Anything which didn't go down in the Oct 2018 crash?

jim1999

The timing is frustrating, I know, but investing as soon as you have the money available is generally the best approach.

https://personal.vanguard.com/pdf/s315.pdf

londoninvestor

jim1999 wrote: »

The timing is frustrating, I know, but investing as soon as you have the money available is generally the best approach.

https://personal.vanguard.com/pdf/s315.pdf

Thanks for this (and I guess thanks too to Vanguard). It's fairly commonplace that investing a lump sum gives you a better expected return than drip-feeding. But what's usually nagged at me when reading that is: what about the variance of the returns?

So it's interesting that this paper shows that risk-adjusted return metrics also do better with a lump sum than drip-feeding.

seacaitch

RomfordNavy wrote: »

It makes me wonder about the long-term benefits of equity fund investments if they are this unstable.

Unsure whether to laugh or cry on reading this.

It suggests the OP hasn't performed, or internalised, even the most basic of background reading or research regarding long term investment and equity markets.

"All at sea" springs to mind.

BLB53

As you have quickly established, equities are generally more volatile than bonds and gilts and from what you have said, I suspect you would be best suited to a lower volatility asset allocation. So maybe have a look at some of the multi asset funds which offer a range of equity/bond mix to suit most investors such as Vanguard Lifestrategy or HSBC Global Strategy.

masonic

In answer to the OP's thread title, single country investment funds investing in Brazil and Russia were unaffected by the correction and are up between 6-25% over 3 months. But you might not like them so much during other times.

Apodemus

Asghar wrote: »

What crash?

Indeed! I guess it all depends on your time horizon...

Against the first of August, I am down 6%.

Against the start of the financial year, I am up 6%. (Not counting dividends at about 4.5%).

Against beginning of April ‘17, I am down 1% (again not including dividend reinvestment).

A drifting market, but yields are reasonable.

dunstonh

It makes me wonder about the long-term benefits of equity fund investments if they are this unstable.

Short term is short term
Long term is long term.

Looking at short-term issues to measure the quality over the long term is illogical. You have to average out the good years, bad years and nothing years. From those, you get a long term return that is typically higher than cash savings. In the short term, you could get lower returns or losses (if those bad years or nothing years occur early on).

A minor decline like recently happens once every year or two. You call it crash but no-one else is. This is about half a crash. And about a third to a quarter of a credit crunch/dot.com period loss.

Of course, you should have known this before you invested. After all the risk warnings make it clear. Plus, you only have to look at any chart of past performance to see the ups and downs occurring. So, how have these passed you by?

What you are going to be like in a real crash or depression?

Thrugelmir

RomfordNavy wrote: »

Around 4th - 12th October markets around the world lost maybe 10% of their value.

Perhaps the market had got ahead of itself. Don't lose sight of the fact that companies actually have to deliver to expectations. Buying into a "market" is far from being a guaranteed return.

Audaxer

Apodemus wrote: »

Against the start of the financial year, I am up 6%. (Not counting dividends at about 4.5%).

If your portfolio is up 6% from April after having taken 4.5% in dividends that is a excellent return in what has been a fairly flat period for the main markets. As it is much better return than my income portfolio, I'd be interested to know what sort of funds you hold.

Prism

Audaxer wrote: »

If your portfolio is up 6% from April after having taken 4.5% in dividends that is a excellent return in what has been a fairly flat period for the main markets. As it is much better return than my income portfolio, I'd be interested to know what sort of funds you hold.

I can't speak for Apodemus but the usual suspects are all doing pretty well this year. In the financial year Fundsmith and Lindsell Train GE are up about 12%, Scottish Mortgage around 7%. My best performing fund is a healthcare tracker at almost 20% gain.
Smaller companies funds however have been hit pretty hard.