SE trackers

musashi10

Hi I want to invest in a fund that racks the index of the stock exchange.

I am yet undecided to do either a US one or a UK one.

Can anyone recommend the cheapest ones in terms of cost for each please and a lik to the site?

Looking also for one where you can invest smallish regular amounts.

Thanks.

dunstonh

Why not a more diverse option. Going 100% into one market is higher risk than the typical investment profile of the average UK investor.

Forever

There are some tracker of trackers so that you spread your risk ie. a tracker that follows trackers of the US/UK/other parts of the world etc.

One is the Vanguard lifestyle tracker and the other is the Blackrock Consensus tracker. They are both relatively new.

Which one you pick would depend on the amount you wish to invest and the platform you choose as they both have different fee structures.

However fees for platforms are not fixed at the moment due to RDR changes. So whichever platform you pick, the fees may change a little bit over the next year.

Potential platforms are Hargreaves Lansdown, TD Direct, iii, Fidelity, Cavendish and I am sure there are more platforms that I can't think of right now.

Good luck with it OP.

musashi10

I think tracking the top companies in either the US or UK is pretty low risk, certainly lower risk than me picking shares myself. Hisory shows that over the long term these markets go up.

I have regular savings/ cashISA account too.

Just wan to diversify int the SE and I think this is the best 1st step for me.

jimjames

If that is what you are decided on then HSBC trackers are about the cheapest. You can buy via Fidelity or Cavendish for no platform charge which are probably the cheapest ways for holding them.

dunstonh

I think tracking the top companies in either the US or UK is pretty low risk, certainly lower risk than me picking shares myself.

it is lower risk than single company shares but it is higher risk than a mixed asset fund (which can be tracker only if that is your preference). Why have you eliminated Europe, Asia, Emerging Markets, Fixed Income Bonds etc?

musashi10

Hi,This is just a starting step for me, and it's better imo to invest in something that you have some knowledge of and have confidence in. For me at this time it is the UK and US se as they have a proven history for a very long period of time to do well long term.

Forever

It still might be worth looking on the Trustnet site http://www.trustnet.com/ before you buy anything.

You can add funds to your basket on this site so in this case, the HSBC trackers for the UK and US (Legal and General and Blackrock also do these) by pressing the green plus sign next to the fund. You can then view their performance over +5 years, 5 years, 3 years and 1 year using open basket-->the FE Trustnet tools-->multi-plot charting.

You could then compare the performance and volatility of them over the long term. You could compare these with mixed asset funds too like CF Ruffer Total Return, Investec Perpetual Distribution Fund and Troy Trojan just for comparison purposes.

Good luck OP.

musashi10

Thanks that looks great.

I'm sure you're right about increased yields in those suggested funds and I'm sure that later I will invest.

But I have been a complete maniac withmoney in the past and am trying to just invest for my future now, bu living by the rule, don't invest in something you don't know about.

dunstonh

musashi10 wrote: »

Hi,This is just a starting step for me, and it's better imo to invest in something that you have some knowledge of and have confidence in. For me at this time it is the UK and US se as they have a proven history for a very long period of time to do well long term.

So, even more reason for you to use a multi-asset fund. If you are going to start out, then at least start out correctly. Single sector investing is considered bad investing.

RetiredInThailand

If you buy tracking funds or ETFs just make sure that they have low charges (the HSBC "C" funds are an example, Ishares are another) and that they actually own the underlying securities that they purport to track. Not all of them do.

If you want to diversify most of the usual providers also do low-cost trackers for non-UK markets.

I think one nice thing about trackers is they automatically dump badly performing shares as they go bad and fall out of the index, whereas if you own the shares yourself you may not be aware that they are dropping or indeed you may hang onto them in the belief that they will recover.