ii Index: Q2 2025

“We’ve seen impressive ii investor performance. Not only over the last quarter, but also the last five years. Market volatility is part and parcel in investing in the markets, which is why it’s important to diversify and have a long-term investment horizon.

“The last few months are case-in-point, particularly in April after the so-called ‘liberation day’ across the pond and the impact of the ‘Trump tariffs.’ But we can see that this hasn’t deterred investors.

“In fact, this same period of volatility also saw our busiest ever trading day on 7 April, with more purchases than sells. Our investors kept calm and carried on, and some took this as an opportunity to bolster their portfolios.

“This is a consistent trend; in fact, our investors are a great case study in getting the fundamentals of investing right – helping to weather geopolitical storms and market uncertainty without panic-selling.”

Camilla Esmund, Senior PR Manager

Esmund comments: “Investors across all of our age groups outperformed the IA Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector over the five-and-a-half-year period, but those aged 35-44 have performed the best over the longest timeframe.

“The not-so-secret to the strong performance? Diversification – as we can see that on average they have balanced portfolios but with the most weighting towards funds (30%), followed by equities (27%), and then ETPs (largely comprised of ETFs or Exchange Traded Funds).”

ETFs continue their steady growth in popularity on the ii platform, with those aged 25-34 putting the most money into them at 20%.

This is closely followed by the strongest performing age group, the 35-44s, who allocate 19% of their portfolios to them. Older investors, however, allocate 6% of their portfolios to these types of funds.

The Royal London Short Term Money Market fund has entered the top holdings lists strongly this quarter, likely due to the period of market volatility which stemmed from the start of Trump’s tariffs back in April.

The fund now appears in every top 10 list apart from those aged 25-34 and 65+. On a similar vein, other cash alternatives also entered strongly in the top holdings lists, with the T26 gilt featuring in every top 10 list apart from those 18-24 and 65+.

Camilla Esmund, Senior PR Manager, adds: “Once again, strong performance from both men and women on ii, and very similar portfolios. 

“Small differences from a portfolio perspective is that women have a higher weighting to investment trusts (20% versus 16% for men), along with funds (27% versus 26%).

“Men, however, tend to favour direct equities (34% versus 31% for women). We can also see a slightly higher allocation to ETFs (11% versus 10%) and bonds (4% versus 3%). But the differences are minimal.”