Top 10 most popular investments funds: October 2026

The Royal London Short Term Money Mkt Y Acc (B8XYYQ8) fund remains the most popular fund among investors by a country mile, according to the number of buys among interactive investor customers in October, with regular investing excluded.

Both shares classes of the money market fund appear in the top 10, with the income option in 10th place and the accumulation version (where dividends are reinvested) seemingly cemented in first place. 

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Investors buying this low-risk, cash-like fund are currently enjoying a yield of around 4%. This is currently beating inflation - the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported a rise to 3.5% in September - and some bank deposit rates. Ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, and concerns over stretched valuations among AI stocks are also likely to maintain investor appetite for these non-equity funds. There’s also the ‘dry powder’ aspect  - should an attractive opportunity emerge, investors can easily deploy the capital into an investment.

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The global tracker funds ranked second and third, Vanguard FTSE Global All Cp Idx £ Acc (BD3RZ58) and HSBC FTSE All-World Index C Acc (BMJJJF9), have held on to their positions since last month. Investors in these funds are getting a low-cost, hands-off approach with a diversified global market exposure. Investors ought to note that both funds have an allocation to emerging markets exposure, whereas global tracker Fidelity Index World P Acc (BJS8SJ3), ranked in eighth place, does not. It is also worth being aware that while the names of all three funds suggest a well-rounded exposure to global markets, they all have a significant allocation to the US market, at 65.5%, 61%, and 72.7%, respectively. 

An investor who featured in our article ‘Case study: managing a £1.25m pension and ISA portfolio in midlife’, explained that while she uses a single fund - second-ranked Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index £ Acc - across both her and her children’s tax wrappers, she “may consider moving to the [new] exchange-traded fund (ETF) equivalent in future [ Vanguard FTSE Global All-Cap ETF USD Acc GBP (LSE:VALL)], as the charges are lower”, but that she is waiting to see “how it performs and works in practice first”. The fund launched in August this year.

The popular multi-asset Vanguard LifeStrategy trio, Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity A Acc (B4PQW15), Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% Equity A Acc (B41XG30), and Vanguard LifeStrategy 60% Equity A Acc (B3TYHH9), are once again in the ranking, in fourth, seventh and ninth place respectively. These equity/bond funds are often used as ‘core’ investments by retail investors preferring a buy and hold strategy, since Vanguard automatically carries out the re-balancing, meaning the risk level chosen remains the same without individuals having to manage it themselves.

Pure-play tech fund L&G Global Technology Index I Acc (B0CNH16) has moved up three places to fifth place, while value-oriented Artemis Global Income I Acc (B5ZX1M7) has shifted down to sixth place.

Top 10 most-popular funds in October 2026

Source: interactive investor. Performance data to 1 November 2026. 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.

Most-bought active funds

There were two new active funds in the rankings, abrdn Sterling Money Market I Acc (B1C4233), in 10th place, and Polar Capital Global Tech I Inc GBP (B42W4J8) in seventh place.

Ben Rogoff, one of the managers of the Polar Capital open-ended fund, recently featured in one of our Insider Interview videos, where he discussed the closed-ended vehicle, Polar Capital Technology Ord (LSE:PCT). Rogoff named stocks that also appear in the open-ended fund portfolio, such as SanDisk Corp Ordinary Shares (NASDAQ:SNDK), a supplier of NAND flash memory semiconductors. The fund manager described SanDisk as “one of the biggest wins this year” and a “phenomenal stock”. 

SanDisk was a top 10 holding for Polar Capital Global Tech fund, according to the most recently available factsheet (dated 30 September), alongside Magnificent Seven mega-caps NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Meta Platforms Inc Class A (NASDAQ:META).

The fund’s performance over the usual one, three and five years periods is 35%, 207%, and 173%. However, while these are eye-catching returns, some investors have cold feet on tech over the uncertain future returns from such stocks following huge AI spending. They may are also be fearful of concentration risk when it comes to exposure to US technology in their portfolios. Alphabet’s share price fall at the end of last week may have unnerved some further still.

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Meanwhile, investors continue to hunger for ultra low-risk money market funds, with Aberdeen Sterling Money Market fund joining the ranking. The yield on cash-like money market funds is closely tied to the Bank of England base rate, which is currently 3.75%. With some commentators expecting the Bank to hike interest rates in November in light of stubborn inflation, investors are positioned to potentially reap the benefits of higher yields on their money market funds. 

The Aberdeen fund is joined in the table by fellow money market funds, Fidelity Cash W Acc (BD1RHT8), Vanguard Stlg S/T Mny Mkts A GBP Acc (BFYDWM5), and Royal London Short Term Money Market - both the accumulation and income share classes.

WS Blue Whale Growth R Sterling Acc (BD6PG78) fund swam up the table to fourth place in October. The £2.6 billion global fund, which is managed by Stephen Yiu, has just turned nine year old. Its portfolio consists of 30 holdings, and it has a 51% weighting to technology. Its top 10 holdings include Nvidia, Modine Manufacturing Co (NYSE:MOD), a provider of cooling equipment to data centres, and SK hynix Inc ADR (NASDAQ:SKHY).

The two funds departing the table of most-bought active funds are Jupiter Gold & Silver, and Artemis SmartGARP European Equity. The former fund’s popularity has waned in light of a pullback in the gold price since August.

Top 10 most-bought active funds October 2026