# S&P 500 Index Fund with Bank of Ireland



## Mister2000 (6 Jun 2009)

On 07 Apr 09 I invested approx 10k with S&P 500 fund which is supposed to be a passive management fund which would track the performance of the index... since then the index has gained over 15% but the value of my investment has only increased by 6.3%.

Does anyone know why this is the case... I thought that the value of the fund would move with the index.


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## jpd (6 Jun 2009)

The S&P 500 represents $ assets and whilst the S&P 500 index has increased by 15% between 7/04/09 and 5/06/09, when translated in €,  the rise in the € v $ (or fall in $ v €) from 1.33 to 1.42 in the same period reduces the investment gain.

I'm presuming you have invested in a  € nominated fund.


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## Mister2000 (6 Jun 2009)

Thanks for your reply I will check this out but you are probably right that I am invested in euro.


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## ronaldo (6 Jun 2009)

Another thing you could consider is purchasing ETF's as opposed to investing in an Index Fund. 

As far as I'm aware, the Bank of Ireland Index Funds' annual charge is 1.5% which is quite expensive. On your $10,630 investment, the charge amounts to about $160 per year. SPY (Which is the symbol for the ETF tracking the S&P 500) has charges of only 0.1% which would save you about $150 per year.

You'd have Broker's commissions too but these can be very low and are not charged annually on the entire value of your investment. They can be less than $10 per trade.


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## darraghdog (14 Jun 2009)

Hi all,
Sorry, if I'm going a bit off the thread, but it seems this discussion has come up here....
I am wondering about the cost difference between buying two ETF's -> SPY (_dollar denominated, at least on the SPIDER page_) with a charge of .1%; and Lyxor ETF (FR0010296061) which tracks the MSCI USA, although the price is _euro denomintated on the page_ and costs .35%. 
I understand the TER difference of  .1% vs. .35% cost; however, is there any extra currency conversion cost in buying the SPIDER ETF, given that its showing up as dollar denominated ?
Thanks,
Darragh.

SPIDER Page :
https://spdrs.com/product/fund.seam?ticker=SPY
Lyxor Page :
[broken link removed]


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## techman (26 Jun 2009)

Darragh,

Is there much of a difference between the S&P 500 index and the MSCI?

I am looking for a US based ETF (large cap) but I would prefer not to have the FX risk.

The Lyxor one is based in Euro, so this might do?


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## techman (26 Jun 2009)

Actually the Lyxor MSCI is USD based so there no advantage in buying this over the SPY.

USD is the underlying currency even though you can buy it in Euro.


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## agencydude (2 Jul 2009)

Hi ,
For the S&P 500 index fund and similar  passive management funds, I'd like to work out  how they perform when translated to euros. Is there any website that does this? I'd like to figure out what my investment return is and see how my figures compare to the ones I get from BOI.


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## Left_Blank (3 Jul 2009)

Anyone know what the management fee is for this fund in the BOI? Do they carry other indices?


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## Left_Blank (3 Jul 2009)

Nevermind I just noticed the figure further up in the thread.


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## JohnBoy (8 Jul 2009)

I just noticed that too. Hedge funds charge 1.5%. An index tracker should not cost you more than 0.4% and ideally should cost half of that. Buying these types of products through a bank is not really a good idea.


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## mercman (15 Aug 2009)

JohnBoy said:


> Buying these types of products through a bank is not really a good idea.



Correct. I am involved with some of these funds with the BoI and instead of being on a special 1% Management Charge, according to my own accountants and from the information which has been passed back to me, I am paying 2.5%.


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