Share Sounds. related to Investing in Funds

This is today's edition of The Apprentice Investor. Regular listeners to the show will know that our Apprentices are five members of the Share Radio team who've each been given fifteen thousand pounds of virtual money to build their individual share portfolios. They have a minimum of eight stocks which they've been buying and selling through The Share Centre. So...are our financial novices in line for a June windfall...or is financial disappointment lurking around the corner? Apprentices Alexi Philips and Olivia Demetriades are in the studio along with Ed Bowsher, Share Radio's Senior Analyst.

This is 'crowdfunders' the show that covers the fastest growing sector in finance. This week, host Ed Bowsher talks to a company called Positiveitea, we have a platform profile of crowdcube, major news about LendingClub & also Ed is joined by a co-founder of Zopa, Bruce Davis. Zopa is the world's first peer-to-peer marketplace lending site.

This is Emerging Opportunities - the only show on radio dedicated to the world of emerging markets. Joining Juliette Foster in studio is Gavin Serkin, author of Frontier: Exploring the Top Ten Emerging Markets of Tomorrow, and the Managing Editor of Frontier Funds and Frontera News. Also joining Juliette is James Bennett of Aston Currency Management & Joe Delvaux from Duet Asset Management. Topics today range from currency strength in emerging markets, trouble for Mozambique's economy & a debt scandal, plus discussion on Africa's broader economy & much more!

We turn to foreign direct investment in Europe and take a look at the amount of money that's being invested in European businesses or projects from other countries. For his thoughts, Ed Bowsher spoke to Marc Lhermitte, Area partner manager elect at EY, also known as Ernst and Young.

This is the Responsible Investment show. Morningstar, the investment research and management firm, recently held its annual Investment Conference with social and ethically aware investing as one of the central themes. The event comes a year after Morningstar unveiled plans to launch the industry's first sustainability ratings index for global mutual and exchange traded funds. So what prompted that decision? Patrick Jones went to the company's conference where he put that question to San Lie, Director of Manager Research at Morningstar Benelux. But how transparent are your investments? Industry experts say that a lack of fee transparency in many funds is stinging buyers with hidden charges -- in some cases they're so high the investments could lose money. It's claimed some unscrupulous fund managers may be exploiting the lack of transparency for their own ends. Matt Cox was also at the Morningstar Conference and he asked Gina Miller a founding partner of SCM and an advocate of fee transparency, about how opaque charging can hurt investors. And finally, James Donald of Lazard Asset Management told the Morningstar conference how his company screens for Environment and Social Governance or - ESG - in companies that operate in emerging markets. Share Radio reporter Patrtick Jones caught up with him and asked him about the ESG qualities it looks for in emerging market businesses.

Guest Investment Perspectives Presenter Steve Clarke joins Helal Miah, Investment Research Analyst at the Share Centre to talk Vodafone, Burberry, Royal Mail, Kingfisher, M&S forecasts and much more!

Private investors often like to focus on smaller companies, so as the guest for this week's smaller companies slot is Sean Keyes, Managing Editor of the Penny Share letter, who speaks with Investment Perspectives guest presenter, Ed Bowsher.

This is our regular small-cap investor slot, and this week we're talking to David Stredder, director of the Share Soc and keen private investor.

Sarah Pennells analyses the the dos and dont's when it comes to investing for the first time. This week's Young Money Champion, James Connington, starts off by discussing how he started investing and whether he encountered any surprises or disadvantages. Michelle McGrade, from TD Direct Investing, focuses on the ethics behind it; Tom Stevenson, from Fidelity Worldwide Investing, emphasises the importance of investing, while Simon Webster, from Facts and Figures, explains what the term ‘investing in ISAs’ means.

As a nation, we have something of a love affair with property, but investing in property doesn’t necessarily have to involve buying a house or flat. In fact, it doesn’t have to mean you put your money into houses at all – you could invest in office blocks or shopping centres through investment funds. Sarah Pennells and her guests, Mark Weedon, Head of Institutional Development at Property Partner, and Guy Glover, Manager of the F&C Property Fund, discuss what to think about when it comes to investing in property and how to do this using funds and crowdfunding.