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Passive investing & index-tracker funds


Clueless Imbecile

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Clueless Imbecile

Hi All.

I've been thinking for a while about starting a thread to discuss passive investing, index-tracker funds, and the kind of strategy described in the book:
 

"Smarter Investing" (Third Edition) by Tim Hale


I've been a firm believer in the strategy of monthly buy and long-term hold of low-cost equity index-tracker funds with dividends re-invested, in an ISA ever since I read "The Motley Fool UK Investment Guide" in December 1999. However, I discovered DurhamBorn's thread back in 2017 on TOS:
 

"Deflationary collapse and the Reflation Cycle to Come"
 

...and then on his thread here on DOSBODS in 2018:
 

"Credit deflation and the reflation cycle to come"
 

...and the continuation of that thread:


"Credit deflation and the reflation cycle to come (part 2)"
 

What DurhamBorn has said on these threads seemed to make a lot of sense and I have a lot of respect for his opinions. The more I read of his comments and saw some stuff happening in the economy (such as the gold & silver mining stocks rising a lot last year), the more I began to doubt whether index-funds would be as good in future as what I believed they were in the past. Last year I read a book called "The End Of Indexing" by Niels Jensen. The ideas in that book seemed quite similar to some of the themes discussed in DurhamBorn's thread. Reading that book reinforced my doubts about index-tracker funds.

I do still have some faith in index-trackers & passive investing. A lot of my ISA is still invested in a collection of equity index-trackers (accumulation units so that dividends are reinvested in the same fund). However, in addition to that I have, for the past 2 to 3 years, been trying to learn about some of the stuff that DurhamBorn has mentioned on his threads ("contrarian Macro Strategy" I guess it could be called). I am very much a beginner with that stuff.

Hopefully this thread can be a place where we can debate passive investing in general and also in relation to the ideas discussed on DurhamBorn's threads above.

 

Cheers,
Clueless Imbecile

Disclaimer: I am not an expert. Anything I post here is just my opinions, which may not be factually correct. My posts are intended purely for the purpose of debate and are not to be taken as advice. If you act on any of the above then you do so entirely at your own risk. I do not accept any liability.

 

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Clueless Imbecile

Here are some of the principles/ideas that I've learned & believed in whilst reading about passive investing over the years. This is not advice! This is just for debate.

1) Diversification

For example: buying a fund made up of many different stocks, so that if one company goes bust it doesn't destroy all my investment. I also diversified across funds (one for each region: US, UK, Europe ex UK, Japan, Pacific ex Japan, Emerging Markets), and even fund managers (e.g. Blackrock, Legal & General).

2) Pound cost averaging (also known as "Dollar cost averaging")

This means drip-feeding money into a fund (or funds) on a monthly basis rather than investing a lot of money in one go. The idea is that as markets rise and fall over time, the monthly contributions are buying in at different price levels, so it smooths out the average price. I find that if I'm investing money left over from my salary each month then I've really no choice but to invest monthly (unless I saved it up and invested a lump sum at the end of the year). If I had a big lump sum to invest, I would probably divide it up into chunks and invest one chunk per month (or longer duration depenidng on how many chunks I had).

3) Dividends re-invested

Reinvesting dividends compounds the growth of an investment over time. Dividends are a large part of the return on an equity investment, particularly in the UK stockmarket where companies seem to be more keen on paying dividends, whereas in the US stockmarket companies seem to be more keen on using their money to do share-buyback rather than pay dividends (perhaps this is for tax reasons?).

4) Low-cost

It's important to keep cost down as low as reasonably possible. Some equity index tracker funds have an annual management charge as low as 0.06 percent. Other funds charge 1.5 percent. There is a hell of a difference in the amount of money you lose in charges over the long term, in those two figures. This is partly due to the power of compounding. This is discussed in Tim Hale's book. If I remember right, he talks about "lose the least points" strategy. Also remember: if you are holding the fund(s) in an ISA then there will probably be an ISA platform charge in addition to the fund manager charge. I've found that the ISA platform charge tends to be higher than the fund manager charge (although depending on the ISA provider, the platform charge might be capped at a certain level).

5) Compounding (aka: "Compound interest", "Compound Annual Returns")

This is where a lot of the power of investing comes from. Compounding is very powerful over the long term. The problem is, it takes ages (decades!). Also, it's important to get a "real return" not just a "nominal return".

6) Real vs nominal return

Real return means over and above inflation. For example, if your investment returns 10 percent in a year in which inflation is 11 percent, then your investment has effectively lost value in real terms. Better to get a return of 6 percent in a year in which inflation is 2 percent.

