I've been trying unsuccessfully to find out if their were any investment funds in the UK that adhere to the principles of "value investing" as espoused by Benjamin Graham. I've found some in the US that seem to invest along these lines. For example:

• LongLeaf Partners
• Davis Funds
• Vanguard

Ideally these would be funds that:

• value long-term investing over short-term speculation,
• would concentrate on a smaller group of stocks they know well rather than following the crowd and owning everything everyone else does
• would shut they're funds before they balloon out of size
• have managers that are big shareholders in their own funds
• good ethics - ie. not trying to get short-term percentage gains over long-term investment potential

As you can probably tell I've been reading the Intelligent Investor and find the book fantastic although the Commentaries have a US slant on them.

Personally just at a loss right now about where to invest in the current economic climate, not really knowlegable enough (yet!) to make my own individual stock selections, and looking for some well-run funds but not necessarily from the big names.

Cheers!

I know you say that you don't feel you're ready to pick out individual shares but I'll just say this:

I'm a good way through The Intelligent Investor (the original 1940s edition!) and the so-called High Yield Portfolio seems to follow a good deal of Graham's investment tenets. Not strictly on the value side - although the creator of the HYP strategy is a value investor and I lean that way with my HYP - but it definitely follows Graham's strategies of investing in solid big-cap, high yielding shares. And holding onto them.

I used to invest in equity funds but in the end I found the fees galling for the quite often awful returns funds achieve. Doing it yourself, you'll probably do as well as the average fund, and you won't have to pay any fat fund fees.

Give this podcast a listen to and see if it strikes a chord with you:
http://www.fool.co.uk/money-talk/investing...-portfolio.aspx

Disclaimer: Do your own research of course - the value of your shares can fall as well as plummet (etc. etc.)