A good cheap investment manager ?

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  • talexuser
    talexuser Posts: 3,494
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    My number of funds are determined by not having much more than 50k in a single fund or house, the exception is Vanguard where there is more than 50k in several world area ETFs because I'm not certain that remaining active choices are worth their fees.
  • lpgm
    lpgm Posts: 355
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    Cliddy wrote: »
    My funds are scattered around the world (probably wildly), surely just a limited number of global funds is eggs in 1 basket.

    If you've got loads of random active funds, there's a danger they start to cancel each other out, and you end up just tracking the markets. Can you plot your total portfolio performance on Fidelity? If you can, plot it against a global tracker fund and see how you're doing.
  • OldMusicGuy
    OldMusicGuy Posts: 1,752
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    talexuser wrote: »
    My number of funds are determined by not having much more than 50k in a single fund or house, the exception is Vanguard where there is more than 50k in several world area ETFs because I'm not certain that remaining active choices are worth their fees.
    Just for the OP's benefit, I assume this is because current FSCS cover is 50K per investment house (I believe this is going up to 85K)? Personally, I am not bothered about this risk because my funds are held in the biggest, most reputable companies. But I know some forum members are concerned about this, and that's fair enough. So again an example of how your own strategy will impact your fund holdings.
  • Cliddy
    Cliddy Posts: 229 Forumite
    Many thanks for a lot of constructive responses.

    By the way in response to one comment, I am also retired. Which will probably shock you even more with my comments!!!

    I'm still confused about the idea of only having 1 (ish) global find.
    Because I have various globals, I can see that they all have different performance results over the period that I have held them.
    Perhaps that means that I should transfer the funds from the lesser performers into the best ???
    But surely by that logic there would only be one fund anyone would go for based on survival of the fittest.
    I would suggest that if I asked you all what is the best global fund, I would get numerous responses.??
    And if I was to react to that, I would again have numerous funds!!!
  • Prism
    Prism Posts: 3,794
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    I have three global funds which are all different from each other. The idea is to choose funds that serve a purpose rather than one that has performed well recently or a bunch of similar ones
  • masonic
    masonic Posts: 23,068
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    Cliddy wrote: »
    I'm still confused about the idea of only having 1 (ish) global find.
    Because I have various globals, I can see that they all have different performance results over the period that I have held them.
    Perhaps that means that I should transfer the funds from the lesser performers into the best ???
    But surely by that logic there would only be one fund anyone would go for based on survival of the fittest.
    I would suggest that if I asked you all what is the best global fund, I would get numerous responses.??
    And if I was to react to that, I would again have numerous funds!!!
    It seems that you fundamentally misunderstand what others have written.

    As you increase the number of funds you hold, your performance tends towards the average market performance, but minus the management fees you are paying each fund manager. But you can get average market returns at much lower cost and complexity if that's what you want.

    Either you aim for average market return as cheaply as possible, or you focus in on specific funds which you believe will outperform the average market return by a greater margin than the fees they charge, or which better represent your own personal objectives in terms of style and/or composition.

    No sensible investor would hold every fund that received positive commentary on a site like this.
  • OldMusicGuy
    OldMusicGuy Posts: 1,752
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    Cliddy wrote: »
    By the way in response to one comment, I am also retired. Which will probably shock you even more with my comments!!!
    OK I am a bit surprised but that's good to know. It will impact your investment strategy, which you need to think clearly about. Are these ISAs just a bit of extra cash that you have or are they an important part of your retirement funds? Do you plan to use the money soon, perhaps to fund the gap to SP age, or are you holding them for long term growth? You need a plan before you can decide what are the most appropriate funds for your purposes.
    Cliddy wrote: »
    Perhaps that means that I should transfer the funds from the lesser performers into the best ???
    Very bad idea and classic newbie mistake. Chasing funds based on how they did in the past. How do you know that a fund that "did well" last year will outperform others over however long you are going to hold the funds? You don't. Sophisticated investment managers and IFAs might have a better idea than most, and that's why you pay them.

