Smithson Investment Trust

Linton

Filo25 wrote: »

I actually hadn't realised they had so much mid and small cap in the BG American, had thought of it being a large cap growth fund with just the usual names in there, maybe a fund I need to keep an eye on a bit more.

Although I always get that nagging doubt about buying into the BG house investment style, when it feels like we may be pretty late cycle now (although let's be honest it has felt like pretty late cycle for a while now!)

I like the BG style, it has served me well. But you need to accept the higher return/higher short term risk balance.

Filo25

Linton wrote: »

I like the BG style, it has served me well. But you need to accept the higher return/higher short term risk balance.

I do as well, and I think over the full cycle it is generally likely to outperform but yes at the expense of higher volatility,

ArchBair

Linton wrote: »

- in the past year or so in UK, Europe, and Japan and to a lesser extent the US Small Companies have performed unusually poorly compared with large ones. Why this happened I do not know - perhaps world political and economic uncertainty has led to a movement to safer investments.

Yes, unusually smaller companies in the UK, Europe and Japan have had a poor year. I hold HSL, BRSC, TRG and BGS and they have all been poor performers this year. However, as you mentioned US seems OK, I hold JUSC and it has done quite well especially compared to my other smaller company holdings in other regions.

seacaitch

iglad wrote: »

What I find very strange is how badly the BG American has gone off the boil form top dog to an also ran I need to dog a bit deeper into their strategy and find out what has been happening.

The bolded comment above seems, to me, to signal strongly that you're unfamiliar with how equity markets behave, yet on another thread you mention having invested for 20 years or more.

Hard to reconcile the two statements.

iglad wrote: »

I may as well put the money into one of the trackers which are beating it.

Also, your use of the present tense here, "are beating it", is revealing, and wrong.

I think your mental model of how equities behave - and by extension how funds invested in those equities reflect that performance - is "wonky", and it's likely to lead to problems for you over time as and if you continue to operate a portfolio focused on momentum and chasing performance vs., for example, focusing upon backing fundamentally sound strategies.

iglad

I too was shocked to see all that mid and small cap in it's portfolio despite it only having 41 stocks!! I'd love to know who that are as they don't seem to be performing that well.

iglad

Woodford changed his whole fund strategy and bet on the wrong unlisted stocks. People with Woodford whichever fund they are in are sat on losses of between 30-40%, be it over 3 years or 1 year. I had never heard of him so I'd never have invested in him plus he wasn't a top performer so not on my radar. He's made me aware of the futility in clinging to a falling fund/stock. If I can get out with my profit then I will and move on.

iglad

If a top performing fund falls far down the performance charts you can't just say sit it out as your profit or capital declines you need to look into it. It's clear that BG American which many thought was a Large Cap fund isn't.

I am looking at poor performance plain and simple, it may get better, then again it may get worse. It's one which I will monitor a lot more closely than my other funds.

Also investing in funds for 20 years doesn't mean I was interested in them. I got lucky with a couple of funds, which did very well and was lucky to cash out last year. The fund which I had the bulk of my money in is now negative 3% for the year. I reinvested half of my cash into a newly structured portfolio with a growth strategy and at the moment it has given me some very good returns of over 10-11% over the past 3-4 months.

cogito

iglad wrote: »

Large premium it's about 2.6% which is fine by me for a large premium you are talking Lindsell Train Inv Trust!!

There’s a very good reason why that trust trades at a high premium.

dividendhero

Linton wrote: »

I dont think Woodfords problem was "going off the boil". It was simply that his strategy was to invest in small companies. .

To put it simply, Woodford went rogue

Sue58

Linton wrote: »

I like the BG style, it has served me well. But you need to accept the higher return/higher short term risk balance.

Linton I seem to remember you were invested in the Schroder QEP US fund in your growth portfolio. Did you decide BG American was a better option and switch funds?