Five top investment trusts to buy and forget until 2040

Picking winning long-term stocks is extremely difficult but, with a sensible spread of solid funds, investors can look forward to maximum gains with minimum fuss, says Max King

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Japan offers investors one of the world’s best opportunities
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There is a saying on Wall Street: “the definition of a long-term investment is a short-term investment that has gone wrong”. Good traders cut their losses on mistakes and so should good investors, but good investors also hang onto their winners. “Our favourite holding period is forever,” according to Warren Buffett.

Picking the stocks that will be great investments for 20 years is easier said than done, as a glance at the constituents of the FTSE 100 20 years ago shows. Many have not survived. Some of the major tech stocks of 20 years ago have been winners, but have also provided a gut-wrenching roller-coaster ride. Note that the entire gain in the US stockmarket since 1926 is due to the best 4% of listed companies.

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Max King
Investment Writer

Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – two directorships are still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. See here for details of current investments held by Max.