Help- First time investing in stocks and shares

supersam_batman

Hi

I have just started to investing in stocks and shares, I have put in £3000 across a few different funds. I did a bit of research first and came up with this

Allianz RCM BRIC Stars Fund- 20%
Gartmore China Opportunities Fund- 20%
JPM Natural Resources Fund- 20%
Jupiter Emerging European Opportunities- 20%
New Star International Property Fd OEIC- 10%
Old Mutual UK Select Mid Cap OEIC Acc- 10%

Am looking at leaving this money in for a long term investment, probably 5 years and am going to swap the money round the funds as i go.

Just wondered what you thought of my porfolio, for a first time invester? How risky etc is it?, easy to manage?

Cheers

Rafter

Just be careful with that many funds and that small a portfolio that you leave well alone - all you gains could be wiped out by buying and selling charges and price differences if you trade too regularly.

Looks like a fairly high risk portfolio, but then if you are looking for decent long term returns that is possibly where you will get the best gains.

R.

purch

Very high risk :eek:

Are you comfortable with your £3k becoming £2k in a short timeframe?

If you realise the potential for a sharp loss, and are comfortable with that, then all power to you

supersam_batman

Yeah, I realize that it is pretty risky, I am ok with it going up and down in the short term, but in the longer term would definiately hope that it would gradually rise? Alot of the money is invested in emerging european countries and asia. I am hoping this will pay off in the long term.

purch

I'm not quite sure where or how the Mid Cap and Property fits into the strategy.

It should be possible to balance out some of the risk with the portfolio by utilising Funds that are non-Equity based, or some kind of Absolute Return style fund for this portion of the spread

supersam_batman

After the recent slump in some of the funds that i have bought into i was hoping that the market would pick up again in these funds and i would make some gains. I know it is a very risky way of looking at it. But if that doesnt work, i will be leaving them in the funds for at least 5 years. The Mid Cap property was in the strategy as when doing a bit of research, many people were saying that it was a good fund to buy into this year, was a bit of a whim i guess.

Anyone else got any opinions on how i have invested?

Cheers

Browntrout_2

What is your benchmark?

Without knowing what you are aiming for you will always fail.

I know this is stating the obvious but it is something I failed to do for years and years. I was constantly trying to maximise returns, and the result was always chasing the next best thing, grass is greener scenario (when in fact it is quite often brown and patchy).

This is how bubbles form as the herd moves in the same direction.

With a such a small portfolio why not just use trackers on the FTSE AllShare or the MCSI world index, however you probably enjoy the fund selection process?

With 20% china and 20% BRIC, you have the majority of your portfolio in China. I think that market will take years to recover from the bubble of farm workers becoming taxi drivers then giving that up to play the market like going to the bookies!

I have just top sliced Allianz BRIC all stars and moved into

Martin Currie North America & M&G Global Basics

cheerfulcat

supersam_batman wrote: »

Am looking at leaving this money in for a long term investment, probably 5 years and am going to swap the money round the funds as i go.

Just wondered what you thought of my porfolio, for a first time invester? How risky etc is it?, easy to manage?

Cheers

I think that in five years' time ( which is absolutely not " long term ", btw! ) you could be looking at a nasty loss, so pretty risky. It looks largely like a bandwagon-jumping exercise tbh ( not meaning to be unkind ).

dunstonh

5 years is either the end of short term or the beggining or medium term. Your spread of funds is particulary high risk for a relatively short period.

The choice of funds appears to be very much fashion investing (or past performance selection).

Primrose

I notice you don't seem to have any UK Equity Income funds which can often be as effective as Growth funds if you have the income automatically reinvested. Your selection does look rather risky to me, especially over a 5 year period, which isn't necessary very long in investing terms.

amcluesent

So £3000 spread over 6 funds AND churning them will get you very little after fees. IMHO £1000 per fund is the minimum and then only get out if your stop-loss fires.

As asset bubbles are shaken-out and austerity is the order of the day, post peak-oil, I'd be investing on a eat/heat basis.