a long-term investor then you should expect good things. In the short term then you should expect and tolerate capital fluctuations.

malik999

Lokolo wrote: »

Meaningless? Its not meaningless at all, thats how you measure growth....?

Negative for 13 months. Last 2 weeks 8.92% 'growth'. Its meaningless. You could be negative again next week.