If u start your selection process by picking the sector first,ie,banking,gaming ,plantation ect,you will be able to narrow down and reduce vast amt of screening the thousand of stocks listed.

In Malaysia,u can't short a stock without first having bought the stock earlier,ie,no short selling.That's why IMHO,Malaysia still lack the depth for sophisticated traders.

You are right my apologies . Another road block trading locally

If you were to diversify your investment to every sector?

If you have RM500 every month for a long term 15-year investment, where will you put the money?

I don't think anyone will want to invest in all sectors.For eg,knowing that garment manufacturing industry is in the doldrum now,no one will want to put their money there.

Any recommendation for medium term investment for 3 -5 years?
Involve in stock market is a lot more complicated

hard to say ~ depend how much your amount of investment and how much you

want it back ~ if you want to feel more secure then try FD ~

else there alot of stuff to invest but with risk ~

I heard unit trust is 1 of the losing money investment ~ not really sure about it.

IMHO, FD can't be taken as an investment ... It's more like a place to rest your money before you spot a proper investment ...

Unit trust huh ... I believe just like other forummers said, you need to time you investment right in almost any form of investment ...

Can't just get into something you have very little understanding in

yeah ~ that what I been told ~ those analyst of unit trust say more than 70% chances of profit if you put for at least 3 years of maturity date. most of the customer losing money because they took the money before 3 years.

FD - more secure.

FD is more secure but with the interest rate now it can only able to cover the current inflation. I still don't think is a good investment.

You can make money in unit trust within a short term but i think just have to plan properly before you invest.

beside FD and UT, is there any other type of investment?

there alot more

bond, ASB and etc.

ASB much better. I haven't get my UT training ~ so I also not sure what is it.

I have been reading numerous posts in Lowyat.NET but only started joining the forum recently. Starting this thread as would like to share some of my knowledge in various investments in Malaysia since I'm working in a broking firm. The following are investments I am aware of in Malaysia : -

a) FD (Return is basically low but rest assured there are no risks)

Unit trusts (Return is good. This of course depends on which unit trusts you are looking at. Before engage into one, have to look into the portfolio)

c) Shares (This is most common in Malaysia. However, many ppl get burnt out in 1997. The stock exchange in Malaysia does not have a strong fundamental. Will illustrate further later)

d) Futures (I can help most on this as I am in this line Not many ppl know the existence of this unless ppl who are in the investment sector. Will illustrate further on this as well)

e) Property (This is for high rollers. Haha... Anyways can help on this a lil as was working as a sales executive for mortgages for high end properties)

f) Exchange Rate (Not available in Malaysia but can do online trading. I'm currently trying it out. Can give minimal views based on what I've studied and noticed. Not much experience here)

*** Since moderators has merge my thread, I guess there's no choice. Just quote my nick if there are any questions

This post has been edited by Silveru: Nov 6 2005, 05:20 PM

welcome bro,very good topic,im also in the process of learning...btw juz wanna ask,how bout those equity index,index fund...lotsa them,mind share wif us?
im very interested wif currency,but only can trade online,izit easy to get burnt?coz i heard a lot of ppl get burnt d...hehe,n they advise not to trade currency...any opinions on this...thank u very much;)

Its really interesting reading this thread. I've learned a lot myself as well. However, I've started another thread on this and would like to share some of my views on investment in Malaysia. Particularly on Futures, Shares and Exchange Rates. Do drop by and questions are highly welcomed.

*Thread merged, links removed

This post has been edited by Geminist: Nov 6 2005, 05:12 PM

heyo..i`m interested too...errr can we set up a financial section?isnt it better?
i`m` interested to knoe the future of investment here in malaysia

Bro...can a normal people like me which is also a student buy government bond?If so, is it go and approach the Treasury Department?I am also in a process of learning...teach me

=SHARES=

There are a few shortcomings in Malaysia's stock exchange:-

a) Quite a number of retail players do not trade based on fundamentals. Many are based on rumours. Like this Dato' is buying this share. The director of the company is dying and all. So, shares without strong fundamentals do collapse easily.

Volume is still very thin compared to countries like Korea and India. As i'm working for a broker, it dissapoints me to see our thinly traded volume in both the shares and furtures market (will further explain on futures later)

c) No short selling. This contributes to the low volume as well. Basically, related parties are afraid with the introduction on short selling will crash out market down.

d) A lot of hidden gems unexplored. There are a lot of shares in the main board unexplored. Mostly traded shares are bluechips. This has caused some of the bluechips overpriced. Also, market breadth is very low. Sometimes, you will see that our Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) is up but number of decliners is higher than number of gainers.

