Gussy Hydleman is about to buy her first home with her boyfriend
Credit: JAY WILLIAMS
Like many young first-time home buyers, Gussy Hydleman, 25, has had to dabble with investing to boost her deposit in order to keep pace with ever-increasing house prices.
Thanks to her stock market nous, Ms Hydleman has had an offer accepted on a home with her boyfriend, Tom, 26. The pair are using their savings and a small amount of parental help to fund a 15pc deposit.
Her share consists of £38,000: £15,000 in a Lifetime Isa, £12,000 in a stocks and shares Isa and the remainder in cash. The couple hope to exchange contracts soon and are just waiting for the seller to secure a property to move to.
Charles Younes: The equity funds we’re backing for volatile markets
FE Investments adds five equity funds in its latest rebalance, with Slater Growth and Baillie Gifford European making the cut
The vast differences in the roll out of the Covid-19 pandemics around the world have led to markedly different effects on the markets. While in the UK, the success of the vaccine rollout has led to some cautious optimism, in areas such as India, further lockdowns are being enacted as the prospect of a third wave is causing increased volatility.
If 2020 taught us one thing, it was that predicting the markets is ultimately a fruitless endeavour. At FE Investments, we instead prefer to look at managing risk and a key component of this is to use fund manager alpha from different investment strategies to diversify our portfolios, using our ‘Approved List’ of recommended funds.
Road to recovery – is now a good time for equities?
After a year of uncertainty, it is preferable to target risk levels rather than make market calls
By Charles Younes 26
th April 2021 9:35 am
At the time of writing, global markets are still being plagued by uncertainty. While in the UK the government’s vaccination rollout has led to some long-overdue optimism, lockdowns are being implemented across much of Europe as talk of a third wave of coronavirus on the continent grows.
The events of the past year have shown the near impossibility of predicting market movements and the impracticalities of taking a short-term approach. This is a reason why we prefer to target risk levels, rather than making market calls.
He added: The team is well-balanced too, with six regional managers and three sustainability analysts contributing to stock selection. It is also competitively priced among its peers with an OCF of 0.53%.
Commenting on the addition of the Comgest Growth Japan fund to the Approved List, Younes said its performance had also been impressive . Not only is the fund run by three FE fundinfo Alpha Managers, it has a good history of offering downside protection, while having in place a strong ESG process which analyses the risk of any potential investments.
FE Investments has removed the Ninety One Enhanced Natural Resources fund and the Man GLG Strategic Bond fund from its Approved List, for strategic and performance-related reasons .
From those that pass the test, he carries out qualitative work - for example, on the quality of the management. The very best of these companies then get in.