Most popular SIPP investments

What are the most popular SIPP investments?

A self-invested personal pension (SIPP) gives you greater control over how you invest for retirement, and there’s usually a wider selection of funds, shares and investment trusts to choose from.

You may choose to have a SIPP alongside your workplace pension.

SIPPs – DIY ‘pot-for-life’ pensions – are increasing in popularity. The total assets held in SIPPs stood at almost £650 billion in 2025, with more than six million investors, according to MoretoSIPPs, a specialist consultancy run by SIPP industry veteran John Moret.

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The midpoint of the year can be an excellent time to review your SIPP – - perhaps the funds you have are not quite working for you or you want to add some additional picks to take advantage of growing opportunities.

With thousands of investment options to choose from, it can be difficult to know which ones to add to your SIPP portfolios.

We spoke to one of the leading platform providers to find out which investments are the most popular with its SIPP holders to help give you some ideas and starting points as to the stocks, funds and trusts you might want to add.

The most popular SIPP investments with Interactive Investor

The most-bought SIPP investments on investment platform Interactive Investor between 1 October 2025 and 31 March 2026 reflected the current divergence between optimism and pessimism surrounding the stock market.

Precious metals were well-represented as the price of gold and silver remained elevated during the period, though no longer at record highs.

iShares Physical Gold ETC (LON:SGLN) topped the list of the most popular SIPP investments on the direct-to-consumer investment platform among real-time investors (as opposed to regular investors, who typically favoured funds). The iShares Physical Silver ETC (LON: SSLN) came in third.

Artificial intelligence (AI) stalwarts Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) took the fourth and fifth spots, while a money market fund came second (money market funds effectively replicate cash-like returns and risk profiles).

On the platform, the top 10 most popular SIPPinvestments among real-time investors between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026 were:

• iShares Physical Gold ETC
• Royal London Short Term Money Market
• iShares Physical Silver ETC
• Nvidia
• Tesla
• Strategy
• Microsoft
• Artemis Global Income Fund
• Vanguard Lifestrategy 80% Equity
• Amazon

The picture was more fund-focused among regular investors during the same period, where globally diversified equity funds dominated. Here are their top 10 picks:

• Vanguard Lifestrategy 80% Equity
• HSBC FTSE All World Index
• Vanguard Lifestrategy 60% Equity
• Vanguard Lifestrategy 100% Equity
• L&G Global Technology Index Trust
• Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index
• iShares Physical Gold ETC
• Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF
• Scottish Mortgage
• Fidelity Index World

Craig Rickman, personal finance expert at Interactive Investor, says: “When it comes to the investments people have favoured, funds are the go-to choice for regular contributions, occupying seven out of the top 10 positions. Three out of the top four most popular are various flavours of Vanguard’s LifeStrategy Range, with another global strategy, HSBC’s FTSE All-World Index, sandwiched between them.

“The situation with real-time investments is more disparate, with a mixture of direct equities – notably tech giants like Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla – ETFs, global strategies and commodities. The surging prices of precious metals clearly caught investors’ eyes, with two iShares exchange traded commodities, physical gold and physical silver, in the top three positions.”

What else should I consider when choosing my SIPP investments?

The first things to think about when considering your SIPP investments are your age and expected time horizon – how long are you investing for? When do you plan to retire?

In most cases, the longer your time horizon, the more risk you can take. This includes having more exposure to equities, which can be more volatile in price but the longer time frame allows your investments time to recover.

It’s also worth blending a couple of different strategies together to maximise the diversification benefits without risk of overlap, such as a passive developed market and actively managed emerging market fund. Perhaps you want to have some broad market exposure like a global index fund, complemented with some more thematic or specific funds, if there’s a region or industry sector you’re particularly keen on. Bear in mind a more concentrated portfolio brings associated risks.

For investors later in their journey, or retired clients using their SIPP in drawdown, an income generating option makes sense. Many experts also consider bringing down the equity risk in a portfolio as one nears retirement, looking for a total return through mixed assets.