Top 10 most-popular investment funds: October 2025

The price of the yellow metal took a tumble in the penultimate week of October, but so far this is proving to be more of a pullback than a significant correction.

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As analyst John Ficenec noted in his piece on gold, the price had been hovering just under an all-time high of $4,400 an ounce – the commodity’s best performance in 46 years since the 1979 oil crisis triggered a surge in inflation – before falling back.

The alternative asset has been in demand for a slew of reasons including investor anxiety over geopolitics, a weak dollar, uncertainty over trade tariffs, the threat of inflation, and central banks buying gold. As a result, investors have been piling in, and actively managed fund Jupiter Gold & Silver I GBP Acc entered the top 10 in 10th place, resulting in the relegation of Ranmore Global Equity. The Jupiter fund is mainly exposed to gold and silver miners rather than the metal itself.

Some commentators have sounded a warning over the precious metal’s safe-haven asset, and specialist writer Ceri Jones asked a handful of experts for their views.

Meanwhile, silver, an alternative diversifier, is also coveted by investors, with the white metal’s industrial uses including growth areas such as electronics, electric vehicle battery technology, data centres, and solar panels. However, risk-averse investors should note that this commodity can be more volatile than gold.

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Meanwhile, Royal London Short Term Money Market remains the most-bought fund on the interactive investor platform, according to the number of buys among ii customers, with regular investing excluded.

The Royal London cash-like strategy allows investors to earn an income on their money with minimal risk. Yields on money market funds jumped when interest rates began rising at the end of 2021. Although interest rates have started moving down, and are currently set at 4%, investors can still enjoy a return that beats inflation (3.8% in September) since money market fund yields are closely linked to the Bank of England base rate.

The fund is one of ii’s Investment Pathway options for SIPP customers in drawdown and is suggested for those planning to take all their money within the next five years.

The Vanguard LifeStrategy range remains well represented in the top 10, with the 100% Equity, 80% Equity and 60% Equity options in eighth, seventh, and second place respectively. The multi-asset funds are highly diversified and low cost, so they suit a broad range of investor aims and experience levels.

A trio of low-cost global trackers also remain in the top 10: HSBC FTSE All-World Index, Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index, andFidelity Index World. It is well worth scrutinising the factsheets for these funds, since a lot of “global” trackers have a large weighting to the US, which may not always suit investors, especially those who may want to avoid concentration risk and fear an AI bubble.

For example, the Fidelity fund has a 72.4% weighting to the US (30 September factsheet), while the HSBC fund has 62%, plus emerging markets exposure, including China and Taiwan. The Vanguard tracker has a similar weighting, at 63%, plus some emerging market exposure.

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The two funds offering exposure to emerging markets may be preferred plays for some investors. Specialist writer Beth Brearley recently considered whether investors should go all in on China or plump for broader emerging market exposure.

Another fund for those desiring alower weighting to the world’s biggest economy is fourth-ranked Artemis Global Income I Acc, which has a value bent, and is discussed further down this article.

If you’re gung-ho on large-cap US tech, however, the L&G Global Technology Index I Acc (third place) has delivered returns of 38.5%, 160.5%and 187% over one, three and five years respectively. This £4.5 billion passively managed growth fund can be owned for 0.33% a year.

Its biggest holding, NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), became the first company valued at $5 trillion (£3.8 billion) last week and, as our head of investment Victoria Scholar reported in her new ii Tech Focus article, its CEO, Jensen Huang, has announced new partnerships with companies including Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER) and Palantir Technologies Inc Ordinary Shares - Class A (NASDAQ:PLTR).

Top 10 most-popular funds in October 2025

Source: interactive investor. Performance data to 3 November 2025. Note: the top 10 is based on the number of “buys” during the month of October. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

Top 10 most-bought active funds

The appearance of a new money market fund, L&G Cash Trust in the top 10 means that almost half the ranking of the monthly most-bought active funds is made up of money market funds. The distribution yield for the L&G Cash Trust is 4.3%, according to its latest factsheet dated 30 September.

The uptick in popularity may be explained by a risk-off attitude among investors ahead of the UK Budget on 26 November, as well as bets on the speed of Bank of England interest rate cuts.

The Bank is due to announce its latest decision on the base rate this Thursday, with “economists divided over the central bank’s next move with some anticipating a rate cut in December, while others believe the Monetary Policy Committee will wait until the new year”, according to ii’s head of investment Victoria Scholar.

Royal London Short Term Money Market fund, discussed in more detail further up this article, is the most popular actively managed fund in our top 10, with its accumulation share class in first place and its income version in fourth place. Its ongoing charges figure (OCF) is 0.10%, while the L&G fund has a slightly higher fee of 0.15%, and seventh-ranked Vanguard Sterling Short-Term Money Market fund has an OCF of 0.12%.

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Like the Royal London fund,Artemis Global Incomefund has both its accumulation and income share classes in the top 10, in second and ninth place respectively. Top 10 holdings (30 September factsheet) in this global dividend-paying companies’ portfolio include South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace, Canadian miner Kinross Gold Corp (NYSE:KGC), and Italian bank Banco BPM SpA (MTA:BAMI). The contrarian fund’s biggest exposure is to Europe (34.2%), followed by the US (28.5%) and emerging markets (24.1%). In terms of sectors, its largest weighting are to financials (37.8%) and industrials (24%) – which are the only two sectors with double-digit exposure.

In Ranmore Global Equity’slatest factsheet (September), the team discuss their “recent investment in Greggs”, the UK bakery chain known for its sausage rolls and merchandise collaboration with Associated British Foods (LSE:ABF)-owned Primark. Greggs (LSE:GRG) is referred to as an “excellent business with a strong balance sheet”.

The Ranmore team explain what prompted them to start buying the FTSE 250 business in July, and say that Greggs’ “long-term growth trajectory remains in place, with the potential to open a further 900 stores, new bake-at-home products, growing evening sales and the opportunity to gain market share from more expensive competitors in a difficult economic environment”.

Other Ranmore top 10 holdings include Sally Beauty Holdings Inc (NYSE:SBH) (discussed last month) and Haier Smart Home Co Ltd Class H (SEHK:6690), a Chinese business founded in 1984 that manufactures household appliances. It sells a significant amount outside Asia, including in Europe and North America.

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Two gold funds remain in the top 10, namely Jupiter Gold & Silver (discussed above) andNinety One Global Gold.The latter invests at least two-thirds in the shares of firms involved in mining, and its top 10 holdings include Barrick Mining Corp (NYSE:B), Anglogold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), and Alamos Gold Inc Class A (NYSE:AGI). In total, the specialist fund has 32 equity holdings and investors can own it for 0.89% a year.

The £1.6 billion WS Blue Whale Growth fund is the other new entry, in 10th place. In its Q3 commentary, the Blue Whale team said: “Our holdings are spread across a diversity of idiosyncratic ideas - AI infrastructure, defence, sports gaming, digital payments, smoke-free world, luxury goods and biologics among others.” The fund’s exposure to North America is 69.5%, while its largest weighting is to technology (45%) followed by consumer discretionary (16.7%). Top 10 stocks include Nvidia, Vertiv Holdings Co Class A (NYSE:VRT), a provider of critical digital infrastructure, and online sports betting and iGaming operator Flutter Entertainment (LSE:FLTR).

Top 10 most-bought active funds in October 2025