AIC 'Global Equity Income' sector - High Yield IT comparisons

[Itsallaguess]

A large part of my High Yield Income Strategy involves seeking out good ways to use Investment Trusts to help diversify my income across company, sector, and geographical boundaries.

I've been trying to find a good method of comparing High Yield Investment Trusts at a more detailed level with the above in mind, and I thought I'd share something that I've been looking at lately, which is to group some AIC information together on an income-IT sector-by-sector basis, starting with their 'Global Equity Income' sector.

Within a particular Investment Trust sector, I think it's useful to be able to dig down under the bonnet and see what's going on with the larger underlying holdings, and I'm hoping that compiling the data in a format similar to the one below will prove to be useful in being able to do so.

This is a work in progress for me, but it's got to the point where I thought it was worth presenting current thoughts, with a view to perhaps carrying out similar exercises for some of the other AIC income-IT sectors.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Tabular data for the AIC 'Global Equity Income' sector -

Usual caveats apply - please verify any important information before using anything in anger....

[baldchap]

An extremely useful comparison, and I will admit to doing similar in this sector and also those within the 'Global' sector with quarterly payments and an acceptable (to me) dividend. So basically, BNKR, SCIN* etc

I also keep notes, as they are very different in some ways. Some very brief examples..
HINT - one of the new kids, point blank does not invest in the UK. I also think they are keen to be a future hero.
MYI - Bruce Stout, old school investor, good exposure to emerging markets, best dividend while we wait for a recovery...
JGGI - going for total return and pays out approx 4% of NAV p.a.
SCIN - contrarian approach, good gold exposure at present, and self-managed which I like
SAIN - BG managed, and they do it well. Some people don't like the property holdings.
STS - Had a progressive div policy, but now under new management.....
BNKR - Good solid ballast in any portfolio. Too many holdings for my liking though.

I am worrying less about global percentages, that is what the manger is for, and I expect they will adapt as necessary. I do keep a note of Z scores and 3 & 5 yr returns though. If they can't beat WTAN, why bother?

(*SCIN is actually above 3% if you include specials, so above SAIN in the Global equity. STS dividend is also dropping to circa 3%)

N.B. IVPG - held in my wife's ISA but was unable to re-invest divs on AJBell, so that holding went to HINT.

(I make no apology for using tickers )

[richfool]

An extremely useful comparison, and I will admit to doing similar in this sector and also those within the 'Global' sector with quarterly payments and an acceptable (to me) dividend. So basically, BNKR, SCIN* etc

I also keep notes, as they are very different in some ways. Some very brief examples..
HINT - one of the new kids, point blank does not invest in the UK. I also think they are keen to be a future hero.
MYI - Bruce Stout, old school investor, good exposure to emerging markets, best dividend while we wait for a recovery...
JGGI - going for total return and pays out approx 4% of NAV p.a.
SCIN - contrarian approach, good gold exposure at present, and self-managed which I like
SAIN - BG managed, and they do it well. Some people don't like the property holdings.
STS - Had a progressive div policy, but now under new management.....
BNKR - Good solid ballast in any portfolio. Too many holdings for my liking though.

I am worrying less about global percentages, that is what the manger is for, and I expect they will adapt as necessary. I do keep a note of Z scores and 3 & 5 yr returns though. If they can't beat WTAN, why bother?

(*SCIN is actually above 3% if you include specials, so above SAIN in the Global equity. STS dividend is also dropping to circa 3%)

N.B. IVPG - held in my wife's ISA but was unable to re-invest divs on AJBell, so that holding went to HINT.

(I make no apology for using tickers )

Thanks for the build on IA's post.

I would like to have added, after your comment about MYI, ...." while we wait for a recovery..." I would like to have added .... "and wait and wait...".

I have similar thoughts to yours about Bankers (number of holdings) and thus favoured Mid Wynd (albeit a lower yield).

SAIN - Yes, I am not too sure what to make of its UK property holdings including a holiday park and a call centre or similar in Milton Keynes. Though I hold SAIN, along with JGGI and HINT. I note HINT hasn't produced the capital appreciation of the other two.

It would have been nice (and surely appropriate) for this topic to have been posted on the Investment Trust board, or at least a cross post there..

[baldchap]

Mid Wynd has tempted me RF, but I have a self imposed circa 2% lower limit and preferably quarterly payments. Obviously still a dividend investor at heart.

I am not a fan of those IT's with large holdings or fund of funds type approach, although the wife has WTAN in a SIPP which I use as a lower benchmark.

Agree re the cross-post, admit I rarely look at the board, just a quick check to make sure I am not in 'Practical'

[Arborbridge]

I recently picked out HINT and VHYL as deserving an small skin in the game from me. I wanted to try something different to my usual single region holdings, and will give these two some time to see how they fair in comparison with my ITs. If the XIRRs remain good, they will receive more investment.

However, I find such experiments rarely lead on to much more, in my case. The difference between them and my basket of ITs probably won't make a lifestyle difference, and in the end the smallish holdings become a niusance since they will add little by way of income overall.

In think IAAG's table is most interesting and a good way to take an overview. What always occurs to me when I have done something similar is - what is the point? I mean, who am I to make a decision about whether 60% in the USA is a good thing or not? At the end of the analysis what does it tell me apart from "you pays your money and makes your choice"?


Arb.

[Itsallaguess]

What always occurs to me when I have done something similar is - what is the point?

I mean, who am I to make a decision about whether 60% in the USA is a good thing or not? At the end of the analysis what does it tell me apart from "you pays your money and makes your choice"?

Hi Arb,

I think it's reasonable to carry out a level of 'appropriate due-diligence', of course, and I'm sure that when it comes to our own personal investments, we'll each sit somewhere on that spectrum between 'Throwing a dart' at one end, and being 'Frozen into dithering inaction' at the other..

So then, like you say, it becomes a question of 'How much analysis is enough analysis?', and that's a really quite valid question for us to be asking ourselves constantly, of course.

But I also like to ask myself another question too - 'Could any data be easily presented in an improved way to both save time and enhance the ability to make informed investment decisions going forward?', and it's usually that question that I find enjoyable to ruminate over sometimes, and this IT-sector-comparison table is an early step for me in that process, regarding an extra area of due-diligence that I'd like to both carry out easily on a personal level, and also carry out quickly at the same time...

Whilst this sort of information is easily available on an IT-by-IT basis, I've never found anywhere that will compare income-IT's in a side-by-side manner in the way that I'd prefer to see this information, so coming up with a method to generate my own tables to do so was an interesting task that I thought will deliver good long-term results for me, and the above table is an early step on the way to providing that solution, but as I'd got to the step of being able to easily compile this type of income-IT based information, I thought I'd also share the current state of play with an example IT-sector, just to see if anyone else thought it would be a useful method of due-diligence themselves at that level..

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[spiderbill]

This is a work in progress for me, but it's got to the point where I thought it was worth presenting current thoughts, with a view to perhaps carrying out similar exercises for some of the other AIC income-IT sectors.

Very interesting approach, thanks.
I've been trying various ways of adding top-10 holdings to my spreadsheets but this goes some way beyond my efforts. Will be looking at it closely and following any further progress you report on.

cheers
Spiderbill