25 July 2024
Star manager down: what happens when a fund manager leaves or retires?While the concept of ‘star managers’ may have lost some momentum in recent years, there are still plenty of funds that have key person risk.
This year alone we've seen two clear examples in the announced departures of Ben Whitmore from the Jupiter UK Special Situations fund and Mike Riddell from the Allianz Strategic Bond fund.
The commonality was...
7 June 2024
Investment Trust - June 2024 updateThe AJ Bell IT Select list is designed to lighten your research load. There are many investment trusts out there – so we’ve narrowed the field by selecting a high-quality shortlist of trusts we believe can deliver their objectives over the long term. To make the list, each trust needs to pass our robust, independent selection process.
What have we...
3 June 2024
CC Japan Income & Growth plc (CCJI) - Richard Aston, Portfolio ManagerPortfolio Manager for CC Japan Income & Growth plc (CCJI), Richard Aston gives us an overview of CCJI, the fund's style and performance profile, and why investors should look to Japan.
9 May 2024
abrdn Asia Focus plc - Gabriel Sacks, Investment ManagerGabriel Sacks, Investment Manager for abrdn Asia Focus plc discusses his role, the trust's investment objectives, the investment process and the trust's performance over the last three years.
14 March 2024
The dividend hero investment trusts yielding more than 5%It’s not just cash savers and bond investors who are enjoying income yields above the rate of inflation, so are those buying investment trusts with exceptionally long records of increasing dividends.
Five UK Equity Income trusts are currently yielding above 5%, together providing an average yield of 5.8%. That compares to the best variable Cash ISA...
6 February 2024
Fidelity Special Values plc - Alex Wright, Portfolio ManagerIn this latest video interview, Alex Wright runs through the investment process for the trust, along with how they generate investment ideas and the market conditions they would expect the trust to perform well in.
9 January 2024
Artemis UK Select, Ed Legget, Fund ManagerEd Legget talks through the fund’s investment objectives, their investment process and which market conditions they would expect the fund to perform well in.
24 July 2023
Investment Trust - July 2023 update What is the AJ Bell Investment Trust Select list?The AJ Bell Investment Trust Select list is designed to lighten your research load. There are hundreds of investment trusts out there – so we’ve narrowed the field by selecting a high-quality shortlist of trusts we believe can deliver on their objectives over the long-term. To make the list, each...
7 October 2022
Invesco Asia Trust plc - Fiona Yang, Co-ManagerFiona Yang, Co-Manager at Invesco Asia Trust plc, describes the trust’s investment process and shares examples of how they invest in diversified portfolios in Asian and Australasian companies, how the trust coped with the challenges of covid restrictions and what the outlook for the region is in 2022.
This information is provided by Shares magazine...
22 August 2022
The Monks Investment Trust plcJon Henry, Client Director, The Monks Investment Trust plc, describes the trust’s investment process and how this differentiates from its wider peer group, how ideas are generated, and how it has performed over the last 5 years.
27 July 2021
Trust added to the IT Select list – Securities Trust of ScotlandThe AJ Bell Investment Trust Select list is designed to lighten your research load. There are hundreds of trusts out there – so we’ve narrowed the field by selecting a high-quality shortlist of trusts we believe can deliver their objectives over the long term. To make the list, each trust needs to pass our robust, independent selection process.
Wha...
24 June 2021
Liontrust IPO puts investment trusts in the ESG spotlightA couple of high profile investment trust launches failed to get off the ground last year, but Liontrust has a few aces up its sleeve. The vaccine roll-out has delivered a significant boost to investor confidence, and Liontrust is launching this trust in the ESG space, where we know there is a lot of demand right now. Liontrust already has a well...
9 April 2021
Best performing funds and investment trusts Q1The first quarter of the year saw a resurgence of some areas of the market which have been badly beaten up by the pandemic, as investors look forward to life beyond covid. A number of funds even UK shopping centres posted a decent quarter of performance, though the REITs Drum and Hammerson are still significantly down on their pre-pandemic levels.
