A question for those who are at least partially Active investors

BananaRepublic

TBC15 wrote: »

Did you go with the Motley Fool mantra at the time?

Trustnet has been a huge help for me over the years, I feel a bit guilty not giving them any business.

Motley Fool was one of the sirens whose sweet calls pulled me off course.

Prism

economic wrote: »

I like it this way as i have a mix of growth stocks and value stocks as well which you dont get with the flagship funds like fundsmith who are all about growth (and therefore more volatility).

IMO the good performers like fundsmith have done well because they select growth stocks only and similar funds to this have performed roughly similar in % terms recently.

Interesting, one of the reasons that I picked Fundsmith is because its not a growth fund like so many of the top performers are. Morningstar class it in the global blended category. Some of its holdings are clearly growth like Paypal, others are both growth and value like Microsoft and then you have stocks like Johnson & Johnson which is value. There is more of a growth bias than value overall but there is certainly a mix. Saying that, I don't imagine the concept of growth or value stocks really apply to its investment style. Todays value is tomorrows growth and vice versa.

Its 5 year volatility is pretty much the same as a S&P 500 tracker - 10.9 vs 10.2. Considering it only has 30 stocks I would say thats fairly reliable. Its probably the fund that I own that I worry about the least.

Prism

BananaRepublic wrote: »

That’s true when comparing funds within an index, but often there is no index, or no passive funds tracking that index. Active funds allow more choice and better performance. There are lots of FTSE 100 trackers, and yes most will beat active FTSE 100 funds. But the index is pants. I fell into the passive hype 15 years ago, something I now regret though fund comparison tools are now much better.

Very true. If you decide to avoid the FTSE 100 and look a bit futher down the index at the FTSE 250 or towards small caps you would very likely not want to use a passive tracker. For example, over the last 3, 5 and 10 years the FTSE 250 trackers pretty much sit at bottom of the UK mid cap category. Its a similar story for small caps.

My suggestion would never use a passive fund for the UK market and unless the FTSE 100 somehow turns itself around this is unlikely to change.

username12345678

Passive

US
Japan
Pharma

(Considering EM MinVol ETF)

economic

Prism wrote: »

Interesting, one of the reasons that I picked Fundsmith is because its not a growth fund like so many of the top performers are. Morningstar class it in the global blended category. Some of its holdings are clearly growth like Paypal, others are both growth and value like Microsoft and then you have stocks like Johnson & Johnson which is value. There is more of a growth bias than value overall but there is certainly a mix. Saying that, I don't imagine the concept of growth or value stocks really apply to its investment style. Todays value is tomorrows growth and vice versa.

Its 5 year volatility is pretty much the same as a S&P 500 tracker - 10.9 vs 10.2. Considering it only has 30 stocks I would say thats fairly reliable. Its probably the fund that I own that I worry about the least.

Yes my mistake what i meant was that Fundsmith is mostly in growth but thats not that much more then a tracker i suppose.

He has done well over the last 5 years to outperform by a wide margin and keep volatility the same as the S&P. But 5 years is not much of a track record either. I would not feel safe to have most funds with fundsmith but i have allocated some to him which i am comfortable with. I also have limits to how much exposure i am willing to take to a particulary company and having all my funds with fundsmith would breach that limit quite easily.

ArchBair

Prism wrote: »

I am pretty much the same as Chris. I have passives in global tech and global health care. These average to about 75% US which means they pretty much fall under the US for passive guideline.

I also have a passive for global robotics as I figure that there aren't any fund manager experts for this kind of stuff. I also have a tiny holding in Polar's new active robotics fund to keep an eye on it. I don't expect it to beat the passive fund.

I would go passive for the US too but I have Fundsmith which covers me there.

Would you mind me asking what other active funds you have in your portfolio apart from Fundsmith, Legg Mason Japan, Jupiter India and the Polar Robotics fund?

Prism

ArchBair wrote: »

Would you mind me asking what other active funds you have in your portfolio apart from Fundsmith, Legg Mason Japan, Jupiter India and the Polar Robotics fund?

I have a fairly large holding in Old Mutual UK Mid Cap. This is the one my pension contributions go into each month as the platform its in doesn't cost to trade. Then once a year I transfer some from that into my SIPP. In addition to those funds above I also have Baillie Gifford Global Discovery which covers my small caps. I have Fundsmith FEET and Baillie Gifford Greater China for EM. Oh, and I small gold miners fund which I am thinking of selling as I am not convinced inflation is ever coming back as strong as the past.

OldMusicGuy

I am 23% cash, 27% active (dividend income focus) and 50% passive multi-asset funds. I am 60, retiring in 4 weeks. Suits my objectives but I couldn't say if it would suit anyone else's.

ColdIron

OldMusicGuy wrote: »

I am 60, retiring in 4 weeks

Congratulations!

ArchBair

Prism wrote: »

I have a fairly large holding in Old Mutual UK Mid Cap. This is the one my pension contributions go into each month as the platform its in doesn't cost to trade. Then once a year I transfer some from that into my SIPP. In addition to those funds above I also have Baillie Gifford Global Discovery which covers my small caps. I have Fundsmith FEET and Baillie Gifford Greater China for EM. Oh, and I small gold miners fund which I am thinking of selling as I am not convinced inflation is ever coming back as strong as the past.

I am more into IT;'s so only hold 1 fund which is Fundsmith.