Investing Knowledge

Message Boards Property Pensions Savings Utilities UK Stocks Investments clear all debts then save or both? Split in assets... Gold Shares Liquidity or Solvency? GaBumping when is the best time to SPEND View boards: Your Money UK Stocks Also on Yahoo! Finance Mortgages Insurance Loans Credit Reports Credit Cards Banking Savings Cut Your Bills Mortgage articles Can you trust a new build home? Save £962 On Your Mortgage Help Is At Hand For First-Time Buyers! House Price Falls: The Winners And Losers View archive Personal finance articles Three cheers for the credit crunch How much more will your holiday cost? National Savings - safe but not sexy Bradford and Bingley - should we be worried? View archive Investment articles Asian growth to offset US slowdown A mixed first half Pennies from heaven? A return to basics View archive

By Naomi Caine

Are women better investors than men? The question raises hackles in the City, which is still dominated by men - even if they no longer wear pinstripes and bowler hats.

But it's little wonder that men would prefer to avoid a battle of the sexes because they are quite likely to lose.

A recent survey by Digital Look, an investment website, found that women investors were more successful than men. The survey studied more than 100,000 portfolios over 12 months. The average woman's share portfolio grew by 17%, while the average man's rose by just 11%. Over the same period, the FTSE All Share index climbed by 13%.

The success of the female investor is not just a flash in the pan. The same survey last year produced similar results, with the average woman's portfolio rising 10% - compared with a 7% rise in the FTSE All Share index and a 6% climb in the portfolio of the typical male. A previous survey in 2001 had also found that women beat the market.

Andy Yates, director of Digital Look, says: "Women tend to build a balanced share portfolio and take a more considered view - and time and again it pays dividends. Men tend to take more risks, so they are more likely to get their fingers burnt."

It's got a lot do with temperament, according to Sheila Gleason of Barclays Wealth Solutions. "The common traits of the female investor are conservatism, understanding, tolerance and collaboration," she says.

So why does that mark women out for investment success? Well, conservative investors are less likely to plump for the latest fad sector or hot stock. Women will also devote more time to research than men because they want to understand what they are buying - no bad thing if you think back to the tech boom. "Women spend 40% more time than men researching and are less likely to trade on a hot tip," says Gleason.

The female tolerance gene means they stay the course. In other words, they don't play the risky game of trying to time the market. In fact, most women - 64% - are investing for long-term financial security, according to a study by T D Waterhouse, a stockbroker. Michael Foulkes, chief executive officer of TD Waterhouse, says: "Men are twice as likely as women to check their investments daily, while women are more likely to check their investments monthly, suggesting that women are measuring their investment performance over longer time horizons than men."

They will also collaborate with others, perhaps talking to an adviser or joining an investment club. Men, on the other hand, have greater confidence in their own opinion. They might even be a little too confident. Nicola Horlick, who was once dubbed superwoman for juggling a big family with a big job in the City, makes the point a little more forcefully. "Men are gung ho and allow their egos to get in the way," she says.

Horlick is out and about pushing her latest idea - Bramdiva - a company aimed at wealthy women. Bramdiva is an offshoot of Bramdean Asset Management, which was set up by Horlick earlier this year. Bramdean manages money for institutional investors, such as pension schemes. It runs a couple of its own funds but it farms out most of the management to different investment firms.

Clients of Bramdiva will get access to the Bramdean managers. So, they will get a service usually preserved for the big City institutions. But their money will not be invested any differently because they are women. The fund managers are not exclusively women, either.

Maybe Bramdean could not find enough female fund managers. Citywire, which rates managers on their returns over three years, lists only 11 women out of 167 managers. Manages with good track records include Theodora Zemek of New Star and Elena Shaftan of Jupiter.

Maybe the ideal investor is in touch with both the feminine and the masculine sides of their personality. Gleason says: "Men can learn a lot from women, but women can also mimic some of the more male characteristics. They could take a few more risks with their money and consider some more sophisticated investments."

There are 360,000 women who are worth at least £500,000 - and there are more female than male millionaires between the ages of 18 and 44, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Women are also forecast to get richer than men and will own an estimated 60% of the UK 's personal wealth by 2025. With all that money, it's just as well that women are such good investors.