If you want to go into shares, what should you be looking at? Do you want to be a long term trader or are you more a speculative person????

=LONG TERM TRADER=

Then you should be looking more into fundamentals. Make sure the company has a good dividend scheme. For a company to have a good dividend scheme, they must have healthy profitability and cash flow. The company must not be a growth company.

Reason being, if the company is a growing company, they will expand their production with their money rather than giving the extra money to ppl. Example good stock is PBB and Genting. I know it's expensive but these companies do have strong fundamentals. Look into the companies financial statements. They will give you an overview of how a good company should look.

= Speculative =

Recent news on SBB is a great example of speculative trading. Do bear in mind before engaging into any speculative stance, most important is the company must at least have some fundamentals. If not, you will engage into the first shortcoming I stated earlier.

Every quarterly, some companies will report their earnings and all. During this time, it is a good time for speculative stance as well. Window dressing during mid of the year also attracts some speculators.

Personally, for beginners, do not go into speculative as you do not have the capital to do so. I've talked to several big time speculators. They were targetting small cap stocks, in fact, they were targetting limit down stocks. Its like a gamble for them as they have money. So for beginners (especially those who like to limit their risks), look into long term trading.

For BEGINNERS, do look into this site:
http://www.klse.com.my/website/listing/cbrs.htm
This site was given to me by someone working in Bursa. I find it useful as I'm able to get a rough idea on how ratings agencies look into companies. Use it for reference. Do not make decisions based 100% on it. This will give you and overview what you should look at if you want to buy a stock.

=FUTURES=

There are three different segments of futures in Malaysia.

=Equities based futures=
FKLI (Futures of the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index)

=Non equities based futures=
KLIBOR (interest rates futures)
FMG5 (5 years government bonds)
FMGA (10 years government bonds)

=Commodity=
FCPO (Futures of crude palm oil)
FKPO (Futures of kernel palm oil)

The most commonly traded by retailers are FKLI and FCPO. Basically if you want to open an account you need to look for a broker. To open an account, you need at minimum RM2000. How to trade on futures???

There are jargons like margins for futures. What is margins? For beginners, you can take margins as a deposit. Take for example, you have deposited RM2000 to open an account and you bought 1 lot of FKLI. Margin for FKLI which is set by the Clearing House (this is a body set by Bursa). Currently, margin is RM2300. Very high because of the public holidays. Usually the margin is about RM1400. FCPO usual margin is RM1300. Currently, because of the recent public holidays, the margin has been raised to RM1600.

Basically, how does futures work? Every futures have a base asset. Like FKLI, the base asset is the KLCI. For FCPO the based asset is our crude palm oil. There are three types of ppl who engaged themselves into futures. Hedgers, speculators and arbitrageurs. We will be speculators.

So how to we speculate??? Futures is like a gamble to a lot of people. Is like choosing big or small. But for futures, you choose to BUY OR SELL.

I'll give you and example now. Say we look int FKLI. You have deposited RM2000 and you buy one FKLI at the market price. Say market price is 901. We just take for an example the margin for FKLI is RM1400. Take for example today the FKLI close at 905. You gained 4 points. 1 point in FKLI is RM50. So that's RM200. So your total balance or NET EQUITY will be RM2200. So that's good. If tomorrow, the market went up again to 910 and you think it's time to make your unrealised profit realised, you will then sell it out because you bought the futures. With that, you will then earn RM450. This does not take into account of commission. Commission is RM50 per lot. End of everything, your account will have RM2000 + RM450 - RM50 = RM2400

What happens when you get margin call??? As mentioned earlier, margin for FKLI now is RM2300. So if you only have RM2000 in your account and you buy one lot today, you will get margin call the next day. Your dealer will be calling you up and tell you that you have a margin call. You have two choices. Either to top up or to sell your positions. How much you need to top up? Simple computations, will be your Cash balance - Commissions - Unrealised loss (if profit the plus) - margins required. The answer will be how much you need to top up. To make your life easier, just ask the dealer. They have the statements printed everyday.

The beauty of futures is you can sell also. How to sell. Say you think tomorrow the price will go down. You just sell. Say you sell at 901. If indeed it goes down to 891, then you earn 10 points. But if it does go up, then too bad lah

For FCPO, 1 point is RM25. But FCPO's fluctuation is higher at times So despite earning lesser, with the fluctuation, it'll be better. This is just a very very brief overview on the futures market. Do feel free to give some opinions or to ask any questions. BTW, I'm a dealer of all the futures


This post has been edited by Silveru: Nov 6 2005, 09:22 PM

"reserve"