HL - Unusual Delay in fund dealing

contactanant

I placed my order for buying a mutual fund Gam Start Japan Equity with HL on 20th March 2019. Until Monday morning order status was showing "Submitted for dealing". Monday evening at 17:58 pm I receive an email that fund dealing is complete but when I check my account the trade date is 22nd March 2019.

Based on email confirmation, I wonder if HL has done the dealing Today but gave me price of 22nd March 2019. Fund value decreased Today by 2.5% or if this is not HL and delay is by Gam Star.

In both case I feel HL has been inconsistent in trade dates and often delays when price fluctuations are more when I am at the loss side. I have noticed this issue many times, even reported this issue to HL with no results.

Has anyone else noticed this issue in buying Mutual Funds with HL?

londoninvestor

contactanant wrote: »

I wonder if HL has done the dealing Today but gave me price of 22nd March 2019.

HL doesn't give you the price - the fund manager does. So if it's showing as a 22nd March trade, with the 22nd March price, that's when the fund manager will have executed it.

In my experience, the confirmation of the trade can take a day or two to come, but I've always received the price for the day I expected to. (e.g. if I submitted an order on Monday afternoon and the fund had a 1200 valuation point, I might not get the confirmation until Wednesday, but the trade would always be done at Tuesday's price as expected).

That said, GAM Star Japan Equity has a valuation point of 2300, so if you submitted an order on 20th March I'm surprised that wasn't traded at 2300 on 21st Mar rather than 2300 on 22nd Mar.

Perhaps query with HL and specifically ask what is the order cutoff time for that fund?

contactanant

Thanks. Even I am wondering why HL didn't execute my order on 21st itself. I placed two funds order at the same time and another one did get execute on 21st itself.

Where do you see the fund valuation time?

londoninvestor

contactanant wrote: »

Where do you see the fund valuation time?

It's "Valuation Point" under "Other Information" here:
https://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/g/gam-star-japan-equity-class-i-accumulation

londoninvestor

Actually - one thought. I wish I'd verified this before 11pm, but the "price as of 25th March" on HL shows as 1912.39p (-2.28%).

Is that the same price that you saw earlier today? (ie before 11pm)

In that case, I wonder if the date is being quoted counterintuitively for this fund. i.e. the price determined at 2300 this evening (25th March evening) is actually expressed "as of 26th March".

If that's so, it's plausible that your "22nd March" price is the one determined at 2300 on 21st March. That could well then have been the first available valuation point for your order of 20th March evening to be traded - it depends on the dealing cutoff time.

contactanant

yes, I saw same price around 8pm Today as showing now after 11PM Prices as at 25 March 2019 1912.39

londoninvestor

Right, so logically the price determined at 2300 on 25th March is going to be described as the "26th March" price.

So the "22nd March" price you got is the one determined at 2300 on 21st March... i.e. you put your order in on Wednesday 20th and you were filled on Thursday 21st evening (not Friday evening as you would think when first seeing 22nd March as the trade date).

I guess it would be interesting to know from HL what the cutoff is - i.e. how early on Wednesday should you have placed the order, if you want to get filled at Wednesday evening's price.

londoninvestor

Postscript on this - GAM is Swiss, so 2300 on 21st March in the UK is 0000 on 22nd March in Switzerland. That way the trade date you see makes sense.

jamei305

contactanant wrote: »

In both case I feel HL has been inconsistent in trade dates and often delays when price fluctuations are more when I am at the loss side. I have noticed this issue many times, even reported this issue to HL with no results.

When funds deal later than you expect, you are more likely to perceive a loss than a gain because most funds go up most of the time.