Investment Trusts or Unit Trusts

jimjames

I hold a few of them.

Edinburgh Dragon, Temple Bar, small residual holding in JSS and just started adding to BR New Energy last month.

jimjames

Just found this article from Motley Fool which gives some more info on the differences between Unit and Investment trusts for those who may not have heard of them before

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/investing/2010/01/27/why-investment-trusts-are-foolish.aspx?source=isesitlnk0000001&mrr=0.17

david78

I'm a big fan of investment trust too, holding shares in Temple Bar, Scottish Mortgage and Foreign & Colonial. Holding them in an ISA, a Pension, and various share plans. The share plans some of the trusts offer are "hidden" gems for people who want to make regular savings (low or zero costs on small share purchases). Alternatively there are "share accounts" like that offered by Alliance Trust Savings which let you build up a portfolio of different ones (mixed with shares if you like).

IFAs don't tend to recommend the savings plans since they don't pay commission.

I have some unit trusts and oeics too.

Thrugelmir

Been a fan of investment trusts for years. Prefer the closed structure of IT's compared to UT's. As David78 says gems tucked away that can be mined using the savings schemes.

jimjames

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Been a fan of investment trusts for years. Prefer the closed structure of IT's compared to UT's. As David78 says gems tucked away that can be mined using the savings schemes.

Savings schemes are a brilliant way to build up a substantial portfolio of high quality investments at very low cost. Some only charge the stamp duty on purchases and others are around 0.5% dealing charge which for small monthly savings is excellent.

It gets frustrating to see poor value, inflexible products such as friendly society savings being promoted when an investment trust savings scheme might be a far better option. But as they don't advertise (or only in a limited way) to keep costs down they are frequently overlooked.

moneylover

very useful posts. Any more suggestions for investment trusts worth starting with? David 78 posted some And there is a phrase for what you have to look for isnt there when buying to do with the price/no of shares sometimes its a good time to buy other times not so good .Need to look back to some of my saved posts as cannot remember what its called. But obviously if you are drip feeding through a share plan then less important. Do you start these plans via the websites where you can presumably see the prices. Obviously for small sums better than buying via a share buying website.

Rollinghome

jimjames wrote: »

But as they don't advertise (or only in a limited way) to keep costs down they are frequently overlooked.

I think the position is they can't advertise except in a limited way for new isssues, as with other stocks. They are allowed to advertise their savings schemes and ISAs.

artha

Where do you find the information on whether an IT is trading at a discount/premium relative to NAV please?

noh

artha wrote: »

Where do you find the information on whether an IT is trading at a discount/premium relative to NAV please?

You coild look at trustnet amongst others.

http://www.trustnet.com/Investments/Perf.aspx?univ=T&ctr=LN

JamesU

bigfreddiel wrote: »

Edinburgh Invest Tst; City of London IT PLC; Henderson High Income Trust Ord; Scottish American Investment Co PLC

Certainly worth researching ITs individually on Investor Chronicle, lots of useful info there on ITs all the time. For example CTY IT considered one of the "magnificent seven" ITs as in link below. Take care with the date of articles and their current relevance though.

http://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/InvestmentGuides/Funds/article/20110405/6161b2f6-5f70-11e0-a1e9-00144f2af8e8/Investment-trusts-the-Magnificent-Seven.jsp

JamesU