The Lemon Fool

Having built up a small UK focused HYP, my attention has started to wander further afield - namely "global" Investment Trusts (or an ETF such as Vanguard All World Tracker - VRWL).

The AIC website lists at least 50 Global Investment Trusts - I selected what appears to be two common choices , Scottish Mortgage [SMT] & Murray International [MYI].

I then compared them for "globality" with Vanguards All World ETF fund [VWRL]



Summarising my thoughts:-

MYI
pros - the yield is "HYPable"
cons - 12.5% UK

Looking at the UK companies held by MYI, I'm ok with them as of the top 4 UK holdings, I only have small holdings of two of them in my HYP.


SMT
pros - the total return over n years
- a lower "exposure" to UK companies than MYI above.
cons - the relatively low yield.

Both MYI and SMT seem to have roughly a similar number of holdings.


Vanguard VWRL
pros - not quite "pan galactic" at ~3000 holdings
cons - yield

At just over 50% US holding - is now a good time to buy VRWL?

Conclusion
I have a small holding in MYI already (for income) but I can see a place for SMT (for potential growth) if/when the price is right. As for VRWL, it purports to be a global tracker but it is ~50% US. I'd be interested in views on the merits of the 3 companies and if there are better ways of "going global".

Your VWRL numbers look wrong to me as they don't contain emerging market countries. China for example is 3.3% of the FTSE World Index.

The US market is around half the world market by capitalisation and it is very highly valued. If that bothers you, you can choose your own weights by selecting a set of regional trackers. I do that and try to rebalance back to 40% US, 20% Europe ex UK, 10% UK, 10% Japan, 10% EM, 7% Asia Pacific ex Japan, 3% Canada. Essentially under-weighting US and over-weighting the others. However, over the last 5 years I would not be surprised to find out, if I calculated it, that a world tracker would have performed better!

If lack of yield is something that concerns you, you could take a look at VHYL FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield. That has a lower exposure to US as well and the whole thing has lower p/e and p/b.

The MYI figures seem out as well, although I do think this is recent swing away from the US to the Asia Pacific region. Taken from their 31 January fact sheet http://www.aberdeen-asset.co/static_files/documents/5c22de1a-65a4-4aa9-85ac-14ac7c3106e5/12/57989-cd-121031650_mint.pdf

Equities
Asia Pacific ex Japan                24.8
Latin America & Emerging Markets     17.2
North America                        14.2
United Kingdom                       12.1
Europe ex UK                         10.4
Japan                                 3.7
Africa                                1.0

Fixed Income
Latin America & Emerging Markets      8.1
Asia Pacific ex Japan                 5.0
Europe ex UK                          1.4
Africa                                1.1
United Kingdom                        0.5
Cash                                  0.5

Total                               100.0

I quite like Mid Wynd International. They're a bit different in being a bit 'thematic' which normally I wouldn't fall for, but I quite like their approach.

https://www.artemisfunds.com/en/gbr/inv ... ary-shares

Interesting, I was taking the information from HL.

e.g. VWRL
http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-searc ... etf-usdgbp

MYI
http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-searc ... -25p-share

I also had the MYI info as per Mike's post ( indeed , I'm actually using those numbers/ratios myself in my HYP+IT portfolio). I decided to use Hargreaves " numbers" here to be consistent but that's no use if they're not correct!


Learning point #1 ...go to the actual datasheet from the IT/ETF in question and not an intermediate !

VHYL might be interesting...if course, HL doesn't quote the yield!! ( Dividend yield n/a)

http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-searc ... ty_details

So it's a case of looking at dividends paid and share price!

I am a big fan of Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust (FRCL) - over 500 holdings, low gearing and good track record, and have held this trust for the past 20 years. Some other so-called global trusts are highly concentrated in a particular sector or country, and so a look under the bonnet is essential before parting with one's cash.

I am a big fan of Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust

An interview re 150th anniversary of FRCL has just been posted up on CityWire....

http://citywire.co.uk/investment-trust- ... -news-list

monabri wrote:Interesting, I was taking the information from HL.

I find HL unreliable on IT info, it is often not even updates for info in links to the IT reports on the same page.

Terry.

doug2500 wrote:I quite like Mid Wynd International. They're a bit different in being a bit 'thematic' which normally I wouldn't fall for, but I quite like their approach.

https://www.artemisfunds.com/en/gbr/inv ... ary-shares

Doug, do you hold Mid Wynd? What are your latest thoughts on it? It's a trust that has drawn my attention to gain exposure to the global growth sector without overdoing the technology exposure. I like its broad exposure which includes some biotech, healthcare, automation and online services, and a somewhat cautious brief.

Alliance Trust is global by any standards and is motoring along very nicely now as well. It has no particular specialty.

And yes if you are going to do the sort of analysis that monabri is doing it is always much better to go to the IT Annual Reports all of which are normally available online.

Dod