Testing times for Investments


Gavin Jones, Chartered


Financial Planner


Problems in the Euro zone, high levels of developed market debt, imported inflation from emerging economies. It seems the bad news is never ending.


With all this doom and gloom you could be forgiven for thinking that your investments are faring pretty badly.


Our investment style recognises that no one can predict the future. There is no reliable way of identifying investment movements in advance; it is easy, but not very helpful to be able to do it with the benefit of hindsight.


Unfortunately all too often people are swayed by the investments that have done well in the recent past. Those that over commit to equities when stockmarkets are going up may well regret that decision if they subsequently crash. It can equally be disappointing to miss out on


Portfolio 2 3 4 5 6


FTSE 100


1m (%) 0.62 -0.56 -1.52 -2.31 -3.21 -4.74


future opportunities because you overestimated the risk involved.


Determining the level of investment risk that you are comfortable taking is crucial. History has taught us that although we cannot accurately forecast the future direction of markets, we have to consider other assets to invest in aside from cash deposits.


We introduced our portfolio service over two years ago now and our goal was to achieve investment returns to meet your medium and long term objectives within your agreed level of risk.


The last couple of months have been a test of the investment philosophy, and I’m glad to say the portfolios continue to act in line with expectations. Stock markets remain volatile and in the short term those who took on more investment risk have seen greater falls in value.


The chart shows an indicative performance of the portfolios to 30th September 2011*. We have also included the performance of the FTSE100 for comparison purposes.


3m (%) 2.38 -2.08 -5.43 -8.23 -10.76 -12.93


6m (%) 4.71 -0.34 -4.18 -7.31 -10.16 -11.56


1yr (%) 3.80 1.32 -0.80 -2.36 -4.27 -4.41


*Performance net of fund management costs, but not charges levied by Ascentric or Old Mill. Your actual return will be dependent on the date of investment.


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