    You need to make sure you have a mix of funds that meets your objectives. My objectives are simple: low cost, passive funds that minimize volatility and give me a return that matches or slightly beats inflation. I don't need growth but I want to reduce the impact of market downturns. That's why I chose the funds I did. You need to be able to articulate what you are trying to achieve to help you identify the most suitable funds.
  • Cliddy
    Cliddy Posts: 229 Forumite
    OK I am a bit surprised but that's good to know. It will impact your investment strategy, which you need to think clearly about. Are these ISAs just a bit of extra cash that you have or are they an important part of your retirement funds? Do you plan to use the money soon, perhaps to fund the gap to SP age, or are you holding them for long term growth? You need a plan before you can decide what are the most appropriate funds for your purposes.


    Very bad idea and classic newbie mistake. Chasing funds based on how they did in the past. How do you know that a fund that "did well" last year will outperform others over however long you are going to hold the funds? You don't. Sophisticated investment managers and IFAs might have a better idea than most, and that's why you pay them.

    You need to make sure you have a mix of funds that meets your objectives. My objectives are simple: low cost, passive funds that minimize volatility and give me a return that matches or slightly beats inflation. I don't need growth but I want to reduce the impact of market downturns. That's why I chose the funds I did. You need to be able to articulate what you are trying to achieve to help you identify the most suitable funds.

    Thanks for this. I'm fully retired, company pension and SP. No debts. So money is for luxuries, travel and health type emergencies etc. So definitely not very long term.
    I suppose I too would be looking for secure growth, able to see through global upsets (Trump) and not expecting unreasonable returns.
    The problem is my current portfolio developed over the last 10 years or so has produced good returns based on my requirements above.
    So I ask myself why change. BUT ...... they were selected by me, so something must be wrong !!!
  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622
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    edited 9 August 2018 at 8:45PM
    Cliddy wrote: »

    Why do you feel it's a lot? Surely the number is determined by the amount you have to invest, your risks levels etc etc.
    If I had £10 it's likely to be 1 fund if I had £1mill then it would be more than 25 ??
    My funds are scattered around the world (probably wildly), surely just a limited number of global funds is eggs in 1 basket.

    My answer. If you've got 25 funds ina small to medium sized investment, let's say under £100k, then the odds are you've created your own personal but more expensive global tracker.

    The other thing that comes up here often is that people have tiny amounts in some funds, let's say again in the context of your (my guess) £100k, under £1k, eg less than 1%, which is a bit pointless.

    And finally as others have posted, if you bought those with a strategy in mind and are keeping them all at 4% that's quite a lot of work, possibly with buy sell cost as well.

    If you are feeling bold, post them here.:D
  • AlanP_2
    AlanP_2 Posts: 3,250
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    Cliddy wrote: »
    The problem is my current portfolio developed over the last 10 years or so has produced good returns based on my requirements above.
    So I ask myself why change. BUT ...... they were selected by me, so something must be wrong !!!

    In the same spirit as your earlier point about "tone" on a forum such as this:

    A blind monkey with a pin would probably have had good returns over the last 10 years :D as we have had a very strong bull run for both equities and bonds. Who knows what we will get going forwards.

    I know very little but have had good returns. Retirement is now only a few years away so I am slowly moving across to a more defensive mix that "banks" some of those gains and is less likely to go down as dramatically but won't get such good returns if the bull market continues.

    Like OMG said what are you trying to achieve, by when?

    You do have a fairly high number of funds by the sounds of it, may be a good thing and maybe not. What does the overall Asset Allocation look like? Are some overlapping with others? Do you know "why" you have each one in your portfolio (what role is it doing for you)? Do you have the major geographical areas and / or sectors covered?

    These are all the sorts of questions that get discussed on here when "what should I buy" "what do you think of this idea" type threads come up.

    One final thought which may or may not apply - You haven't mentioned your age or if you have a spouse / partner who would inherit these if you passed away? If you do would they want to manage 25 funds or would a simpler portfolio make that easier for them if the worst happened?
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