When does a trade on Vanguard take place?

vertex

Hi guys

Im trying to work out when a trade actually takes place in one of Vanguards funds on their platform.

For example, the LS100 fund: If I invest £100 in it at 10am, when do I actually become invested in that fund? Is it by 5pm the same day? Or by 5pm the day after?
https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investments/vanguard-lifestrategy-100-equity-fund-accumulation-shares?intcmpgn=blendedlifestrategy_lifestrategy100equityfund_fund_link

Perhaps its worth paying the extra charge and investing using an ETF so I know the trade takes place almost immediately.

Thanks

kuratowski

If you are planning on holding an investment for the long term (10 years or more), then it's really not worth worrying about whether the investment is dealt today vs tomorrow.

DireEmblem

The trade cut off points should be covered in the prospectus.  What difference does the time of day make anyway, if you can tell the future you would be buying your own stocks and not a diverse fund?

tichtich

I'm using the Vanguard platform myself.  In my experience the purchase or sale of a non-ETF fund (like VLS100) takes place 2-3 days after you request it. You can even cancel the request for a while after you've made it (but not for the full 2-3 days), and you won't know what price you'll get until the purchase/sale goes through. 

P.S. If you do buy an ETF instead,  the main extra charge that you'll pay is through the bid/offer spread (a difference between the buying and selling price). You can also optionally pay £7.50 for an immediate trade of your own, rather than waiting for a collective trade.  I don't know how long you would have to wait for a collective trade. 

Note that many of the available ETFs track different indices from the non-ETF funds, and the VLS funds are not available as ETFs.

dunstonh

Settlement takes place either 2 or 3 days after trade.  Vanguard funds are either T+2 or T+3.    From memory, I believe VLS moved from T+3 to T+2 a couple of years back.

Billycock

vertex said:

Hi guys

Im trying to work out when a trade actually takes place in one of Vanguards funds on their platform.

For example, the LS100 fund: If I invest £100 in it at 10am, when do I actually become invested in that fund? Is it by 5pm the same day? Or by 5pm the day after?
https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investments/vanguard-lifestrategy-100-equity-fund-accumulation-shares?intcmpgn=blendedlifestrategy_lifestrategy100equityfund_fund_link

Perhaps its worth paying the extra charge and investing using an ETF so I know the trade takes place almost immediately.

Thanks

You’d do well to actually look closer at the very link you posted. It says the dealing deadline is 9.am 

Albermarle

Perhaps its worth paying the extra charge and investing using an ETF so I know the trade takes place almost immediately.

Do not get confused between the pricing point and the settlement .

The ETF is priced in real time ( if you pay the dealing charge ) but the actual settlement of the deal still takes a couple of days as far as I know .

tichtich

I just checked Vanguard's FAQ for timing info...

"For ETFs, prices change throughout the day on the London Stock Exchange. You can trade using the 'live price' using our quote and deal service for £7.50 per trade. Alternatively, you can place a trade free of charge, using our bulk dealing service, but your order must be placed before the cut-off times of 10.15am or 2.10pm."
https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/articles/latest-thoughts/how-it-works/your-10-most-common-questions

Albermarle

Then after the trade 
When you request an investment order it will usually take around three to four business days to settle and for these changes to be reflected in your account. 

tichtich

Albermarle said:

Then after the trade 
When you request an investment order it will usually take around three to four business days to settle and for these changes to be reflected in your account. 

That must mean from the time you request the trade, not from the time the trade is completed. In my experience with Vanguard the trade is fully reflected in my account within 2-3 business days (maybe sometimes 4) from the time I requested it. And that's for index funds,  not ETFs, which are faster. 

noh

The trade cutoff time is 9am for that days pricing point which is 9pm I believe.
If you placed your order at 10am you would get the following days price.