Hibernian Target 20 SSIA

r3nu4l

OK, when the equity SSIAs came online I read the Sunday Business Post and a panel of experts (four out of six) seemed to pretty much agree that Hibernians Spectrum Saver Target 20 fund was going to be the best performer...

Link: http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2002/03/10/story781394728.asp

Now I learn that as of 2005, Target 20 was one of the worst performing funds :rolleyes:
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2005/05/08/story4585.asp

So if you can't trust the experts, who can you trust? Would I be right in thinking that these advisors were commission based advisors? :mad:

As a result, I'm still ahead but by nowhere near as much as I should be :mad: I'm not looking for any comeback but I have certainly learned a lesson form this.

Just thought I'd rant! Any opinions?

Diarmuid

Number 1 rule. When picking stocks/funds etc, ignore the "experts". If they really knew what funds were going up, they wouldnt be telling you but investing every bit of money they could find in it.

r3nu4l

I'm more inclined to think that this lot were agents for Hibernian rather than anything else.

Also, It's their job to advise and because the more people who joined the fund the greater the pot, then I would assume they would want as many people as possible to join?

I think your rule number 1 is just one of those Rich Dad Poor Dad kind of things. IMO, Ignore the "gurus", listen to the experts with proven track records?

Diarmuid

r3nu4l wrote:

I think your rule number 1 is just one of those Rich Dad Poor Dad kind of things. IMO, Ignore the "gurus", listen to the experts with proven track records?

Maybe, but the bulk of studies out there prove 2 things:

1. 25% of active funds outperform index fund over 5 years. (over 10 years it drops to 14%)
2. You cannot predict which active fund will outperform the market.

So bottom line, there are no experts and a track record is a lucky streak :-)

FillSpectre

Do any "experts" in any speculitive field get i right at any level of consistancy?

They should start being called pundets from now on and people would take what they say in the correct way i.e. guestimations from some guy who watches it going on.

Essentially these people are bookies telling you what to gamble on due to their inside knowledge. Why do people trust them so much?

r3nu4l

Well as I say I learned a lesson, albeit an expensive one.

The reason I listened was because everyone says get advice before you invest and it was my very first "investment" of any kind.

As it was I was a student when I took out my SSIA and thought long and hard about even opening an account. Very glad I did but will know better next time and will be better equipped to ask better questions.

Better all round

Better stop using the word better, it's irritating and perhaps it's for the better if I don't use it again.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

True about the index funds being better than active funds. there is a simple reason for this:

if a fund manager is particularly good he/she gets poached to run a hedge fund, managing money for the super-rich. The fund manager then gets up to a 20% share of profits the fund makes every year; far more than they would earn just managing a regular active fund.

Essentially, only the First Division fund managers are left to run the active funds that we can invest in, and all the Premiership fund managers are helping the super-rich get super-richer...

index funds are probably the best because of low costs and relatively low risk