having a dabble

bowlhead99

Sailtheworld said:

Thrugelmir said:

dd95 said:

so the general consensus then is to build up a decent sized (circa 100k) main global tracker pot and once that is at a decent size look at putting smaller amounts into more risky specific funds?

out of interest, what was everyone's journey like? what did you branch out into away from your global indexes (if at all) and why?

Global index investing is relatively new. Wasn't possible to trade shares so freely in the past for a whole variety of reasons. Global trackers in themselves only cover a segment of the entire investment universe. Low cost is a major driver of current attraction along with the fact that there's a high weighting to the outstanding large cap performers of the last decade. Of which there's actually very few. Around 1% accounting for all the bulk of the capital growth. Fads come and go. As companies themselves wax and wane. 
Investing elsewhere elsewhere doesn't mean greater risk taking. Corporate failures in the global majors is a very real possibility. 

You always come at this knowing you have an investment edge. You can spot, ahead of time of course, the future winners that aren't in global trackers, the winners of the last decade that will decline, the 1% of stocks that will the bulk of future capital growth and identify problem market weightings. You also know which of the current global majors will fail and when. 

You shouldn't assume that just because you have this gift everyone else does. 

I expect his contention is not that he has some sort of gift or that he can 'spot winners' better than other sound minds, or know for sure which of the global majors will definitely perform, underperform or fail. 

He is merely answering the OP question "what did you branch out into away from your global indexes (if at all) and why?" with an observation that many of us will have not actually started by investing in 'our global indexes' before later branching out, because global indexing strategies are relatively new - so it is a flawed premise to ask everyone when they started to move their investing away from their core indexes holdings and went into riskier things.

He also notes that investing through indexes results in weighting your money to one part of the investible universe, and that investing elsewhere does not necessarily add risk because putting a high weighting of your money into things that have recently grown to be a high weighting of an index is not always going to be the best strategy. Of course, if you define 'high risk' as anything that departs from an index weighting, then every other strategy will appear to be high risk, involving use of 'more risky specific funds' as the OP contends. Giving a fair shot to all the viewpoints can involve considering the terms of reference.

I don't view Thrugelmir's posts as being egotistical or assuming he has gifts others don't. The wry observations from time to time, that there may be more going on than you have considered, can be useful for anyone to hear - whether they are just starting out or are later in life and drawing predominantly on their own experiences.

From time to time I certainly prefer to hear from people offering alternative viewpoints than the 'just stick it in a tracker and forget about it'.  If the answer is that one should always stay in a tracker and why take risk by departing from the tracker, a discussion forum centred on investments would not contain much discussion, and there would be no market participants setting the prices for trackers to track.

Sailtheworld

bowlhead99 said:

Sailtheworld said:

Thrugelmir said:

dd95 said:

so the general consensus then is to build up a decent sized (circa 100k) main global tracker pot and once that is at a decent size look at putting smaller amounts into more risky specific funds?

out of interest, what was everyone's journey like? what did you branch out into away from your global indexes (if at all) and why?

Global index investing is relatively new. Wasn't possible to trade shares so freely in the past for a whole variety of reasons. Global trackers in themselves only cover a segment of the entire investment universe. Low cost is a major driver of current attraction along with the fact that there's a high weighting to the outstanding large cap performers of the last decade. Of which there's actually very few. Around 1% accounting for all the bulk of the capital growth. Fads come and go. As companies themselves wax and wane. 
Investing elsewhere elsewhere doesn't mean greater risk taking. Corporate failures in the global majors is a very real possibility. 

You always come at this knowing you have an investment edge. You can spot, ahead of time of course, the future winners that aren't in global trackers, the winners of the last decade that will decline, the 1% of stocks that will the bulk of future capital growth and identify problem market weightings. You also know which of the current global majors will fail and when. 

You shouldn't assume that just because you have this gift everyone else does. 

From time to time I certainly prefer to hear from people offering alternative viewpoints than the 'just stick it in a tracker and forget about it'.  If the answer is that one should always stay in a tracker and why take risk by departing from the tracker, a discussion forum centred on investments would not contain much discussion, and there would be no market participants setting the prices for trackers to track.

I not saying he's egotistical at all but he's claiming an edge - all I'm doing is gently pointing out that if this is the case it's a gift rather than the norm. It's like Brad Pitt writing a book about how to meet women; essentially useless for anyone that isn't a good looking, millionaire film star.

Trackers are for people who are happy with market returns and risk and / or those who don't have an edge and are forced to accept that's the best they'll do leaving those with an edge (and those without) to set market prices. Of course it's a discussion forum but, IMO, there's an obsession with return and not enough on risk. If someone is making higher than market returns they're taking a higher than market risk - if people are happy with that; fine - lunches have to be paid for.

