Balancing a portfolio

PeteJ_2

i'm a newbie investor trying my hand at an S+S ISA. I've done a fair bit of reading around and have so far allocated my funds as follows:

£1000 on BlackRock UK Absolute Alpha Class P Acc

£1000 on INVESCO PERPETUAL Monthly Income Plus Accumulation Units

£1000 on Neptune Russia and Greater Russia (for a bit of drama - i'm happy to gamble more dangerously on this proportion)

i have a further £1000, and am looking for something fairly low risk that will help balance/diversify this portfolio. Any suggestions as to what sort of products/sectors i should be looking into? Will this portfolio be low-med risk?

Many thanks,

Pete

shokadelika

PeteJ wrote: »

i'm a newbie investor trying my hand at an S+S ISA. I've done a fair bit of reading around and have so far allocated my funds as follows:

£1000 on BlackRock UK Absolute Alpha Class P Acc

£1000 on INVESCO PERPETUAL Monthly Income Plus Accumulation Units

£1000 on Neptune Russia and Greater Russia (for a bit of drama - i'm happy to gamble more dangerously on this proportion)

i have a further £1000, and am looking for something fairly low risk that will help balance/diversify this portfolio. Any suggestions as to what sort of products/sectors i should be looking into? Will this portfolio be low-med risk?

Many thanks,

Pete

I dont think your portfolio is fairly balanced.

Why Russia ? surely something like Allianz Bric would spread your investment over four emerging markets rather than one.

Unless you have reasons to be particularly bullish on Russia?

PeteJ_2

shokadelika wrote: »

I dont think your portfolio is fairly balanced.

Why Russia ? surely something like Allianz Bric would spread your investment over four emerging markets rather than one.

Unless you have reasons to be particularly bullish on Russia?

I just fancied a bit of a gamble on a Russian fund. Just looking for something low risk to complement the high risk of this fund. Not sure what would sit well with this portfolio. Was thinking about a tracker...

meester

It's not low risk, no, because the Russia fund could fall 80% in 1 year.

If £1000 is not a lot of money to you then this is no problem, you might as well speculate on this as anything else.

PeteJ_2

yes, i'm almost treating that £1000 as seperate (I have accepted the high risk of this). It's the other £3000 i want to be cautious with. I guess what I'm looking for is to balance the Blackrock and the Invesco fund with a third fund.

boy_3

I would say put in metals. e.g. buy gold or silver ETFs. On london market, you can buy PHAU and PHAG etfs for gold and silver. Or you can try US market ETFs, or even gold or silver miners like GG, KGC etc.
Metals are supposed to go up or stay up this year and should balance your portfolio well.

Browntrout_2

you gone for vodka so mix that with coke!

I think there is plenty of room for upside surprise in the most dynamic economy on the planet.

Have a look at Martin Currie North American.

Aegis

boy wrote: »

I would say put in metals. e.g. buy gold or silver ETFs. On london market, you can buy PHAU and PHAG etfs for gold and silver. Or you can try US market ETFs, or even gold or silver miners like GG, KGC etc.
Metals are supposed to go up or stay up this year and should balance your portfolio well.

That would not balance his portfolio at all. In fact, it would simply create another high risk specialised area, which is far from what the poster wanted to achieve. If anything this would leave his portfolio a lot less balanced than it is now.

PeteJ, your low risk funds both seem to be fairly low volatility investments in things like bonds and very low risk assets. It might be worth diversifying a little into equities by getting something like a UK or global equity fund in your portfolio, as long as it fits in with your risk level. This sort of thing is then somewhere between medium and medium/high risk, offering the chances for growth at the risk of short term drops.

Be aware that investing in a lump sum at the moment is likely to see some rather large swings in value!

shokadelika

Aegis wrote: »

That would not balance his portfolio at all. In fact, it would simply create another high risk specialised area, which is far from what the poster wanted to achieve. If anything this would leave his portfolio a lot less balanced than it is now.

I thought it was always prudent advice for investors to have 5 to10% of their portfolio invested in precious metals as they are supposed to be uncorrelated to other assets/equities/bonds.

Of course gold and silver pay no renewal or trail commission to financial planners and advisers maybe that is why most of them do not seem to understand or recommend them as an investment.

jem16

shokadelika wrote: »

Of course gold and silver pay no renewal or trail commission to financial planners and advisers maybe that is why most of them do not seem to understand or recommend them as an investment.

No it's becaue they are not authorised to deal in shares, nothing to do with commission.

Aegis

shokadelika wrote: »

I thought it was always prudent advice for investors to have 5 to10% of their portfolio invested in precious metals as they are supposed to be uncorrelated to other assets/equities/bonds.

Of course gold and silver pay no renewal or trail commission to financial planners and advisers maybe that is why most of them do not seem to understand or recommend them as an investment.

For a larger portfolio, I'd absolutely agree that a little investment in gold and other metals is a good diversifier, but as the 4th fund for the small portfolio stated in the OP, and for the low risk part at that, I'd personally steer clear of commodities.