7) The rule of 72

Divide the constant 72 by the rate of return. The answer is roughly the number of years that it would take the investment to double (in nominal terms). For example, if your investment is returning 7.2 percent per year, then it would take 10 years to double in value in nominal terms (72 / 7.2 = 10 years). This does not take into account inflation.

8) Asset allocation

I've seen it written: "Subtract your age from 100. The result is the percentage of your investment pot that you should have invested in the stockmarket. " or put another way "Own your age in bonds and put the rest in equities.". However, I have begun to doubt that nowadays because I've read a few comments where people have suggested that bonds are overvalued at the moment and do not balance out equity risk as well as they used to. Asset allocation also depends on your age and circumstances.

 

Cheers,
Clueless Imbecile

Disclaimer: I am not an expert. Anything I post here is just my opinions, which may not be factually correct. My posts are intended purely for the purpose of debate and are not to be taken as advice. If you act on any of the above then you do so entirely at your own risk. I do not accept any liability.

 

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reformed nice guy

I have a mix of active and passive investments.

My main gripe, which is covered in the "End of Indexing" book you mentioned, is that it adds a degree of laziness to the market. It acts as a brake to price discovery if you have hundreds of billions of dollars automatically purchasing FAANG stocks every month just because they are currently the biggest in a self reinforcing loop.

We have seen recently that you might get short-medium term average growth going up but you also get short-medium term losses when things go down. If you try to time it by selling your trackers when things are looking a bit shit (say, late Feb this year) then is it really passive investing or are you just trying to replicate an investment trust or actively managed fund?

I use to get exposure to areas in which I would not be able to adequately research and to boost my diversification. 

I go for lowest cost trackers and buy every month. I buy a single region each month rather than a small chunk of each.

My split is:

20% Japan, 20% Developed Asia ex Japan, 10% China, 10% emerging, 10% Europe, 20% America, 10% global small cap

The reasoning for the split is that I buy mostly UK + US shares, although my miners + energy stocks are international.

No UK trackers because my house and job is in the UK so I have plenty of exposure.

I did have bond funds before in the mix but I am out them at the moment. Everyone else is rushing into them. I sold that ones I had EXCEPT for the index linked one.

In terms of my overall portfolio, I am 25% overall in these passive trackers (but still 15% cash).

Hope that is some food for thought.

 

 

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Thanks for starting this thread @Clueless Imbecile. Great first two posts to keep it relation focussed but also outline some of the principles. Also thanks to @reformed nice guy for getting it moving.

As I said in the other thread, I need to set up a plan for someone and will be stock picking eventually but need to explore how they’ll invest their wages plus divis on an ongoing basis. ETFs would be one good option that I’d be more comfortable with currently but obviously the EU have scuppered that a bit.

I need to do lots more research on this so will hopefully contribute better soon.

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Index trackers - ETFs, funds, or Investment trusts?  Each carry their own risks and rewards.

I very much like @reformed nice guyapproach as it's mine too!  As a rule I don't like index tracking anymore as I believe we have entered a stock pickers market plus I don't like the counterparty, etc risks of the three mentioned tracker types.  But that does not mean I don't hold ETFs (and maybe others, tbd).  I also have a mix and also will ease up on the UK as I have mostly UK stocks in my depleted(!) separate income fund.  I think ex-Europe and (maybe) ex-US will do better as well so trackers make an easy entry point.  I have not finalised my split between shares and trackers (a bit chicken and egg atm) but will post my decision later.  I'm using a unitised approach to this (probably will result in 30% to 40% tracker and 70% to 60% individual shares.  One thing I have found so far in selecting individual international shares is that I can access most directly without needing to go through some type of fund (i.e. negates one often cited advantage of them).  I currently hold regional ETFs rather than one single international ETF (Vanguard provide two).  I toyed with going with a single international ETF but I don't like the relatively high US exposure.  Plus I can spread counterparty risk with several individual regional ETFs.  I currently hold APD, Japan, EM and Europe ETFs.  But not yet US or LA as the US was overvalued and some other concern with LA.  I may also hold a few sector ETFs rather than buy stocks, such as GDX.  But I'm still thinking about just NEW and GOLD holdings as their charts seem to compare better against GDX (tbd).  I would be extremely wary of income focused ETFs as I once held one which mechanically invested in high div stocks which were mostly paying high divs for bad reasons so the div was at the expense of capital.  That's why I moved to my own separate income portfolio of 25 individual shares.  But some ETFs, etc may have better selection criteria (e.g. the "dividend aristocrat" approach).  So a bit of this and a bit of that, or the BITBOT approach!  My big gripe with Investment trusts is their leverage (great in the good times though!) and you don't usually know what they are holding and whether they will also suffer a liquidity crunch like Woodward's fund did (credit to Woodford though for disclosing his holdings).

