Vanguard 80% and recent events

w00519773

There are two significant events at the moment:
1) UK PM has recently announced a national lockdown due to Covid-19.
2) The US presidential election is next week.
I have a small amount (about £5K) invested in the stock market and specifically this fund: https://markets.ft.com/data/funds/tearsheet/summary?s=GB00B4PQW151:GBP.
Is anyone taking any action because of both/either of the events above? I have been debating this over the last few weeks and each time I come to the conclusion that I am invested for the long term so should buy if the markets fall rather than sell.
I realise no-one has a crystal ball, however I would be interested to hear what others have done/are doing - particularly if invested in Vanguard products.

Cam93

I am also approx 5k into a VLS80.

My plan is to buy more Monday (direct debit 1st of each month) and then potentially buy 1-2k lump sum if it goes sub 5400.

Last tine I invested 2k when the FTSE was around 4900 and it paid off well in the sense that before this new drop I was at 15%+ return abd the ftse was around 6000 points.

Just ensure you have enough money for worst case scenarios and only use money your not wanting for several years so can ride out the rough with the smooth 

[Deleted User]

I changed my investments in March time from a 6 to a 7 rating (done by IFA) and they have done pretty well overall since then - whatever happens, the ISA may not be touched for another 5+ years and the pension not for another 20+ so short term fluctuations I am annoyed over but understand the long term potential and riding it out. I have other cash in regular savers, they are safer sure but £6000 in a 1 year 1.85% cov saver is still doing much worse than the current 10% increase I have on my ISA even allowing for the recent falls. I remember in March time it was actually in -ve territory

ProDave

I sold mine last week (see Covid crash #2 thread)  I wish I had followed my gut feeling a few days earlier and sold a little higher.

I expect to be buying back at a lower price in a few weeks but at the moment have no idea when that is likely to be and how much lower.

steampowered

w00519773 said:

each time I come to the conclusion that I am invested for the long term so should buy if the markets fall rather than sell.

That's the correct conclusion.

If you are trying to make money by trading, you should buy more investments - not sell them - when the market drops. You want to "buy low and sell high". If you buy during good times and sell during bad times you are doing it the wrong way around. 

If you accept that you cannot predict the ups and downs of the markets and are happy to settle for the long term average by making regular investments, then you should keep investing regularly. 

I fall within the latter camp and am continue making my regular monthly investment (not into Vanguard VLS80 but into HSBC FTSE All Share Acc which serves a similar purpose).

Thrugelmir

w00519773 said:

There are two significant events at the moment:
1) UK PM has recently announced a national lockdown due to Covid-19.
2) The US presidential election is next week.
I have a small amount (about £5K) invested in the stock market and specifically this fund: https://markets.ft.com/data/funds/tearsheet/summary?s=GB00B4PQW151:GBP.
Is anyone taking any action because of both/either of the events above? I have been debating this over the last few weeks and each time I come to the conclusion that I am invested for the long term so should buy if the markets fall rather than sell.
I realise no-one has a crystal ball, however I would be interested to hear what others have done/are doing - particularly if invested in Vanguard products.

How much are you investing every month? 

Another_Saver

w00519773 said:

There are two significant events at the moment:
1) UK PM has recently announced a national lockdown due to Covid-19.
2) The US presidential election is next week.
I have a small amount (about £5K) invested in the stock market and specifically this fund: https://markets.ft.com/data/funds/tearsheet/summary?s=GB00B4PQW151:GBP.
Is anyone taking any action because of both/either of the events above? I have been debating this over the last few weeks and each time I come to the conclusion that I am invested for the long term so should buy if the markets fall rather than sell.
I realise no-one has a crystal ball, however I would be interested to hear what others have done/are doing - particularly if invested in Vanguard products.

No.
The wisest words I have for you are "don't do something, just stand there."

Albermarle

I am also approx 5k into a VLS80.
My plan is to buy more Monday (direct debit 1st of each month) and then potentially buy 1-2k lump sum if it goes sub 5400.

Although VLS 80 has a UK bias , it is still significantly more invested outside the UK than in it . So not sure that timing VLS80 investments to FTSE movements is that logical .

w00519773

Thrugelmir said:

w00519773 said:

There are two significant events at the moment:
1) UK PM has recently announced a national lockdown due to Covid-19.
2) The US presidential election is next week.
I have a small amount (about £5K) invested in the stock market and specifically this fund: https://markets.ft.com/data/funds/tearsheet/summary?s=GB00B4PQW151:GBP.
Is anyone taking any action because of both/either of the events above? I have been debating this over the last few weeks and each time I come to the conclusion that I am invested for the long term so should buy if the markets fall rather than sell.
I realise no-one has a crystal ball, however I would be interested to hear what others have done/are doing - particularly if invested in Vanguard products.

How much are you investing every month? 

£300 PCM.

Alexland

w00519773 said:

I would be interested to hear what others have done/are doing - particularly if invested in Vanguard products.

My action plan is to do nothing with my Vanguard ETF for at least a few decades other than automatically reinvest dividends unless a sufficiently better or cheaper way of investing makes it worth switching. The SIPP containing this investment is just a car park for money I might never get old enough to need as I have and will be focusing on building up my workplace pension to a similar value if possible in the second half of my career. A few crashes over that time should help me accumulate without needing to take wild bets on future market movements.

Michael121

As long as you got cash to live and have money coming in what difference does it make. Adding £3600 a year to £5k already in will help you get back even faster even if there was a 50% drop. Now if you had 200k and only 10k a year going in i can see why someone might think about selling because you would have 100k in at the bottom and only 10k more going in where as with 5k at the top you would have 2.5k left with 3.6k going in. Big difference. 

In any case i still wont be selling, im building up my cash atm and if i miss out on any gains i can live with that as my work isn't what it was last year.