in a way, yes... invest less in a bull rally. In a market rally, fund manager no good, fund can also go up.

But need to clarify that we're taking into account the value of the investment, not directly looking into the price level of the share or mutual fund, to determine the amount of additional re-investment. Thus, it can apply to both share and UT.

Say, investing 1k each month over 10 months.

DCA (Regardless of the total value of the investment, objective is to spend 10k.):
1st month 1k
2nd month 2k (cumulative total), 3rd month 3k, 4th month 4k,.... 10th month 10k.


VA (Objective is to have an investment valued at 10k.):
1st month 1k
2nd month, top up to 2k.
3rd month, top up to 3k,.... 10th month, top up to 10k.


So in market rally, need to invest less amount of $$$ to reach the desired investment value of $10k.

Don't just read, read and follow blindly, need to think a bit what you have read, la. Putting up links also useless when you don't grasp what it is about. (Sorry, don't mean to be critical or offensive, but sometimes need to be blunt a bit. )

What I have posted is Value Averaging method in a nutshell.

Value Averaging, Dollar Cost Average, and Lump Sum are 3 methods of spending a fixed sum of money.

Lump sum, you spend it in one shot, while the 2 averaging methods, you splits the investment into several investments over a period of time.

All of them has nothing to do with timing, or buying when the price has reached a certain level. Nothing to do with 'Buy low, sell high'. Nothing to do with how high or how low the market level is.

1. You got a sum of money.
2. You know what fund to buy.
3. You buy the fund using one of the above method.

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Instead of being wishy-washy and spread the sum of money over a period of time, lump sum one short purchase may be the best method. But of course, you don't sink all into one fund when the sum of money is large enough to start a portfolio of funds. You buy some bonds and some into equities...

One of the many articles on this debate of Lump-sum vs. Averaging:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/putting-a...-off-2012-11-02

And as in one of the comments in the article:
"People dollar cost average for a reason. The money they are investing comes from their pay checks. If they don't have tomorrow's pay check how can they invest it today."

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But many people use this method.

The Feel Good Method of Investing.

1) Make a budget and determine how much you can spare each month. Say, RM400.
2) If feel tight, and barely surviving, invest RM100.
3) If feel tight, but still okay, invest RM200.
4) If feel good and no problem, invest RM300.
5) If feel rich and generous, invest RM0.

.... please see also the previous post.

Before investing into any funds, you already evaluate and decide on which fund to have. You buy and hold.

So, no such thing as 'changing horses in mid stream'. This is about the worst strategy an investor could do, switching and chasing performance, and will end up buying the fund or any fund when it is at or near its peak.

Yes, and no. The correct term is "Income Distribution".

Yes, there is a income distribution if you elected to have the distribution as 'cash'.

No, there is no income distribution if you elected to have the distribution 'reinvested' (and the fund company converts the income distribution into more units.)

The 2nd option, you will get more units. But with unit price adjusted accordingly, you will still have the same amount in ringgit before and after the distribution date.

BTW. The above example is a bit extreme, no fund would declare 50%. It is more like RM1/unit going up to about 1.100/unit, with 8-9% declared as distribution, and then the price drops back down to about RM1.

I think it is a market myth... smart investors know about nav pricing...

The moment you bought UT, you were a smart investor.

I see, someone is hurting because I was too frank in my opinions?

Grow up, kid.

... then you are among the better investors with your past experiences. But why "used to put eggs in many basket", do you meant that you are pulling all other investments into one investment option?

I'm currently very bias towards UT, so in my book, anyone who invest into any UT fund is among the smarter investors.

I'm still not getting your dig with your posts with more icons than words... you're trying to sound witty and smart, but joined the conversation in a rude, sarcastic manner trying to shot at me with a weak insinuation.

The insinuation was maybe triggered because I put you down before previously in another post? If so, be matured enough and move on, as you had missed the opportunity to point that out in that previous post, and should reply to the current posts without adding another new element in your reply.

Someone else posting the same remark as yours, I would take the time to further clarify why I won't have the same opinion... sorry, not you. You rubbed me the wrong way... and not in any mood to further the conversation with you.

wow, good info.

On this issue of income distributions and unit splits, and the NAV price per unit, there are some sites which give the info on the min and max NAV prices.

I think they are misleading, as they lend unwanted credence and importance to NAV price.

