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…
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have grown in popularity over the last few decades, as they offer a few advantages over other investment vehicles. In particular, retail investors can use them to achieve a much higher degree of diversification within their portfolios without incurring prohibitive fees, while also getting exposure to markets they wouldn’t otherwise be able…
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…
The recent cut in interest rates and additional Quantitative Easing (QE) announced by the Bank of England has helped stock and bond prices to rally sharply after the initial post-referendum sell-off. It is too early to assess the impact of Brexit on the UK economy, although survey data suggest that the decision to leave the…
Equity funds domiciled in the UK and mainland Europe have suffered their biggest client outflows for almost five years. The data compiled by Morningstar suggests that Brexit was the biggest shock to investor confidence since the Eurozone crisis in the summer of 2011. The figures from the Investment Association are even more dramatic with retail…
The surprise result of the EU referendum created a lot of panic selling and although most of the Brexit bargains have now recovered there are still one or two opportunities to pick up a good long-term core portfolio holding at an attractive entry level. A prime example is Fidelity Special Values (LON:FSV), a £500m investment…
It sounds a bit harsh judging a fund’s performance over a period of three weeks, but the analysis can provide a useful insight when the timeframe includes a critical event like the EU referendum. The data is particularly relevant for the Targeted Absolute Return sector, which investors rely on to deliver positive gains in all…
There have been some massive winners and losers since the result of the EU referendum was announced on June 24th. The main casualties have been UK-listed companies exposed to the domestic economy and their European counterparts, with the biggest beneficiaries being international businesses with dollar denominated earnings. It is highly likely that the political and…
As seen in the latest issue of Master Investor Magazine It is estimated that the number of older people in the world – defined as those aged 60 or over – will increase from 901 million to more than 1.4 billion over the fifteen years to 2030. By the end of this period they will…
