My portfolio - rebalanced

Cash-Cow_3

I have recently rebalanced my portfolio as I found I was massively overweight in Europe. I perhaps still am but see new monthly contributions below to provide correction.

Anyway here is what I have now.

Jupiter European Special Situations 30%
Jupiter Merlin Worldwide Portfolio 30%
Invesco Perpetual Distribution 22%
Blackrock UK Smaller Companies 8%
Jupiter Environmental 6%
Aviva Investors Property Trust 4%

I am also starting new monthly contributions as follows:

HSBC American Index £200
Legg Mason US smaller Co £95
HSBC Pacific Index £75
HSBC Japan Index £75

The geographic spread (excl the monthly ones) is:

UK 28%
Euro 27%
Non-Euro 15%
Emerging Europe 1%
Middle East / Africa 1%
Americas 15%
Asia 12%

Any thoughts on how this shapes up, as a good all round portfolio?

mike88

You seem to have a lot of small companies. Didn't anybody tell you that small companies thrive when they have a ready supply of credit for expansion. The growth of small companies in recent years has been largely on the back of investment made a while back when banks were lending money. Smaller companies in general will tread water for the next few years. That could of course be OK for monthly investment but not so good for a lump sum.

Its now the turn of larger companies which have cash reserves and will either expand or redistribute their wealth in the form of increased dividend payments.

Only my opinion of course.

Totton

Hi,
Including the Jupiter multi-manager in there at 30% appears a little odd to me, is it in there to act as your 'core' or is it part of a core that includes say the perpetual or european fund? I am wondering if you would be better with making the MM fund 65% and having that as a core alongside smaller holdings.

If you switched to Merlin Growth you could eliminate the need for all of the other principal funds but perhaps keep the smaller co's and property fund to which your monthly drips would slowly increase your risk but offer greater growth long-tem. Alternatively make Merlin worldwide your core at 65% but be mindful it is higher risk which probably explains the strange choice of IP Distribution.

Remember that the TER on the merlin fund is probably exceeding 3%.

On your geographical spread, perhaps a little light on Latin America, not sure what you have in Russia but that is probably covered by the Euro figure, if not then a little light there also. (based on your use of the merlin worldwide fund)

Just some thoughts, hope they are of value,
Mickey

Cash-Cow_3

mike88 wrote: »

You seem to have a lot of small companies. Didn't anybody tell you that small companies thrive when they have a ready supply of credit for expansion. The growth of small companies in recent years has been largely on the back of investment made a while back when banks were lending money. Smaller companies in general will tread water for the next few years. That could of course be OK for monthly investment but not so good for a lump sum.

Its now the turn of larger companies which have cash reserves and will either expand or redistribute their wealth in the form of increased dividend payments.

Only my opinion of course.

Interesting point on small companies. I've checked the weighting and I'm overweight against the bench mark. Which will only get worse with the drip. I'm going to look at this. Thanks.

Cash-Cow_3

Totton wrote: »

Hi,
Including the Jupiter multi-manager in there at 30% appears a little odd to me, is it in there to act as your 'core' or is it part of a core that includes say the perpetual or european fund? I am wondering if you would be better with making the MM fund 65% and having that as a core alongside smaller holdings.

If you switched to Merlin Growth you could eliminate the need for all of the other principal funds but perhaps keep the smaller co's and property fund to which your monthly drips would slowly increase your risk but offer greater growth long-tem. Alternatively make Merlin worldwide your core at 65% but be mindful it is higher risk which probably explains the strange choice of IP Distribution.

Remember that the TER on the merlin fund is probably exceeding 3%.

On your geographical spread, perhaps a little light on Latin America, not sure what you have in Russia but that is probably covered by the Euro figure, if not then a little light there also. (based on your use of the merlin worldwide fund)

Just some thoughts, hope they are of value,
Mickey

The Merlin didn't start off as a core but become one after several years hitting it. The IP is a recent switch from other poorish performing funds including a large amount in a euro fund. So in a way these two are my cores.

I did think about Latin America and Russia but felt a specialist fund for these would be too much and I did wonder whether it's a bit over priced. ???