How many funds do you hold?

Any

I hold 10 funds. Most of the advise I read over the year or so that I am in investing is that you shouldn't really hold more then 10.
What are your views on this?

Also, while I have long term plans with my 10 funds (ie just keep contributing and hold them unless I become concerned about the sector/fund/manager), I was also thinking of trying to "chase the leader" (it's not called tat, but I cannot remember exact terminology!!) strategy. I've read about it in the papers, it's a strategy where you keep switching to the current fastest growing fund, the underlying theory being that if they are in the momentum of growth over the last 1,3,6 mths then you should jump on the waggon and ride it for a while before swapping to the next leader.
What do you think?
And where would you find the info on the performance of funds over the last 1, 3 or 6 months, sorted out by sector, country or something similar? Most tools I know only show past 12 months performance on the listing page, or past 5 years, but still by 12 months periods and only show most recent performance once you open into the detail... but going through detail of hundreds of funds to compare them is not very time efficient way of doing it!

I cannot find the article online... I will post it up if I find it.

ColdIron

I hold 13 but only because it's the product of my allocation - 20%, 20%, 10% and 10 * 5%

kidmugsy

None, unless you count a cash fund in a pension.

Linton

Any wrote: »

........

And where would you find the info on the performance of funds over the last 1, 3 or 6 months, sorted out by sector, country or something similar? Most tools I know only show past 12 months performance on the listing page, or past 5 years, but still by 12 months periods and only show most recent performance once you open into the detail... but going through detail of hundreds of funds to compare them is not very time efficient way of doing it!

I cannot find the article online... I will post it up if I find it.

http://www.trustnet.com/

Will do most of what you ask for. Click on the column headings to sort. If you click on "create custom tab" you can get individual year performance and 10 year performance amongst other things

Any

kidmugsy wrote: »

None, unless you count a cash fund in a pension.

Sorry, forgot to narrow it down that it is a question for fund investors:D

Any

Linton wrote: »

http://www.trustnet.com/

Will do most of what you ask for - not 1/3/6 months but in my view that is not very useful. Click on the column headings to sort. If you click on "create custom tab" you can get individual year performance and 10 year performance amongst other things

Well, that is the whole point. Apparently usually it is the past 6 months performance that is being looked at.
Looking at the last year is a bit out of date...I kind of get it. The idea is that you jump every 3 or 6 months... If most of the growth was done the first 3 months of the last 12 months period you are not catching the momentum.

marathonic

It's an interesting question. When investing in individual shares, a lot of people advise you should hold at least 20 so that no single share represents more than 5% of your portfolio - if a share were to represent 10%, a company going bust would have too devastating an affect on your overall returns.

With a fund, you are automatically diversified over a lot more than 20 individual shares. However, the reason you don't hold much more than 20 individual shares is that the effort involved in tracking them, as well as the associated costs of trading, becomes excessive given the minimal advantages achieved by having a diversified portfolio of, for example, 25 shares instead of a diversified portfolio of 20 shares.

When using funds, the diversification is free because it shouldn't cost you any extra to distribute your money over 10 funds as opposed to a single fund. It's also easier to manage and, whilst it's still important, keeping on top of funds isn't as important as keeping on top of individual shares. With funds, there's no need to be overly concerned if you are on two weeks holidays with no access to review or trade.

That being said, I don't think the idea should be to select a total number of funds you desire and then go about selecting those funds. You should go about it from a high level by starting off with your 100% allocation and splitting that as you see fit.

For example, I might decide that holding less than 5% in a particular fund is a waste of time - if I select a fund, I should have enough conviction that I can allocated 5% to it as opposed to, for example, 3%.

With that in mind, I might decide that, because I like to be involved with the markets as opposed to having a truly passive portfolio, I'd like to allocate 25% towards funds at the top end of the risk scale or those that I may like to switch out of if I think they've become too expensive.

As a 30 year old, I might decide to use the (120 - age) rule to allocate between equities and bonds - which would see me allocate 10% towards bonds.

That leaves 65% to be allocated to my passive portfolio of equities (or, if I decided to be consistently invested in the sector, property).

Taking all the above into consideration, I may decide to go for 11 funds:

Passive (only trades are to rebalance back to original %):
UK Large Cap Tracker: 20%
UK Mid Cap Tracker: 5%
US Large Cap Tracker: 10%
EU Large Cap Tracker: 10%
Emerging Markets Managed: 10%
World Small Cap Managed: 10%
Bonds: 10%

Trading Portion (I can switch in and out of these as I see fit):
Natural Resources: 5%
Technology: 5%
BioTechnology: 5%
Property: 10%

Forever

It is possible to view funds (or ITs) on Trustnet for 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months by:

- adding funds (and ITs) to your basket (click on green + icon to the right of anything you are interested in or there is an 'Add to basket' option)
- open your basket
- click on examine these using FE Trustnet tools
- select multiplot charting

On the left side of the screen you can change the time-scale you wish to view the performance of the items in your basket.

http://www.trustnet.com/

I currently hold Asian, Global and UK focused equities. I also hold strategic and emerging market bond funds. Altogether I have 8 funds.

I want to pick up a commodities or a specialist fund but I am waiting for the right time. And I am also keeping my eye on the Blackrock tracker which tracks a number of other index trackers too.

redbuzzard

14 including 5 equity index funds, 2 absolute return, 3 equity income, a US opportunities and some merging markets including a couple of investment trusts.

Any

Forever wrote: »

It is possible to view funds (or ITs) on Trustnet for 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months by:

- adding funds (and ITs) to your basket (click on green + icon to the right of anything you are interested in or there is an 'Add to basket' option)
- open your basket
- click on examine these using FE Trustnet tools
- select multiplot charting

On the left side of the screen you can change the time-scale you wish to view the performance of the items in your basket.

http://www.trustnet.com/

I currently hold Asian, Global and UK focused equities. I also hold strategic and emerging market bond funds. Altogether I have 8 funds.

I want to pick up a commodities or a specialist fund but I am waiting for the right time. And I am also keeping my eye on the Blackrock tracker which tracks a number of other index trackers too.

Thank you, I will try that.
I am very interested in this new strategy and want to try whether it works at all. I just put in couple of hundred for this exercise so cannot really loose much and play with it and see.

I have UK - medium risk and high risk (smaller companies), European, Emerging markets (just 1) and US (medium and smaller companies).
Also got BlackRock global property tracker, but still cannot make my mind up whether to keep it or not... not doing much currently, but that doesn't mean much obviously, it's about long term... but I cannot make my mind up whether I believe in the sector or not.. One day I do, one day I start questioning myself!!

talexuser

4 equity, 1 bond, 1 absolute return, 1 higher risk punt in isas.