Plus some good reads from around the web.
Fans of The Accumulator’s articles on passive investing [1] know how hard it can be for UK investors to find information about the various cost components of index tracking funds.
Fund managers can get equally frustrated – at least when it comes to the stats that make them look good!
Now the company behind the fundamental-tracking Munro Fund has created its own resource of statistics to tackle the problem head-on.
Its new website of tracker stats is called Smart-Beta [2].
The company explains its motivation as follows:
There are now a number of funds, usually described as index or tracker funds, that provide investors with a mechanism to capture the beta of the market in a simple and inexpensive manner. There are also a few funds that seek to deliver the market returns in a different , and arguably better, way than using market capitalisation to determine portfolio construction. It is becoming common practice to describe these as smart-beta funds.
Because these funds use a mix of structures, typically ETFs and OEICS it is hard to find data to make comparisons in one place. It is also difficult to find all the data you need to make a full and proper comparison. It is not much use identifying a low cost fund if the minimum investment is a much larger amount than you wish to invest.
This site has been set up to help address this problem.
The information on Smart-Beta is culled from Bloomberg. Fundamental Tracking Investment Management Limited, the company behind the Munro Fund and Smart-Beta, says data on the site is not comprehensive, and should only be used as a starting point for further research.
It does add though that “every effort has been made to ensure it’s up-to-date”.
I’m sure some of you passive investing bloodhounds will let the rest of know if you think it’s useful or not!
From the money blogs
- Time arbitrage: Investing vs. speculation – Investing Caffeine [3]
- Asset allocation and risk tolerance – Oblivious Investor [4]
- Do stocks always outperform (in the long run)? – The Psy-Fi blog [5]
- How to become an even better investor – UK Value Investor [6]
- How much of one investment is too much? – Can I retire yet? [7]
- Killing your $1,000 grocery bill – Mr Money Mustache [8]
- Retiring early is not all about money – Simple Living in Suffolk [9]
- The costly joys of maintaining old cars – Len Penzo [10]
- 5 ways to save on petrol – Totally Money [11]
Product of the week: Amazon is finally launching Kindle Touch [12]
Mainstream media money
- Warren Buffett’s $50 billion decision – Forbes [13]
- The alternative Buffett [ignoring his early hedge fund [14]!] – Fool.com [15]
- Oil prices: Gulf keeping it to themselves – The Economist [16]
- Peston: Did the Bank of England cause the boom and bust? – BBC [17]
- Swedroe: What investors can learn from Norway – CBS [18]
- Over-60s: Did they ever have it so good? – FT [19]
- Short-term bonuses drive best buy cash ISAs – FT [20]
- Pension (annuity) levels edge up after gilt rise – FT [21]
- It makes sense to be a dividend bore – FT [22]
- London set for decade of buy-to-let growth – FT [23]
- Is it time to go big in Japan? – Telegraph [24]
- NewBuy mortgage scheme in crisis – Telegraph [25]
- The total value of UK property, by town – Guardian [26]
- NS&I: Interest lost over maturing bond mix-up – Independent [27]
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