PS:  Getting around the EU ETF restrictions on ETFs was another reason for going with individual stocks.  These restrictions make a lot of the available sector ETFs more European focused.  I was looking at chemical/materials ETFs this week and I only found the US exchange had a true global ETF and that was prohibited in the EU!

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1 hour ago, Lavalas said:

Thanks for starting this thread @Clueless Imbecile. Great first two posts to keep it relation focussed but also outline some of the principles. Also thanks to @reformed nice guy for getting it moving.

As I said in the other thread, I need to set up a plan for someone and will be stock picking eventually but need to explore how they’ll invest their wages plus divis on an ongoing basis. ETFs would be one good option that I’d be more comfortable with currently but obviously the EU have scuppered that a bit.

I need to do lots more research on this so will hopefully contribute better soon.

Not sure why I put ‘eventually’ there.

I’ll be stock picking for them now. They’ll be investing on an ongoing basis, which is where the question of how someone uneducated would do that in a relation without getting reamed.

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Bus Stop Boxer
1 hour ago, Harley said:

Index trackers - ETFs, funds, or Investment trusts?  Each carry their own risks and rewards.

I very much like @reformed nice guyapproach as it's mine too!  As a rule I don't like index tracking anymore as I believe we have entered a stock pickers market plus I don't like the counterparty, etc risks of the three mentioned tracker types.  But that does not mean I don't hold ETFs (and maybe others, tbd).  I also have a mix and also will ease up on the UK as I have mostly UK stocks in my depleted(!) separate income fund.  I think ex-Europe and (maybe) ex-US will do better as well so trackers make an easy entry point.  I have not finalised my split between shares and trackers (a bit chicken and egg atm) but will post my decision later.  I'm using a unitised approach to this (probably will result in 30% to 40% tracker and 70% to 60% individual shares.  One thing I have found so far in selecting individual international shares is that I can access most directly without needing to go through some type of fund (i.e. negates one often cited advantage of them).  I currently hold regional ETFs rather than one single international ETF (Vanguard provide two).  I toyed with going with a single international ETF but I don't like the relatively high US exposure.  Plus I can spread counterparty risk with several individual regional ETFs.  I currently hold APD, Japan, EM and Europe ETFs.  But not yet US or LA as the US was overvalued and some other concern with LA.  I may also hold a few sector ETFs rather than buy stocks, such as GDX.  But I'm still thinking about just NEW and GOLD holdings as their charts seem to compare better against GDX (tbd).  I would be extremely wary of income focused ETFs as I once held one which mechanically invested in high div stocks which were mostly paying high divs for bad reasons so the div was at the expense of capital.  That's why I moved to my own separate income portfolio of 25 individual shares.  But some ETFs, etc may have better selection criteria (e.g. the "dividend aristocrat" approach).  So a bit of this and a bit of that, or the BITBOT approach!  My big gripe with Investment trusts is their leverage (great in the good times though!) and you don't usually know what they are holding and whether they will also suffer a liquidity crunch like Woodward's fund did (credit to Woodford though for disclosing his holdings).

PS:  Getting around the EU ETF restrictions on ETFs was another reason for going with individual stocks.  These restrictions make a lot of the available sector ETFs more European focused.  I was looking at chemical/materials ETFs this week and I only found the US exchange had a true global ETF and that was prohibited in the EU!

I have posted somehwere on here that i wanted to get involved with the Vanguard Energy ETF.  (VDE)

But its run out of the US so i cant put it in an ISA.

It has fallen nigh on 60% since xmas and is a screamer for me, but i dont want to be paying tax ever on this type of activity.

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20 minutes ago, Bus Stop Boxer said:

I have posted somehwere on here that i wanted to get involved with the Vanguard Energy ETF.  (VDE)

But its run out of the US so i cant put it in an ISA.

It has fallen nigh on 60% since xmas and is a screamer for me, but i dont want to be paying tax ever on this type of activity.

I think it's a regulation issue (no KID) than tax issue.

