Performance, Benchmarks, Managers, comparison etc

coastline

For example you've decided on the 100% equity route which is regarded at the high risk end for most investors. In general investors have bonds included for a bit of balance as equities as you'll have seen this year can be very volatile. 
For a guide to global performance I use the MSCI World Index which can be viewed on the chart way back to 1990 ish. No better than Trustnet for this research.
Chart Tool | Trustnet
You can now look at various options in the global fund section with the chart settings. You can choose Funds , Trackers , ETF's , Investment Trusts etc. Note various selections will have a theme and allocations can differ widely. This is where your research will come in . In this case start with trackers and add them to the chart.
Just for example of variation the US market has been strong which can be seen below.
Chart Tool | Trustnet
An example of balance in your allocations. Again both will go back years in the settings .You can see the reduced gains and volatility.
Chart Tool | Trustnet
Once you've decided on your strategy then the link below should guide you to a broker.
Best trading platforms and stock brokers (monevator.com)



 

ChilliBob

Oh I'm far from the 100% equities route, I'm just pretty sure a Global Index fund will form part of my portfolio and really wanted to know with them being so similar how someone makes the choice of who to plump for once fees are removed from the equation.

I'll check those graphs out, and ironically TrustNet is a site I used about 15 years ago for a work purpose that's just jogged my memory! 

Thrugelmir

ChilliBob said:

I suppose critically how would you decide the first bullet, obviously fees is a big part, but what else?

Stop overthinking. Investing isn't easy.  Rather than loooking backwards. Look forwards.  Hindsight will only tell you which stocks you should have owned.  

ChilliBob

Thrugelmir said:

ChilliBob said:

I suppose critically how would you decide the first bullet, obviously fees is a big part, but what else?

Stop overthinking. Investing isn't easy.  Rather than loooking backwards. Look forwards.  Hindsight will only tell you which stocks you should have owned.  

Over thinking you say? Yep, I do that a lot!

In this case though with probably some quite large sums involved I just want to make informed decisions. It just seems too easy to pick from a list based on lowest fees and go boom, sorted! I just don't know what other factors there are to consider is all. 

Thrugelmir

If you are investing into a fund with holdings in thousands of individual companies or bond holdings then how informed do you need to be?  Start at square one and drip feed the money in at a level you are comfortable with. Set your risk appetite level acccordingly. Volatility can be extremely uncomfortable for new investors to stomach. 

csgohan4

Thrugelmir said:

If you are investing into a fund with holdings in thousands of individual companies or bond holdings then how informed do you need to be?  Start at square one and drip feed the money in at a level you are comfortable with. Set your risk appetite level acccordingly. Volatility can be extremely uncomfortable for new investors to stomach. 

Couldn't agree more. However investing in funds is for the long term, one has to accept the downs as well as the up, as long as due diligence is done, let your money grow 

ChilliBob

Yeah, I get that, but I'm still not getting why someone would choose something that's not Vanguard Global for example, except for fees? What are the other considerations which mean more than one doing the same thing can exist! 

eskbanker

https://monevator.com/passive-fund-of-funds-the-rivals/ highlights variances between leading multi-asset funds - even if you're not in the market for one or more of these (and they're suitable for many investors not wishing to spend significant amounts of time constructing and maintaining bespoke portfolios), it illustrates some of the factors differentiating broadly similar products, over and above cost and risk....

csgohan4

ChilliBob said:

Yeah, I get that, but I'm still not getting why someone would choose something that's not Vanguard Global for example, except for fees? What are the other considerations which mean more than one doing the same thing can exist! 

Similar but not quite the same, some have EM coverage or more or more covering for specific geography. But broadly perform similar on a like forlike basis, so personal preference which you want

ChilliBob

I see, so in effect once you take fees out of the equation the manager is trying to say they have the 'edge' over the competition as they have decided to weight Japan more in their index than another competitor or something similar.
So the concept that two index funds would be *identical* bar fee structure isn't ever the case...