Maybe they were copied from sites on market indices, and maybe from the stock market, without much thoughts.

Unit splits as in Apple, I'd understand... as they lower the entry price per share/lot for people to get in.

But in UT, the units are not sold in fixed amounts.

You paid RM1, you get RM1 worth of units. You pay RM100, 1k, 10k, 50k, whatever, you get the equivalent amount worth of units (minus of course, the service charges if any).

If the fund grows 10%, 15%, 20%, whatever, you still get 10%, 15%, 20%, whatever growth in your invested amount.

AND THIS IS DISREGARD, whether the nav price is 0.2500, 0.5000, 1.0000, or whatever.

That minimum of 1000 units to switch? In a way, yes, unit splits will lower the price/unit and creates more units.
And the fund house can keep the nav price within a certain price range, and allow investors to have the switch or redemption amount consistently within a certain range.

When the nav price goes too far above its price range (because of growth), without the unit splits, the investor will be forced to switch in a larger amount if he is switching at the minimum number of units.

It is an advantage to an investor with a matured portfolio. But to a younger investor who is beginning to accumulate and invest into UT, it might not be any advantage.

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BTW The post was to show that any investor into UT should disregard the NAV price when comparing and making a shortlist of funds. Just sharing a common knowledge that any UT investor would already knew, except to those just starting their research...

And to support my opinion that it is a marketing myth... that fund managers were trying to trick people into selecting their funds because they have cheaper nav prices.

Or maybe not, as some still insists that it is better to buy after distribution with lower nav prices!

Did you missed that daily movement (that difference between 0.6896 and 0.6916) as BONUS joke?

Was discussed recently... browse back 2 pages.

Either at least 10 years, or don't set any minimum.

At least 10 years for those who are saving/investing as they earn; DCA method with small regular amounts.
Small regular amounts... 3-5 years... still small amount... high growth on small amount is still not a lot of money.

Anything less, better not to set any minimum time period but monitor the fund closely, and take money out when it reached target volume of saving/investment.

Method told by friend in Genting...
me: I got the whole evening & night to play...
friend: If you win in the 1st 10 minutes, why waste some more time?

Just my 2 cents...

no wonder la why the website so hard to refresh... when it finally refresh... small cap index is like in free fall... -3.xx%

Did that last time and take holiday in Thailand, a big mistake. It's like riding bicycle, you stop you fall. You stopped 'trading' you missed the big sale; you stopped DCA (or VA), you missed the opportunity to off set and lower down the price average.

BTW A bit more clever now, and can take holiday anytime... as I no more doing regular investing, and no more 'trading'. Portfolio already set to desire equity/bond ratio, foreign/local ratio... and can leave it to handle itself for the next several months/years.

LOL ok, just recalled what you claimed you did that last time...

What saved me was fuzzy logic that I must have some savings in equities in the long term, plus the bloody 'stingy kiasu' fact that I'm not going to pay extra switching fees and/or hefty service charges to get back in.

So it was a mixed blessing that FSM did not exist when I first step into UT... otherwise I'll be running and jumping before I knew how to crawl.

There was a reader's comment under marketwatch article that the markets nowadays are somewhat rigged, and it's like playing poker with cards opened since there are super servers gathering all sorts of information.

Market dipped in July, top-up...
Market dipped in August, top-up...
Market dipped in Sept, top-up...
Market dipped even lower in Oct, top-up more...

Super servers found out that nothing much were left in bond/mm funds, savings accounts etc... wallop the market kaw-kaw as there's no more support... shake hard enough, some investors will dropped off and add into the selling spree. Then the super servers pick up the pieces at lelong prices...

Market dipped even more in Nov, nothing left to top-up... panic sets in.

How to compare when you have your own entry points, and select your own time period to evaluate?

And it would be easy to beat any selected benchmark when all you need to do is buy-and-hold a fund known to have a better track record than the benchmark, and ride it up and down...

Should use a YTD figure and returns. And see whether you can improve the returns every year.

Standard comparisons to select depends on your investment acumen: FD (2-4%), EPF (4-7%), or ASB (7-9%).

Or a arbitrary 10-20% if you're super.

(All the IRR figures are in the past, and newer investments can only dilute it so much to be truly reflective on the investments in the current year. YTD on the other hand...)