I use this site for lists of ETFs available for investment:

https://www.justetf.com/uk/find-etf.html?assetClass=class-equity&groupField=index&sector=Energy

Tax actually may be another reason to use ETFs, etc rather than individual share on overseas exchanges as they may be more efficient (e.g. avoid with-holding taxes) as most are domiciled in Ireland, etc possibly for this and maybe other reasons.  Needs more study.

 

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leonardratso

FUndsmith T class held up well, im still massively in profit on that one.

https://www.fundsmith.co.uk/docs/default-source/analysis---annual-letters/2020-3-fef-letter-to-shareholders.pdf?sfvrsn=10

not really a reflation fund, but certainly has held its own over the years and even now its still a lot better than the others, obviously it can die the death, but im a long way off.

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49 minutes ago, Harley said:

I think it's a regulation issue (no KID) than tax issue.

I use this site for lists of ETFs available for investment:

https://www.justetf.com/uk/find-etf.html?assetClass=class-equity&groupField=index&sector=Energy

Tax actually may be another reason to use ETFs, etc rather than individual share on overseas exchanges as they may be more efficient (e.g. avoid with-holding taxes) as most are domiciled in Ireland, etc possibly for this and maybe other reasons.  Needs more study.

 

Cheers

I’m guessing it’s wishful thinking for that site to have a list of ETFs available for investment in this country (i.e. have a KID). I assume so as it differs from platform to platform.

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My plan had been to avoid trackers at all costs. But the company DC pension I'm just about to start paying into is invested into a 70% global/30% FTSE fund. Given the company contribution and savings on fees I was a little torn over what to do. Then all Hell broke loose and sent the US markets into freefall, even if they're still irrational the printing presses are on full speed so a couple of years buying in now seems like the best way to go. Personally I'd love to take every penny right now and throw it at Shell, hoping for a massive win over the next few years.
Right now my plan is to revisit the idea in a couple of years when the markets have recovered, whatever gains have been made and I'm no longer paying into the pension. Then I'll decide if it's worth picking my own stocks or just leaving it balls deep in Apple, Amazon and all that other silicone valley shit.  

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5 hours ago, Lavalas said:

Cheers

I’m guessing it’s wishful thinking for that site to have a list of ETFs available for investment in this country (i.e. have a KID). I assume so as it differs from platform to platform.

Your wish is answered!  I specifically linked to this site because it only lists EU investor eligible ETFs.  It even has links to their KID documents!  Whether your specific broker trades all these or not is another matter but they should, especially now things have settled down.  Not sure how much you can see on this site as I'm a subscriber, but should be enough for free.

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2 hours ago, Harley said:

Your wish is answered!  I specifically linked to this site because it only lists EU investor eligible ETFs.  It even has links to their KID documents!  Whether your specific broker trades all these or not is another matter but they should, especially now things have settled down.  Not sure how much you can see on this site as I'm a subscriber, but should be enough for free.

That’s absolute gold, thank you very much. Hadn’t delved into the site properly as I’m on not on my laptop at the minute so wasn’t sure. I’d probably subscribe right now for that feature alone if it isn’t freely available, especially as I’ve still not decided on my ISA for this year or the person I’m planning for so it could inform that choice.

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52 minutes ago, Lavalas said:

That’s absolute gold, thank you very much. Hadn’t delved into the site properly as I’m on not on my laptop at the minute so wasn’t sure. I’d probably subscribe right now for that feature alone if it isn’t freely available, especially as I’ve still not decided on my ISA for this year or the person I’m planning for so it could inform that choice.

You're welcome.  Not sure I would sub again tbh as there are some nice portfolio tracking features but I have my own.  Then again I thought they deserved some of my dosh!

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21 hours ago, Clueless Imbecile said:

Here are some of the principles/ideas that I've learned & believed in whilst reading about passive investing over the years. This is not advice! This is just for debate.

2) Pound cost averaging (also known as "Dollar cost averaging")

 


This means drip-feeding money into a fund (or funds) on a monthly basis rather than investing a lot of money in one go. The idea is that as markets rise and fall over time, the monthly contributions are buying in at different price levels, so it smooths out the average price. I find that if I'm investing money left over from my salary each month then I've really no choice but to invest monthly (unless I saved it up and invested a lump sum at the end of the year). If I had a big lump sum to invest, I would probably divide it up into chunks and invest one chunk per month (or longer duration depenidng on how many chunks I had).

