Virgin maxi ISA woes

innovate

I (naively?) put £7K into a Virgin maxi ISA (stocks and shares) in 2000. Since it is a tracker, the value instantly dropped and as of today has slowly worked itself up to £6,844. What agreat investment! (not)

I have not had any other ISAs until this year, when I bought a £3K mini cash ISA.

Is there anything I can do now with my maxi ISA, to make the remaining money work a bit harder? Or should I sit it out for a while longer?

Any advice appreciated. (and please be gentle with me)

nrsql

naive? Just unlucky enough to invest when the market was near a peak. It has tracked the all share index reasonably well so...
Your fund has increased in value by about 40% over the last few years.
Biggest and best performing fund fidelity special sits has inceased by about 75% over both periods (losing all gains at early 03 (this fund is restructuring in the next couple of years though).

So what you should do is to invest in the best performing fund at the correct time.
Trackers aren't going to be best performing but they should be a long way from worst.
My £7000 virgin is now worth £6740 so you didn't pick the worst time.

Problem is that a lot of people saw market increases and invested for the first time near it's peak, saw investments falling and so didn't invest again. Now they see rises again so think about investing (an indicator that we are due for another fall?). It's what causes bubbles and boom/crash cycles.

oldagetraveller

Like yourself and, no doubt, many others, I am in a similar situation. Invested £7000 in April of 2000 and also 2001 in a stocks and shares maxi isa only to see its value tumble to, at one stage late 2001, to just over £10000. Now approaching £13000. Fortunately I am able to "sit tight" and hope that in the longer term it does improve.
Naive? No just unlucky.

carnet

nrsql wrote:

best performing fund fidelity special sits has inceased by about 75% over both periods

The best performing UK All Companies fund over the past 5 years (to April and Sept. 05) has not been Fidelity Spec. Sits. - its been Rathbone Spec. Sits.

nrsql wrote:

So what you should do is to invest in the best performing fund at the correct time.

If anyone knows how to do this it is fairly unlikely they are reading these boards - they're probably sailing around tropical shores on their own luxury cruiser .

dunstonh

You certainly wouldnt go investing new cash into Fid Spec Sits at this time either.

Virgin funds are pretty generic and nothing special. You chose completely the wrong time to be in a FTSE100 tracker and even now, its still not the right time. UK equity Income sector has been better. However, if managed funds are not your preference then trackers in other sectors are available. With 7k, you should really have picked 3-7 funds and not just one.

Nobody can tell you the best funds to invest in but a spread is almost always better than hoping to pick the 1 out of the thousands available.