The fund that's tempted this cash-rich investor to buy

Cash is burning a hole in Saltydog's pocket, but analyst Douglas Chadwick is not getting carried away. He continues to look for opportunities and has found a rising market to make a small investment.

A small light shining brightly

Over the last couple of months, we have focused on how stockmarkets around the world have been going down and the ongoing threats to the global economy. 

In the UK the 'Brexit' negotiations continue to dominate the headlines and, with the departure date set for March 2019, they will no doubt remain hot news for the next few months. Even then it will be far from a done deal. That’s when the trade talks begin, as we head into the transition period which will last until the end of 2020 at the earliest.

Further afield, Trump's trade wars and his America First policies have already had a significant effect on global markets, especially in China where the Shanghai Composite has lost over 20% of its value during the year. The US Federal Reserve has also started to reverse the quantitative easing program where it bought $4.5 trillion of bonds to try to stimulate the economy. It is also increasing interest rates and bond yields are starting to rise. These trends seem likely to continue.

Our portfolios have been predominantly in cash and that has worked to our advantage, even if sometimes it feels like we've got money burning a hole in our pockets.

We've continued to keep a small amount invested, and are always looking for potential opportunities. However, it is important not to get carried away and to try too hard to fight against the current. We're waiting on the beach for the tide to come in, but won't make a significant move until our feet get wet.

One region that does seem to have picked up in the last few weeks is India. In our unit trust and OEIC analysis we track three funds investing in this area and they have all moved towards the top of our 'Specialist' sector table.

Source: interactive investor      Past performance is not a guide to future performance

The Jupiter India fund is doing particularly well. It's gone up over 10% in the last four weeks, and has got another 12.5% to go to get back to where it was three months ago. It's still over 20% lower than it was a year ago.

Our demonstration portfolios have recently bought into this fund, although only with a relatively small initial investment. We'll wait and see how that gets on before adding to it.

Funds investing in India have also shown up in our exchange traded fund (ETF) and Investment Trust analysis.

The JPM India Investment Trust is up over 7% in the last four weeks, and the New India Investment Trust has gained 8.6% over a similar period.

The db x-trackers CNX NIFTY ETF is also up nearly 8% over the last four weeks.
It's said that even the smallest lights shine brightly in the darkness. Unfortunately, they may also be the easiest to blow out.

We're glad that we've found somewhere that may be offering positive returns at the moment, but aren't getting carried away and will be monitoring our investments closely.

For more information about Saltydog Investor, or to take the 2-month free trial, go to www.saltydoginvestor.com.