 

4) Low-cost

It's important to keep cost down as low as reasonably possible. Some equity index tracker funds have an annual management charge as low as 0.06 percent. Other funds charge 1.5 percent. There is a hell of a difference in the amount of money you lose in charges over the long term, in those two figures. This is partly due to the power of compounding. This is discussed in Tim Hale's book. If I remember right, he talks about "lose the least points" strategy. Also remember: if you are holding the fund(s) in an ISA then there will probably be an ISA platform charge in addition to the fund manager charge. I've found that the ISA platform charge tends to be higher than the fund manager charge (although depending on the ISA provider, the platform charge might be capped at a certain level).

Couple of questions about these points for those in the know [Totally clueless newbie here who's just put last years 20k into a ss isa and so far has picked about 15 shares total 10k all but one FTSE100 based on not-a-lot perception of company/looking at price graph 10 yr and interday and p/e and divi.]

Does the pound cost averaging make sense over a couple of weeks and what level of broker cost do you aim for ?

E.g. Am on iweb [planning 10yr hold so makes sense] so 5 quid a trade, means 1% cost if I trade 500 or 0.5% cost if I trade 1000. Since markets move much more than 0.5% in a day, I figure two trades to get an averaged "better?" price over a few days is better than one. What is the correct way to / how do others ..  think about / calculate this?

On ETF fund cost, what is considered acceptable? 0.06 to 1.5 is a big range.

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reformed nice guy
2 hours ago, BWW said:

Couple of questions about these points for those in the know [Totally clueless newbie here who's just put last years 20k into a ss isa and so far has picked about 15 shares total 10k all but one FTSE100 based on not-a-lot perception of company/looking at price graph 10 yr and interday and p/e and divi.]

Does the pound cost averaging make sense over a couple of weeks and what level of broker cost do you aim for ?

E.g. Am on iweb [planning 10yr hold so makes sense] so 5 quid a trade, means 1% cost if I trade 500 or 0.5% cost if I trade 1000. Since markets move much more than 0.5% in a day, I figure two trades to get an averaged "better?" price over a few days is better than one. What is the correct way to / how do others ..  think about / calculate this?

On ETF fund cost, what is considered acceptable? 0.06 to 1.5 is a big range.

I try to keep under 1% cost but dont buy anything too specialist.

I suppose the time frame doesnt matter for cost averaging, but dealing fees would impact. I do once a month but I am considering every 2 months with twice as much instead to save fees.

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Great idea for a new thread. ...Hope i'm not breaking the house rules by mentioning managed funds? But thought it might be of some interest to post this to show my thoughts and strategy. I generally prefer to buy individual shares. However, one sector where I find it hard to identify good individual company shares is the Infrastructure sector and the Green Tech. sector (I personally group these sectors together as a next cycle generic infrastructure play) - and so i intend to mostly use funds/etfs for these sectors.  

I just think there is a place for managed funds running alongside (I agree, the more preferable) etfs/trackers - IF the funds have low fees (i only select if charges are <0.75%) AND IF the fund stock holdings chime with ethos of DurhamBorn's deflation/reflation thread, i.e. 'good/relevant' reflation stocks. Consistent past performance (not indicator of future performance of course) is another metric I also consider. 

 

Currently, I hold VT Gravis UK Infrastructure Fund, but I will also add a US and a EM infrastructure fund (see the links below).

I also hold VT Gravis Clean Energy, and will (hopefully if they exist) buy two more tech. funds/etfs, one oriented toward 'automation' (semi conductors, robots, etc) and one for 'low-carbon' (hydrogen batteries, hydroponics, synthetic meat, etc). Such funds/etfs might not be available, but I would like to obtain such a focus as I think these are the future big power-plays. Any recommendations for a automation and low-carbon fund/etf would be great to hear. 

I'd also appreciate comments for these planned future buys: 

https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/i/ishares-ii-plc-ftsemacquarie-gbl-infra-100

https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/i/ishares-ii-plc-s-and-p-emerging-market-infra 

 

None of this is meant as advice. Its more to elicit others views and/or criticism, good or bad.  

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On 05/04/2020 at 13:10, Harley said:

Index trackers - ETFs, funds, or Investment trusts?  Each carry their own risks and rewards.

