Whether it’s a sign of things to come or a mere blip in a longer-term bull market remains to be seen, but the bulls and bears have been in full voice in our articles this week.
Is your portfolio of funds as diversified as you think it is?
This quant-driven research piece examines how some investors may be more exposed to single stock and sector risk than they think.
Senior reporter Alex Paget provides example portfolios to illustrate this point.
Who would have thought you’d have more than a third of your hard-earned cash in financials if you held JOHCM UK Equity Income, Fidelity Special Situations, Invesco Perpetual European Opportunities, Lazard Global Equity Income, Aberdeen Asia Pacific Equity, Invesco Perpetual Latin America and Templeton Frontier Markets together?
Five cheap funds for core equity exposure
With investors and advisers now more used to the clean share classes system, FE Trustnet thought it would be a good time to highlight ways to build different types of portfolio with cheap funds.
In the first of a series of articles, we looked at a selection of cheap core equity funds focusing on all the major global markets.
Harry Nimmo: Why my Standard Life fund has had a shocking 2014
The FE Alpha Manager’s multi-billion pound UK Smaller Companies fund is usually a strong performer when markets struggle, but stock specific issues – notably Rightmove and ASOS – has seen it fall to the bottom of the IMA UK Smaller Companies sector this year, with losses of more than 11 per cent.
Performance of fund and sector in 2014
Source: FE Analytics
Here, Nimmo outlines why he’s struggled, pointing to a “major market over-reaction” as providing a very unusual backdrop for his fund.
Beware £1bn-plus bond funds, warns Metcalfe
Fund size has been a huge talking point in recent months, not least in the bond markets.
Here, IBOSS’ Chris Metcalfe explains why he’s now avoiding all fixed interest portfolios with more than £1bn under management.
The story includes rebuttals from FE Alpha Managers Ariel Bezalel and Ian Spreadbury, who run the Jupiter Strategic Bond and Fidelity Strategic Bond funds, respectively.
Is a full-blown market correction in sight?
The question everyone is asking. Tensions in the Middle East, poor earnings growth and the inevitable rise of interest rates are all major headwinds, and this week it seems the markets are starting to crack under the pressure.
In this article, reporter Daniel Lanyon asks the experts if the recent falls could escalate into a full-blown correction.
Lastly, on behalf of the team, I’d like to welcome new FE Trustnet news editor Gary Jackson, who joined at the beginning of this week.
