15 October 2026

How AJ Bell funds performed in the third quarter and what to watch for next

The three months leading up to the end of September were a relatively quiet time for stock markets compared to other quarters earlier in the year, but bonds experienced a much more tumultuous period driven by a selloff in government debt.

This led to muted returns across our lower risk funds but also showed that our focus on diversification was...

11 September 2026

How to change your investment strategy in retirement

For decades, retirement planning followed a relatively simple formula. Build up a pension, stop working and rely on the income it provides.

But retirements are becoming longer, and fewer people are taking the path of a guaranteed annual income, choosing to manage their own retirement funds instead. This flexibility can allow for freedom in...

2 September 2026

Building a balanced portfolio? Watch out for these hidden risks

Concentration risk has become one of the most popular conversations in investing in recent years. The dominance of US markets, and within that of a handful of large technology companies, has created concern that investors may end up with a lack of diversification with their investments.

But efforts to reduce concentration can lead portfolios into...

6 August 2026

SpaceX earnings debut underlines the case for diversified AI exposure

SpaceX reported its first quarterly results as a public company on 4 August to a mixed market response.

Having run up in advance of the numbers on the day of the release, the shares fell in extended trading as better-than-expected revenue was overshadowed by heavy spending on artificial intelligence.

The AI trade has spent much of the year being...

15 July 2026

How AJ Bell funds performed in the second quarter of 2026

Despite a rocky start to the year with the background of the US-Iran War, markets around the globe have been looking up since the end of March, leaving each fund in the AJ Bell range with a positive return over the past three months, as well as year to date.

The performance of each fund in the range varies, as the cautious funds are built for slow...

26 June 2026

AJ Bell Investments: UK political change doesn’t mean market doomsday

Keir Starmer’s resignation has added another layer of political uncertainty for UK investors. But for the AJ Bell Fund range, the investment message is more balanced: UK equities, particularly large caps, still offer attractive valuations, useful diversification and a currency-sensitive earnings profile that can help offset domestic uncertainty.

T...

23 June 2026

How AJ Bell’s Investments team views regions around the world

Spreading your investments around the world is a popular strategy, but many investors choose to do this solely through a global index fund. It’s not a bad start; however, it might not be offering the broad exposure you’d expect.

These funds tend to be weighted heavily towards the US, often with 60% to 70% of assets in that part of the world, and...

10 June 2026

AI’s second wind: where investor confidence is growing

AI has been arguably the largest factor shaping markets for the past few years and despite investor nerves around the price of some AI-focused companies, markets are still charging ahead. But while the first few years of the AI theme left the US with the biggest benefits, the fastest growth is now happening in emerging markets ex-China.

In the...

6 May 2026

April market review: How equities bounced back while bonds floundered

After a chaotic March, April allowed investors to take a step back and process the situation in front of them. What markets saw, by and large, was a return to the norms of earlier this year.

The US made a strong recovery, as the Morningstar US Market index rose 7.2% during the month, while the Morningstar UK Index climbed up 2.4%. The indices are...

21 April 2026

How AJ Bell funds performed in the first quarter of the year

Despite a rocky March for markets due to the war in Iran, six of the nine funds in the AJ Bell range ended the first quarter of the year with a positive return.

Across the past month, we’ve seen the effects of the US-Iran conflict trickle down through the market, most prominently through the rise of energy prices and a shift in interest rate...