S&P 500 - sensible or silly?

Sailtheworld

FloraandFauna said:

Filo25 said:

FTSE 100 investing doesn't even necessarily hedge the currency impact significantly as most of the companies are large mulitnationals with significant non Sterling earnings outside the UK.

Having said that, I do have another question (sorry...) - a FTSE 100 is the top 100 companies listed with the "highest capitalisation". So presumably there's some churn around the bottom as companies move in and out. So in theory a "top 100/top 500" fund will focus on the 'better' companies, and failing sectors will gradually drop off the list anyway. Except... does "higher capitalisation" directly translate to better performance? Or is it a technical term just meaning they have the largest total on their balance sheets? Can you be in the FTSE 100 for years because you're a massive company, even if you're only returning, e.g. 1% a year return on investment?

There's no relationship between size and return. If there was everyone would just invest in small or big companies accordingly and make some free money - the market isn't that inefficient.

Not sure if you've been pointed towards Lars Kroijer's videos (http://kroijer.com/). Definitely worth a watch - the Investing Demystified series are excellent.

FloraandFauna

Ah, gotcha. So a top 100/500 fund, if overly representing behemoths, may in fact be a poorer future investment than a top 10,000/50,000 fund. A la (Albermarle's?) comment earlier about the UK having a lot of heft in the oil, mining etc sectors.

All these unconscious assumptions of mine evaporating 

C_Mababejive

Just buy the world at a low cost and forget about it ..
https://www.trustnet.com/factsheets/o/kldq/hsbc-ftse-all-world-index

FloraandFauna

C_Mababejive said:

Just buy the world at a low cost and forget about it ..
https://www.trustnet.com/factsheets/o/kldq/hsbc-ftse-all-world-index

I could do that, but then I still wouldn't know what the jeff is going on. If asked, my only rationale at present is that "lots of people more experienced than me say so". Well, I believe them, but I don't know why they're right and that makes me feel foolish.

So I'm going to do that suggestion ^^, but carry on trying to find out how all this works anyway.

csgohan4

FloraandFauna said:

C_Mababejive said:

Just buy the world at a low cost and forget about it ..
https://www.trustnet.com/factsheets/o/kldq/hsbc-ftse-all-world-index

I could do that, but then I still wouldn't know what the jeff is going on. If asked, my only rationale at present is that "lots of people more experienced than me say so". Well, I believe them, but I don't know why they're right and that makes me feel foolish.

So I'm going to do that suggestion ^^, but carry on trying to find out how all this works anyway.

get some research done to understand, never invest in something you don't understand
https://monevator.com/category/investing/passive-investing-investing/

fred246

C_Mababejive said:

Just buy the world at a low cost and forget about it ..
https://www.trustnet.com/factsheets/o/kldq/hsbc-ftse-all-world-index

Well I gave some advice on how to buy the world yesterday at NO cost yesterday and got a load of abuse.

FloraandFauna

fred246 said:

C_Mababejive said:

Just buy the world at a low cost and forget about it ..
https://www.trustnet.com/factsheets/o/kldq/hsbc-ftse-all-world-index

Well I gave some advice on how to buy the world yesterday at NO cost yesterday and got a load of abuse.

Eh? Not on this thread! 

Genuinely everyone, thank you for the time you've all taken to help me out - it's appreciated. 

I am going to continue pottering about here though because this excellent advice "never invest in anything you don't understand" unfortunately applies to, er, everything. I'm sticking with my Vanguard LS100 because I do, sort of, understand the reasoning behind that type of fund. But I don't understand the technicalities of WHY it works as it does, so don't truly understand what I'm doing, and I don't like that.

Thank you for the suggested videos, Sailtheworld, I'm going to start there.

csgohan4

fred246 said:

C_Mababejive said:

Just buy the world at a low cost and forget about it ..
https://www.trustnet.com/factsheets/o/kldq/hsbc-ftse-all-world-index

Well I gave some advice on how to buy the world yesterday at NO cost yesterday and got a load of abuse.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6204545/fabulous-investment-with-negative-fees-get-paid-to-invest-no-catch#latest

Telling the whole story, your way is a convoluted way of getting a few extra pounds a month for investing max £500 a month

Indirectly your pound cost averaging the investment which may have it's benefits of which you did not mention

however as mentioned in your thread, you don't need to invest to get that monthly benefit

Personal preference

fred246

Investing regularly in a global tracker fund is a very reasonable way to invest. Doing it for no fees is better than low fees.

csgohan4

fred246 said:

Investing regularly in a global tracker fund is a very reasonable way to invest. Doing it for no fees is better than low fees.

I assume you have to manually deposit it rather than direct debit?

Personal preference to be honest, some people don't want the hassle of doing this for 2 pound a month. Bare in mind some people also dump a lump sum every year, so it may be cheaper with I web which has no annual account fees after your initial lot.