Ok then - How do I choose a S&S ISA!

dunstonh

A lot of data providers restrict 10 year or full history for paying subscribers only. 5 year data is pretty useless now as it doesnt show the last stockmarket crash so a novice could pick a fund without realising the volatility they could face.

The fund you are looking at is a UK index fund so assume just above and below mid table and you wont be far wrong.

jamesd

caliston, to get the ten year total you can click on the sector link to get to the whole sector, UK All Companies for that fund. Since it's cumulative it's not good enough to tell you the size of the drop you'll see in a bad year. As a first approximation, the drop could be at least as large as the largest annual gain you see.

caliston

Thanks. To answer my own question I found Morningstar provides a little-graph-thing that goes back 10 years, and you can hover over it to see the fund prices at any particular month as well as dividends, quartiles and the Morningstar rating over time. For example, see the graph for the Fidelity fund I picked at random.

stphnstevey

Just thought I would say how I got on

I invested a total of £14K

I used H+L as I found them easy to use and were a discount broker

I invested in a higher risk portfolio - Including parts of the world as Far East, Latin America, Russia, but also 25% UK based as well.

Here is a list if anyone is interested:

JPMorgan Natural Resources Accumulation Units INVESCO PERPETUAL Latin American Accumulation Units Scottish Widows Latin American NAV 'A' Shares Accumulation Shares Threadneedle Latin America Class 1 Accumulation Units Jupiter Emerging European Opportunities Accumulation Units Marlborough H H Special Situations Income Units Neptune European Opportunities Fund A Accumulation JPMorgan New Europe Fund Accumulation Units
Close Finsbury Far East Equity Fund Sterling Class A Shares
UBS UK Smaller Companies 'A' Class Accumulation Units
New Star Global Financials Accumulation Old Mutual UK Select Mid Cap Accumulation Units
Old Mutual UK Select Mid Cap Income Units M & G Global Basics Income Units Class X

Currently I have had a return of about 7%, which I don't think is bad seeing the state of the Stock Market! Also, I was happy as long as I cleared what I could get from the highest Cash ISA (about 6.5%).

Obviously not all went up and the 7% is an average of all the funds.

My thoughts are now what to do now for next year - do I hang onto those that have under performed? Do I sell or keep those that have overperformed?

I have realised that this is just as basic as large scale gambling!
No one really knows, you can follow the form and place your bets based on past performance and what you think will happen in the future - but at the end of the day you don't control all (or hardly any in fact!) of the variables, so your choices are half chance anyway!

But the same rules should apply as apply to gambling, don't bet what you can't afford to lose.:rotfl:

dunstonh

do I hang onto those that have under performed?

You need to understand why they have dropped in the 6 months or so since you started. It doesnt make a fund bad because others beat it. Mid cap, for example, has suffered more than large cap in that period but that doesnt mean the year that comes will be worse or better.

I have realised that this is just as basic as large scale gambling!

Not really as gambling means putting all your money into a win/lose position. You are not going to lose all your money with what you are doing.

ut at the end of the day you don't control all (or hardly any in fact!) of the variables,

You have control over where you invest and that can impact in the degrees of gains or losses you face. The rest of it is out of your hands.

Currently, your portfolio is high risk. Its been a good period for high risk funds with medium and medium/high not having a good year in general. For a new investor, you are probably investing above your risk profile and getting away with it at the moment. There will come a point where you see significant losses and it will be interesting to see how you will react to that.

EagerLearner

2007 was also my first year investing (started in June). It's been a rollercoaster but fortunately I am currently at 9% gain, far better than a savings account but very lucky also.

In the same boat as stphnstevey, wondering whether the funds I have should be changed but tempted to stay put. My main dissapointment has been that although I consider myself high risk, I also put £400 into 2 uk funds, which have performed badly, ie, I have made no profit. This £400 could have been sitting in another better fund, but I s'pose I feel safer that I have distributed things more evently by including UK funds. The ones in question are Blackrock Meryll Lynch UK Dynamic fund and Jupiter High Income. I am in my early 30's - so willing to chance things a bit, I think January and February will be an opportunity to see if anything needs changing.

Wondering if anyone on here can point me in the right direction for an MSE thread in plain English about starting a SIPP?

Many thanks & happy new year!

Who?_What?_Where?

Like many others that have posted here, I am a complete novice trying to find the funds for me. I might have gone for a fund of funds from HL, but I have decided I want to go ethical, so I shall pick my own funds.

Based on what I have read, I plan to adopt the following fund-picking strategy. Start with a big list of ethical funds from HL and Trustnet. I'll want any and all money in about 5 years, so I can wait it out but want a good amount there when I'm done, so I want medium risk levels. So I'll then try to match to this risk level, which I'm still not 100% sure about how to do (the impression I get is by their very nature ethical investments aren't high-risk, and I can look at sectors, which I need to learn the jargon behind). I'll want to keep fairly diverse in geography and sector, bear in mind past performance and go for those that have a promising future potential (again, how do you find this out?!).

I've still got to check out people like BestInvest, and read through the incademy site (I've got a feeling this will help in understanding the sectors). I also still don't quite understand the Income/Growth (aka. Accumulation?) distinction: I thought I was after growth, but someone said Income tends to do better?

Am I going in the right direction? Thanks!

Aegis

Who?_What?_Where? wrote: »

I also still don't quite understand the Income/Growth (aka. Accumulation?) distinction: I thought I was after growth, but someone said Income tends to do better?

The difference between growth in income and accumulation is generally so miniscule that it makes little difference to the overall performance of your investment (assuming that you were looking at the same fund, of course).

All it really means is that one distributes dividends while the other automatically reinvests pretty much the same amount for you.

Who?_What?_Where?

Ok, so I've picked three I like the look of:

Norwich Sust Future European Growth
Jupiter Ecology
Jupiter Environmental Income

As far as I can tell they all seem fairly medium risk. They're fairly diverse in terms of sector breakdown, and as geographically divserse as they can be (couldn't find any ethical funds in Far East/Latin America/India/etc). They've all done well over the past 5 years, but I'm at a loss as how to gauge future potential.

What do people think?

stphnstevey

dunstonh wrote: »

Currently, your portfolio is high risk. Its been a good period for high risk funds with medium and medium/high not having a good year in general. For a new investor, you are probably investing above your risk profile and getting away with it at the moment. There will come a point where you see significant losses and it will be interesting to see how you will react to that.

Guess I just see the whole stock market as a much bigger risk than what I am used to, so in for a penny, in for a pound!

I guess I am one to take risks - I have had a big knock recently from investing in 'hiigh risk' investments, but it hasn't put me off. I will stil put money in the same types of investment, I will just invest in a different way. I think (and this is only my opinion) I learn more from a 'knock' than constantly playing it safe. That knowledge is worth a hundred times what I lose in money.

This is the way I invest and it certainly doesn't fit everyones situation.