Troy Income & Growth Investment Trust

Totton

The Merryn Somerset Webb article was probably very similar to her coverage of IT's within MoneyWeek, pretty much prefers Troy to anything else, either as Personal Assets or TIGT. Personally I first got into Troy via their Troy Trojan OEIC which during the crisis was a stellar performer for me relative to everything else that I owned, hence I bought into them also via Personal Assets and Troy IGT. They are steady hands with less volatility than a lot of the other stuff out there, at the moment though they are not performing well due to their market view which favours Gold and Gilts.

If you are staring out then it may be worthwhile looking for global coverage via a Vanguard Life Strategy fund rather than a single Investment Trust. https://www.vanguard.co.uk/uk/mvc/investments/mutualfunds#Balanced_Table

bowlhead99

melbury wrote: »

I gave up on penny shares years ago, can honestly say I made a loss on all of the ones I purchased, some disappeared completely:o

AIM shares in general and small-caps in particular have lots of opportunities. I had success with Lo-Q from 05/06 which returned 5-6x cost in 2-3 years, and has at least gone up 6 or 7 times that since I sold it a few years back- would have been an absolute monster six year return.

I also bought Sirius Minerals in 2009 for 6p, since then it went up to 13p, down to 3p, up to 20p, down to 8p, up to 30, down to 13 and is now at 26... I still have some in my pension but needless to say over the last couple of years I took some profit at the right time and failed to at others.

Successes like these are heavily offset by things like buying London Asia and some of their Chinese spin-outs before it became clear most of the assets were built on false promises and hope, or Leadcom an Israel based tech company which was horrendously over-leveraged in the boom times.

These days I still have some personally researched shares (more AIM than main market) but have a much greater proportion in funds and investment companies than ever before. Trackers (including Vanguard Lifestrategy) for most of my large-cap exposure, more active funds for niche areas and emerging markets and the occasional fund-of-funds where it suits me.

taf_2

I have found the IT section on trustnet.com helpful in selecting the IT portfolio for my share ISA.

Also, morningstar.co.uk.