Fund Sectors 30 September 2007 at 4:48PM in Savings & investments 4 replies 624 views

The_Fiddler_2

What Fund Sectors / Geographical Areas are considered risky and what are considered cautious?

dunstonh

You cannot really say geographical areas because you can pick high risk and low risk in that region. However, you can get a rough idea depending on the economic state of the country or region.

Cash, UK fixed interest, UK other bonds, interenational fixed interest, gilts, property (bricks and mortar funds only), UK equity and bond are the main cautious sectors. However, the sector itself is only a guide as its possible to pick up higher risk and lower risk funds within those sectors. This is why performance tables by sector are not reliable as the top fund could be a higher risk fund having a good run in a period of growth whereas a fund ranked 30th could be the best bet because it has lower risk and is more consistent and less volatile. A fund manager aiming and achieving second quartile consistency may be better than a fund manager aiming for top quartile performance.

The_Fiddler_2

Thanks

What is considered UK equity?

By property funds I assume you mean funds that invest in property, and not physically buying the property?

dunstonh

UK equity are shares listed in the UK. UK equity is then often split into sub-sectors such as UK equity income, UK all companies, UK smaller companies etc.

Property will be property funds that invest into commercial property (not residential). The cautious funds are the bricks and mortar funds that own the properties. The riskier funds are those that invest in property company shares/REITs. i.e. a low risk property fund is clerical medical property fund but a high risk one is Aberdeen Property Share.

munk

The sector focus section on the trustnet site can give you some indication of how each sector is performing and what kind of volatility it's facing.