The Lemon Fool

My introduction to Ida's is not going well. It just goes down in value.

I'm assuming I have to pay a fee to change funds?
It's biased to UK so I assume brexit is a problem?
Do I fiddle or sit tight for the long haul?

Shares do that. (From time to time)

Sit tight. Buying high and selling low is the CERTAIN way to lose money.

Gryff

stooz wrote:My introduction to Ida's is not going well. It just goes down in value.

I'm assuming I have to pay a fee to change funds?
It's biased to UK so I assume brexit is a problem?
Do I fiddle or sit tight for the long haul?

If it's UK baised then undoubtably Brexit is the cause of the fall in capital values. That money is "gone" or arguably not. You bought assets that are now cheaper. Many of us (even those who think that Brexit is a bad idea) look at the current prices and can only think "boy does that look cheap". This is especially the case with large "UK" companies, who often make most of their profits outside the UK.

If you do decide to change, then the cost is NOT insignificant, though it will look so. You almost certainly bought hi and are now talking of selling low, not a winning stratergy. What are you reasons to consider changing your investment? The fact that it has lost money should not be one of them. We ALL lose money on the stock market from time to time.

FWIW I too am suffering, though my portfolio has significant investments outside the UK. Mr Trump's actions are effecting my emerging market and Asia investments while the FED is effecting my US ones, and of course Brexit my UK ones. I'm not currently buying more, but intend to save up until March and then buy more CTY (UK). That is if I can wait that long.

That said, I think that we are entering a dificult period when prices will not be rising and could continue falling.

stooz wrote:My introduction to Ida's is not going well. It just goes down in value.

I'm assuming I have to pay a fee to change funds?
It's biased to UK so I assume brexit is a problem?
Do I fiddle or sit tight for the long haul?

You follow your investment plan, which you should have given considerable thought to prior to investing money.

What was the plan?

stooz wrote:My introduction to Ida's is not going well. It just goes down in value.

I'm assuming I have to pay a fee to change funds?
It's biased to UK so I assume brexit is a problem?
Do I fiddle or sit tight for the long haul?

You do know that the American shares are also at their lowest level for 14 months, and likely to keep on dropping?

So any companies in your portfolio that have an American component EG BP, will also be falling.

I expect it all to get worse before recovering.

Slarti

@stooz you will pay dealing costs to change funds, typically a £10 each to buy and sell. At least with an ISA you don't have capital gains issues, but outside one you'd be crystallizing capital losses, which you might regret 5 years in the future when you want to sell again (Bought for £100k, sold/bought at £90k, wait for 5 years, sell at £110k, and you will have £20k of gain, and with a £12k allowance, you'll pay 10 or 20% tax on £8k, depending on income). If you'd done nothing the £10k would be within your allowance.

As others have said, you've got to believe your investment plan has changed to change horses. Most private investors lose money by jumping around.

Definitely sit tight.

And keep buying.

Think of the fall as a great opportunity to get more of the same at a bargain basement price.

And if it goes lower, keep thinking the same.

It will go up again. Virtually everything is well down at the moment.

Just don't put money in a fund, a share or any share based investment if you think you'll need it in the short term. That is a recipe for potential losses.

I am assuming you're not buying high risk stuff like AIM based shares but as you mention funds, I doubt this is relevent. . The above advice applies for any well established general fund or investment trust.

The last 12 months have been a blood bath. Lifestrategy 100 has dropped by 3.92%.

Lets hope for better next year,

stooz wrote:My introduction to Isa's is not going well. It just goes down in value. ...

Merely a suggestion but the last time I saw you discussing your investment ISA, was over here at Investment Trusts and Unit Trusts:

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=13577

Might it be an idea to continue on that thread and let the posters know which funds you purchased (you don't need to state the monetary amounts).

One reason I mention that thread is this board has always confused me. The Title is Bank Accounts Savings & ISAs and I've always assumed it relates to cash ISAs, rather than the type you are in (although someone or other once said that anything goes on here, ISAwise).

