Investing strategies

Thousands of teenagers found themselves cash rich when the first Child Trust Funds (CTF) matured in September.

Funds are an excellent starting point for investors as they can remove the need to research dozens of potential investments.

Behavioural economics, behavioural finance and neuro-economics are now familiar terms in the world of finance, but how can you apply these principles to trading? In this series of three posts, behavioural psychologist Paul Davies opens the bonnet on our personal trading engine—our brain—to uncover the secrets of how we act as individuals, how groups trade and how we can implement strategies for better trading.

Behavioural economics, behavioural finance and neuro-economics are now familiar terms in the world of finance, but how can you apply these principles to trading? In this series of three posts, behavioural psychologist Paul Davies opens the bonnet on our personal trading engine—our brain—to uncover the secrets of how we act as individuals, how groups trade and how we can implement strategies for better trading.

Behavioural economics, behavioural finance and neuro-economics are now familiar terms in the world of finance, but how can you apply these principles to trading? In this series of three posts, behavioural psychologist Paul Davies opens the bonnet on our personal trading engine—our brain—to uncover the secrets of how we act as individuals, how groups trade and how we can implement strategies for better trading.

In a lot of ways, setting up an ISA is the easy part. Once you’ve selected the right account for you, you can fund it with a lump sum if you have one at your disposal, or drip-feed cash into it on a monthly basis.

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are a specific type of fund that, as their name indicates, can be traded like individual shares on a stock exchange such as the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Becoming a DIY investor means making your investment decisions without having to pay for financial advice. This might seem a daunting prospect, but this article will help you by equipping you with the basics of portfolio construction, management and strategy.

It is not just the home that can benefit from a spring clean, it makes sense to sharpen up your investment portfolio too to make sure it still aligns with your long-term goals.

For investors yet to shelter the maximum £20,000 for the current tax year, it’s important to work out the best route to take full advantage of the allowance. And even though ISAs were designed to be straightforward savings vehicles, there’s plenty of jargon to get your head around - even for seasoned investors. Here we explain some important terms that will help you learn more about how to maximise your ISA savings.

Investors can get caught on the hoof when a company decides to slash its dividends but the signs are often there for months before the cut is made. It is why research matters as disruption to a company’s business or industry will also signal that its share price as well as its dividend will fall, which can be a double blow.

At its most basic, having a diversified portfolio is simply the investment version of the phrase ‘don’t put all of your eggs in one basket’. But true diversification is more than just buying shares in lots of different companies. A properly diversified portfolio usually includes different types of assets, as well as investments in different types of businesses from different areas of the globe.

The start of a new tax year comes with a shiny new ISA allowance, currently sitting at a generous £20,000. However, while the temptation may be to sit back and relax, secure in the knowledge that you have a year to make the most of it, there are real advantages to getting started early in the tax year.

Investing your money always involves an element of risk but investors have a wide variety of both higher risk and lower risk investments to choose from. At times of economic or market uncertainty ‘defensive’ stocks typically increase in popularity.

Keep more of your return with trackers. In the last two decades it has become possible for the likes of you or I to gain exposure to the markets without facing the hefty charges involved in buying actively managed funds.

Gold, which has limited industrial applications, tends to be in demand during periods of economic or geopolitical strife when inflation threatens paper currencies or there are significant falls in bond and equity markets.

Look at any graph tracking stock market growth over the last 150 years and it’s clear that market turbulence is the norm. Whilst patience is key to investing, if the outlook does seem volatile there are still steps you can take to protect your portfolio.

If you are new to investing or not yet confident in picking your own investments, then the idea of investing in a fund probably seems a step too far. When in fact, one of the easiest and quickest ways to start investing and generate a regular income is to invest in an income paying fund.

What is the difference? Both active and passive funds allow you to buy a basket of different investments in one single purchase. However, they do have one important difference. An active fund employs a fund manager to invest in stocks that might outperform the stock market as a whole. In contrast, a passive fund simply attempts to replicate the performance of an index, for example the FTSE 100, rather than outperform it. Passive funds are often known as ‘tracker funds’ because their aim is to

With so many exchange trade funds (ETFs) to choose from, sometimes it helps to have the choices narrowed down. In our latest guide investment experts, BlackRock, suggest five ways you can use ETFs to gain access to multiple companies, across multiple countries and regions and across multiple asset classes to help diversify your investments and spread your risk.

The one key thing you need to know about your ISA is the deadline. If you don’t use your 2019-20 allowance by 5 April, you lose it. You can put up to £20,000 in an ISA in the current tax year. If you can afford to do that every year you can work out how much your tax-free fund will be worth after five or 10 years.

A performance horizon of five years is generally accepted as a good barometer for a fund’s overall success. A one-year time scale isn’t long enough to judge whether a fund looks like a good long term bet for your money.

When it comes to dividends, understanding the difference between dividend yield and dividend growth can be a key factor when deciding what companies to invest in. Dividend yield is calculated by dividing the annual dividend paid per individual share by the current share price

If the only thing certain is uncertainty, it is easy to understand why so many people are tempted to keep their money in cash savings. With interest rates low, and the risk that inflation will erode the value of savings, investors understand that market uncertainty can mean an opportunity.

When you’re looking for help with investing for later life, having a diverse portfolio can be a great option for managing risk and benefitting from long-term value. Get yourself on the right path for your investment management journey by providing exposure to a diverse range of asset classes in one go.

For many people, the ability to achieve a regular income from investments is important. This may be particularly relevant for people who are retired and no longer have a monthly pay packet to rely on and are looking to achieve financial freedom, while other people require their investment to pay out regularly to cover a regular commitment such as school or university fees.

We spoke to one EQi customer who did just that, building a portfolio worth over £1 million in his Stocks and Shares ISA.

Cash tucked away in a deposit account will offer very limited interest on your hard-earned savings. To generate a return ahead of rising prices it is worth considering putting your money to work in the financial markets instead.

The one key thing you need to know about your ISA is the deadline. If you don’t use your annual allowance by 5 April, you lose it.

Being a successful investor is dependent on a combination of factors - there’s no single winning formula. Yet experts are unanimous that an essential element of any portfolio is diversification.

A run of disappointing economic data from the UK is undermining the chances of the Bank of England hiking interest rates in the near feature. This will reinforce the very modest rates currently available from cash deposit accounts and is a clear reason to look again at the merits of instead investing your money in the markets.

Impact investing (so-called because the stocks and funds on offer have a positive impact on society, or the environment, or both) is fast gaining followers, not just for its morally virtuous stance, but for the returns, too.

While most funds on the market are what are known as open-end funds, or mutual funds, there is another option that has become exceptionally popular in recent years. Investment trusts have traditionally been less popular than mutual funds, but this is changing. Recent figures from the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) show that investments in these trusts reached record levels in the last twelve months.

An Open Ended Investment Company (OEIC) is broadly similar to a unit trust in that it is an open ended collective investment that expands and contracts the number of units in circulation. Unlike a unit trust, each OEIC operates as a limited liability company, quoted on the London Stock Exchange and unlike ‘unit holders’ that invest in unit trusts, those invested in OEICs are ‘shareholders’ in that investment company; OEICs are governed by company law rather than trust law.