Balanced portfolio

FATHEROFTWO_2

Hi all

At presently Im up overall about 6 percent since the crash of last year.

Im sitting on

Share Funds of 57 percent
Corporate Bond Funds 35 percent
Cash 8 percent

These figures are what I got from the morningstar website showing asset allocation.

Ive got the shares funds split nicely 52 perent UK 16 percent Eu and 17 percent Americas with 12 percent asia with a cautious outlook.

Im looking to diversify my portfolio a bit and am looking for some ideas of possible funds like oil/coal/property/gold/absoloute funds etc and the percentage split for allocation in relation to my portfolio

or anything else its worth considering for that matter ?

Any thoughts on where I should look for funds that might fit the bill to diversify my portfolio a bit more?

mr_fishbulb

What sort of sectors are your share funds you already hold?

Is there any area you feel yourself would do well?

FATHEROFTWO_2

artemis global growth
first state asia pacific
invesc perp corp bond
invesco perp high income
invesco perp mthly inc plus
mg corporate bond
mg global basics
mg global leaders
neptune european opps
neptune global equity
neptune us opps
threedneedle UK


Im looking at investing in blackrock gold to diversify into precious metals
Possibly a property fund in the near future
and
Possibly an oil fund
I like to research funds closely before investing and ensure it gives a balanced risk to my portfolio
and an absolute (hedge)fund

sabretoothtigger

At presently Im up overall about 6 percent since the crash of last year.

Did you invest during this winter also then?


Im 17.6% india and asia pacific ex. japan, 18.7% europe, 2.7% in plain commodities, 14% cash & rest is based in the uk


No need to invest in america especially as it only opens up currency risk. USA is our biggest trading partner anyway, their fortunes are our fortunes and so you have strong secondary exposure to everything that happens there anyway

first state asia pacific

Have you considered their indian ocean fund also

http://www.firststate.co.uk/uploadedFiles/CFSGAM/PdfFundFactsheets/INDI.pdf
So long as your aim is growth not income so much I think you should place less emphasis on developed countries and more on countries that are developing still.

I consider myself quite heavily over invested in uk and europe because of this

Im looking at investing in blackrock gold to diversify into precious metals
Possibly a property fund in the near future

No need to be specific on gold when all commodities might as easily rise from this point. Over specialising in just one commodity leaves you open to massive risk as supply and demand can saturate or isolate each market quite easily.

Sugar for example reached a 26 year high recently, gold might not be the most rewarding point to play from here on.
Oil has doubled in six months and natural gas halved, etc Theres lots of potential left besides the (too) obvious shiny stuff






Gold demand is at its lowest point for 6 years now for example but with lots of people holding it who could overnight let it go if they wanted.

Investment rather then speculation would be in backing more natural demand imo



Property is good for any money you dont need for 10 years or more. Which sector and country would want the property though

FATHEROFTWO_2

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Did you invest during this winter also then?


Im 17.6% india and asia pacific ex. japan, 18.7% europe, 2.7% in plain commodities, 14% cash & rest is based in the uk


No need to invest in america especially as it only opens up currency risk. USA is our biggest trading partner anyway, their fortunes are our fortunes and so you have strong secondary exposure to everything that happens there anyway


Have you considered their indian ocean fund also

http://www.firststate.co.uk/uploadedFiles/CFSGAM/PdfFundFactsheets/INDI.pdf
So long as your aim is growth not income so much I think you should place less emphasis on developed countries and more on countries that are developing still.

I consider myself quite heavily over invested in uk and europe because of this







No need to be specific on gold when all commodities might as easily rise from this point. Over specialising in just one commodity leaves you open to massive risk as supply and demand can saturate or isolate each market quite easily.

Sugar for example reached a 26 year high recently, gold might not be the most rewarding point to play from here on.
Oil has doubled in six months and natural gas halved, etc Theres lots of potential left besides the (too) obvious shiny stuff






Gold demand is at its lowest point for 6 years now for example but with lots of people holding it who could overnight let it go if they wanted.

Investment rather then speculation would be in backing more natural demand imo



Property is good for any money you dont need for 10 years or more. Which sector and country would want the property though

I looked at the indian sub continent fund as well but didnt want to get to much exposure to it as I already have Neptune Global and First state asia in my portfolio.

Thanks for mentioning it as I will intend to invest more in India and Africa as well.

Ideally if there was a fund that split between India and Africa and it had a decent management team I would buy in.Also latin america looks interesting.

I looked at the bric funds but there are only a few about and arnt rated that highly by morningstar the last time I checked as I tend to go for 4 star plus funds that have all the right type of people in charge.


Re when I invested .

I invested way back in april 2008 with a varied balanced portfolio and come october 2008 got hit like most investors did so I sold all but my corporate bonds ,Uk equity and european funds.I used the yield as my guide and held only funds that were viable for a depression.

I went cash for most of the time and gradually drip fed cash back into first the corporate bonds and UK equity funds until they turned positive and my pound cost average was much lower so the rise in share prices had less to go till breakeven.

I then started investing in the more risky global and asian funds.The strategy has worked so far.

I am still sitting on a cash pile as im in two minds how the market will go in the next 12 months.
My feeling is they will be hit once the liquidity is reduced when the quantitive easing runs its course.
Ill use that moment to pound cost average down or sell some funds again to rebalance into safer funds to weather the storm.

Id like to get into the commodity market a bit as I think it will be a good long term play.

I looked at jpm natural rescources but am convinced more of the blackrock gold fund.

Just a hunch but it seems a safer long term bet.

