The Lemon Fool

tjh290633 wrote:It also takes a lot longer if you invest in trackers. Look how long the FTSE100 took to get back to its peak at the end of 1999. September 2016 in my records.

It pays if you do not follow fashion.

There were no global trackers available in the UK in 1999. Here is the performance of the MSCI index in GBP terms:

https://www.msci.com/documents/10199/f0 ... b03288b523

You would have coined it over that period. You may have been able to invest in a US based global ETF, but that was hardly fashionable over here. If you invest in just one small market you may get lucky, but it is much more sensible to spread your risk.

Your remarks are true as far as they go but most amateur investors do not not have the “bottle” or information to win active investing schemes
Trackers give this class of investors a very probable winning hand without having to take chances
They do require staying power which is tough on amateurs
Their is no easy answer for investors
xxd09

To everyone who has answered and helped me along my way with decisions and understanding, thank you.

I now know exactly what i want to do (world trackers), still undecided on bonds but understand what I am looking at and if I were to add the, know which vanguard product I would use.

I know timing the market is not possible or a way I should look at things, but given I’m currently sitting on cash and the market seems to be going downwards I’ll sit tight for a bit but am ready to go when I need to.

Don’t suppose anyone has a crystal ball?

Gumble wrote:I know timing the market is not possible or a way I should look at things, but given I’m currently sitting on cash and the market seems to be going downwards I’ll sit tight for a bit but am ready to go when I need to.

You would be better to go in now with a hefty bond percentage as protection, rather than sit in cash. The market's recent direction of travel tells us nothing. The market is always (nearly) as likely to fall as it is to rise. If you are too scared to go in now, 100% equities does not make sense. It is easy to be brave until you put your head above the parapet. The percentage that you are willing to risk now is the percentage appropriate for you now, in a year's time and in ten years time. The risk is always the same (as far as anybody knows).