...
9 April 2021
Will 'peak pension freedoms season' return after pandemic-induced withdrawals slump in 2020Until 2020, the beginning of a new tax year has traditionally been peak pension withdrawal season, with UK savers taking advantage of a fresh set of tax allowances to access larger amounts from their retirement pots.
In fact, before the pandemic hit withdrawals in the first three months of the financial year had been between 10% and 33% higher...
8 March 2021
Most popular AJ Bell Youinvest ISA funds, shares and investment trusts in 2021Some fund investors have been going for growth in their AJ Bell Youinvest ISA so far this year, filling their tax shelters with a raft of offerings from Baillie Gifford, and of course, the ubiquitous Fundsmith Equity. Rival growth fund Lindsell Train Global Equity looks to have declined in popularity this year, not making the top ten in January and...
5 March 2021
Who wants to be an ISA millionaire?Today’s ISA millionaires have shown a definite preference for investing in individual shares rather than funds, with 83% of their portfolios sitting in stocks, compared with just 14% held in pooled funds.* Those with larger amounts in their ISA may be better placed to take the higher risks associated with investing in individual equities, and have...
31 March 2020
Which investment trusts can survive the income drought?For those relying on their income to live on, the situation looks fairly dire at the moment. Plunging stock markets, companies cutting dividends and rock-bottom interest rates all make for fairly depressing reading for investors. With companies having cut more than £4.8bn of dividends and counting, fund investors are undoubtedly going to see their...
17 January 2020
How to choose an investment trust?Russ Mould, AJ Bell Investment Director, runs through a 10 point checklist to consider when researching investment trusts for your portfolio.
11 September 2019
The UK investment trusts most exposed to BrexitInvestors are understandably preoccupied with what Brexit means for their portfolio, but they need to make sure they’re aware of any hidden risks in their portfolios, and in the funds they own.
A total of eight UK-focused investment trusts have gearing of 20% of more, meaning investors in these funds are exposed to more risk. Gearing works to...
12 August 2019
How to buy and sell fundsFollow these steps to learn how to buy and sell funds on the AJ Bell website.
25 September 2015
How the need for income could underpin UK stocksLast week this column touched on the issue of the vexed issue of the valuation of the UK stock market, using market capitalisation to GDP as the key metric. The results provided a bit of a question mark over the long-term direction of stocks, given that on this metric the UK looks expensive relative to its own history, unless corporate...
31 July 2015
Why clients may yearn for Japan despite the yenThe scrapping of a proposed $2 billion design for the 2020 Olympic Stadium in Tokyo and a corporate accounting scandal at the giant Toshiba conglomerate put Japan firmly back in the headlines. Even if this is not the sort of news that Prime Minister Shinzō Abe would rather not be making, his “Three Arrows” reform package continues to chime with...
22 July 2015
What we can all learn from China’s stock market slideYou may well be aware of the extraordinary movement seen over the past month – indeed the past year - in the Chinese equity market. Whether you have any holdings or not, via funds, exchange-traded funds or London-listed Chinese stocks, there are clear lessons which we can all draw from the stunning rise and sudden collapse in the Shanghai and...
3 July 2015
Macro and multi-asset funds look to make the headlinesIn a year when we have already seen the Swiss franc rocket, crude oil prices bounce and sovereign bond prices gyrate horribly investors could be forgiven for feeling exhausted as we approach the summer holiday season. Yet the ongoing Greek drama, an abrupt correction in Chinese stocks and debate over the timing and speed of interest rate rises in...
24 June 2015
Asia look rattled by the greenback’s riseWhether the reason is concerns over the timing of US interest rate rises, fatigue with the ongoing Greek debt drama or a simply the traditional summer lull, equities are giving up some of the ground earned during the earlier part of the year. Moreover, Emerging and Frontier markets have ceded nearly all of their gains for 2015 and Developed arenas...
