New investor - looking at ETFs

bargainhunter888

Hi all, new to this forum but with the current slump in the stock market I thought it would be good to start investing into stocks and shares, regrettably I only started pension contributions about 3-4 years ago, I’m now 34. So missed out a large chunk.
i have got a good amount of cash in cash isa then the remainder in another bank account.
i was looking at BTL but that would be substantial lock of my cash. 

I have started a HL account stock and shares ISA and deposited 10k, I’m not in need of this cash so looking to put it in a fund or some shares and leave it and watch it grow to support retirement.
i was initially just looking to put some in ftse100 etf like ISF, however people say it’s still not diverse? Reason I was looking is because it’s down 20% but if I invest now and it recovers in say 3-5 years I will have gained 50%

But there’s so many to choose from, other considerations are VUSA for s&p500 or SWDA 
many help with this is appreciated, I’ve only been researching about a week so please be gentle
thanks 

Thrugelmir

bargainhunter888 said:

i was initially just looking to put some in ftse100 etf like ISF, however people say it’s still not diverse? Reason I was looking is because it’s down 20% but if I invest now and it recovers in say 3-5 years I will have gained 50%

If only investing was that easy. 

bargainhunter888

Sorry to sound naive but looking at how majority of indices have tracked and shown rebound surely this is another matter of time? And again, please advise what considerations I should be looking for/ researching with more diverse etf but also different funds with bonds etc, not really looked into those.
thanks 

Username999

bargainhunter888 said:

.... it’down 20% but if I invest now and it recovers in say 3-5 years I will have gained 50%

I don't understand your Maths?

bargainhunter888

Username999 said:

bargainhunter888 said:

.... it’down 20% but if I invest now and it recovers in say 3-5 years I will have gained 50%

I don't understand your Maths?

Sorry, it was very bad, I just mean the gain from going back up to to the level it was before is greater than the loss it incurred.
lets say 10,000pts down to 8,000 is 20% loss
but if I invested now hoping to recover up to 10,000 it’s a 25% return. 

I guess I was looking at extreme examples if a stock had dropped 50% and I invested now in hope that it recovered back to the original level, my return would be 100% 

Albermarle

Sorry to sound naive but looking at how majority of indices have tracked and shown rebound surely this is another matter of time?

You are most likely to be correct that the markets will rebound ( although even that is not 100% certain) the key point is when will it happen . If this situation continues much longer the world economy could take a LONG time to recover .