i think this one is good

http://www.investopedia.com/university/beginner/

i jus read and found out that mutual funds is bacisally giv our money to d pro and let them invest for us...

Advantages of Mutual Funds:
. Professional Management - The primary advantage of funds (at least theoretically) is the professional management of your money. Investors purchase funds because they do not have the time or the expertise to manage their own portfolios. A mutual fund is a relatively inexpensive way for a small investor to get a full-time manager to make and monitor investments.

. Diversification - By owning shares in a mutual fund instead of owning individual stocks or bonds, your risk is spread out. The idea behind diversification is to invest in a large number of assets so that a loss in any particular investment is minimized by gains in others. In other words, the more stocks and bonds you own, the less any one of them can hurt you (think about Enron). Large mutual funds typically own hundreds of different stocks in many different industries. It wouldn't be possible for an investor to build this kind of a portfolio with a small amount of money.

. Economies of Scale - Because a mutual fund buys and sells large amounts of securities at a time, its transaction costs are lower than what an individual would pay for securities transactions.

. Liquidity - Just like an individual stock, a mutual fund allows you to request that your shares be converted into cash at any time.

. Simplicity - Buying a mutual fund is easy! Pretty well any bank has its own line of mutual funds, and the minimum investment is small. Most companies also have automatic purchase plans whereby as little as $100 can be invested on a monthly basis.

Disadvantages of Mutual Funds:
. Professional Management - Did you notice how we qualified the advantage of professional management with the word "theoretically"? Many investors debate whether or not the so-called professionals are any better than you or I at picking stocks. Management is by no means infallible, and, even if the fund loses money, the manager still takes his/her cut. We'll talk about this in detail in a later section.

. Costs - Mutual funds don't exist solely to make your life easier - all funds are in it for a profit. The mutual fund industry is masterful at burying costs under layers of jargon. These costs are so complicated that in this tutorial we have devoted an entire section to the subject.

. Dilution - It's possible to have too much diversification. Because funds have small holdings in so many different companies, high returns from a few investments often don't make much difference on the overall return. Dilution is also the result of a successful fund getting too big. When money pours into funds that have had strong success, the manager often has trouble finding a good investment for all the new money.

. Taxes - When making decisions about your money, fund managers don't consider your personal tax situation. For example, when a fund manager sells a security, a capital-gains tax is triggered, which affects how profitable the individual is from the sale. It might have been more advantageous for the individual to defer the capital gains liability.


but... i think mutual is good for beginner like me

Mutual fund is not as easy as you think it is. Do read through the tutorial at investopedia to understand what is loaded/no-load mutual fund. It's not simply about dumping your money into a MF and that's it.

There are alot of unethical mutual fund provider out there so do beware.

This is one of the important bit.

http://www.investopedia.com/university/mut...utualfunds2.asp

This post has been edited by Geminist: Aug 10 2006, 04:37 PM

so does it mean that, for this one

Fees can be broken down into two categories:
1. Ongoing yearly fees to keep you invested in the fund.
2. Transaction fees paid when you buy or sell shares in a fund (loads).

if it is unload, then d onli fees that i need to pay is 1. onli?

- This is not a place for promotion, thanks -

This post has been edited by Geminist: Aug 10 2006, 05:06 PM

- Removed -


tell me more ab it.... hhmmmm....... no. 1 unit trust manager ......

This post has been edited by Geminist: Aug 10 2006, 05:06 PM

Yes, it's not easy to look for a fund with low expense ration but by all means, keep on a look out for this.

Another thing about this No.1 fund manager, being able to be awarded to become such a fund manager, the first thing you need is active trading. Famous investors, including Buffett has already proven that passive trading stands a higher chance of winning in long term investment compared to active trading.

Active trading can earn you more in short term, but in long term, you might lose out compared to passive trading.

This comes to the interesting bit, for a fund to be managed by such a "famous" manager, the first thing you'll notice is the high expense ratio (since he is famous). The second thing is, most of these awards are given based on a fixed period of performance, if you're looking for a long term investment, look for some fund with a good track record.

Last thing you want to buy funds from is from some salesperson who knows jack about investment.

