ISA Lost £3K in 6 Months - Stick or Switch ?

Prism

RocketRonnieRadox wrote: »

Thanks prism, what I am after is to review my holdings and ensure that they are in the best place as they havent been reviewed in some 10 years.

Ok reviewing your holdings (funds) and being in the best place (platform) are two separate questions. I would only consider changing platform if the current platform fees are very high or the fund choice is not good enough. What are you platform fees? My feeling, especially with the exit fee is to stay put unless you have a strong reason not to.

So then you have your fund choices. Unless you are experienced with fund selection I wouldn't try and come up with your own choices. Either stick with what you have or look at a simple mutli asset global fund that matches your risk level. Since you mention HSBC then I assume one of theirs (not the premium one) would work well. HSBC Global Strategy rather than HSBC World Selection would be my preference (lower fees)

Thrugelmir

RocketRonnieRadox wrote: »

Thank you atush, you've highlighted the real most important question here - Should I move at all or not ?

Im also a little confused about the implications of losing by moving - is that really correct ? If I stay and it recovers over time is it not the same as another fund increasing the value ? How do I actually lose by moving ?

What if you move to the wrong asset class and suffer yet another fall. Investments are made on the basis of a longer term horizon. Market prices can themselves be deceptive. As it's investors themselves that set them. Chasing a rising market can itself become self fullfilling. As money follow money. Without any reference to underlying trading performance.

Don't react hastily. You've years ahead of you.

londoninvestor

atush wrote: »

How about instead of switching and making the loss permanent, you can consider putting future contributions in different assets/funds etc?

I understand this advice when we're talking to posters who have seen a drop and are thinking of getting out of the market altogether - because that's often a panic decision and they'd be better to stay invested for the long term.

However the OP here is planning to stay invested in equities, but change to a different allocation. In that case, it makes sense to switch to the target allocation regardless of history. (If OP had a twin who had exactly the same amount to invest, and the same objectives and risk profile, but hadn't made the investment yet... we'd expect OP and twin to end up with the same portfolio.)

The exception is if there are CGT considerations around crystallising a gain when it could be better done in a different tax year. But that's not the case here as we're talking about an ISA.

This is not psychologically easy, as I know - I'm going through a stern chat with myself about cognitive biases in the runup to my next rebalance.

David_Evans

A_T wrote: »

It looks like you're mostly in UK listed shares. I would never want to hold more than 20% UK.

I think the UK FTSE is probably undervalued, relative to the US right now.

justme111

You do not look at the relevant info so no wonder you can not make the choice.
Can you specify what exactly are you going to be charged for if you "switch" (those £2500 you mentioned)? Will it be for withdrawal from the platform? If so is it on percentage basis ? Is there any time term during which you are charged and there would be no charge if you sold after? It is hard to believe one could be charged almost 10% of one's portfolio value to exist the provider , even SJP charges are lower !!
Or for selling your existing investments and buying new ones on the same platform? What are the platform charges ? Do they have that HSBC global fund mentioned already here ?
Do you have any new money you saving ?
What are the exact dates you calculate the loss on your investment on?

atush

RocketRonnieRadox wrote: »

Thank you atush, you've highlighted the real most important question here - Should I move at all or not ?

Im also a little confused about the implications of losing by moving - is that really correct ? If I stay and it recovers over time is it not the same as another fund increasing the value ? How do I actually lose by moving ?

You lose when you move because you make a ;paper loss' a 'real' loss by selling AT A LOSS.

RocketRonnieRadox

justme111 wrote: »

You do not look at the relevant info so no wonder you can not make the choice.
Can you specify what exactly are you going to be charged for if you "switch" (those £2500 you mentioned)? Will it be for withdrawal from the platform? If so is it on percentage basis ? Is there any time term during which you are charged and there would be no charge if you sold after? It is hard to believe one could be charged almost 10% of one's portfolio value to exist the provider , even SJP charges are lower !!
Or for selling your existing investments and buying new ones on the same platform? What are the platform charges ? Do they have that HSBC global fund mentioned already here ?
Do you have any new money you saving ?
What are the exact dates you calculate the loss on your investment on?

Thanks for the reply - the charge isnt for leaving the fund its the HSBC the HSBC or advisors charge for entering the new fund should I do it.

RocketRonnieRadox

londoninvestor wrote: »

I understand this advice when we're talking to posters who have seen a drop and are thinking of getting out of the market altogether - because that's often a panic decision and they'd be better to stay invested for the long term.

However the OP here is planning to stay invested in equities, but change to a different allocation. In that case, it makes sense to switch to the target allocation regardless of history. (If OP had a twin who had exactly the same amount to invest, and the same objectives and risk profile, but hadn't made the investment yet... we'd expect OP and twin to end up with the same portfolio.)

Thank you, Im having mild difficulty remaining objective and seeing things clearly at present for a number of reasons.

The target allocation is forecast to perform dome 20K lower than current which makes me wonder why do it ? Yes its 80% out of UK holdings and is global as opposed to UK but is that insentive enough to switch ? A lot of these funds seem to have simillar predictions or forecasts so I'm now thinking - please correct me if im worng - that due to the recent losses or drops in value - perhaps I should stay in the fund and ride it out ?

justme111

RocketRonnieRadox wrote: »

Thanks for the reply - the charge isnt for leaving the fund its the HSBC the HSBC or advisors charge for entering the new fund should I do it.

So why would you want to enter the new fund on the platform that charges you 10% for buying the fund? Why not to move money elsewhere where there is no entry charge?
It does not make sense to me that relatively mainstream provider charges this amount to buy funds - I believe there is a chance that you misunderstood something. Can you get information in writing and post it here?
I find it difficult to understand the sentences you form - could it be another sign of your difficulties to see the things objectively - for example I can not fathom what do you mean by "the target allocation is forecast to perform done 20 k lower than current " even factoring in that "done" may be misspelt "down".
What is predicted to be 20 k lower than what ? Is not the value of your investment about 20 and something k in total?
It may be better to leave things as they are until you are clearer .

Nasqueron

My pension fund was down about £3k at one point in December, it's still £800 or so down on investment but it's tracking along. Similarly S&S ISA is now down £8 having been down about 3% at one point. Markets come up and go down again, all that matters is what it's worth when you need it