Opinions on portfolio for S&S ISA?

turbobob

Hi. I wondered if some of you investment types on here could have a look at this and see what you think? Any suggestions or comments welcomed. Awaits comments about "fashion investing"

BLACKROCK UK ABS ALPHA PACC (ACC) 24.82%
CAZENOVE MM DIVERSITY (ACC) 12.42%
CF ARCH CRU INV PORTFOLIO A (ACC) 12.40%
CF JM FINN GBL OPPS R NET (ACC) 10.53%
CF RUFFER EUROPEAN O (ACC) 12.44%
NEPTUNE BALANCED (ACC) 12.43%
NEPTUNE GLOBAL EQUITY A (ACC) 14.96%

It will be consisting of this years full ISA allowance, and a transfer in of a small S&S ISA which I paid into a few years ago so all in all about £8500. It will be increased in future tax years.

My aims are - to achieve a return over the long term which beats the FTSE All Share index, but with a lower volatility. I've been burned before making silly choices with these (the old ISA had a lot more paid into it than its worth now) and so have attempted to balance it out sensibly.

Attached is the result of a portfolio scan on Trustnet :



Cheers

Ian_W

We must be dedicated followers of the same fashion investments as I have money in 4 of the funds you have chosen, bob!
I also held the Cazenove one but sold it when consolidating the number of funds following this years ISA contribution. Nothing particularly against that fund but are you aware that managers Mark Harries & Simon Wood [12/82 if this link to City Wire works!]
left the fund in November and now run the SWIP MM Diversity? If you've looked at past performance it may be they had quite a bit to do with it, though the fund seems to be doing OK without them.
Other funds I use in the cautious category are Ruffer Total Return O, JPM Cautious Total return and Insight Target Ret though that is on a quite bigger sum.

I'm not sure about your benchmark though. The AS index should, I would think, outperform your [and my] holdings when the markets booming so I'm not clear of the relevance? Personally I just use the volatility as a benchmark and try to ensure it's lower than the balanced managed sector but a little higher than cautious [old adrenalin junky, me! ]

Anyway, no investment type myself but at least it's bumped your post!

Oh and just edited to ADD:
Did you consider any Bond or Property funds just to diversify away from shares? Neither sector is doing particularly well, in general, ATM but probably worth including some in future for the longer term. Appreciate some of the funds are low on shares and do use alternative assets and strategies in themselves.

turbobob

Thanks Ian, very helpful. I didn't know about the Cazenove manager change so that is useful info.

TBH my target of at least matching, and preferably beating return on the All Share index was that an FTSE All Share tracker is probably the default "no thought" investment option. But a bit risky for me, for the level of returns in recent years anyway. I'm trying to get some decent growth through the riskier funds but counterbalance that with the less volatile ones. I guess the Balanced Managed sector average should be another reasonable benchmark to use.

I had thought about fixed interest type investments and decided against going into a dedicated fund for them
, for the time being. The balanced and cautious managed funds have a level of these in the mix. Maybe that will change when I put more in over the years. I do agree that long term some exposure to commercial property may be an idea. There was a big "correction" on that last year wasn't there?

Ian_W

turbobob wrote: »

TBH my target of at least matching, and preferably beating return on the All Share index was that an FTSE All Share tracker is probably the default "no thought" investment option. But a bit risky for me, for the level of returns in recent years anyway. I'm trying to get some decent growth through the riskier funds but counterbalance that with the less volatile ones. I guess the Balanced Managed sector average should be another reasonable benchmark to use.

Problem with comparing to AS tracker is you want to underperform it on the way down so you can't really expect to outperform it on the upside. Between Jan 2000 and Jan 03 a typical AS tracker was down 45% but IIRC average cautious managed was down about 15%, balanced circa 25% but you're sacrificing growth in the good times to get safety and lower losses in the bad ones. I'm not against trackers per se but they ain't for me or you by the sound of it.

I do agree that long term some exposure to commercial property may be an idea. There was a big "correction" on that last year wasn't there?

Still going on as far as I know, though probably not as bad as last year, but could be a while before it bottoms if the economy slows and co's need less office space, less shopfloor sq feet, fewer distribution units. I've got about 10% in New Star International Property which hasn't done a lot since it was launched but hasn't bombed either.

Still no expert takers for your thread yet - so consider this a bonus bump!

turbobob

Not to worry. I have confidence in my choices and have gone ahead

dunstonh

Some of the property funds are now reporting that inflows are exceeding outflows now and that was the main pressure on them over the last 12 months so that side seems to be clearing. However, going forward in the short term, over supply and cost cutting by companies may still keep pressure on them. The bottom may be near or we may be at it but depending on the economy it could still go further.