The Lemon Fool

Not much heading upwards at the moment, but one thing that is rising is a very strange fund from Vanguard, best known for their low cost passive trackers (and their advocation of that approach).

The Vanguard Market Neutral Fund (VMNFX): https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/profile/portfolio/vmnfx

Very odd. It seems to operate much like a hedge fund (long and short positions) and it is up 12% YTD. Not many funds can boast that!

I don't suppose it is available to UK investors, certainly not on their UK platform, but thought it worth flagging for sheer curiosity value.

Not bad if you’re investing for 4 months. What about for 30 years? Here’s a chart showing it’s had half the return of bonds, with more volatility:
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=366403

JohnW wrote:Not bad if you’re investing for 4 months. What about for 30 years? Here’s a chart showing it’s had half the return of bonds, with more volatility:
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=366403

I am not recommending it, just thought it was rather a curiosity given Vanguard's philosophy. I guess it's for wealth preservation rather than stellar growth, so going up when all else is dropping is what it's for? (Bonds have dropped by almost exactly then same as equities YTD - no negative correlation there at the moment). Bonds have also done rather well since 2008, when the charts diverge, but that's been driven largely by QE - central banks have been buying billions and billions with 'freshly printed' money.

As you say pointless for the uk investor as we are forbidden to buy us etfs (on uk platforms). There are many others I would like to dabble in but the FCA won’t allow me. Sob. Can’t buy uranium etf for example or vix or many others. Bloody stupid.

toofast2live wrote:As you say pointless for the uk investor as we are forbidden to buy us etfs (on uk platforms). There are many others I would like to dabble in but the FCA won’t allow me. Sob. Can’t buy uranium etf for example or vix or many others. Bloody stupid.

As I understand it, all for the lack of a KID? But I guess it cannot be that simple - if knocking up a few page PDF opened up the not insubstantial UK market, I would think they'd do it.

I too wish I could buy VIX! Pretty well everything seems to be a downwards spiral at the moment, but VIX..........