Decisions decisions which fund should I choose?

dunstonh

To suggest VLS100 is a managed fund could mislead those who are seeking active global equity exposure.

It is a managed fund.   They chose the funds to include. They chose the funds not to include.  They choose the weightings.  Those are all management decisions.

Fundamentally the idea behind it was A. a global equity tracker that B. upweights the UK and C. excludes small cap.

 Those are the two major differences between it and a pure/vanilla passive global total market approach. 

So, active management decisions and not a tracker.

 By that logic, no investment can be considered an index fund or passive because there will always be management decisions, imperfections in the holdings weights, trade timings, how far down the list of small cap stocks do you go to chase "completeness" etc. - and we're back to semantics.

A tracker tracks an index.  Good or bad, it tracks it.   A managed fund does not track an index.  There are management decisions to decide what it will and won't invest in.  Yes, some of the decisions may be small and some may be larger but an active decision not to include certain areas or go heavy in others are management decisions.

If someone wants a tracker then they should not pick VLS100.  If they want mild management decisions on strategy and VLS100 fits what they are looking for as an investment strategy then that is fine.   They can also get mild management decisions elsewhere but it is peculiar that certain people call those mild decisions active management when it's not Vanguard doing it but call it passive when it is Vanguard,

tebbins

I have no interest in arguing semantics. By your logic, there is no such thing a passive or index fund as every fund manager has to decide about when to trade, how complete to make their holdings, securities lending, which broker to use etc.

The fact you have said nothing about any points that I have actually made is telling.

dunstonh

. By your logic, there is no such thing a passive or index fund as every fund manager has to decide about when to trade, how complete to make their holdings, securities lending, which broker to use etc.

That isn't my logic at all and not relevant to investment decisions on where or how to invest.  They are administration decisions.

The fact you have said nothing about any points that I have actually made is telling.

I haven't said anything about your other points as they were not relevant to what was being discussed.

[Deleted User]

The gist is that VLS 100 is a stable allocation to trackers with moderate home bias.

 Its a reasonable strategy for someone who wants to be in equities, wants maximum diversification and passive approach with lower volatility vs world index. Its not a reasonable approach for someone who wants FTSE world index tracker and no home bias. 

The rest does not matter.