How much time

MarcoM

Hi,

I would like to know from other fellow diyers how much time do they spend researching markets and products for their investments. Also do you buy specific magazines and publications on a weekly basis or do you just stick with the mainstream papers business sections?

Thanks

Totton

I buy Investment Trust magazine (quarterly) and probably spend up to an hour a day reading websites, forums, fund and IT reports.

maryjanell79

I think it depends what you're invested in, I'm invested in funds and check on them monthly and do most of my investment research at weekends via newspapers and online through forums and sites like MorningStar.

FatherAbraham

MarcoM wrote: »

I would like to know from other fellow diyers how much time do they spend researching markets and products for their investments. Also do you buy specific magazines and publications on a weekly basis or do you just stick with the mainstream papers business sections?

With a little research, it becomes obvious that for long-term investing, product costs are critical.

I read one useful article on the Motley Fool website in about 2000, which eulogized large generalist investment trusts for their diversification and relatively low costs, so I've stuck with the Scottish Investment Trust ever since.

In the last couple of months, I've woken up to the importance of asset allocation for influencing risk and return, so I've read Tim Hale's book, Smarter Investing, and Peter Bernstein's The Intelligent Asset Allocator.

I just read around on here, to pick other people's brains. It's probably time to leave SIT and go to a low-cost Vanguard Lifestyle fund or similar now, but there's no immediate rush.

Reading weekly or monthly magazines sounds crazy to me. Expensive in terms of money and time. Better to spend my time earning.

Warmest regards,
FA

pqrdef

MarcoM wrote: »

I would like to know from other fellow diyers how much time do they spend researching markets and products for their investments.

Do you reckon the ones who do get better results than the ones who don't? If so, how to explain the poor performance of so many professionally managed funds?

IronWolf

Several hours a day. If you just invest in funds though there is no need to spend that much time.

If you want to be a true DIY investor then you need to spend a considerable amount of time researching and reading. Its like another job.

bowlhead99

IronWolf wrote: »

Several hours a day. If you just invest in funds though there is no need to spend that much time.

If you want to be a true DIY investor then you need to spend a considerable amount of time researching and reading. Its like another job.

It's like another job where your salary depends on your net worth at the beginning of the year...

If you can eke out another half percent of performance then it's not worth the man-hours on 10,000 invested... apart from practice for bigger numbers in later years... but if you can beat 'the market' by 4-5% (or avoid a market loss of that amount) on 100,000 invested, then you are getting minimum wage on your 700 hours per year part time job. Obviously if you outperform by 20% at that level it's quite a healthy income, and makes up for the years where you work for negative salary

The tough thing is if you invest a lot of time in it and still make a loss - you might have added value by avoiding a larger loss, but still mentally difficult to accept if you don't have the right mindset (which is why a lot of people avoid investing altogether and rely on cash savings or just blind luck on an unmonitored pension pot). I think more are taking an interest these days as the headline cash rates have fallen so much, though of course they should have taken an interest before anyway.

Forever

For my initial research, I did spend considerable time researching. I now invest mainly in funds and a little bit in trackers so it doesn't require so much work now.

But I have found I quite enjoy investigating everything and deciding where to put my money. So depending on what is happening in real life, it can go down to not doing anything to doing quite a lot.

MarcoM

So far I only have a vanguard fund the 80 equity one.
I see myself as a mutual fund / index investor only.
I would like to get in the right frame of mind for when the numbers will be higher later in life. However some of the IFAS on here say that one thing is handling a 60k portoflio and another is a 500k plus so I do have doubts on future ability if this is the case.

How do you guys feel about this? Would you be confident in handling investments for 10 times the current value of your present ones?

Forever

Isn't this a question of how comfortable you will be managing your own portfolio?

Perhaps you could start off cautious and then slowly move up the risk scale until you find a place where you feel the risk/return ratio is roughly where you personally like it - regardless of how much is in the pot.

If you are not comfortable with the idea of managing your own portfolio, you could always use an IFA. Even if only to offer guidance on funds or trackers that you like the look of/thinking of coming out of.

Glen_Clark

pqrdef wrote: »

how to explain the poor performance of so many professionally managed funds?

Hidden Charges mostly - The managers are working in their own interest instead of yours. You only need a cursory glance at Investment Trusts to see that - with many trading about 20% below the value of their assets. If the managers were working in their investors interest they would liquidate the fund, giving their investors a guaranteed gain, (and doing themselves out of a well paid job)