Fund Portfolio ... Your Thoughts

nemesis1985

Hi folks.

After researching the various different funds avaliable (and by god! that's alot) I think I've decided on my selection and would like to know what you think.

Lump sum investment, planning to invest it over 5 years.

NEW STAR GLOBAL FINANCIALS I
FIDELITY SPECIAL SITUATIONS
SCHRODER RECOVERY
SARACEN GROWTH A
M&G GLOBAL BASICS X
JPM Emerging Markets
OLD MUTUAL UK SELECT SMALL COS

Nothing highly risky, the highest riskgrade is 68.19 and the average is 46.91.

Let me know if you think it's a wise selection.

Thanks

whambamboo

nemesis1985 wrote:

Hi folks.

After researching the various different funds avaliable (and by god! that's alot) I think I've decided on my selection and would like to know what you think.

Lump sum investment, planning to invest it over 5 years.

NEW STAR GLOBAL FINANCIALS I
FIDELITY SPECIAL SITUATIONS
SCHRODER RECOVERY
SARACEN GROWTH A
M&G GLOBAL BASICS X
JPM Emerging Markets
OLD MUTUAL UK SELECT SMALL COS

Nothing highly risky, the highest riskgrade is 68.19 and the average is 46.91.

Let me know if you think it's a wise selection.

Thanks

Not too sure about the Special Situations

http://money.guardian.co.uk/investments/fundsbondstrusts/story/0,,1804577,00.html

nemesis1985

whambamboo wrote:

Not too sure about the Special Situations

http://money.guardian.co.uk/investments/fundsbondstrusts/story/0,,1804577,00.html

yeah, i've been looking into this one quite a bit.

think it should still be ok. i believe it's the most popular fund in the uk. bolton who has been managing it for 25 years is passing it to his right hand man so hopefully hes learned a thing or two from working along side him for the years

dunstonh

Fid Spec Sits wouldnt make my list yet. I know Fid have just removed the increased charges they imposed a year ago but there is still a lot of unknown going forward and Fidelity have been losing fund managers recently and some of their funds have been going off the boil a bit. I have the fund as a hold for those that already have it but not a buy for new money.

I would have a European fund and a Euro property fund (europe is at least 2 years, if not more in some areas, behind us on that front). I would remove one of the global funds (actually I wouldnt have either as I dont like global mixed funds) and look to diversify there.

Dont rule out some of the medium risk funds either. Invesco Perpetual Income, Jupiter Financial Opps, Schroder Income Maximiser can give you good returns when the markets are not going in your favour and you need an offset against the others.

Its very hard to say if the funds are right for you as we dont really know your risk profile. Of your list, I only I have one of those funds in my portfolio and I wouldnt consider any of the others at this time. That doesnt make my list any better than yours or vice versa. I just dont like your overlap and it isnt diverse enough for me.

bolton who has been managing it for 25 years is passing it to his right hand man so hopefully hes learned a thing or two from working along side him for the years

We dont know who is taking it over yet. The one you are thinking of is the Global Spec sits fund. The main spec sits fund is still an unknown.

nemesis1985

great! thanks for your input.

think based on a few comments i'll decide to give fidelity special situations a miss for now.

Schroder Income Maximiser seems to be pretty new? what makes u feel it has good potential?

plus the only europen property fund i can find is : Premier Snowdonia Property
do you have any recommendations?

dunstonh

Schroder Income Maximiser seems to be pretty new? what makes u feel it has good potential?

Target yield of over 7%. Good fund to have when things are not so good. I have had it since launch and its had a cracking start. Fund of funds are starting to include it in there as well and i read of a pension fund recently going in heavy into that fund. Only time will tell but so far so good.

I like new and specialist category funds. They are the ones you have the most fun with.

No-one can tell what funds will come out best. You will get some right and some wrong. This is why its important to spread it around the sectors and utilise many funds. If you do get one or two wrong, then at least you havent plumped it all in there.

plus the only europen property fund i can find is : Premier Snowdonia Property

SWIP Euro real estate and Premier European Property are two that come to mind on the mainstream front. Norwich Union are launching a European bricks and mortar fund in the next 6 weeks (just waiting for FSA approval). That fund is going to be managed by Morley (who are pretty naff on equities but very good on property).

do you have any recommendations?

Careful using the word "recommendation". Nothing in this thread can be treated as recommendations. Its discussion only. Helping you with your own research to make your own mind up what you are doing.

nemesis1985

of course, friendly advise we'll call it, and i appreciate it

will look into those funds further, thanks for your help

dunstonh

avoid the advice word as well. Cant do that either

EdInvestor

dunstonh wrote:

I like new and specialist category funds. They are the ones you have the most fun with.

Being rather more conservative (not to mention sceptical), I like the ones which have been turning in a top 10 performance every year for the past 5, and preferably 10.

You can check which ones those are here:

https://www.citywire.co.uk/Funds/Home.aspx

I do agree though that Fidelity Special Situations should probably be left alone by new investors for the moment until it gets a clear new sense of direction.The other very popular fund, Invesco Perpetueal Income ( or High Income) would be a better choice IMHO.

dunstonh

Past performance is no indication of future returns.

If you look at 5 year performance, only a handful of the current top 100 will be in the top100 in 5 years time. This is why you get the past performance warnings.

Past performance helps over the long term identify managers who have shown a trend but it doesnt mean that the sector of that fund is going to perform in the future.

Research has demonstrated that asset allocation accounts for approximately 90% of the variation in investment returns. This means that asset allocation alone is nearly 10 times as important as stock selection and timing combined in determining the performance of a portfolio.

UK Equity income has been a strong performer for some time now and it certainly should appear in your portfolio. However, it underperformed in the 90s. Property has been the best consistent provider of returns for many many years now. However, you now have the managers of the big property funds predicting that in 2007, the annual return on UK property will be as low as 2% average with some sections seeing as loss. But past performance will tell you that you have had in excess of 10% a year.

As it happens, looking at the worst performers over a period can be a good indication of what will be best in the future. Japan is suffering at present and most Japanese funds have dropped a fair bit this year. You wont see Japanese funds at the top of the performance chart but it could be a good time to invest some in there.

Mortgage_&_debt_free

I understand (H-L website) that Old Mutual are to shortly close the UK Smaller Companies fund to investment to avoid it becoming to big (I believe Feb 2007 or another £35m).

I was looking to invest in this sector but wouldn't have time to invest much in it due to its closure.

After some research I've gone for standard life's UK smaller companies fund which has a reasonable track record and a young, well rated manager.

HTH