Our strategy was to invest £2000 of the £3000 in risky and hence high-return promising funds. The other £1000 we wanted to invest more cautiously and to date remains in our account as a cash holding due to the current financial climate.

We invested £1000 each in the following funds:

(1) First State Greater China Growth Class A Accumulation:

We sought a fund with great exposure to the Greater China market. Of all the funds in this area researched, we felt that the ‘First State Greater China Growth Class A Accumulation’ was most aligned to our ‘needs’. It offered us exposure to small, medium and large companies who are established or have a predominant part of their economic activities in the People’s Republic of China, Hong-Kong and Taiwan.

(2) Aberdeen Emerging Markets Accumulation Shares:

This fund focuses on emerging markets and again was very much aligned to our chosen risk profile. As well as holdings from Asia this funds also entails holdings in Brazil and Africa. We liked the composition of this fund and also the fact that Aberdeen has been investing in emerging markets since 1985 and dedicate a considerable amount of resources to this area.

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TEAM BABYLON INVESTMENT UPDATE (11/01/12)

In November we decided to change our investment strategy and invest our ‘left-over’ £1000 cash. We invested it in the GLG Technology Equity Fund Retail Accumulation fund. We were really interested in investing in a technology fund and GLG’s exposure to Apple (7.93%) made this an obvious choice for us. After initially performing well this fund proved too volatile for our liking and we decided to sell it again in January 2012. Our overall loss on this position was a mere £4.

In exchange of the GLG fund we purchased a share in WAY Hasley Global Momentum Class A Income. We had been alerted to this investment by an IFA who featured in our Wealth Wednesday workshop in November. In our understanding this fund, by following a combination of trends and trading figures, attempts to fully participate in long term up-trends whilst at the same time avoiding long-term downward trends. We will report on its performance within our portfolio shortly.

In November we also decided to cut our losses in the First State Greater China Growth Class A Accumulation fund and reinvest the funds in the Wells Fargo US High Yield Bond. The change has seen a change in fortune and we have gained 4.5% on our investment to date.

Our best performing position to date is with Aberdeen Emerging Markets Accumulation Shares.  Since purchasing them back in October we have gained a healthy 8.13%.

Overall we have unfortunately lost £190 to date but feel well equipped for the future with our choice of investments.