I very much like @reformed nice guyapproach as it's mine too!  As a rule I don't like index tracking anymore as I believe we have entered a stock pickers market plus I don't like the counterparty, etc risks of the three mentioned tracker types.  But that does not mean I don't hold ETFs (and maybe others, tbd).  I also have a mix and also will ease up on the UK as I have mostly UK stocks in my depleted(!) separate income fund.  I think ex-Europe and (maybe) ex-US will do better as well so trackers make an easy entry point.  I have not finalised my split between shares and trackers (a bit chicken and egg atm) but will post my decision later.  I'm using a unitised approach to this (probably will result in 30% to 40% tracker and 70% to 60% individual shares.  One thing I have found so far in selecting individual international shares is that I can access most directly without needing to go through some type of fund (i.e. negates one often cited advantage of them).  I currently hold regional ETFs rather than one single international ETF (Vanguard provide two).  I toyed with going with a single international ETF but I don't like the relatively high US exposure.  Plus I can spread counterparty risk with several individual regional ETFs.  I currently hold APD, Japan, EM and Europe ETFs.  But not yet US or LA as the US was overvalued and some other concern with LA.  I may also hold a few sector ETFs rather than buy stocks, such as GDX.  But I'm still thinking about just NEW and GOLD holdings as their charts seem to compare better against GDX (tbd).  I would be extremely wary of income focused ETFs as I once held one which mechanically invested in high div stocks which were mostly paying high divs for bad reasons so the div was at the expense of capital.  That's why I moved to my own separate income portfolio of 25 individual shares.  But some ETFs, etc may have better selection criteria (e.g. the "dividend aristocrat" approach).  So a bit of this and a bit of that, or the BITBOT approach!  My big gripe with Investment trusts is their leverage (great in the good times though!) and you don't usually know what they are holding and whether they will also suffer a liquidity crunch like Woodward's fund did (credit to Woodford though for disclosing his holdings).

PS:  Getting around the EU ETF restrictions on ETFs was another reason for going with individual stocks.  These restrictions make a lot of the available sector ETFs more European focused.  I was looking at chemical/materials ETFs this week and I only found the US exchange had a true global ETF and that was prohibited in the EU!

Interesting Harley, I too use both shares and etf's/funds. I like the idea that stocks don't incur annual fees but after reading that you favour using an etf/fund plus say two good stocks per sector (I believe this your chosen strategy?) I am seriously thinking of moving to this ('best of both') model if/once I have identified funds that emulate my current sector share holdings. n.b. this would become my attempt at simplifying my portfolio because over the long term I don't want too many stocks to monitor, etc. 

In fact I have posted below on my Infrastructure sector strategy, where I will be using mostly etf's/funds from the outset because for this sector I have found it particularly difficult to identify 'good' individual reflation companies (I am terrible at analysing the financials). I would be interested to hear your thoughts on my post.

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On 06/04/2020 at 12:21, reformed nice guy said:

I try to keep under 1% cost but dont buy anything too specialist.

I suppose the time frame doesnt matter for cost averaging, but dealing fees would impact. I do once a month but I am considering every 2 months with twice as much instead to save fees.

I assume the 1% is for ETFS?

The thing I noticed [felt as someone who usually looks for a good deal] within days on dealing fees on individual stocks is that volatility is so high that if I buy 1000 with 5.- fixed fee, that stock is immediately -0.5%

Whereas if I'd bought 500, I am immediately down 1%.

However if I'd waited a day or two never mind a week or two, I'd quite likely get a lower/higher price and the difference is 5% or even 20%!, I.e. the extra 0.5% is negligible.

[ignoring SD which ischarged anyway and pushes it a further -0.5%].

Having said all that I WAS up 1k [after buy costs, before sell costs] on 16k this morning, now lost 200 but I also bought the other 4k of last years allowance so part of that is costs of that. Still wondering whether to drip feed at 500 a shot, 1k a shot or more? Planning to get the whole to about 300k maybe this year or maybe a bit longer so am just beginning.

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On 06/04/2020 at 16:06, JMD said:

....

I also hold VT Gravis Clean Energy, and will (hopefully if they exist) buy two more tech. funds/etfs, one oriented toward 'automation' (semi conductors, robots, etc) and one for 'low-carbon' (hydrogen batteries, hydroponics, synthetic meat, etc). Such funds/etfs might not be available, but I would like to obtain such a focus as I think these are the future big power-plays. Any recommendations for a automation and low-carbon fund/etf would be great to hear. 

I'd also appreciate comments for these planned future buys: 

https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/i/ishares-ii-plc-ftsemacquarie-gbl-infra-100

https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/i/ishares-ii-plc-s-and-p-emerging-market-infra 

 

None of this is meant as advice. Its more to elicit others views and/or criticism, good or bad.  

Liking the look of the second one. [China/emerging markets].

The problem with the first is that it's mostly USD/N. AMerica so you are basically making a punt on the GBP-USD as well as the stocks. IMO USD is way overpriced against GBP so not an exchange I would choose to make right now [sorry no logic/links except having observed it over recent years].

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