Oil and agriculture looks interesting as well but im still researching the market.

Any comments welcome

sabretoothtigger

So you cashed in the more volatile markets and drip fed it back in, thats great.
Looking back I sort of did the reverse in theory unfortunately I did not really grasp the whole risk aversion dynamic of the market.
Its hard to be sensible but I did do regular investment into a pacific fund so thats worked out ok.

I just cashed in half of it and I intend to feed it back in. I might do it all at once before end of sept because there is an ex-div date I can catch but unless there is a big correction round about now thats probably not the best thing to do vs just gradually reinvesting

One thing to consider with foreign funds is currency movements. The pound has got stronger all this year now, so this has depressed the performance of funds invested abroad since year start. Only australia has been stronger I think

Its unfortunate thats how things work out but the reverse could happen now also, pound gets weaker again as I send the money back out hence why I might just deploy a lump sum

Its only trackers and shares I cash in, actively managed funds I dont try to juggle, that is their job but they can be hedged



Heres some useful supply/demand info on markets, -8 is very oversold and vice versa. This roughly matches the state of play from the little I know


http://www.taloneight.com/ValueChartLevels.html

sabretoothtigger

Strong performance in foreign markets or crb could have been masked by our currency movement. Now if that strength is to reverse this could be a good time to follow the trend and be out of the pound





http://www.ashraflaidi.com/forex-news/

This is a good guy for currencies, he makes alot of good points I can understand
Ashraf Laidi - Intraday Market Thoughts

August 30, 2009 22:49 ET: MOTHER OF ALL VOLATILITIES? Historic landslide Japanese election ushers in the household-friendly Democratic Party of Japan, a holiday-shortened week in Europe and an US jobs report with an expected rebound in the US unemployment rate back to 9.5% from 9.4% (not to mention Canadian unemployment). USDJPY collapses in line with our technical and fundamental predictions calling for general YEN strength and particularly deepening losses in USDJPY. Here are SOME OF OUR INTERMARKET WARNINGS: Last October we warned about the 5-year cycle !!!!!!, a simple url shortener E7P7d In August we warned about the 4-week peak cycle Twitpic - Share photos on Twitter egjpi and last week we warned about the implications of a close in the Shanghai Index below the key 2,947 level in order to qualify for bearish engulfing monthly chart, with dangerous repercussions for September Twitpic - Share photos on Twitter

LULULU1

Hi there,

You seem very knowledgable regarding funds etc.

Can you recommende a good fund manager to go with.

I am considering Japan or possibly India

Many thanks.

sabretoothtigger

I dont actually know separate funds that well but I like to consider how each sector might move against the other, I read the same info anyone else does .
I think people are far too invested in western markets and some of my reasoning is the above

Ive heard neptune have a good Japanese fund but I have never invested there. The basis of a good foreign investment begins with the currency I read recently and if yen is to get stronger now it could be great timing.

India, I just have a tracker with lyxor and I follow the nsei index
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=%5ENSEI
We have ftse100 stocks heavily involved in India, Vedanta and cairn energy have alot of interests there.
JP Morgan have an investment trust in the ftse 250 that specialises in India and has done for some time with success, http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=JII.L
For a while the trust was at a discount to its NAV but its probably at a premium right now thanks to a more capitalist government change in May - its popular


Try trustnet and morningstar for fund comparisons, I think those are the two main ones. I also use HL

FATHEROFTWO_2

LULULU1 wrote: »

Hi there,

You seem very knowledgable regarding funds etc.

Can you recommende a good fund manager to go with.

I am considering Japan or possibly India

Many thanks.

Have a look at Andrew tulloch who manages the first state Funds.
They do India,asia pacific and emerging markets.
Check the morningstar website and compare using the star gradings.
a good website for research.

FATHEROFTWO_2

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

So you cashed in the more volatile markets and drip fed it back in, thats great.
Looking back I sort of did the reverse in theory unfortunately I did not really grasp the whole risk aversion dynamic of the market.
Its hard to be sensible but I did do regular investment into a pacific fund so thats worked out ok.

I just cashed in half of it and I intend to feed it back in. I might do it all at once before end of sept because there is an ex-div date I can catch but unless there is a big correction round about now thats probably not the best thing to do vs just gradually reinvesting

One thing to consider with foreign funds is currency movements. The pound has got stronger all this year now, so this has depressed the performance of funds invested abroad since year start. Only australia has been stronger I think

Its unfortunate thats how things work out but the reverse could happen now also, pound gets weaker again as I send the money back out hence why I might just deploy a lump sum

Its only trackers and shares I cash in, actively managed funds I dont try to juggle, that is their job but they can be hedged



Heres some useful supply/demand info on markets, -8 is very oversold and vice versa. This roughly matches the state of play from the little I know


http://www.taloneight.com/ValueChartLevels.html

Thanks for the above chart SABER.

In that case Gold looks oversold and looking at the blackrock chart it has rocketed over the past 8 ,months or so.
Question is do I bung half my cash in just now and if the market drops bung in sme more to pound cost average
A bit of a dilema.

Re my investments.
I went ultra safe last year doubled up on the safe equity (UK AND Euro land and corp bonds)and drip fed into them therafter then topped up on risky ones later.

Strange thing is.
I wish I had kept the money I invested in the risky funds as Ive now bought in at a higher level and still pound cost averaged on the safe stuff.Then I would have made a real killing.
However I panicked and went from moderate/adventurous to cautious.

Have you any thoughts on property funds ?
Or on any oil funds ?