BlackRock Global Property Securities Equity Tracker Fund

colinjd

Because I've been tracking my portfolio on Trustnet recently, I've just received the following news alert from them regarding the BlackRock Global Property Securities Equity Tracker fund.

"BlackRock Global Property Securities Equity Tracker fund, managed by Nimish Patel, has seen significant outflows from the fund.
After stripping out the effect of the fund's performance, this decrease equates to an approximate fall in the underlying fund size of £104.5m in the month to March 31, 2015."

By my calculation, that's roughly 13.5% of the fund value taken out in the last month so I'd be interested to know how I should react to this information, if at all? Is there cause for concern and should I consider taking any action?

Thanks

TakeCareOfThePennies_2

Well, its up to you how you interpret it, and given the new tax year is around the corner, there could be a multitude of additional reasons why people are selling.

The first thing you probably want to do is see if there's any Blackrock news that might have something to do with this.

In end, we all have to learn, in our own little way, when we should sell our positions and when we should "skim some cream off the top" (i.e. take some profit). Selling some or all should always be an autonomous decision based on your own circumstances and not influenced by others.... you need to take an objective view based on news and market activity.

And finally.... if you've still absolutely no idea what to do, remember the golden rule.... "Sell with regret rather than keep with regret".

colinjd

I understand your comment but as I'm a relatively inexperienced investor you can probably see why a 13.5% reduction in the value of the fund may appear to be more than just "skimming some cream off the top"

That's an awful lot of cream.

dunstonh

"BlackRock Global Property Securities Equity Tracker fund, managed by Nimish Patel, has seen significant outflows from the fund.

Which could be one investor with a large amount or many investors with smaller amounts. Its not a large fund and its a high risk fund. So, its not uncommon to see investors pop in and out.

I understand your comment but as I'm a relatively inexperienced investor you can probably see why a 13.5% reduction in the value of the fund may appear to be more than just "skimming some cream off the top"

That's an awful lot of cream.

if you have a few percent of your portfolio in there then fair enough. However, such a specialist fund would not normally make up much in most peoples portfolios and is the type of fund that would see high volatility and lots of in outs. Many people will allocate x% to specialist areas. They may feel property is good in one period but natural resources in another or tech in another.

You say you are relatively inexperienced. Is this type of fund actually suitable for you?

colinjd

dunstonh wrote: »

You say you are relatively inexperienced. Is this type of fund actually suitable for you?

I just have around 5% that I use to help with diversification, so I'm not worried it's just I've not seen such a warning before and wanted to get the thoughts of the great & the good.

Thanks, again.

TakeCareOfThePennies_2

colinjd wrote: »

why a 13.5% reduction in the value of the fund

I think the problem is its "only" a £771m fund, so the 13.5% might sound bigger than it is.

Also, as dunstonh said, it might be a small number of institutional buyers (e.g. pension funds) selling off large chunks as part of their quarterly portfolio rebalancing... which are a tiny part of their own portfolio, but a relatively large chunk of the fund.

Assuming I'm looking at the same fund, it seems to have had a 30% rise in the last year, which as funds go is a pretty decent return and hence the suggestion you may just be witnessing cream skimming.

If you've also made 30% then it may well be time for you too to skim some cream to lock-in some of those gains if you can't quite bring yourself to sell the lot.

fwor

I have a personal interest in that I've got around 8% of my portfolio in it. My views may be a bit simplistic, but I don't see any sort of slump in the price at the moment which suggests (to me) that there's not a whole crowd of people running for the doors.

It's not something that has me unduly worried - the last property fund that I was in endured a 40% drop and had withdrawals suspended for a year in (IIRC) 2008, but recovered over the following years to allow me to sell at a (small) gain. By comparison this fund has put on around 24% in the 10 months that I've held it, so I'm not going to start panicking yet. I might live to regret that, but it's an investment that I plan to hold for at least another 5 years, so there are likely to be plenty of other ups and downs before I come to take my money out...

grey_gym_sock

fwor wrote: »

It's not something that has me unduly worried - the last property fund that I was in endured a 40% drop and had withdrawals suspended for a year in (IIRC) 2008

this blackrock fund invests in property securities (shares in quoted property companies), not directly in property, so it is unlikely to need to suspend withdrawals. it can sell enough shares to cover withdrawals, so long as stock exchanges are operational and the shares have not been suspended.

OTOH, the fund will tend to be more volatile than a fund that invests directly in property. because the prices of the shares it holds can go to a premium or discount to the value of the underlying properties.