Double your money in 12 - 18 months... Fidelity Focus Fund (India)

Aegis

calibra1010 wrote: »

That is your opinion, maybe you are where you are because of your sceptical attitude to things. How can investing a lump sum be classed as a bad investment strategy. You have no idea what percentage of my total portfolio this 45k investment is. I would suggest that you keep your head between your legs..

You came on to the forum harping on about this one fund as though it was the best thing ever. If nothing else, the impression you gave to others was that your personal experience would lead you to recommend that everyone stick all their money into this. There was nothing about diversification or balance in your post, hence my comments about bad investment strategy. Now, if this was not your intent, then I suggest you make it a little clearer next time, for example by adding phrases such as "this is an extremely high risk investment and should only make up a very small part of a balanced portfolio" or "past performance is no indication of future performance". Instead you chose a title of "Double your money in 12-18 months" as though it was a dead cert. Very irresponsible if nothing else!

I'm hardly an investment skeptic, I have a fairly high proportion of my funds in high risk sectors, including BRIC, global equity, natural resources, etc. I just don't harp on about the highest growing ones and gloss over the fact that the potential drops are just as large as the potential growth in these sectors.

You Idiot –

Don't call me an idiot.

the fund has not dropped 15% in a short space of time.

Yes, it has. I follow my investments very closely, and towards the end of last year I was registering a growth of 18% in that fund in about 3 months, after which my growth then dropped to an even 0%. A drop of about 15% in a fairly short space of time.

In this sort of fund it happens a lot, and can happen on a much larger scale than a mere 15% and for a lot longer.

Click on the link above and then total return and have a look at the stats (you can click on the tabs)

Last 3 months - £1000 investment would have grown to £1150
Last 6 months - £1000 investment would have grown to £1325
Last year - £1000 investment would have grown to £1575
Last 3 years - £1000 investment would have grown to £3100
I would suggest some maths lessons before you express opinions.

For your information, I have 2 A-levels in maths and did a Masters Degree in Engineering at one of the top universities in the world. I probably have more mathematical knowledge than 99% of the people you likely meet in your day-to-day life. Don't start lecturing me on needing maths lessons before I express opinions, as I expect I have had more of those than you ever will!

Now, on to your figures. With the fund I was referring to, the 3 month growth level is -5% total, up from a total loss of 15% which was down from a high of 8%, making for a 23% difference between the total growth and the total loss in a 3-month period, i.e. a short term drop of somewhere in the region of 20-25%.

I'm not sure which charts you were looking at, but you managed to get the figures wrong for the fund I was referring to when they're actually displayed on the screen for you. In future I suggest that if you want to insult someone else for number-related issues, you check your own first to make sure you aren't throwing rocks in a glass house.

The fact remains that while long-term growth in these funds can be very good, the drops can be sudden and significant, and anyone reading your initial post and inversting large chunks of their cash in the fund you raved on about without explaining any of the drawbacks could stand to lose a LOT of money in the short term, and it would be your fault for supplying them with bad advice!

This forum is about money saving and strategic investing, not about ultra high risk speculation.

wombat42_2

India may have great potential like the other BRIC countries but past perfomance is no guarantee of future performance.

Yes OK, Hong Kong bombed by about 18% a few weeks ago but the Dow has bombed by almost that much and Hong Kong has recovered a bit since. Also a drop of 18% doesnt matter that much if you have had previous stellar gains.

purch

Also a drop of 18% doesnt matter that much if you have had previous stellar gains.

It does if you havn't TAKEN any of those 'stellar gains'