Investors looking to tap the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending boom would do well to seek out a suitable investment trust in the sector. Investment trusts are the ideal vehicle to provide exposure to less liquid parts of the market, as investors are able to buy and sell the shares on the stock exchange whenever they want…
One of the attractions of investment trusts is that in many cases the managers seem to stay in place longer than they do with open-ended funds, which can result in a more consistent approach. The downside with this is that things can get a bit stale and it sometimes requires a change at the top…
The majority of investment trusts that offer a relatively steady source of income have been bid up well beyond their underlying net asset value (NAV) with investors willing to pay a premium for the secure yield. One fund that has not yet been caught up in the bidding war is the Law Debenture Corporation (LON:LWDB),…
The protracted period of low interest rates triggered by the 2008 financial crisis has pushed up the value of many reliable, income-generating parts of the market to the extent that their valuations have become considerably overstretched. One area where there are still some pockets of value is infrastructure. The companies operating in this sector provide…
Last week I wrote about the merits of investing in index-linked gilts as a way of protecting your capital against inflation. There are several specialist funds that operate in this sector, but if you don’t want to get involved in such a niche area you could get a decent exposure via a core portfolio holding…
It is hard to think of an area that divides opinion more strongly than Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). Those who believe in it think that companies that follow these principles will outperform and by actively engaging with those that don’t they can change the world for the better, whereas sceptics dismiss it as nothing more…
Recent analysis by the Wealth Club showed that the best performing area of the market in August was the UK Index-Linked Gilt sector with an average return of 10.52%. This was home to the five best performing funds, which all rose by more than 12% in the month. The jump in value in August enabled…
The surprise result of the EU referendum sent shockwaves through the financial markets and created a huge amount of volatility. You would normally expect a diversified fund to be relatively immune to this sort of turbulence, but there have been some huge price swings with double digit gains and losses in some of the most…
Income investors who rely to a large extent on the money generated from their portfolio would want to achieve a regular stream of receipts that they could use to meet their normal outgoings. The easiest way to do this would be to invest in funds that pay a monthly income. A good example is Premier…
On 1st August the Board of the BlackRock Income Strategies Trust (LON:BIST) announced that it was going to review the fund’s investment objective and policy. The news came as a surprise to its shareholders, many of whom had invested after the new mandate was implemented last February. BIST’s current remit is to provide investors with…
