Buying a unit trust

Ash_Pole

Wanting a bit of emerging markets exposure, the iShares emerging markets fund fits the bill nicely.

This is a unit trust though and my usual broker (x-o) doesn't offer these.

What's the cheapest platform that I could buy this for a long-term hold?

System

What about the ETF:
https://www.ishares.com/uk/individual/en/products/264659/ishares-msci-emerging-markets-imi-ucits-etf

AnotherJoe

I saw that but i think its quoted in dollars? If its EEM.

The fund has a horrendous spread i woudlnt buy it, surely there are similar quoted in pounds with a much smaller spread?

System

The variant EMIM is listed on the London Stock Exchange in GBP, see under listings in the link above.
The spread is currently 2223/2224p, which looks fine to me.

AnotherJoe

Economic wrote: »

The variant EMIM is listed on the London Stock Exchange in GBP, see under listings in the link above.
The spread is currently 2223/2224p, which looks fine to me.

Thats much better. HL is quoting the fund as 167/176. So you'd need about 6% just to get back to where you bought in.

bowlhead99

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Thats much better. HL is quoting the fund as 167/176. So you'd need about 6% just to get back to where you bought in.

Well, that's just because the standard quoted offer price on their data feed includes 5% initial charge, which in practice is not levied by any of the major DIY fund platforms because they discount it away to nothing. So while the price may say 176ish including the official 'initial charge', you would only pay 167ish, which is about what you could sell it for on the same day.

The actual effective bid-offer spread is much smaller and basically nothing much in the context of a long term hold.

Albermarle

What's the cheapest platform that I could buy this for a long-term hold?

Platform charges depend on a few different factors eg the size of the investment.
Have a look at this :
http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/

londoninvestor

Note that some EM funds (like this one) track the FTSE EM index. Others track the MSCI EM index. The main difference is that FTSE considers South Korea to be a developed market while MSCI considers it emerging. So this fund won't have anything in S Korea.

Desirable or not? Depends on the rest of your portfolio. Particularly, if you have an EM tracker and a developed AsiaPac tracker, they should either be both FTSE or both MSCI.

Ash_Pole

Economic wrote: »

What about the ETF:
https://www.ishares.com/uk/individual/en/products/264659/ishares-msci-emerging-markets-imi-ucits-etf

I hadn't spotted this one, thanks for the heads-up it's the sort of thing I'm looking for.