Sanity Check

coastline

All opinions of course....maybe with the help of some charts and lower indicators you can guage the high/low risk areas for entry and exit...
Charts and indicators aren't for everyone but this link shows some decent positions in recent years..

rated

A detail .. beware that FTSE and MSCI have a different opinion on what constitutes an emerging market. South Korea (Samsung etc.) being the glaring difference. You could end up inadvertently doubling up or missing out completely to exposure here depending on the index tracked by your chosen vechicle.

JohnRo

My core Investment currently looks like this, minimum monthly feed into each of these funds will continue in equal amounts until the total investment looks large enough to start doing some rebalancing. Probably some time next summer, if a big drop occurs in any of the trackers I'll boost them within the limits of annual allowance.

I'll probably get stamped on for the smaller companies overload but just want to lay down some markers there and then start to adjust and refine over time as my understanding and necessity dictate.


Index tracking investments - 10 in total

BLACKROCK GLOBAL PROPERTY SECURITIES EQUITY TRACKER A Acc
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

Managed funds - 8 in total

ABERDEEN GLOBAL ASIAN SMALLER COMPANIES D2 GBP Acc
ABERDEEN GLOBAL EMERGING MARKETS SMALLER COS D2 GBP Acc
F&C US SMALLER COMPANIES 1 Inc
INVESCO PERPETUAL GLOBAL FINANCIAL CAPITAL R Inc
KAMES HIGH YIELD BOND A Inc
LIONTRUST UK SMALLER COMPANIES Inc
M&G JAPAN SMALLER COMPANIES A Inc
THREADNEEDLE EUROPEAN SMALLER COMPANIES C1 Inc

smaller companies funds shown on trustnet http://www.trustnet.com/Tools/PDFViewer.aspx?url=ChartingPDF.aspx%3Fcodes%3DFIVAIDG,FV309,FQ5RAM,FIQUSSC,FMGJSC,FADEUIN%26color%3D8ED400,00C2B1,FF0000,327EBE,FFB81B,008D00%26hide%3D%26span%3D60%26reinvested%3Dwithout%26bid%3DbidToBid%26retValue%3DreturnPercentage%26PortfolioName%3DSelect%20a%20Portfolio%26Currency%3DGBP

TCA

rated wrote: »

A detail .. beware that FTSE and MSCI have a different opinion on what constitutes an emerging market. South Korea (Samsung etc.) being the glaring difference. You could end up inadvertently doubling up or missing out completely to exposure here depending on the index tracked by your chosen vechicle.

I mentioned this very fact above on another thread, but I now see Vanguard are dropping the MSCI indices and moving to FTSE on some of their funds.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/02/vanguard-indexes-idUSL1E8L24PN20121002

Anybody know if their Irish domiciled Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund is included as part of this shuffle? If VWO is changing does this mean VIEMKT will too?

Edited to say that below gives the answer. It's only the U.S. domiciled Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund (VEIEX) that's affected:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-03/vanguard-switch-to-ftse-may-prompt-selling-in-south-korea-stocks

TCA

JohnRo wrote: »

I'll probably get stamped on for the smaller companies overload but just want to lay down some markers there and then start to adjust and refine over time as my understanding and necessity dictate.

ABERDEEN GLOBAL ASIAN SMALLER COMPANIES D2 GBP Acc

I've been looking at a small lump sum into Aberdeen's Asian Smaller Companies Investment Trust (AAS), but coming round to the view that I might prefer making regular contributions, so a unit trust might make far more sense via a platform that doesn't charge for purchases. Both options heavy on TER but I feel I need more exposure in this region and not happy with Pacific ex Japan trackers as they seem overly weighted (51%) in the financial sectors of Australia and New Zealand. But then trackers are trackers I suppose! Not saying these 2 funds mentioned are like-for-like of course.

MrTyo

Sorry to ask this probably nooby question JohnRo in post 74 you listed for example a large amount of vanguard investments. I was thinking (mainly in regards to HSBC but suppose it would transfer roughly to Vanguard) What would happen to your investments if say Vanguard, HSBC or w/e was investing your funds went under due to say losses in other areas (So say HSBC, the money they are investing in the funds arnt making losses, but the bank itself goes under due to other costs etc). I appreciate this is worst case and in which case there are other things to worry about. I am still just getting my head round the investment side and was wondering whether aswell as a wider portfolio whether you should have varied trusts with different companys? I see your managed funds are mainly different companys so that sparked me off thinking.

JamesU

TCA wrote: »

........but I feel I need more exposure in this region and not happy with Pacific ex Japan trackers as they seem overly weighted (51%) in the financial sectors of Australia and New Zealand. But then trackers are trackers I suppose! Not saying these 2 funds mentioned are like-for-like of course.

If you decide on non-UT/OEIC, then the etfs HSBC HMFE (not HMEF) and ishare ISFE are a good starting point in that direction with better allocations, have a look at their factsheets. But as Sabre mentioned, indices in the region can also correlate closely and feed off one another.

Also worth noting HMEF is a reasonable UK equivalent to VWO.NYSE for MSCI EM global index. Pity the latter is switching to FTSE but in the long run both South Korea (and Taiwan) are bound to shift from EM to developed anyway. They also need to free up some space in the EM sector for Greece etc.

JamesU

sabretoothtigger

Vanguard, HSBC

Neither company has ownership rights over a unit trust. If they bankrupt, neither would a creditor have rights. It might cause a bump but nothing is lost because the manager goes under.

Lehmans still has funds out there operating. Barings, of Nick Leeson fame still operate a fund even when the bank is gone [ironically its performance was great, I know someone who owned it for a long time]
http://www.etftrends.com/2008/10/lehman-etfs-name-worrisome-thing/

AIG on the other hand operate a few special ETN which is a form of debt, if they went under people almost lost their money. I think an ETF which owns options or futures is safe so long as the contracts are honoured and we exclude fraud on accounts like MF global

http://www.etftrends.com/2008/09/lehman-failure-illustrates-risks-of-etns/

JohnRo

I might as well write it here rather than make a new thread, I'm having difficulty nailing down the purchase cost in both the morning star and trustnet portfolio tool and even using the numbers Best Invests own platform provides - my intention being to pay for the x-ray analysis and research at some point in the future when I can figure out the pricing and costs.

At the moment, as those following the thread know, I am using Best Invest Select. Their platform is very basic imo, it only presents me with the following cost/price related elements on completed transactions :-

Trade Date - Settlement Date - Units - Cost(£) - Price(p)

I'm assuming everyone will have paid the same price for any given units on any given day?

e.g. Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Inc (0.25% dilution levy)

27/09/12 - 03/10/12 - 0.69 - 100 - 14,359.14

Using B.I. own numbers, that seems to suggest I've purchased £99.08 net worth of these units so I can only assume the 92p shortfall is the dilution levy which just doesn't tally so what could these other charges be?

Morning star list unit prices for this particular fund between those dates as follows

27/09/12 - 142.6573
28/09/12 - 143.5919
01/10/12 - 144.0009
02/10/12 - 144.2508
03/10/12 - 144.2971

Trustnet website looks like it's had a major revamp? Not sure I like it as much though since it now seems impossible to isolate historic unit prices, it does seem massively faster to use though.

Anyway, can anyone tell me where I'm getting this price/cost thing wrong?

TCA

JohnRo, probably not related to your query, but out of interest, how and when do they deduct the quarterly custody charges? Looks like you just pay for the funds themselves as part of signing up to B.I?