Sanity Check

JohnRo

I've combined it with Aberdeen Asian smaller cos. to increase exposure to the Asian tigers. A lot of regional duplication but I'm just after broad coverage and let the funds do what they do, relying on their remit to provide the exposure to smaller cos.
I keep editing my OP to reflect changing plans.

Unfortunately I don't have enough knowledge of specific countries around the globe or the businesses operating there to target or aim for anything very specific.

Jegersmart

Linton wrote: »

I have also recently bought IP Global Fin Cap. Perhaps I've missed something, but it is expected to pay a good interest/divi now and should also grow nicely when the banks recover. Its a bit surprising to me that the total fund capital is so low (about £20M from memory).

Agree that buying and selling is to be avoided. How do you know when the price has risen enough to sell without losing out on further rises? How do you know when to buy back in?

£20M is tiny, it may be that for me and many others, banks are not a long term investing option. I trade banking shares but would never commit capital in terms of investment in them. This is mainly because there is no real transparency in their financial reporting, and of course history has proved to many that losing their shirt is a strong possibility. That doesn't mean that there will be periods where gains can be made, but with a lot of banks teetering on insolvency (in the normal definition) at the current time this is one for the brave - but fortune can favour the brave right?

Good luck in any case!

J

Jegersmart

By the way, I use Fidelity and they have profit and loss functionality included on their platform. Additionally if you have over £100k in total you become a "Wealth" client so you also get a discount on TER's of between 0.15-0.25% depending on the fund IIRC.

Any reason why you didn't choose Fidelity over Best Invest? Just curious.

J

JohnRo

Jegersmart wrote: »

Any reason why you didn't choose Fidelity over Best Invest? Just curious.

For me, in a word, Vanguard. But also switching charges and some other stuff I can't remember.

Obviously the investment platform landscape is changing all the time now but I've taken the plunge with BI. If in a years time I see I'd be better off elsewhere i'll make that move then, hopefully the cost involved in any platform migration will be small but until then i'll just have to see.

Jegersmart

JohnRo wrote: »

For me, in a word, Vanguard. But also switching charges and some other stuff I can't remember.

Obviously the investment platform landscape is changing all the time now but I've taken the plunge with BI. If in a years time I see I'd be better off elsewhere i'll make that move then, hopefully the cost involved in any platform migration will be small but until then i'll just have to see.

Ah right - Vanguard....I see.....

J

JohnRo

..speaking of which,

I logged in this morning to add a fund to my monthly savings plan and after entering the £50.00 minimum as per existing funds on the list I was greeted with the following error message...




there seems to be no live chat available this morning, but it is a weekend so that's probably why. I'm assuming and hoping this is just a temporary system error.

gadgetmind

JohnRo wrote: »

I'm assuming and hoping this is just a temporary system error.

Either that or you need to up your monthly investment amount a bit.

Please do report back.

JohnRo

Well, whatever that problem was with the regular monthly savings minimums, it's gone.

Added 4 more funds today, starting to think i'm making some sort of mistake that all new investors do? Too many funds?

The list I have currently is..

Core Holdings - regular monthly contributions

BLACKROCK GLOBAL PROPERTY SECURITIES EQUITY TRACKER A Acc
KAMES HIGH YIELD BOND A Inc
VANGUARD EMERGING MARKETS STOCK INDEX GBP Inc
VANGUARD FTSE DEVELOPED EUROPE EX-UK EQUITY INDEX Inc
VANGUARD FTSE UK EQUITY INDEX GBP Inc
VANGUARD GLOBAL BOND INDEX GBP Inc
VANGUARD GLOBAL SMALL-CAP INDEX Inc
VANGUARD JAPAN STOCK INDEX GBP Inc
VANGUARD PACIFIC EX-JAPAN STOCK INDEX GBP Inc
VANGUARD UK INVESTMENT GRADE BOND INDEX GBP Inc
VANGUARD US EQUITY INDEX Inc

Pricing opportunity Funds

ABERDEEN GLOBAL ASIAN SMALLER COMPANIES D2 GBP Acc
ABERDEEN GLOBAL EMERGING MARKETS SMALLER COMPANIES D2 GBP Acc
AXA FRAMLINGTON BIOTECH R Inc
AXA FRAMLINGTON GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY R Inc
AXA FRAMLINGTON HEALTH R Inc
F&C US SMALLER COMPANIES 1 Inc
FIRST STATE GLOBAL RESOURCES A Acc
INVESCO PERPETUAL GLOBAL FINANCIAL CAPITAL R Inc
LIONTRUST UK SMALLER COMPANIES Inc
M&G JAPAN SMALLER COMPANIES A Inc
THREADNEEDLE EUROPEAN SMALLER COMPANIES C1 Inc

JohnRo

Can someone smarter than me decipher what I might be doing wrong (other than posting)? It may just be that I don't have enough information to pin down the stated additional spread and any error, if there even is one.

Here are 4 funds I looked at, which I think show some sort of additional spread error. Apologies for the messy formatting.

