An escort to market

Regular savings schemes let you drip-feed small amounts of money into the market, helping to smooth out short-term peaks and troughs, writes Clare Arthur. This is a sensible move when the market looks like it might fall.

Most fund managers offer regular savings schemes on their unit trusts and investment trusts at no extra cost to investing in one go. In fact, buying investment trust shares through such a scheme can be much cheaper than making a one-off purchase through a stockbroker.

Fidelity, a unit trust manager, offers a scheme for those investors who want their lump sum to be fed into the market slowly. Jo Roddan, its spokeswoman, says: "The money sits in a deposit account earning interest and is fed into the market in equal amounts over six months."

The fund manager makes no extra charge for its phased investment service, simply levying the standard charges on the fund(s) of your choice.