George Osborne warns City to prepare for turmoil over Russia

[Esseesse]

Chancellor says action on Ukraine could have a significant impact on City of London.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10761...

Should those of us invested in particular funds (I suppose equity heavy ones) and shares be worrying?

[Simpo Two]

Markets aside, it's amusing to think we can worry Russia with 'sanctions' when they could screw us royally if they so wished.

Blame the lefties for not wanting nuclear power.

But higher interest rates will be nice

[Esseesse]

Simpo Two said:

Markets aside, it's amusing to think we can worry Russia with 'sanctions' when they could screw us royally if they so wished.

Blame the lefties for not wanting nuclear power.

But higher interest rates will be nice

Of course, but Russia does rely overly on gas sales AFAIK.

[Wozy68]

Esseesse said:

and shares be worrying?

Tell me ......, Only I could invest in a British mining company in the far east of Russia, just before Putin decides to show the World how big his schlong is.

[Funk]

Apparently none of our gas comes from Russia at the moment, but the knock-on effect of sanctions or supply threat in the EU could have nasty shocks that would affect us.

[Esseesse]

Funk said:

Apparently none of our gas comes from Russia at the moment, but the knock-on effect of sanctions or supply threat in the EU could have nasty shocks that would affect us.

Yes, it's not a huge amount of gas that comes from Russia to the UK. However as you say, if those who are reliant on Russian gas (Poland uses 90% Russian gas IIRC) have big problems I feel like the knock on effects could be quite huge. I have a few shares in companies, and some money in small/unconstrained funds... part of me feels like it might be wise to more or less stay in cash for the next 6 months or so and see how things play out. Surprisingly there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of commentary about this.

Perhaps fund managers ought to be looking to close positions where appropriate on their investors behalf? I'd imagine though that it's pretty hard to shift the large amounts of cash they're often managing.

[L555BAT]

I'm looking to put £10k into a SIPP, invested in various funds and bonds.

Thinking I'll hold it in an ISA for a few months and see what happens, especially given today's escalations.

[GrizzlyBear]

Simpo Two said:

Markets aside, it's amusing to think we can worry Russia with 'sanctions' when they could screw us royally if they so wished.

Blame the lefties for not wanting nuclear power.

But higher interest rates will be nice

Agree, especially with the higher interest rates; a return to free markets and normal rates, but that could kill of the recovery relapse of excessively cheap and easy credit that definitely isn't the exact thing that caused the financial crisis in the first place. It would also help the majority so there is no chance of them doing that.

Edited by GrizzlyBear on Tuesday 15th April 15:34

[Ginge R]

Esseesse said:

Chancellor says action on Ukraine could have a significant impact on City of London.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10761...

Should those of us invested in particular funds (I suppose equity heavy ones) and shares be worrying?

If you like the idea of investing in Russian mining, this sort of risk is something that you should be happy with before you sign the paperwork. If you are worried about it, your capacity for loss is probably not as high as your capacity for risk. I'm not suggesting you shouldn't avoid the rapidly looming car crash if you can see the brake lights all coming on in the fog ahead, but if you're that risk averse, maybe something less spicy would be better - do you really need to be trying to shoot the lights out or might you come a cropper, by taking excessive risk needlessly?

If you're in moderately heavy funds across the board, then this was always going to be a year of volatility anyway. The uncertainty that we have seen over the past few months is evidence of that. If you have an investment timeline that is consistent with some short term choppiness, if you factor in all the pros and cons, then (sorry!) "it isn't timing the market, it's time in the market that counts". Regular payments, drip feeding into well managed funds when units are being accrued at a modest discount win't do many investors harm over the medium/long term - if they were right for them in the first place.

Take a view on holding your nerve and remembering that investing is all about taking a measured, longer term perspective anyway. Now might be a good time to see where you can trim the cost base, do a little research on options and learn any lessons you're experiencing now, in case this happens again - have a contingency in place for the next time (which might be a little closer to your investment timeline exit date anyway).

[Esseesse]

Ginge R said:

If you like the idea of investing in Russian mining, this sort of risk is something that you should be happy with before you sign the paperwork. If you are worried about it, your capacity for loss is probably not as high as your capacity for risk. I'm not suggesting you shouldn't avoid the rapidly looming car crash if you can see the brake lights all coming on in the fog ahead, but if you're that risk averse, maybe something less spicy would be better - do you really need to be trying to shoot the lights out or might you come a cropper, by taking excessive risk needlessly?

If you're in moderately heavy funds across the board, then this was always going to be a year of volatility anyway. The uncertainty that we have seen over the past few months is evidence of that. If you have an investment timeline that is consistent with some short term choppiness, if you factor in all the pros and cons, then (sorry!) "it isn't timing the market, it's time in the market that counts". Regular payments, drip feeding into well managed funds when units are being accrued at a modest discount win't do many investors harm over the medium/long term - if they were right for them in the first place.

Take a view on holding your nerve and remembering that investing is all about taking a measured, longer term perspective anyway. Now might be a good time to see where you can trim the cost base, do a little research on options and learn any lessons you're experiencing now, in case this happens again - have a contingency in place for the next time (which might be a little closer to your investment timeline exit date anyway).

Thanks for your post. I'm new to investing, I have always been very good at saving but never thought to put my savings to work until more recently. I've traded a bit over the last 18 months with a smallish amount and done fairly well, however after that investing in a fund feels quite at arms length as I'm not able to just pull my money out at a moments notice. After the budget the outlook for the UK seemed broadly positive to me so I thought it made sense to invest in a UK fund or 2 longer term, however the 'turmoil over Russia' has sown some doubts. My timeframe is not short, more than one decade quite possibly if things continued to make sense so concern over a few % is probably unwarranted.

[dudleybloke]

anyone in the market for some lada shares?

[Ginge R]

Esseesse said:

Thanks for your post. I'm new to investing, I have always been very good at saving but never thought to put my savings to work until more recently. I've traded a bit over the last 18 months with a smallish amount and done fairly well, however after that investing in a fund feels quite at arms length as I'm not able to just pull my money out at a moments notice. After the budget the outlook for the UK seemed broadly positive to me so I thought it made sense to invest in a UK fund or 2 longer term, however the 'turmoil over Russia' has sown some doubts. My timeframe is not short, more than one decade quite possibly if things continued to make sense so concern over a few % is probably unwarranted.

Nice one.

If you have a long timeline, which you have, you either build up units in funds by buying whilst they're cheap and don't even bother looking at the markets for a month or three, or you just find a safe harbour for a bit and park in cash until the weather improves.

You raise a very good point though - bouyant political news and economic conditions being favourable don't automatically mean trading conditions are also going to be (small company returns have generally done better than established ones for instance). If you're in good funds in keeping with where you want to be, it'll all come out in the wash.