Vanguard FTSE Global/Dev World ex-uk, LS80/100, all down - is it Ukraine?

Doshwaster

george4064 said:

My S&S ISA took a battering over January, -7.6%. Not as bad as Feb and Mar 2020 which saw back-to-back -10%s!

When people here say they were down x% over January, which performance metric are you all using?

Mine are unitised prices, so as if my ISA were a unit trust.

Just being doing my end of month financials. My SIPP (which is mostly VLS 80%) is only down 3% and my ISA down 5% so not too bad.

george4064

Audaxer said:

george4064 said:

When people here say they were down x% over January, which performance metric are you all using?

Taking the total value of investments as at the end of January and deducting the total value as at the end of December and showing the difference as a percentage of the value as at end of December. I would have thought most people would be calculating monthly percentage gains/losses that way?

That calculation looks a bit simplistic, because what if you added new money or made a withdrawal during that period?

Audaxer

george4064 said:

Audaxer said:

george4064 said:

When people here say they were down x% over January, which performance metric are you all using?

Taking the total value of investments as at the end of January and deducting the total value as at the end of December and showing the difference as a percentage of the value as at end of December. I would have thought most people would be calculating monthly percentage gains/losses that way?

That calculation looks a bit simplistic, because what if you added new money or made a withdrawal during that period?

It is straightforward if you have no additions or withdrawals. I have also set up a spreadsheet using the XIRR formula in Excel where you can include additions and withdrawals and it gives accurate percentage gains and losses.

Alexland

george4064 said:

That calculation looks a bit simplistic, because what if you added new money or made a withdrawal during that period?

I like simple and my month end numbers are only for my personal entertainment purposes so if new contributions soften the blow of an account shrinking in value then that's fine with me. Most of our accounts are big and simple enough that new contributions, even at a high contribution rate, don't make a lot of difference and if I want to measure the performance I just look at the fund manager data sheet. I don't try and measure my personal performance as it's mostly passive market performance anyway. All I really care about is if our investments are likely to provide enough cashflow to meet our objectives.

dales1

Yes (to Audaxer), I also track my XIRR results

(... but I also calculate the unitised ones ! ..just as a comparison).

And Monevator, belatedly, has switched allegiance to XIRR, see https://monevator.com/portfolio-tracking-how-to-track-your-investments-using-a-money-weighted-return/

Bowlhead also prefers this method for individuals, compared with time-weighted (unitised) methods https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6016244/how-to-calculate-profits-from-s-s-isa

ProDave

I see in the last few days, all these "problem funds" have started to rise again.

Had I followed my hunch at the end of last year and sold, I would be buying back in now.  In all cases I would be buying in at a lower price, in one case 10% lower.

I am yet to be convinced to hold rather than trade.

solidpro

I'm buying. Rolls the dice. Takes my choice.

hoofy

ProDave said:

in one case 10% lower.

Baillie Gifford?

ProDave

hoofy said:

ProDave said:

in one case 10% lower.

Baillie Gifford?

Yes that is the one

eskbanker

ProDave said:

I see in the last few days, all these "problem funds" have started to rise again.

Had I followed my hunch at the end of last year and sold, I would be buying back in now.  In all cases I would be buying in at a lower price, in one case 10% lower.

I am yet to be convinced to hold rather than trade.

Hindsight investing is easy - we can all see retrospectively what would have been the optimal course of action, but if it was as simple as you apparently believe (when looking backwards) to buy low and sell high repeatedly then why don't you put your theory to the test but in real time, rather than all the coulda/shoulda/woulda stuff?  You failed to substantiate your assertion that you were talked out of some late 2021 market timing on here, but of course those who stayed invested are unlikely to lose out by virtue of a blip that's well on the way to recovery, even if there was hypothetically an opportunity to sell before it and buy at the bottom if anyone had been lucky enough to time it right....