AXA Framlington Biotech R Inc - factsheet shows a BestInvest additional spread of 0.34%
AXA Framlington Global Technology R Inc - factsheet shows a BestInvest additional spread of 0.56%
AXA Framlington Health R Inc - factsheet shows a BestInvest additional spread of 0.40%
Blackrock Global Property Securities Index - factsheet shows a BestInvest additional spread of 0.28%

I downloaded my transaction log from BestInvest account portal and extracted the following dates and prices

trade date / settlement date / fund / units / cost / type / price

• 23/11/2012 29/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON BIOTECH 153.941 -100 Fund Buy 64.96
• 23/11/2012 29/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY R Inc 261.712 -100 Fund Buy 38.21
• 23/11/2012 29/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON HEALTH R Inc 11.718 -100 Fund Buy 853.4
• 14/11/2012 20/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON BIOTECH R Inc 157.978 -100 Fund Buy 63.3
• 14/11/2012 20/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY R Inc 264.76 -100 Fund Buy 37.77
• 14/11/2012 20/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON HEALTH R Inc 11.729 -100 Fund Buy 852.6
• 30/10/2012 05/11/2012 BLACKROCK GLOBAL PROPERTY TRACKER A Acc 42.845 -50 Fund Buy 116.7
• 09/10/2012 15/10/2012 BLACKROCK GLOBAL PROPERTY TRACKER A Acc 86.305 -100.89 Fund Buy 116.9

I've used Morningstar to check the unit prices for each fund, on the trade dates shown from this downloaded transaction log, which give the following results...

these appear to be mid-prices I've obtained.

MID PRICE * 0.6458 * 23/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON BIOTECH R Inc
MID PRICE * 0.3800 * 23/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON GLOBAL TECH R Inc
MID PRICE * 8.4800 * 23/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON HEALTH R Inc

MID PRICE * 0.6293 * 14/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON BIOTECH R Inc
MID PRICE * 0.3755 * 14/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON GLOBAL TECH R Inc
MID PRICE * 8.4730 * 14/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON HEALTH R Inc

MID PRICE * 1.1560 * 30/10/2012 BLACKROCK GLOBAL PROPERTY SECURITIES EQUITY TRACKER A Acc
MID PRICE * 1.1650 * 09/10/2012 BLACKROCK GLOBAL PROPERTY SECURITIES EQUITY TRACKER A Acc


I do realise the mid price is not the same as the buy price, however when using these mid prices the AXA Global Tech funds stated additional spread near enough matches, in my estimation the funds normal spread should be expected to give a similar "error" to the others listed as they all have a similar, approx. 5% buy/sell spread. Given the differences it just confuses me even more to be honest.

method I've used is to multiply the units obtained with my purchase amount by the mid price and to then count the shortfall as (additional spread) commission



23/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON BIOTECH 153.941 -100

• 153.941 units at mid price 0.6458 = £99.415 additional spread/cost = 58.5p or 0.585% (0.34% stated)

23/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY R Inc 261.712 -100

• 261.712 units at mid price 0.3800 = £99.451 additional spread/cost = 54.9p or 0.549% (0.56% stated)

23/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON HEALTH R Inc 11.718 -100

• 11.718 units at mid price 8.4800 = £99.369 additional spread/cost = 63.1p or 0.631% (0.40% stated)

14/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON BIOTECH R Inc 157.978 -100

• 157.978 units at mid price 0.6293 = £99.416 additional spread/cost = 58.4p or 0.584% (0.34% stated)

14/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY R Inc 264.76 -100

• 264.76 units at mid price 0.3755 = £99.417 additional spread/cost = 58.3p or 0.583% (0.56% stated)

14/11/2012 AXA FRAMLINGTON HEALTH R Inc 11.729 -100

• 11.729 units at mid price 8.4730 = £99.380 additional spread/cost = 62.0p or 0.620% (0.40% stated)

30/10/2012 BLACKROCK GLOBAL PROPERTY TRACKER A Acc 42.845 -50

• 42.845 units at mid price 1.1560 = £49.529 additional spread/cost = 47.1p or 0.471% (0.28% stated)

09/10/2012 BLACKROCK GLOBAL PROPERTY TRACKER A Acc 86.305 -100.89

• 86.305 units at mid price 1.1650 = £100.545 additional spread/cost = 35.5p or 0.355% (0.28% stated)

obviously if the morning star prices are wrong then this whole text is pointless, but the fund unit prices are presumably universal so there shouldn't really be any reason to doubt them. I suppose it also begs the question that if the morning star prices are wrong where have they got them from?

TCA

JohnRo wrote: »

..speaking of which,

I logged in this morning to add a fund to my monthly savings plan and after entering the £50.00 minimum as per existing funds on the list I was greeted with the following error message...




there seems to be no live chat available this morning, but it is a weekend so that's probably why. I'm assuming and hoping this is just a temporary system error.

I've just tried to manually buy some funds this Saturday morning (via debit card) and each attempt to purchase is being knocked back for being below the (incredibly high) minimum amount. Sounds like the same problem you encountered JohnRo. I'm fully aware that no trades could be made until Monday anyway but still not impressed. Guess I'll need to try again next week!