An individual employed by an institution to manage an investment fund (unit trust, investment trust, pension fund or hedge fund) to meet pre-determined objectives (usually to generate capital growth or maximise income) in prescribed geographic areas or investment sectors (such as UK smaller companies, technology or commodities). The manager also carries the responsibility for general fund supervision, as well as monitoring the daily trading activity and also developing investment strategies to manage the risk profile of the fund.
Unit trust
A collective investment vehicle (known in the US as a “mutual” or “pooled” fund) and similar to an Oeic and investment trust in that it manages financial securities on behalf of small investors who, by investing, pool their resources giving combined benefits of diversification and economies of scale. Investors buy “units” in the fund that have a proportional exposure to all the assets in the fund, and are bought and sold from the fund manager. The price of units is determined by the value of the assets in the fund and will rise or fall in line with the value of those assets. Like Oeics (but unlike investment trusts) unit trusts and are “open ended” funds, meaning that the size of each fund can vary according to supply and demand of the units form investors. Unit trusts have two prices; the higher “offer” price you pay to invest and the “bid” price, which is the lower price you receive when you sell. The difference between the two prices is commonly known as the bid/offer spread.
Investment trust
Investment trusts are companies that invest money in other companies and whose shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange. As with unit trusts, private investors buying shares in an investment trust are buying into a diversified portfolio of assets (to reduce risk), which is managed by a professional fund manager. Investment trusts differ from unit trusts in two important ways: they are listed on the stockmarket and so are owned by their shareholders and are closed-ended funds with a finite number of shares in issue. This means the share price of investment trusts might not reflect the true value of the assets in the company (known as the net asset value, or NAV) and if the NAV value of a share is £1 and the share price in the market is 90p, the trust is said to be running a discount of 10% to NAV. But this means the investor is paying 90p to gain exposure to £1 of assets. Investment trusts can also borrow money and use this money to buy investments. This is known as gearing and a geared trust is thought to be more of an investment risk than an ungeared one.
Commodities
A term applied to raw materials (gold, oil) and foodstuffs (wheat, pork bellies) traded on exchanges throughout the world. Since no one really wants to transport all those heavy materials, what is actually traded are commodities futures contracts or options. These are agreements to buy or sell at an agreed price on a specific date. Because commodity prices are volatile, investing in futures is certainly not for the casual investor.
