Pension providers allowing active management of investments

intalex

I'm looking to start actively managing my pension investments and try and grow it better than leaving it in a fund (bearing the risks at the same time). At the moment, my pension is with Scottish Widows in one of their funds and SW do offer self-management functionality on the online account allowing buying and liquidating funds with straightforward rules on cut-off and valuation. Unfortunately they don't offer a "cash park" to temporarily hold funds in-between investments and can only be switched instantly from one fund to another without any sort of hold option. They offer a cash fund (with steady tiny depreciation), but not a true "cash park" which neither depreciates nor appreciates.

Anyone know of a pension provider that does offer a true "cash park"? Also, any advice on other useful features / options to look out for in order to better manage pensions would be welcome. Thanks in advance!

tacpot12

All the SIPP providers allow you to hold your investment as cash. Have you looked at SIPPs? 
 
Don't forget that funds offer a significant safety net as they are a collective investment and have professional managers that are paid to try to get the best return from a certain investment strategy. I  would suggest that you consider moving your pension investments to a SIPP, but leave the majority investing in large funds/EFTs/ITs, and only invest a small proportion (say 10-15%) in individual equities for a few years to see how your skills stack up against professional managers. It may be useful for you to commit to publishing a review on how you did on the MSE forums. 

intalex

Thanks tactpot12, good suggestions - I was actually hoping to hop around between different funds rather than individual equities (with "cash park" allowing for temporary exit during high volatility). I'm generally trying to anticipate movements based on what's happening or might happen in the world. I'm not looking for sharp growths, but if I could try and grow my pot +1% per week on average, that would be something... but of course I appreciate it could go down just as easily. For example, I had wanted to make a couple of out-and-back-in moves in the last few weeks on the same fund but couldn't because of absence of a cash park, but had I been able to, I'd have grown the pot > +2% in just 2 moves.

Albermarle

As said with a SIPP , you can leave all your money in a cash account if you want, although the interest rate is zero or near zero with most .
The main difference between the mainstream SIPPs is that some charge a % platform fee and some charge a fixed fee.
So the latter are cheaper for larger sums . Some charge extra for a SIPP ( as opposed to an ISA ) and some charge extra for when you are taking the pension . The best known ones in approx. order of size and cost are : Hargreaves Landsdown ; Fidelity; Interactive Investor; Aj Bell You Invest : Iweb/Halifax SD

They all offer thousands of investments choices . Here is a comparison link but suggest you try out the websites to see what you think .https://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

kinger101

The "professionals" don't have any ability to time the market, so there's little reason to believe an individual investor could.

LHW99

Also, you can't necessarilty "hop in and out" with OIEC funds on all DIY platforms, because the platform doesn't necessarily trade them in real time. IT's would be if the exchange is open, and I presume ETF's the same, although I don't do that.

coyrls

intalex said:

Thanks tactpot12, good suggestions - I was actually hoping to hop around between different funds rather than individual equities (with "cash park" allowing for temporary exit during high volatility). I'm generally trying to anticipate movements based on what's happening or might happen in the world. I'm not looking for sharp growths, but if I could try and grow my pot +1% per week on average, that would be something... but of course I appreciate it could go down just as easily. For example, I had wanted to make a couple of out-and-back-in moves in the last few weeks on the same fund but couldn't because of absence of a cash park, but had I been able to, I'd have grown the pot > +2% in just 2 moves.

That would be unlikely to be a successful strategy.  I would suggest you would have no chance of making +1% per week on average.

coyrls

Day trading is daft but day trading funds is beyond daft.

Albermarle

A review in the US by Fidelity of their investors performance revealed that >>

Fidelity noted an internal performance review on accounts to determine which type of investors received the best returns between 2003 and 2013. The customer account audit revealed that the best investors are dead or inactive.

The inactive investors were people who switched jobs and “forgot” about an old pension.

They left their current options in place, and the dead investors had their assets frozen while the estate was being sorted through.

Indeed, a typical active stock mutual fund investor has lost almost two percentage points a year in total returns from ill-timed trading activities.

intalex

Points noted, thanks all!

green_man

intalex said:

but if I could try and grow my pot +1% per week on average, that would be something....

As stated above, I fear your are being extremely optimistic. The chances of you being able to do this over the long term are very remote. No professional fund/hedge managers manage this over the long term with all the tools and direct company access that they have so the chance of anyone else achieving such is vanishingly small. Remember on most investments you will be subject to some sort of spread and transaction costs so even 1% a week on  underlying investments would be swallowed up by these costs if you were chopping and changing every week.  ... good luck but I suggest a rethink of strategy.