Unit Trust Ideas ?

Aletank

I currently haven't got any equity investments, I've been thinking about buying some shares but the fees put me off (£6 per trade on TradersOwn).
I was going to invest £250/300 in each stock with about £2k in total and was thinking of buying shares in a few sectors such as - Banking, Pharmaceuticals, Tobacco, Mining , Technology.
Would a Unit Trust be better for me ?
Will most funds have these stocks ?
Is there any funds that just do these sectors ?

Thanks for any advice/guidance

Lokolo

Funds would be better yes.

Funds are usually split into geography and asset class rather than specialist areas. There are some though.

http://www.trustnet.com/Tools/Adv-Search.aspx
http://tools.morningstar.co.uk/uk/fundscreener/default.aspx?Site=uk&LanguageId=en-GB

Here's a couple of reasonable fund filter tools.

Aletank

I was thinking of one fund that invests in mostly these sectors.
I've come across this fund, If you scroll down by the bottom it shows the top 10 holdings & sectors for the fund.
http://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/i/invesco-perpetual-income-accumulation
Is there any other funds similar I could look at ?
I see the fund I mentioned is for income, I'd prefer one that goes for growth and reinvests dividends.
Thanks

bigfreddiel

what are your ideas or criteria for making up your portfolio and whats your time span?

I get worried when I hear people say "I've been thinking about buying some shares but ....."

buying shares isn't like buying say clothes, or cds, you can lose a serious amount of money if you don't have a plan, set some goals and then workout how to acieve them. its not hard, an ifa will charge you a fair wack if you can't doit yourself, but as you've posted here you're obviously confident in using online services of some sort.

my advice (this would cost normally if it came from an ifa) is to research asset allocation, check out amazon,buy a few books on the sublject and use google.

then open an account to practice building a portfolio

if you can beat say 5% return then buy some shares, if not just stick your dosh into fixed rate cash isas or fixed term bonds

cheers

fj

gadgetmind

Aletank wrote: »

Would a Unit Trust be better for me ?

A collective investment of some kind would be wise because fees eat you alive for such small individual holdings. I rarely buy in <£2k chunks and £6k is my usually, and this isn't because I'm rich but because I hate paying fees so would prefer to trade infrequently but in decent bites.

Units Trusts and their more modern OEICs will provide you with plenty of variety in both where you invest and what your outcome is. Buying what's done well recently is a really good way to lose money.

Investment Trusts perform better overall, but there are even more complexities regards which to buy into and when.

ETFs and trackers have the lowest fees and are well worth getting your head around.

BLB53

Before you invest, have a look at some of the articles on Monevator. My advice would be to start with low cost trackers and also look at investment trusts eg City of London, Murray International.

Don't rush into it as you will learn a lot and find out what style of investing suits you as you go.

Totton

If you go the Investment Trust route then I recommend you take a look at their share plans rather than buying equities at £250/£300 a pop. With the share plans you are a little limited as to what you can buy but you will cut your costs considerably. Most of the big players offer this service.