DIH’s Investment Funds Data.
Overview: DIH provides investment funds data for unit trusts and open-ended investment companies (OEIC) with NAV, reference data, and corporate actions. All the data is sourced from the fund management companies.
Coverage: We currently offer data for over 96,000 share class funds from more than 400 fund management companies across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Luxembourg.
History: Our data includes history based on your portfolio.
Updates: We update our data at the end of the day.
Delivery: You can receive our data in bulk files via download, S3 to S3, or on-demand via API.
Pricing: Several inputs go into the pricing for our data. For example, do want data for all available instruments, or a subset? How much history do you want? Do you want updates going forward? Contact us to learn more.
Why Firms Choose DIH’s Investment Funds Data.
There are several reasons market participants rely upon our investment funds data:
- Quality – A team of data experts meticulously checks and reviews our data to ensure it is complete, timely, and accurate – reducing your operational risk.
- Coverage – We currently offer data for over 96,000 share class funds from more than 400 fund management companies across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Luxembourg.
- Affordability & Flexible License Terms – We price our data to fit within your budget. Also, you may display and/or redistribute our data to your clients.
An Overview of Unit Trusts Data.
Before we get into the details of how our data is created, a quick review of unit trusts and open-ended investment companies (OEIC) may be helpful.
WHAT IS A UNIT TRUST?
A unit trust is an unincorporated mutual fund structure that is established under a trust deed. This makes the unit trust’s investors effectively the beneficiaries of the trust. The unit trust passes profits directly to its investors instead of reinvesting in the fund.
Unit trusts are also referred to as open-ended funds because they will always accept more cash from investors. When an investor makes a new contribution (buys into a unit trust), more units are created to match the current unit buying price.
Conversely, when an investor withdrawals (sells), assets are sold to match the current unit selling prices. So if there are more sellers than buyers on a given day, the unit trust will become smaller.
Unit trusts can be found in many countries with slight differences based on local regulations. For example, in Asia unit trusts are much more like mutual funds in the USA.
Investors can gain exposure to a vast array of asset types and securities via unit trusts, including real estate, equities, fixed income, and cash equivalents.
The unit trust’s fund manager is tasked with generating gains and profits based on the stated goals and objectives of the fund. To make sure the fund manager is adhering to the fund’s goals and objectives, trustees are assigned to watch over the fund. These trustees act as fiduciaries on behalf of the beneficiaries of the trust. A third party, the registrar, acts as an intermediary between the fund manager and the trustees.
The gross value of a unit trust’s portfolio is equal to the number of units issued multiplied by the price per unit. You must also subtract any transaction costs, management fees, and any other associated expenses.
UNIT TRUSTS VS OEIC.
Unit trusts and open-ended investment companies (OEIC) are the two most common types of investment funds in the United Kingdom. They are very similar in that they both:
- Are “open-ended” in that they can create new units/shares to meet investor demand and cancel the units/shares of investors who exit the fund.
- Have a fund manager charged with buying and selling assets to maximize the fund’s gains and profits.
The main difference is how they are priced. Unit trusts have a bid price (price per unit received when a unit is sold back to the fund) and an offer price (price per unit to purchase a unit of the fund).
In contrast, OEICs have one price based on the net asset value (NAV) of the underlying assets in the fund. So OEICs are similar to open-ended mutual funds in the USA. Also, OEICs typically have lower fees than unit trusts. This is due to OEICs having a simpler structure.
UNIT TRUSTS VS INVESTMENT TRUSTS.
Unlike unit trusts that are open-ended funds, Investment Trusts are closed-ended funds because they typically raise a set amount of cash and then invest it. Investment trusts are listed on an exchange and can be bought and sold like a stock or ETF.
An interesting point about investment trusts is their performance. Because investment trusts do not have to sell assets when investors sell their shares, the fund managers of investment trusts can take a longer view of their investments, and invest in less liquid assets like real estate and infrastructure. Also, investment trusts can retain a percentage of their income.
Unit trusts on the other hand have to sell their assets whenever investors want to exit. So their fund managers prefer to invest in more liquid assets. Plus, unit trusts must distribute their income each year to their unit holders.
Who Can Benefit from DIH’s Investment Funds Data?
Our data is invaluable to anyone interested in investment funds. We see a wide range of market participants using our data, including:
- Brokerage Firms
- Asset Managers
- Fund Managers
- High Net Worth Individuals
- FinTech Companies (e.g. trading platforms, research companies, etc.)
How To Use Our Investment Funds Data.
Our clients utilize our investment funds data in various ways, in the front-, middle- and back-office, especially for:
- Research
- Risk Management
- Compliance
- Accounting (e.g. calculating tax liabilities)
Flexible Updates & Data Delivery Methods.
Our data is available on an end-of-day basis.
You may customize our data to best suit your needs. For example, request data on all available instruments or provide a custom list.
We offer several ways to access our data:
Bulk File Download – For most of our clients, downloading our data in bulk files is most convenient. We deliver files in .CSV format via download or S3 to S3.
API – Some use cases are better suited for on-demand delivery of data via an API.