- Above statement does not refer or reflect to any individual or group -

This post has been edited by Geminist: Aug 10 2006, 05:12 PM

so the most important thing here is to find the good/genuine fund manager... but how do we tract down his or her record? are there any documentation to proof, or is it just words from mouth?

i also wonder those fund manager,since they are so called good in investment,why dont they do investment as a full time career for themselve instead of playing peoples money?

You don't really look at the fund manager, you look at the past performance of the fund. But do remember, past performance does not indicate future performance. It's there for your reference, that's all.

Because as an individual, you will not have that much capital to invest around with. They might be good at diversifying their portfolio, but if you do not have the money to diversify, there's no point to it right? Also, the return as a fund manager is pretty hefty as well, compared to personal investment and lastly, I'm sure they'll have some of their own personal investment as well aside from working as a fund manager.

- Note that I'm not an expert in investment, I'm also learning all of these stuff on my own free time, so take all this as an opinion -

Geminist and ah_suknat,

I do not think you can do FD on line. That option is only available to old allied bank customer that got merged into Maybank. I had called and tried to do FD online with Maybank2u and they told me it is not possible.

Dreamer

Hmm, that's odd.

I have a Maybank2u online account and around early this year, I just put some of my freelance earning into FD. It's rather easy, like filling in how much you need and how long the period, where the interest goes and etc then I'm done.

Around few weeks later, I get a statement via snail mail to my home.

Anyhow, the site is under maintenance now so I'll try and see later on

Geminist,

I tried that one years ago. Does that mean it is possible now?? What menu option did you used??

Dreamer

Im also interested in doing FD.
I will take a look at the Maybank2u afterwards.
I want to ask is there any minimum requiremnt of money to join this FD at Maybank.

Forex. www.forex.com
Anybody tried this b4?

This post has been edited by wuszhtag: Aug 11 2006, 12:27 AM

rather than no action talk only, i will try to do the FD next week.but i read the requirement it says the online FD service is only available for allied wat before the merge with maybank.

will try to invest in the unit trust too,it seems easier and can start with just rm500, take it as tuition fees.

gemimist,did you apply your online FD here in uk or in malaysia?what are the document i need to apply one?
and also if i put this amount into FD,can i put more money in in the next month?or you have to stick with it until the period of FD end?

ermm.... any one can pm me the link to FD requirement?ccoz i dun think can post d link here i guess


wats d % of money that i can earn? btw, now onli got rm500-600 as beginning....


@geminist
thanks for d input

This post has been edited by low yat 82: Aug 11 2006, 09:02 AM

i alrewady found out that d FD interest is around 3-4%


btw, i see mmost service charge or fees (for load) is around 0.5-7%

hmmm...i wonder where can i find unload funds.....

This post has been edited by low yat 82: Aug 11 2006, 09:52 AM

actually FD is only a better way of saving money rather than threat it like an investment...unless you put hundreds of thousand in it in a longer period.

try unit trust.try with the minimum amount of rm500,i am trying too next week if i successfully apply maybank2u.com.gonna learn step by step. what is the unload or load fund you talk about?

Being a genuine investor, one doesn't need to be actively trading, just like W.Buffett did. When spot a good investment opportunity then start investing in it and growth with it and when hitting the target or price become unrelistically high then unloading it and wait for next time opportunity. Sometimes, patient is also the key element of a successful investment.
Actively trading most suitable for speculating purposely since speculating stocks normally not worth to be holding, only look for short term gain.

Generally, good fund manager with sound track record normally won't go in and go out in the market quite as frequent as majority people are thinking off. The more frequent you trade, the more broking firm is earning, market doesn't go up everyday one.

unload means no need pay agent money of service charge or transfer fee...

load means need to pay....

i.e. Service Charge 0.25% of NAV per unit


read this one... http://www.investopedia.com/university/mut...utualfunds2.asp

@cherroy
thanks for d info

This post has been edited by low yat 82: Aug 11 2006, 11:34 AM

Hi Dreamer,

FD online function is indeed available . You will need to go to FD section then FD placements to do it. Upon maturity set both your interest and principals back to your savings account. This option bypass the need for the account holder collect the FD cert. I'd been using this since 2006.