Trustnet Direct, the retail investment platform from FE, has recently published a list of the best and worst performing UK unit trusts and OEICs in the first 11 months of 2015. There are more than 4,000 of these funds to choose from and the divergent returns shows what a significant difference your investment decisions can…
Most fund managers go to a lot of time and trouble to meet the senior directors of the companies that they invest in. They think that this can help them to get a better insight into the business and the people behind it, but Jeremy Lang of Ardevora UK Income believes otherwise. Lang thinks that…
The price of gold has been trending lower and is now trading at less than $1,100 per ounce, which is close to a six year low. One of the main reasons is the growing likelihood of an increase in US interest rates that has driven the dollar higher. The strong currency makes the dollar denominated…
The recent market weakness has created a possible a buying opportunity for P2P Global Investments (P2P), the specialist investment trust that provides exposure to a portfolio of peer-to-peer loans. Its shares have fallen from more than £11.50 in February to around £10 and now trade at a small discount to NAV with a prospective yield…
Terry Smith’s Fundsmith Equity fund recently passed its fifth anniversary. Over the last five years it has returned 115.9%, which puts it in third place out of the 203 funds in the Investment Association’s Global Sector. This impressive performance has helped it to attract £4.1bn of assets under management. Smith is an outspoken critic of…
In the current low yield environment it can be difficult to find investments that offer an attractive level of income, so you might be surprised to hear that there is a range of funds that is paying out 7%. The five Schroder Income Maximisers are some of the highest yielding open-ended funds available to UK-based…
Value investors look for companies that are undervalued relative to their assets or cash flows. There are relatively few funds that use this sort of ‘pure value’ approach, but those that do can make a good diversifying holding with less downside risk than one that is more dependent on the general level of economic growth.…
A new smart beta ETF aimed at income investors has recently listed on the London Stock Exchange. The WisdomTree UK Equity Income UCITS ETF trades under the ticker WUKD and has an impressive historic yield of 5.9% with the dividends due to be distributed on a quarterly basis. WUKD invests in the 33% of UK…
Significant changes have been announced at Alliance Trust (ATST) following the intervention of an activist investor. The fund has been through a difficult time, but ineffective corporate governance meant that it needed someone from outside the company to really shake things up. Alliance Trust is the second largest investment trust operating in the global sector,…
In my article for the October issue of Master Investor magazine, Smooth Operators, I looked at which investment trusts have the longest record of increasing their dividends. Leading the way was the City of London (CTY), which has recently published its Annual Report for the year ended 30th June 2015. The City of London Investment…
