Generally, sell before the election uncertainty, especially if Labour look like winning.
Fair enough but what do you buy instead?
Stay in cash & wait for the market to plunge. Sell when others are buying and buy when others are selling
Ah, yes, selling. I sold a small holding of an Aberdeen fund yesterday. What a joke. For reasons never explained, I'd never been able to put it into the Fidelity or H. Lansdowne fund supermarkets. So I rang them up to sell.
"We'll need written confirmation from you" "Can't I do it by email?" "No, it's not possible. We may also need further checks on you, so I'll need your phone number. Once we are satisfied we will send the remittance by cheque" "By Cheque??? Can't I just give you my bank account details?" "No sir, that's how we do it" "But the banks are thinking of phasing out cheques. What will you do then?" "I don't know, sir" "Well, it's not algorithmic trading, is it?" "Sorry sir. Anything else I can help you with?..."
The FTSE 100 is not really a sensible measure of share performance. It is weighted by market capitalisation so is heavily skewed to the biggest of the big and, therefore, certain sectors. So, as at January 2015, five companies, HSBC, Shell, BP, GSK and BAT accounted for 25% of the index! If banks and/or oil have a bad time the index will too.
What's important is dividend yield (and regular increases) and re-investing the dividends. This from Hargreaves Lansdown in an article last year explains: "If £10,000 was invested in the FTSE-All share Index in July 1994, it would be worth £24,705 today without dividend reinvestment. However, if all of the dividends were reinvested, that investment would now be worth £48,230."
Diversification is important to spread the risks but I reckon a good fund specialising in the undervalued European sector is the way to go for this year. (Assuming Putin doesn't invade!)
So, as at January 2015, five companies, HSBC, Shell, BP, GSK and BAT accounted for 25% of the index! If banks and/or oil have a bad time the index will too.
The Oil price has dropped 50% in the last 8 months
So, as at January 2015, five companies, HSBC, Shell, BP, GSK and BAT accounted for 25% of the index! If banks and/or oil have a bad time the index will too.
The Oil price has dropped 50% in the last 8 months
Yes but, I was talking about the perceived value of industry sectors not the price of the product. For example, BP's share price isn't down 50%, it's only down 7% in the last 6 months. But the fall in that price and Shell's provides a good indicator of how much higher the index would have been if the oil companies weren't presently weak. (But still viewed as a "buy" by the forecasters.) And why there is good money to made made if you are invested in the right sectors at the right time. So stuff like UK Industrials Melrose and IMI (both FTSE 250 constituents) which have performed remarkably well over the last 5 years, share prices up 232% and 159% respectively, have been dragging the indices kicking and screaming to higher levels.
"And why there is good money to made made if you are invested in the right sectors at the right time'.
And why there is good money to be lost guessing which are the right sectors at the wrong time.
I listen to investment managers every week explaining why they made the right decisions at the wrong time. Trust me it's a marketing game. Unless you are a gambler you invest in markets that requires no management skill, not in managers who are selling skills that add no value.
"For reasons never explained, I'd never been able to put it into the Fidelity or H. Lansdowne fund supermarkets".
Because Aberdeen are reputable managers who make money from sound management and Fidelity and HL are cowboys who make money by skimming off the top.
Interesting.
I'm just replying as a mug punter here.
You say they are skimming off the top, but from the punter's POV, they are saying the opposite; that they reduce initial purchase charges to a much lower level, and pass the savings on to us punters. But for me equally important is the ability to trade reasonably quickly, on the net, at any time of day of my choosing.
I know that Aberdeen are generally sound, but this fund has been a dog for a while, and I'd have got shot of it ages ago if it had been in the funds supermarket. And virtually every other fund I've bought or considered have been happy to be in these supermarkets: Invesco, Jupiter, SVM, to name those which I currently have some from.
Have I missed something important which shows I'm a real mug?
Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't Hargreaves and Fidelity fund supermarkets whereas Aberdeen is a fund manager? And generally it's easier to get your money out if you're in a fund supermarket (mainly because their admin is set up for regular withdrawals).
Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't Hargreaves and Fidelity fund supermarkets whereas Aberdeen is a fund manager? And generally it's easier to get your money out if you're in a fund supermarket (mainly because their admin is set up for regular withdrawals).
Yes that's all true, but I think Dippy is some kind of industry pro., and is speaking from a professional perspective. I'm very interested to hear his reply.
Comments
Can we stick to 'whos rack' and 'would ya's' please
Generally, sell before the election uncertainty, especially if Labour look like winning.
"We'll need written confirmation from you"
"Can't I do it by email?"
"No, it's not possible. We may also need further checks on you, so I'll need your phone number. Once we are satisfied we will send the remittance by cheque"
"By Cheque??? Can't I just give you my bank account details?"
"No sir, that's how we do it"
"But the banks are thinking of phasing out cheques. What will you do then?"
"I don't know, sir"
"Well, it's not algorithmic trading, is it?"
"Sorry sir. Anything else I can help you with?..."
All time high?
I still have 30,000 of them though and they went down to .71 at one stage
It will crash again.
What's important is dividend yield (and regular increases) and re-investing the dividends. This from Hargreaves Lansdown in an article last year explains: "If £10,000 was invested in the FTSE-All share Index in July 1994, it would be worth £24,705 today without dividend reinvestment. However, if all of the dividends were reinvested, that investment would now be worth £48,230."
Diversification is important to spread the risks but I reckon a good fund specialising in the undervalued European sector is the way to go for this year. (Assuming Putin doesn't invade!)
Because Aberdeen are reputable managers who make money from sound management and Fidelity and HL are cowboys who make money by skimming off the top.
And why there is good money to made made if you are invested in the right sectors at the right time. So stuff like UK Industrials Melrose and IMI (both FTSE 250 constituents) which have performed remarkably well over the last 5 years, share prices up 232% and 159% respectively, have been dragging the indices kicking and screaming to higher levels.
And why there is good money to be lost guessing which are the right sectors at the wrong time.
I listen to investment managers every week explaining why they made the right decisions at the wrong time. Trust me it's a marketing game. Unless you are a gambler you invest in markets that requires no management skill, not in managers who are selling skills that add no value.
I'm just replying as a mug punter here.
You say they are skimming off the top, but from the punter's POV, they are saying the opposite; that they reduce initial purchase charges to a much lower level, and pass the savings on to us punters. But for me equally important is the ability to trade reasonably quickly, on the net, at any time of day of my choosing.
I know that Aberdeen are generally sound, but this fund has been a dog for a while, and I'd have got shot of it ages ago if it had been in the funds supermarket. And virtually every other fund I've bought or considered have been happy to be in these supermarkets: Invesco, Jupiter, SVM, to name those which I currently have some from.
Have I missed something important which shows I'm a real mug?