New Years Investment

redmalc

Hi I am thinking of investing in the following funds via HL at 25% each in January with initial investment and monthly payments.Blackrock UK Absolute Alpha , Cazenove UK Absolute target.Old Mutual UK dynamic and First State Greayer China,I am not adverse to risk any comments would be greatly received Merry Xmas

mramra

redmalc wrote: »

Hi I am thinking of investing in the following funds via HL at 25% each in January with initial investment and monthly payments.Blackrock UK Absolute Alpha , Cazenove UK Absolute target.Old Mutual UK dynamic and First State Greayer China,I am not adverse to risk any comments would be greatly received Merry Xmas

Why 75% in UK funds? If you want to go with 4 funds, I would diversify further with UK, Europe, USA and Far East funds in some shape or form.

Also Absolute Funds are designed to be defensive funds, and are typically not so strong in rising markets, but can weather declining markets. You stated that you are not adverse to risk, so two defensive funds may be too much?

purch

You have chosen one fund focused on UK Equity and another focused on China, and 2 Absolute Funds that may or may not neutralise the UK Equity Fund.

It is highly focused on just 2 main areas, and is in no way Balanced.

redmalc

Hi Guys any suggestions

Thrugelmir

Why are you questioning your own judgement? You selected these funds for a particular reason.

I'm constantly redirecting my regular investment depending on current factors. Whats good value today may be overbought tomorrow.

Worth remembering that UK funds don't have as wide exposure as they used too. As some sectors have minimal / no representation in the FTSE 250.

Linton

redmalc wrote: »

Hi Guys any suggestions

Unless you have other investments, I think you need more diversification...

For investments on the riskier side, but not wildly so, suggest recovery/special situations, eg Fidelity Special Situations or M&G Recovery, and emerging markets, eg Aberdeen, Threadneedle. These could replace one of your Absolute funds.

Also would suggest for your first Far East fund something more general than greater China - I have both Fidelity and First State Far East funds.

If you are investing more than say £6000 you could reasonably have more than 4 funds.

sabretoothtigger

I would rate just a pacific tracker fund and also less bias to the uk, every tax payer already owns uk bank shares so avoid duplicating risk seems best

Jake'sGran

redmalc wrote: »

Hi I am thinking of investing in the following funds via HL at 25% each in January with initial investment and monthly payments.Blackrock UK Absolute Alpha , Cazenove UK Absolute target.Old Mutual UK dynamic and First State Greater China,I am not adverse to risk any comments would be greatly received Merry Xmas

I have got a couple of the ones you mentioned. The first one has gained £188 on £1k since the summer and Firfst State Asia Pacific leaders has gained £463 on £2k. My stockmarket knowledge is not as good as some who post here but my portfolio overall has done well. The First State Greater China Growth has gained £294 on £1k. All these were bought with money from a cash ISA (transferred to HL from the ISA manager) and I am glad I made this move.

I don't know if my portfolio is considered balanced. It also includes Fidelity European, Perpetual I&G, Income and High Income, Jupiter Income and M&G Global Basics. Two of the Perpetual ones have lost money but I have been taking the income from them. Not sure whether to switch these as I don't need the income.

You could check the performance of the Cazenove fund on Trustnet but I assume you have looked into it already.

QuietDragon

redmalc wrote: »

Hi I am thinking of investing ... I am not adverse to risk ... any comments would be greatly received

redmalc wrote: »

Hi Guys any suggestions

Hi RedMalc,

I have a number of suggestions, which do not in ANY way represent financial advice.

These are my assumptions:

ISA-appropriate funds
Base currency = GBP
Distribution status = Acc (dividends are reinvested)
Only non-institutional funds, and excluding funds of funds
Minimum initial purchase <= £1000 (ie, £500 or £1000 will get you in)

I've then specified Morningstar Ratings of only 5 stars or 4 stars (there being star ratings of 1 through 5 stars), and a Morningstar Qualitative Rating of either "Superior" (4th of 5 categories) or "Elite" (5th of 5 categories) - the others being Standard (3rd), Inferior (2nd), and Impaired (1st).

For further information on both of these rating systems, browse the Morningstar.co.uk website.

I've also specified that the funds should have "above category average" performances for the past 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year periods (which obviously excludes funds which are younger than 10 years).

Finally, I've ranked the 27 resulting funds by their 10-year annualised performance (highest performance first), and picked four funds in descending order to maximise diversity in the (virtual) portfolio.

BlackRock Gold and General A Acc
Sector Equity Precious Metals
Trailing Returns 24/12/2009
YTD 41.73%
3 Years Annualised 19.51%
5 Years Annualised 23.90%
10 Years Annualised 23.28%
12 Month Yield 0.00%

Aberdeen Emerging Markets A Acc
Emerging Markets Equity
Trailing Returns 24/12/2009
YTD 60.54%
3 Years Annualised 17.70%
5 Years Annualised 23.66%
10 Years Annualised 14.28%
12 Month Yield 1.03%

First State Asia Pacific A Acc
Asia-Pacific ex-Japan Equity
Trailing Returns 24/12/2009
YTD 38.63%
3 Years Annualised 15.98%
5 Years Annualised 20.42%
10 Years Annualised 14.13%
12 Month Yield 0.94%

Fidelity Special Situations
UK Large-Cap Value Equity
Trailing Returns 24/12/2009
YTD 28.22%
3 Years Annualised 0.39%
5 Years Annualised 8.37%
10 Years Annualised 10.81%
12 Month Yield 0.74%

If instead of a 10-year annualised performance sort, I use 5-year annualised performance sort, I come up with the following four fund portfolio:

Fidelity South-East Asia
Asia-Pacific ex-Japan Equity
Trailing Returns 24/12/2009
YTD 55.71%
3 Years Annualised 18.34%
5 Years Annualised 23.97%
10 Years Annualised 9.87%
12 Month Yield 0.81%

BlackRock Gold and General A Acc
Sector Equity Precious Metals
Trailing Returns 24/12/2009
YTD 41.73%
3 Years Annualised 19.51%
5 Years Annualised 23.90%
10 Years Annualised 23.28%
12 Month Yield 0.00%

Aberdeen Emerging Markets A Acc
Emerging Markets Equity
Trailing Returns 24/12/2009
YTD 60.54%
3 Years Annualised 17.70%
5 Years Annualised 23.66%
10 Years Annualised 14.28%
12 Month Yield 1.03%

BlackRock Continental European A Acc
Europe ex-UK Large-Cap Equity
Trailing Returns 24/12/2009
YTD 28.81%
3 Years Annualised 6.81%
5 Years Annualised 13.40%
10 Years Annualised 4.29%
12 Month Yield 1.41%

Hope this helps, gives you some ideas, or points you in the right direction.