There is a trade off between power of filters and searches and the simplicity of their operation. Our detailed search is quite complex but powerful.  If you haven't taken a guided tour and have any trouble with this aspect, you could look at the search part of the guided tour.

The investment search page allows you to filter and sort investments and shows basic information about these investments. You can then choose to: -

• see detailed investment information
• see a comparison with the investments' peer group
• visit the managers' web site
• email the manager or DIOA for a prospectus

Filtering

Primary filters

The filters works on ID numbers for the taxation and social security environment, investment sector, investment subsector, investment manager and investment region.  

You can see the ID numbers for each quality by clicking the "view list" button above each input box in Step1 of the page. You input them at Step 2 of the page.

If you input a number for any of these filter qualities, only those investments matching the input will be shown.  Generally, if you do not input a number for a filter quality, all investments meeting all other filters will be included. 

The exception is the sector and subsector inputs. You do not need to input both of these.  If you input a Subsector ID, you will only see that subsector regardless of what you input to the Sector ID.  If you leave the SubsectorID blank you will see all investments meeting all other filters.

Secondary filters

Some more filters are at Step 3.

You can also filter by minimum subscription.  If you input a number in the minimum subscription field, you will only see those investments that will accept applications for the input amount or more.

The next filter is by whether the investment is open to new unitholders, open to existing unit holders or closed. Check whichever you want.

The final filter is whether to exclude those investments that charge exit fees. Check the box if you want to exclude these investments.

In some cases, DIOA is unsure of whether an investment meets the secondary filters.   These are included in the list and generally shown as unchecked information.

Sorting

You can choose the order in which the investments are listed. 

The Morningstar rating is a "star" based rating system introduced by Morningstar Research Pty Ltd and is not fully incorporated in the database.

You  can sort by the investments' past risk and return characteristics as they relate to your personal circumstances.  You can choose whether to sort by one, three of five year performance.

Investments which do not yet have sufficient history are shown at the end of the list.

To sort on past performance, you need to input a personal risk angle at Step 3 of the page

Personal Risk Angle

This is a DIOA innovation that allows you to take risk into account when comparing past performance of investments.

Everyone has heard the phrase "high risk, high return".

The risk of an investment is normally defined as the "standard deviation" of its monthly return. This is a measure of the extent to which these returns fluctuate and the possibility of capital loss.

Investments are often depicted on a graph with return on the vertical axis and risk horizontally. Any position on this graph that is above and to the left of any other position is obviously superior as it has a higher return and a lower risk

But what of positions above and to the right? Which is better is a matter of personal preference.

DIOA has developed a system for you to approximately identify your best risk and return combination. It involves noting that, for example, all combinations that have a 70% chance of delivering a "target" return of 8% p.a. over three years lie more or less on a straight line. Combinations with the same chance of delivering a 9% annual return lie on a higher but almost parallel line.

This means you can specify your personal risk preference simply as the angle to the horizontal of a line on the risk / return graph. We at DIOA call this your personal risk angle.

This angle has two uses.  First, it deals with the question of whether a higher return / higher risk position is better for you than a lower return / lower risk position.   The higher position is better if the angle the line between the two positions makes with the horizontal is greater than your personal  risk angle.

The second use of the personal risk angle is to find (for any combination of risk and return) the "target" return which has the required chance of being achieved over the chosen period. 

Remembering that  past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance, the higher the "target" return flowing from an investment's past risk / return characteristics and your chosen angle, the better the investment would have been for you in hindsight.  This is the "target" return that is used to sort the investments.

The following table shows the angle for various time horizons and required degrees of certainty of return. You can use it to select the angle that you input to the page at Step 4.

If the DIOA data base does not have up to date performance information, the "target" return is shown as -100%.

Warning. Graphs of risk and returns sometimes "annualise" the risk and do not always have the same scale on both axes.   You cannot use the DIOA personal risk angle on any chart you might see unless you are sure the that the risk measure is monthly standard deviation and the horizontal and vertical scales are the same.

Accuracy

The personal risk angles used in this site are based on "target" returns of 10% per annum.  If the target increases by 10% per annum,  the angles increase by about 1 degree at a 15 degree angle, 2 degrees at 30 degrees, 2.5 degrees at 45 degrees, 2.2 degrees at 60 degrees and 1.2 degrees at 75 degrees.

Remember, however, you should not base your investment decisions on past performance so that the DIOA system is good enough to serve its purpose of giving a rough indication of whether past performance has suited your situation.

If you find one investment's target return is close to that of another and goes from better to worse than another with a small change of the the angle, you have to regard this as too close to call and you should put no store whatsoever on relative past performance of these investments..

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