Unlike investment funds, trusts can trade at a discount or premium to the underlying assets which can be to the advantage of potential buyers but a thorn in the side for existing shareholders and trust boards alike.Poor performance is often a key factor driving the share price below NAV (net asset value). Scottish Mortgage Trust (SMT) and multi-manager Witan Investment Trust (WTAN) sit on double-d

We are weeks away from the end of the tax year and inevitably there is plenty of focus on ISAs ? whether that relates opening an account or using up existing allowances.In all the hoo-hah it?s easy to lose sight of just what a compelling vehicle this is for investors. Whatever you are investing for, whether it?s the cost of the kids? education, to supplement your income in retirement or to fund ho

You have opened an ISA - congratulations, you have already taken one of the most important steps with investing, namely getting over the first hurdle.This article will talk you through the next steps so you can start putting your money to work in the markets and hopefully grow your wealth.STEP ONE: ESTABLISH YOUR INVESTMENT PURPOSEPeople invest for lots of reasons. If you are a parent you might wa

Fallen growth star loses net 6% trade volumes on AJ BellTerry Smith's Smithson also an autumn loser so farInvestors snap up reliable growth and income trustsOnce one of the UK's favourite investment trusts, Scottish Mortgage (SMT) continues to lose backers hand over fist as investors stay wary of private company valuations. Last month, the Baillie Gifford-run trust accounted for nearly 15% of all

Having struggled for direction all morning, the FTSE 100 index surged from its lunchtime lows to tack on 32 points or 0.45% to 7,164 by the close, led by cyclical stocks including media companies ITV (ITV) and WPP (WPP).Gambling company Flutter Entertainment (FLTR) was the top FTSE performer, rallying 8% to £139.78 after it reported a better-than-expected trebling of first-half profit amid a boun

The FTSE 100 was struggling for direction by midday, down a smidge at 7,128.53, amid the usual summer lull in trading volumes and with few big catalysts to shift sentiment in either direction.Accommodation giant Intercontinental Hotels (IHG) fell 1.7% to £46.54, having swung to a modest first-half profit, citing an improvement in demand, most evident in China.Intercontinental Hotels, however, sti

In the five years since its launch, Vanguard Global Equity (BZ82ZT6) has achieved nearly the same returns as popular funds Fundsmith Equity (B41YBW7) and Lindsell Train Global Equity (B644PG0), and significantly outperformed two well-known global investment trusts, Alliance Trust (ATST) and Witan (WTAN).Vanguard is best known in the UK for passive tracker funds, yet Vanguard Global Equity is an ac

Global multi-managed trust Witan's (WTAN) full-year results (11 March) revealed the investment trust returned less than half that of the benchmark during 2020, at 4.2% versus 9.5% respectively.This lagging performance once again raises the question whether investors would be better off buying a low-cost global exchange-traded fund, especially as Witan's ongoing charge of 0.8% is higher than the AI

Having bumped along at negligible levels for much of 2020 as the UK economy struggled under months of lockdown, consumer inflation is back, with big implications for your savings and investment portfolio.UK CPI jumped to a four-month high of 0.7% in January, up from 0.6% in December 2020. Admittedly this rate of inflation remains modest by historical standards, yet CPI now stands at four times wha

There are many options for an investor wanting to put their money to work right around the world.Even if you've narrowed it down and decided to go for an investment trust instead of an open-ended active fund or a passive exchange-traded fund (ETF), choosing the trust for you can still seem a daunting task, particularly when there are 15 of them in the Association of Investment Companies' (AIC) glo

After enduring a tough period through the Covid-19 crisis, investment trust Witan (WTAN) has rung the changes.At first glance it looks like the trust has moved away from value investing and towards growth. We talked to investment director James Hart to discuss why this isn't necessarily the case.MULTI-MANAGER STRATEGYWitan's investment strategy involves the use of a panel of third-party managers,

UK markets reversed early falls to rally into lunch time, shrugging off the brutal sell-off in US technology stocks overnight. This was despite sentiment towards the housebuilding sector souring on news of a competition regulator probe into the selling of leasehold homes.At midday, the benchmark FTSE 100 is up 0.5% at 5,882.02, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 rallied even harder, adding 1% at 17,629.47

Multi-manager global investment trust Witan (WTAN) has dropped some high-profile fund managers from its portfolio after significantly underperforming its benchmark so far in 2020.After a strong 2019, Witan said in a performance update it has been caught out by the big market sell-off following the coronavirus outbreak, with its higher exposure to UK and Europe and lower exposure to the US hurting

Investment trusts Alliance Trust (ATST) and Witan (WTAN) are two popular funds in the UK. Investors like the way they use a panel of third party fund managers, deemed to be the cream of the crop, to pick stocks from around the world. They often get all the attention in discussions about multi-manager investment funds, but there is another player in the market which is actually delivering better p

The start of April means fund managers should now being issuing their latest quarterly reports. Normally that wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary, yet these reports will contain the first insight into how many funds have coped with the global market sell-off in late February and most of March.Some funds and investment trusts have already issued commentary on their state of affairs. Others wil

The global markets sell-off has more than doubled the average discount to net asset value on investment trusts, moving from 3.8% at the end of 2019 to 9.3% at the end of February, according to the AIC. That presents an opportunity for investors with an appetite for risk to consider buying trusts that interest them at much cheaper prices.Several sector discounts have widened by a greater amount, no

Investment trust 'Dividend Heroes' are those which have increased their dividends every year for at least 20 years in a row.Published by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), this list reveals those closed-ended funds with the most formidable dividend growth records, although it doesn't tell you the level of growth and what it would be in real terms when adjusted for inflation.This is imp

Like the uplift a sports team can receive when a new boss comes in, former Paris Saint-Germain Academy footballer Zehrid Osmani has turned around the fortunes of global equity investment trust Martin Currie Global Portfolio (MNP).Something of a laggard before Osmani joined in June 2018, the trust is the top performing trust in the global equity sector over the past 12 months, delivering a share pr

One-stop-shop funds are products designed to give investors everything they need under one roof, namely asset diversification.They can be especially attractive to investors new to handling their own long-term savings, as well as first-time investors or retirees put off by poor annuity rates. They may also work well for those investors that do not wish to make asset allocation decisions themselves,

The 110 year-old Witan Investment Trust (WTAN) has announced the adoption of a new global performance benchmark and the appointment of a new manager for part of its global portfolio.As well as being one of the UK's oldest investment trusts, Witan is one of the largest with £2.2bn of assets managed on behalf of more than 25,000 investors.READ MORE ABOUT WITAN HEREThe trust invests in global equiti