ETF Spaceship Voyager Investing

Hi guys, any thoughts on the new spaceship voyager investing app?

Spaceship Index Portfolio

I am not talking about their overpriced superannuation products but the new app to invest small change (minimum contribution $5) similar to Acorns.

The app has two investment options. I will be talking about the global index option, which is the one where I invested $20.

Pros

• Invest your spare change. Minimum $5. No brokerage cost, spread, exit fees etc.
  
• No fees up to $5,000 invested, after that is 0.05% per year. So, fee for $10,000 invested is $2,5 per year. Cheaper than the new A200 betashares ETFs.
  
• Good diversification as it invests in 200 companies.
  
• The global index follows a proprietary index which consists of
  • the largest 100 Australian companies by market cap equally weighed. Australian companies represent more or less 18% of the fund and each holding constitutes 0.2% of the total fund.
  • the largest or "just large" (it's not clear from their PDS, I sent them an email to clarify) 100 global companies by market cap equally weighted. So each holdings represents 0.8% of the fund and the the international exposure is roughly 82% of the index.
• The app is quite nice
  
• When joining with a referral code and adding $5 to your balance, they give you $20 bonus (PM for a referral code if interested).

Cons

• Lots of counter-party risk as the company is very start-uppish and was recently fined by ASIC for misleading claims for their super product.
  
• Not much info
  
• Proprietary index
• Equal weight so lots of portfolio churning and capital gains
  
• Dividends are paid once a year
• Is $0 fee up to $5,000 and then 0.05% after that even sustainable as a business model?

Curious to hear your thoughts!

 

Might be good for kids to learn about investing. For any serious amounts, buy a listed ETF.

 

Honestly this is a pile of crap. Go for one of vanguards diversified index ETFs for like 20bps.
This spaceship BS will be lucky to survive another couple of years.

 

Agree. One of the most important things to look for in an investment Mgr is “survivorship”. Avoid this crap and leave it to yuppie types looking for image rather than substance.

 

Spaceship definitely taking a hit at present with their investing “Where the World is Going” criteria, including Spotify, Microsoft, Square, Apple, and Tesla.

 

I'd love to see how they make their money. Dodgy dealings with market makers? Hidden leverage? I'll happily pay Stake $3 a purchase every quarter and whatever % vanguard/blackrock/state street etc. want if it means I own the shares and can see what's happening. It might be a tiny risk but their business models chances of blowing up scares me.....

 

A slight correction according to my understanding in that when you invest in an ETF, you don't own the underlying investments. You own units in the ETF and the ETF provider (Trustee arrangement) owns the shares or assets.

 

Too many comments about ‘pretty website’ for me. Does this mean vanguard would be ‘better’ if it just had a more cartoonish website? Get that its designed that way to catch young people but how does their marketing make the fund a better investment?

if you want an index fund go for a big index fund with a known index. Whats the value in this ‘fun’ proprietary index other than it has a few more ‘names’ you can tell your friends about?

The small amounts feature is good, but it seems you would only choose them if you dont have enough to go with vanguard etc.