The other reason I mention it is it might be useful for you to see how your investment career progresses and how your thought process might change as time moves on.

Come what may, I'm sure we all look forward to you being able to state "ISA going up", whenever and wherever that may be.

JohnB wrote:@stooz you will pay dealing costs to change funds, typically a £10 each to buy and sell. At least with an ISA you don't have capital gains issues, but outside one you'd be crystallizing capital losses, which you might regret 5 years in the future when you want to sell again (Bought for £100k, sold/bought at £90k, wait for 5 years, sell at £110k, and you will have £20k of gain, and with a £12k allowance, you'll pay 10 or 20% tax on £8k, depending on income). If you'd done nothing the £10k would be within your allowance.

Couldn’t you carry forward the £10k loss and apply £8k of it against the later £20k gain to reduce that £20k to a £12k gain and remain below the £12k allowance? You’d still have a further £2k loss to be carried forward to future years.

Stonge wrote:The last 12 months have been a blood bath. Lifestrategy 100 has dropped by 3.92%.

Lets hope for better next year,

That cracked me up, "3.92% drop" "blood bath"....

londonwayfarer wrote:

Stonge wrote:
The last 12 months have been a blood bath. Lifestrategy 100 has dropped by 3.92%.

Lets hope for better next year,

That cracked me up, 3.92% drop being a blood bath....

I've a sneaky suspicion that there may have been a soupçon of irony in there somewhere...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

You can delay claiming losses for up to 4 years after they occur, then you lose them

JohnB wrote:You can delay claiming losses for up to 4 years after they occur, then you lose them

Indeed, but as long as you claim them (i.e. inform HMRC of the loss) within 4 years, there is no time limit on when you can actually use them to offset realised gains in future tax years. That’s my understanding anyway.

The last 12 months have been carnage. Lifestrategy 100 has now dropped by 7.10%.

Time to sell up?




















Or time to buy?

Stonge wrote:The last 12 months have been carnage. Lifestrategy 100 has now dropped by 7.10%.

Time to sell up?

Or time to buy?

I presume Lifestrategy 100 is a managed fund?

If so, are the managers worth their fee, as my self select ISA is up by 3.22% in the last 12 months.

Slarti

Slarti wrote:

Stonge wrote:The last 12 months have been carnage. Lifestrategy 100 has now dropped by 7.10%.

Time to sell up?

Or time to buy?

I presume Lifestrategy 100 is a managed fund?

If so, are the managers worth their fee, as my self select ISA is up by 3.22% in the last 12 months.

No, it's a fund of index trackers and is essentially a world tracker with a bit of extra weight to the UK. OCF is 0.22%. https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/inve ... ion-shares

Over the last 12 months the Dow & S&P are down some 9%, the FTSE 100, All Share & Nikkei some 12%, the 250 15%, so a drop in global tracker type funds isn't surprising.

mc2fool wrote:

Slarti wrote: I presume Lifestrategy 100 is a managed fund?

If so, are the managers worth their fee, as my self select ISA is up by 3.22% in the last 12 months.

No, it's a fund of index trackers and is essentially a world tracker with a bit of extra weight to the UK. OCF is 0.22%. https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/inve ... ion-shares

Over the last 12 months the Dow & S&P are down some 9%, the FTSE 100, All Share & Nikkei some 12%, the 250 15%, so a drop in global tracker type funds isn't surprising.

If it is a tracker, I'd hold for awhile longer as I suspect that, courtesy of Trump and BREXIT, things are going to keep on dropping for a while yet. The trick is going to be deciding when it is close to bottom and then investing.

Even with my self select, I've sold off some of the less well performing shares and am holding the cash at least until April, while keeping watch.

Slarti

I'll continue to pile in my few hundred a month on the way down and then on the way up as recommended by... well, just about everyone really.