Could you rate this portfolio?

Catapult

Just interested to see what people thought of this fund portfolio in terms of success during 2014 - or will it cause tears?!

Equal investment (£5K each, £40K total) across all 8 funds:

1. Fidelity Moneybuilder Growth Class Y - Income
2. Ignis European Smaller Companies Class I - Acc
3. Investec UK Smaller Companies Class I - Acc
4. Legal & General UK Alpha Retail Class I - Acc
5. Pictet Biotech Inclusive - Class P - Income
6. Premier Ethical Class C - Income
7. Premier Optimum Income Class C - Acc
8. River & Mercantile UK Equity Smaller Companies Class B - Income

Azza_1

Don't see the need for that many smaller company funds to be honest and it's very UK biased.

fcmisc

Catapult wrote: »

Just interested to see what people thought of this fund portfolio in terms of success during 2014 - or will it cause tears?!

Equal investment (£5K each, £40K total) across all 8 funds:

1. Fidelity Moneybuilder Growth Class Y - Income
2. Ignis European Smaller Companies Class I - Acc
3. Investec UK Smaller Companies Class I - Acc
4. Legal & General UK Alpha Retail Class I - Acc
5. Pictet Biotech Inclusive - Class P - Income
6. Premier Ethical Class C - Income
7. Premier Optimum Income Class C - Acc
8. River & Mercantile UK Equity Smaller Companies Class B - Income

Why the mix of income and acc? I'd either have all income or all acc depending on circumstance.

planteria

yes, i thought that. why not choose Acc funds?

planteria

i like Smaller Companies funds, but why 3 of them out of 8?....do they overlap?....perhaps read up and pick the one you think will do best?

i like Biotech (there's a thread here)

why the Ethical fund?

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

All you need is a few cheap trackers. Alternatively scrap all that faffing about for one of the much coveted Vanguard Life Strategy funds. You can simply set it and forget it then.

ColdIron

It looks insanely focused towards small companies

What was it that made you unable to decide between the three you've chosen?

Why the 50/50 split between Accumulation and Income?

Do you think the UK will outperform the rest of the world?

What is your objective and do you think those choices will achieve it?

It looks like a small punt on fashionable sectors du jour

Sorry, you asked

planteria

i dont think 37.5% of your portfolio in smaller company funds is necessarily wrong. and, in fairness, until recently i had 1 in my SIPP and 2 in my ISA. but understanding why you have selected those 3 would be interesting.

Linton

Agree with Azza. You only need one fund per sector if you are investing 8X£5K and should have a much broader range of sectors. Also agree with the queries on Acc and Inc funds.

Your choice of funds seems perverse with frequent use of the more obscure fund managers. There are better known funds in their respective sectors than those offered by Ignis, Pictet, Premier, River & Mercantile.

Going for an Ethical fund as 1 out of 8 seems most odd. If you believe in Ethical funds you surely would want to go 100% that way and probably suffer a lower return. If you dont believe in them dont use them.

Suggest you try a top down approach in choosing funds. Decide which areas you want to invest in, and in what %s to provide a wide geographic and industry coverage. Then choose funds to meet the spec.

jimjames

Linton wrote: »

Going for an Ethical fund as 1 out of 8 seems most odd. If you believe in Ethical funds you surely would want to go 100% that way and probably suffer a lower return. If you dont believe in them dont use them.

Agreed, it does seem strange unless it is done as a way of getting "green" exposure but I'd think Jupiter Ecology would be more specific for that. On it's own it's like having vegetarian gravy on your steak!

No exposure either to the biggest market (USA) or Far East/Japan.

System

Linton wrote: »

There are better known funds in their respective sectors than those offered by Ignis, Pictet, Premier, River & Mercantile

A bit of a blanket statement?
Better known maybe, but better performing?

Ignis Euro Smaller Cos - ranked 1 in its sector over 1+3 years,
R&M UK Equity Smaller Cos - ranked 2 in its sector over 3 years (second only to hard-closed Cazenove UK Smaller Co).

Some other good examples of smaller fund management groups doing very well, e.g. Baillie Gifford....