HSBC Global Investment Fund (GIF)

A higher level of risk could bring the potential for greater growth, but there’s also more chance that your investment could go down in value.

When choosing an investment, you should consider the level of risk you’re willing to accept and how much you're able to lose. How comfortable would you feel if your investments fell in value? How would a loss impact your finances in the short term? Or the long term? 

If you’re not sure about investing, or how much risk is appropriate for you, you should seek financial advice.

Find out more about getting investment advice from HSBC

Diversification is the practice of spreading your investments so that you do not limit your exposure to any one type of asset class. It is the opposite of putting all your eggs in one basket.

To manage your exposure to risk, fund managers hand-pick a range of assets to go into their funds, which can include a diverse range of geographies and currencies.

An asset, or asset class, is the term for a group of investments that have similar financial characteristics.

Combining different asset classes in a fund is known as diversification. It helps you spread the amount of risk you take with your investment.

Each fund has a designated risk category. To keep within this risk category, the fund manager continuously tracks the performance of individual assets, using their understanding of the market to adjust the holdings in the fund.

The fund manager’s goal is always to maximise the return within the fund’s designated level of risk.