Thrugelmir

Sailtheworld said:

Thrugelmir said:

dd95 said:

so the general consensus then is to build up a decent sized (circa 100k) main global tracker pot and once that is at a decent size look at putting smaller amounts into more risky specific funds?

out of interest, what was everyone's journey like? what did you branch out into away from your global indexes (if at all) and why?

Global index investing is relatively new. Wasn't possible to trade shares so freely in the past for a whole variety of reasons. Global trackers in themselves only cover a segment of the entire investment universe. Low cost is a major driver of current attraction along with the fact that there's a high weighting to the outstanding large cap performers of the last decade. Of which there's actually very few. Around 1% accounting for all the bulk of the capital growth. Fads come and go. As companies themselves wax and wane. 
Investing elsewhere elsewhere doesn't mean greater risk taking. Corporate failures in the global majors is a very real possibility. 

You always come at this knowing you have an investment edge. You can spot, ahead of time of course, the future winners that aren't in global trackers, the winners of the last decade that will decline, the 1% of stocks that will the bulk of future capital growth and identify problem market weightings. You also know which of the current global majors will fail and when. 

You shouldn't assume that just because you have this gift everyone else does. For us mere mortals posting from houses rather than private islands we can gain global exposure at low cost (yes low costs are an attractive feature - who knew?) - of course we have to accept market risk and market returns but that's life.

Always best to you use ones time and effort towards productive pursuits. Having a positive mindset helps. 

Sailtheworld

Thrugelmir said:

Sailtheworld said:

Thrugelmir said:

dd95 said:

so the general consensus then is to build up a decent sized (circa 100k) main global tracker pot and once that is at a decent size look at putting smaller amounts into more risky specific funds?

out of interest, what was everyone's journey like? what did you branch out into away from your global indexes (if at all) and why?

Global index investing is relatively new. Wasn't possible to trade shares so freely in the past for a whole variety of reasons. Global trackers in themselves only cover a segment of the entire investment universe. Low cost is a major driver of current attraction along with the fact that there's a high weighting to the outstanding large cap performers of the last decade. Of which there's actually very few. Around 1% accounting for all the bulk of the capital growth. Fads come and go. As companies themselves wax and wane. 
Investing elsewhere elsewhere doesn't mean greater risk taking. Corporate failures in the global majors is a very real possibility. 

You always come at this knowing you have an investment edge. You can spot, ahead of time of course, the future winners that aren't in global trackers, the winners of the last decade that will decline, the 1% of stocks that will the bulk of future capital growth and identify problem market weightings. You also know which of the current global majors will fail and when. 

You shouldn't assume that just because you have this gift everyone else does. For us mere mortals posting from houses rather than private islands we can gain global exposure at low cost (yes low costs are an attractive feature - who knew?) - of course we have to accept market risk and market returns but that's life.

Always best to you use ones time and effort towards productive pursuits. Having a positive mindset helps. 

We should have the self awareness to realise that being good at something means others are less good. If everyone had your investment edge you wouldn't have an edge; you'd be average. What's productive for one person therefore won't be for another.

I'm sure optimism and a positive mindset are helpful traits but there are limits to how far they can take us - Everest is littered with the bodies of highly motivated people with positive attitudes.

Thrugelmir

Sailtheworld said:

Thrugelmir said:

Sailtheworld said:

Thrugelmir said:

dd95 said:

so the general consensus then is to build up a decent sized (circa 100k) main global tracker pot and once that is at a decent size look at putting smaller amounts into more risky specific funds?

out of interest, what was everyone's journey like? what did you branch out into away from your global indexes (if at all) and why?

Global index investing is relatively new. Wasn't possible to trade shares so freely in the past for a whole variety of reasons. Global trackers in themselves only cover a segment of the entire investment universe. Low cost is a major driver of current attraction along with the fact that there's a high weighting to the outstanding large cap performers of the last decade. Of which there's actually very few. Around 1% accounting for all the bulk of the capital growth. Fads come and go. As companies themselves wax and wane. 
Investing elsewhere elsewhere doesn't mean greater risk taking. Corporate failures in the global majors is a very real possibility. 

You always come at this knowing you have an investment edge. You can spot, ahead of time of course, the future winners that aren't in global trackers, the winners of the last decade that will decline, the 1% of stocks that will the bulk of future capital growth and identify problem market weightings. You also know which of the current global majors will fail and when. 

You shouldn't assume that just because you have this gift everyone else does. For us mere mortals posting from houses rather than private islands we can gain global exposure at low cost (yes low costs are an attractive feature - who knew?) - of course we have to accept market risk and market returns but that's life.

Always best to you use ones time and effort towards productive pursuits. Having a positive mindset helps. 

We should have the self awareness to realise that being good at something means others are less good. If everyone had your investment edge you wouldn't have an edge; you'd be average. What's productive for one person therefore won't be for another.

I'm sure optimism and a positive mindset are helpful traits but there are limits to how far they can take us - Everest is littered with the bodies of highly motivated people with positive attitudes.

My suggestion was for you to adopt.