Woodford Patient Capital Trust

digannio

Down another 3% today, discount pretty much 9.5% and available at 82p today. TheWoodford blog seems to be filled with people who are no longer Patient after a series of big setbacks. Just wondered if anyone is tempted... someone placed a £367,000 buy late this afternoon but there seems to be plenty getting out as well.
Surely the great Woodford won't let his legion of Patient followers down long-term, will he?

talexuser

Did people even read the prospectus? He was quite clear this is a high risk long term fund in small cap and start ups that might get a great drug in the future. The name was a clue and the reason (although he's made me a bundle over 25 years) I did not bother.

digannio

A bit of a punt really but I did read one disgruntled investor saying how a fair chunk of his pension was chucked in there and when would there be some good news between share price slumps, fund houses ditching Woodford and pharma company setbacks.

bostonerimus

Investing when things are going up is easy. It's when there are losses that you have to actually start making tough decisions. So it's best to go in knowing what you are going to do when you have poor performance. You need some well set criteria for selling (or buying) and a good idea where you'll put the proceeds. If money in a fund is a "punt" then you should be prepared to lose it all, but equally if you had 10% of your portfolio in Woodford Capital Trust and it's now down to say 8% that sounds like a chance to rebalance and buy some more cheaply rather than running for the hills.

jimjames

I followed the fortunes of Fidelity China Special situations which launched in 2010 at £1 and very quickly went to a similar but slightly bigger premium based on the reputation of Anthony Bolton. Over the next couple of years the price dropped to a low of 72p before starting a pretty solid rise.

It's now at over £2.30 having gone over £2.40 so anyone who got in at the 72p level is sitting on a very tidy profit. I bought at around 80p so still did well but even those who bought at launch are well in profit.

There may be no correlation but it shows how a long term, high risk fund can perform and turn round very quickly. I've topped up on PCT and will probably add to my holdings if the price remains at this level.

Having said all that, you'd need to have a very high risk tolerance to put a large pension pot into something like this.

Johnnyboy11

PurpleBricks accounts for about a third of yesterday's WPCT drop.

Bonnie151

I have money in both his Patient Capital Trust and his Equity Income fund. Neither is performing particularly well, but I’m still hanging in there. Not quite sure why, I suppose out of a bloody stubbornness since when I originally purchased, I said I would give it at least 10 years.

atush

Sounds like a bunch of idiots bought in.

This is a long term fund. They should expect extreme volatility.

And like all funds that are private equity it is a bit of a punt.

JohnRo

atush wrote: »

Sounds like a bunch of idiots bought in.

This is a long term fund. They should expect extreme volatility.

And like all funds that are private equity it is a bit of a punt.

It hasn't had extreme volatility, I'd welcome that.

Instead it's had a fairly consistent decline over the relatively short time it's been around, investing in niche areas though obviously not the individual companies that have been doing relatively well (elsewhere).

It boils down to whether Woodford is cut out for managing this type of investment vehicle and so far the signs don't look promising. He might get lucky, he might not, so far it's disappointing.

Linton

The fund has only been going a couple of years. It holds significant investments in unquoted companies whose true value will only be known when they are sold. The variation in price has been mainly due to the changes in investor sentiment reflected in the Premium/Discount - the NAV has only varied by less than 10%. Being invested in very small companies it hasnt benefited by the fall in sterling.

So all in all it's far too early to make any judgement whatsoever. Come back in 5, 10 years time.

bostonerimus

If you use an active fund you are betting that it will be one of the one's that beats it's comparable index. I expect people used Woodford's past success as at least one of the criteria for investing In his Capital Trust.....I hope it wasn't the only one. I feel a bit sorry for Woodford as his losses are pretty short term so far and in a decade he might have done quite well. If people bought into this fund fro sound allocation and strategic reasons then this decline is a buying opportunity. Those that sell will have committed the cardinal sin of investing; buying high and selling low. Of course if you wait any longer your losses might get bigger. Such difficult decisions can be avoided if you have the correct asset allocation for your strategic goals and you use the discipline of rebalancing to buy and sell.