Completely new to this

[minglukhan (G B)]

First time investor - I’ve tried to balance out my portfolio but wondered what you thought of the below?

S+P 500 ETF (approx 10% of portfolio)
FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (approx 10% of portfolio)
Global Clean Energy ETF (approx 10% of portfolio)
FTSE Japan ETF (approx 10% of porfolio)
Oxford Biomed (approx 10% of portfolio)
US Tech Sector ETF (approx 10% of portfolio)
Scottish Mortgage Trust (approx 20% of portfolio)
China Special Trust (approx 20% of portfolio)

I guess I’m more into wealth preservation and naturally cautious. Would love to hear your thoughts or any suggestions on balancing my portfolio.

[jbowen (Bow)]

Personally I really like what you’ve got there. The 5 sectors I buy into are tech, clean power, healthcare, materials and a diversified section (terms a bit vague but they do the job for me) .
So I may be a bit biased. I don’t bother much with the emerging markets as ideally I would buy into in etfs based on individual countries if they were available on FT

[minglukhan (G B)]

Thanks, I think I used a Freetrade blog post where they suggested some low cost ETF’s and the emerging markets one was put forward as a good choice. I probably need more individual stocks in there but I’m very wary with the current situation. I feel like ETF’s and Trusts spread the risk a little.

[jbowen (Bow)]

With the fractional buying available on U.S. stocks you could get a very low cost starting point on a few individual stocks. If your only comfortable with a tiny portion of portfolio then that’s fine. Its important to feel comfortable and confident with your actions with shares and not to feel rushed to do anything

[jbowen (Bow)]

I’m a big fan of SMT too, my largest holding on FT at the moment

[Connor]

Welcome to the community.

You should be aware trusts have higher charges than ETFs, in general.

It’s a nice and diverse portfolio, a good mix of developed and emerging markets.

If wealth preservation is part of your goal, you should include more than equities. You should think bonds, and maybe commodities (e.g. gold) that will help mitigate the impact of the next downturn on your portfolio.

Here are examples of simple portfolios.

This is a Buffet-style portfolio, a small amount of bonds, a lot of equities for (hopefully, but not guaranteed at all) aggressive growth.

The next one is a rather conservative portfolio, half bonds, half stocks. Harry Markowitz is considered by many to be the grandfather of portfolio building - he won the 1990 Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics for contributions to what is now known as Modern Portfolio Theory.

All in all, the important thing is what is your goal? The more aggressive growth you target (and the more risk you can take), the more equities you should have, like equities ETFs or individual stocks.

Individual stocks are quite risky as your money is invested in one individual company as opposed to a range of companies, which is the case with ETFs.

The long and short of it is, if capital preservation is your goal, you could consider adding some other asset classes such as bonds.

Not financial advice and please do your own research.