Invesco Perpetual Monthly Plus

moneylover

I am going to invest £2000 in Blackrock Absolute UK Alpha and want to put £3000 in ISA altogether so am looking for another fund. Not high or even highish risk right now as I am a novice-until now I have limited myself to cash ISAs. I have been reading H_L comment on Invesco Perpetual Monthly Inc Plus and wondered whether people agree with Mark Dampier's view that prospects for the bond market and this fund are good?

turbobob

Well, it seems a reasonable choice for a fund investing in bonds. It looks to be a consistently decent performer in the sector. As for the view on the bonds in the short term I couldn't say. I found this article which give some different viewpoints - http://www.citywire.co.uk/professional/-/features/other/content.aspx?ID=300887

munk

The fund is always touted as being a low-medium risk fund with a mix of equities and bonds. The majority part of the fund though is the fixed interest part and the reason for the enthusiasm for fixed interest/bonds right now is the higher yield they're paying (the % rate that the bond/fund estimates it will pay out as a dividend). At the moment yields are up around 7% or so which is relatively high, hence they look quite attractive for now.

Generally the bond market has been depressed for the last few years - the last time there was a 'boom' in the bonds market was after the dotcom bubble burst around the start of the decade - again yields had been driven higher by the depressed valuations on equities at that time. That 'boom' lasted for 3-4 years or so roughly(?) and between 2004-7 equities have outperformed whilst bonds have slumped. As such we could be at another point similar to the dotcom bubble bursting where bonds are about to have a better few years whilst equities dwindle.

Another very low volatility fund is CF Arch Cru Investment Portfolio - it's very low in volatility if you don't want any sudden shocks and the performance curve is as smooth as it gets (or as smooth as I've seen anyway, imagine how a bank's 8% interest rate curve would look ). Initial charge via HL is 2% though which is high for HL, but worth it if you don't want to die of heart attack when your fund drops 10% over a few days (although the Inv Perp fund won't be likely to do that though, just saying).

stevedb11

In Nov 2007 I switched £12800 from previous Maxi ISAs into this fund, it is now worth £11930(the units were 1.04 when I switched they are now 97p), my income to date has been £310 which I drip feed into Neptune global equity.
I am OK with this result, as I am in Investments for the long term 10-15 years.
Hope this info helps. Steve

dunstonh

Another very low volatility fund is CF Arch Cru Investment Portfolio - it's very low in volatility if you don't want any sudden shocks and the performance curve is as smooth as it gets (or as smooth as I've seen anyway, imagine how a bank's 8% interest rate curve would look ). Initial charge via HL is 2% though which is high for HL, but worth it if you don't want to die of heart attack when your fund drops 10% over a few days (although the Inv Perp fund won't be likely to do that though, just saying).

The fund typically has a 10% initial charge so HLs 2% is quite a discount. However, HL have the annual management charge at 1% higher than the published charge so thats possibly where they are making up the difference.

munk

Yes that was something I forgot to mention but had meant to - the annual management charges are very high on that fund. For me personally though I find that's worthwhile given the fund's performance and the peace of mind the low volatility provides for a cautious portfolio in which it's held.

http://www.cruim.com/pages/cruportfolio-pc

moneylover

munk wrote: »

Yes that was something I forgot to mention but had meant to - the annual management charges are very high on that fund. For me personally though I find that's worthwhile given the fund's performance and the peace of mind the low volatility provides for a cautious portfolio in which it's held.

http://www.cruim.com/pages/cruportfolio-pc

I think this has really focused my thinking, I had never heard of this fund but I know that for my first stocks and shares ISA I do want to be cautious - anything that hopefully might beat the best I can get from savings accounts after tax is all I am after.

I was/am thinking of Blackrock Absolute because it seems to be considered a good fund for the current difficult times and the Invesco Perpetual Monthly Inc just because H-L bullish about the fund and the sector but the Arch Cru sounds as though it could be a worthy fund for me to consider.

I would be interested in other suggestions for a low risk portfolio. I had never heard of Arch Cru - not one that comes up in the newspapers every five minutes!

moneylover

stevedb11 wrote: »

In Nov 2007 I switched £12800 from previous Maxi ISAs into this fund, it is now worth £11930(the units were 1.04 when I switched they are now 97p), my income to date has been £310 which I drip feed into Neptune global equity.
I am OK with this result, as I am in Investments for the long term 10-15 years.
Hope this info helps. Steve

I can see from H-L website that the fund has gone down 4.43% in the last year but can I see anywhere what its done over the last few weeks and months in actual figures as opposed to a performance chart?

stevedb11

Hi, here's a link to the funds performance.
Just select 1 month where it says select Time period.

http://www.trustnet.com/ut/funds/chart.asp?unit=PPIPF

Regards Steve;)

hawkesbaynz

Look at:
Threadneedle Absolute Return Bond
Schroder Strategic Bond
CF Ruffer European Opportunities (&Total Return too)
CF Witan Special Situations

All seem to have done well recently though Bonds/Multi Assets/Equities with a bit of hedging thrown in. NOt too expensive.

I have money in all and the Cazenove Multimanager Diversity too for a cautious approach. The Blackrock fund is very good

Jake'sGran

moneylover wrote: »

I am going to invest £2000 in Blackrock Absolute UK Alpha and want to put £3000 in ISA altogether so am looking for another fund. Not high or even highish risk right now as I am a novice-until now I have limited myself to cash ISAs. I have been reading H_L comment on Invesco Perpetual Monthly Inc Plus and wondered whether people agree with Mark Dampier's view that prospects for the bond market and this fund are good?

Sounds like you get the same mail shots that I do. HL send out so much information I rarely have time to read it all. You can check on the fund you mentioned on a few web sites and compare it's records with funds of the same type over 3 or 5 years. I have a few of the I.P. funds but not the monthly income plus as I don't need the income and would prefer to let the amount invested increase. I have a note on my desk to consider Marlborough Special situations which has done particularly well over 3 or 5 years as well as a few others. Neil Woodford who runs Invesco Perpetual Income and High Income funds has an excellent record. If you do start investing HL refund the whole of the initial charge in most cases by way of extra units and also give a small amount of their annual commission back. It's all spelled out on their website.

Trustnet Unit Trusts and OEICs / Fund factsheet Link for the Monthly Income one you mentioned.