Peter Lees: 'the best stock-pickers' market since World War II'

Foreign & Colonial are a huge disappointment for me I hold a number of their funds in an ISA which is ever decreasing because F&C are losing the funds to other managers.

Losses of funds to other managers in the last 6 months are due to u/performance of F&C

The European fund

Pacific Fund

Commercial Property Fund

I have lost money on all funds due to F&C transactions.

If its a stock pickers market why dont they start to prove it by increasing the value of their investment trust shares bu picking decent shares.

All very nice hearing from this guy

"Listening to F&C 's veteran head of UK equities holding court on all things investment is quite an experience."

But CITYWIRE you should be quizzing him on F C's long-term investment failures. This trust has been a long-term underperformer but magazines and sites like you continue to give it oxygen space as if it were a front-runner. Why ???

Did your editor's sister marry the marketing director ?

Jeremy ?????? frequently turns up in financial magazines , but he is never apologising for sub-standard returns or lost mandates.

Don't feature them again and please tell us why you featured thenm this time .

there are much better Investment trusts than F&C several top performers in the Aberdeen Stable ,that suit me just now.

I have F&C funds within a CTF. I have lost money on CTF above the normal ups and downs of the market because funds have either been wound up for reasons I don't fully understand or moved across to other Managers. It's been a disaster, I would advise people to keep away from F&C.

I agree with the comments above. I used to hold a few thousand pounds in their tech, pacific and euro investment trusts. The latter two are now managed by others as F&C were poor performers, for example the pacific fund actually lost money mid nineties to mid noughties! I am a long term investor, but F&C need to improve greatly or I will sell my remaining holding in their general investment trust. I would not take any notice of any F&C market prediction.

I too am surprised that F&C are chosen to guide us to the light. I made the mistake of buying one of their Child Investment Funds where they managed to lose 50 % of the value, in less than a year. At no juncture did F&C suggest that I might wish to rethink the investment.

Having cashed the Funds and invested in 'Blue Chip' FTSE 100 funds, I have managed to kick start the fund.

F&C are not for me, and this experience will always make me doubt the company !

Erwyn

I have had a F&C ISA since ISAs began. My wife has had an Aberdeen ISA for the same length of time. Her ISA today is worth 37.5% more than mine.

I do think that David Andrews has highlighted some things that have been bothering me for some time in the general sense about artical writers.

1] Chatter - the endless rants of financial piece writers (here and in the financial mags) who couch their comments in 'coulds'. Yes, a double dip COULD happen; that's hardly an insight is it ?

Similarly, I'm fed up reading pithy articles that tell me all the case for making an investment in - whatever, on the front half of the article only to hear the risks in the second half. The author can never be wrong ! The author is writing without conviction and hiding behind the skirts of couched language.

2] The tips and recommendations of (especially) funds that when I look at their historical performance all seem to have had a great 5 year performance, but for every period since, they seem to have bombed !

This one just makes me wonder if these writers are informed at all with up to date data, or indeed if they are overtly or otherwise, being 'sponsored' for their recommendations??????

I'm truely beginning to consider that these so called insight articles are actually valueless.

following these comments the credibility of the host site is in question--why give high profile coverage to a poor company???????

I have no problem with these articles.- I read them as if I were reading a comic for amusement. My take is why would anyone give me free advice to benefit me.

Nearly all the experts that Citywire trots out have their own interests at heart.

Even the articles that don't overtly recommend investment are either plain wrong or full of so much equivocation as to be meaningless. You only need to understand the "raison d'etre " of Citywire to know that you have to take it all with a large dose of salt