Anyone invested in Fidelity.co.uk China Special Situations Fund?

olulia

I took advice from the Guardian Money section last year and invested some money in an account they said would be well run by a trusted investment banker. However! The global situation has gone so badly this investment has lost value. Do I bail out now or hang on??? This was a lump sum from our pension, and put as an ISA in a medium risky investment. We have never done this before and now we are both furious and worried. My husband thinks we should just hold on and hope things improve. I think we should cut our losses before it gets worse! Anyone with any knowledge or ideas?

qpop

It's run by one of the most well respected fund managers.
It's had a bad year.
So has the rest of the world.

If you need the money for something, sell it at a loss.
If not, what's the point? The losses are only realised once you've hit the sell button.

And you didn't take advice from the Guardian. You read a journalistic article and made a (perhaps poorly informed) decision to invest in a single, high risk fund, when perhaps your tolerance from risk wasn't matched to the fund in question.

If you wanted advice, it would have been adviseable to talk to an adviser.
They most probably would have suggested diversifying your portfolio, and hopefully matched your investments to your loss tolerance.

dunstonh

I took advice from the Guardian Money section last year and invested some money in an account they said would be well run by a trusted investment banker.

Rule of thumb is to never follow the "advice" given by the media.

Do I bail out now or hang on???

You have been invested for about 12 months in a very high risk fund and are worried about a short term loss?

and put as an ISA in a medium risky investment.

Its not medium risk or anywhere close. Its right up there with the highest risk funds available.

We have never done this before and now we are both furious and worried.

It was a bad decision. You should have sought real advice and not marketing based advice that comes with no consumer protection. This sort of fund is good for around 2-6% of your portfolio typically.

It is highly volatile but does offer good long term potential. So, there could be good reasons for keeping it. However, it will always be highly volatile. it is the sort of fund that can lose 70% in 12 months and make 70% in 12 months.

How much of your overall savings and investments does it make up? if it is just a small amount then it may not be an issue. If its a lot then it could be.

competitionscafe

It was also at a premium of up to 10% for a lot of last year and is now at a small discount so this has exacerbated the (share price) fall.
http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Performance?s=FCSS:LSE

olulia

Thank you for the replys - I realize - now - my 'risk tolerance' should have sent me to a much, much lower risk investment. And to a proper advisor...

atush

Personally I thought about it, but had enough of my portfolio in Emerging markets (and my Aberdeen Asian Smaller companies is doing Very nicely).

So, I am thinking of investing now it has taken a hit, when other investors panic sell.

If you don't need the money, you might as well hang on. I feel your pain, having lost some in the tech boom(but made enough elsewhere then so came out even). I was a newbie investor then, and it helped me to form my style of investing which is essentially contrarian plus Value. Investing in what everyone else is (such as tech then, and gold/China now) doesn't always make the best sense.

But I take responsibility for making my own decsions and don't follow the media blindly. Use this as a lesson in your hopefully long life in investing.

qpop

atush wrote: »

Personally I thought about it, but had enough of my portfolio in Emerging markets (and my Aberdeen Asian Smaller companies is doing Very nicely).

So, I am thinking of investing now it has taken a hit, when other investors panic sell.

If you don't need the money, you might as well hang on. I feel your pain, having lost some in the tech boom(but made enough elsewhere then so came out even). I was a newbie investor then, and it helped me to form my style of investing which is essentially contrarian plus Value.

But I take responsibility for making my own decsions and don't follow the media blindly. Use this as a lesson in your hopefully long life in investing.

Not meaning to be a pedant (ok, I am really), but isn't value investing by definition contrarian (i.e. if the market likes a share, it's not going to pass any value screens)

atush

Well, yes. But I also meant value in the dividend yield too. Some of my contrarian buys are based on being out of favour (not so much the yield), and some are abased on being unfashionable but with high/decent yields.

So I guess I am Contrarion.Value with a pinch of income.

utigers

Bolton had a great record investing in the UK market, but China is different gravy.

The fund was really over hyped by the media to generate interest and ultimately money for the fund and the brokers. The case for investing sounded good, great manager going to the up and coming economy in the world etc..... It may still work out but really IMO you need to see a minimum 3 yr track record in the sector before you make a move.

As someone mentioned earlier about the media, they did a great job for Fidelity and unfortunatley reeled a few in.

olulia

Thank you for the link! I'm grateful for the expertise in the replies and experience shared.

le_loup

Not just the media. It was on the lists of a lot of advisers as well!