Confusion shopping for funds with Irish Banks

[Raider]

Hi all,

I tried to find a similar thread and couldn't so excuse me if there's repitition here.

My idea;
I have about 20K. My investor profile says I should try something long term with some aggressive growth.
I do already have some investments (e.g. Evergreen Fund) but I went in at the top of the market there. Oops.
So I thought now would be a good time to invest in an ETF which tracked something like the S&P 500, given that recovery is reportedly beginning with more expected next year.

My Question to Irish banks was...
Do you have such a fund that tracks S&P 500 which as low fees attached?
So far I have had nothing that meets this request, offered to me. Apparently rules state we don't talk about individual products so suffice to say, I was offered capital secured bonds with fixed term, managed funds...essentially anything but what I wanted.
Stockbrokers on the other hand seem to facilitate the regular trader and seem expensive.

As an investing novice, I have done lots of reading on what I should be looking to invest in but find the choice on offer to be a mixture of limited and slightly confusing.

My request to this forum;
Does anyone have any advice on where to find the best selection of the type of ETF I am trying to find?
Or am I barking up the wrong tree entirely?
I've tried looking at ishares [broken link removed]
and Euro Stoxx 50 (to avoid currency risk) but don't really know what to go for.
Oh and I have spoken with QFAs but they are biased towards the products they sell which of course, are not what I want.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

R

 

[Chris]

Hi all,

I tried to find a similar thread and couldn't so excuse me if there's repitition here.

My idea;
I have about 20K. My investor profile says I should try something long term with some aggressive growth.
I do already have some investments (e.g. Evergreen Fund) but I went in at the top of the market there. Oops.
So I thought now would be a good time to invest in an ETF which tracked something like the S&P 500, given that recovery is reportedly beginning with more expected next year.

Be careful what you believe when it comes to a recovery. The people that are most vociferous about it are the very same that claimed that 'the fundamentals of the economy are sound' and 'there will be a soft landing'. The 'recovery' is solely based on GDP numbers, which are positively affected by reduced imports, increased public spending and increased borrowing, none of which are indicators of a recovering economy. Even the great depression had several quaters of 'positive' GDP growth.
Look for an increase in industrial production, capacity utilisation and a decrease in unemployment over 2+ quaters before you decide whether the recovery is on the way.

My Question to Irish banks was...
Do you have such a fund that tracks S&P 500 which as low fees attached?
So far I have had nothing that meets this request, offered to me. Apparently rules state we don't talk about individual products so suffice to say, I was offered capital secured bonds with fixed term, managed funds...essentially anything but what I wanted.
Stockbrokers on the other hand seem to facilitate the regular trader and seem expensive.

As an investing novice, I have done lots of reading on what I should be looking to invest in but find the choice on offer to be a mixture of limited and slightly confusing.

My request to this forum;
Does anyone have any advice on where to find the best selection of the type of ETF I am trying to find?
Or am I barking up the wrong tree entirely?
I've tried looking at ishares [broken link removed]
and Euro Stoxx 50 (to avoid currency risk) but don't really know what to go for.
Oh and I have spoken with QFAs but they are biased towards the products they sell which of course, are not what I want.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

R

Most stockbrokers should offer a wide variety of ETFs. I use www.keytradebank.com as their commissions are very reasonable.

 

[Raider]

Chris,

Thanks for this.
It is definitely something to keep in mind.
I had originally thought that investing in something like the S&P 500 would over time, override the slumps in performance.
But obviously it is prudent to be cautious at this time.

So I wonder are others holding off on investments in favour of holding cash or money mkt instruments or bonds?

R

 

[Chris]

Chris,

Thanks for this.
It is definitely something to keep in mind.
I had originally thought that investing in something like the S&P 500 would over time, override the slumps in performance.
But obviously it is prudent to be cautious at this time.

So I wonder are others holding off on investments in favour of holding cash or money mkt instruments or bonds?

R

One of the biggest risks with an S&P 500 based ETF or Fund is, as you correctly highlighted, the currency risk. When you look at a chart of the S&P500, there is very evident huge gain since March. However, if you took the euro price of the S&P at its low, and compared it to the euro price now, the gain is not that great at all.
Personally I have been actively buying equities, but not in the US. I have actually liquidated all my US$ denominated holdings bar one. Best thing you can do is do some reading up on economic prospects in both the mainstream media and in non-mainstream media. The Internet is a great place to get opinions on where things may be going. Most importantly: make up your own opinion based on your research and write down why you made the decisions you made. That way you cannot fool yourself or blame someone else for your decision if it was the wrong one.

 

[Raider]

Thanks for sharing your experiences there Chris. Again that's helpful.
And for the stockbroker recommendation, I was really at sea with stockbroker websites and their charges.

I'm definitely going to make sure I'm armed with information.
Although I did initially have you in line to blame when it all went belly up, you've now hedged against that so, that's out.

I have a feeling that the original idea was sound with two caveats
1) the currency may be a reason to look at Euro Stoxx or similar instead
2) Time to research the financial periodicals to get some more insight into the timing of this investment

Cheers,
R