Switching is a must if you intend to maximize your profit and minimize the risk taken. For ex, Mr. A expects the stock market is going to go down after GE, he should do the switching before GE to lock-in whatever profit he has taken.

Unfortunately, many agents won't bother to do switching for their clients because they don't make any commission for that. If your agent doesnt want to do the switching, you can actually do that yourself on phone with telemutual or an easier way.... just hire a new agent.

Switching from an equity fund to another equity fund only charged RM 25..

if PCSF goes below 0.215, I'm in.

You guys should make a discipline to set a target range to top up as well...I will only top up when the price fell 8-10% more than my latest entry NAV. Anything less I don't bother.

Take PCSF for ex, I did my research and didnt enter when it first launched. Now, I think it's getting more and more attractive. But I still set my entry price to be 0.215. If it doesnt go below that, forget it.

Look at the volatility, standard deviation of 10+ (mayb 20+ for china market). It is not an uncommon thing to see a surge/fall of 8-10% at all.

Depends on how long do u plan to park ur fund,

Equity fund -> money market fund -> Equity fund, cost = RM 25 (as E.fund -> MM fund cost = 0)
Equity fund -> bond fund -> Equity fund, cost = RM 50

This recent fall is a surprise to most people.... if you expect market will keep going down, then switch lo. If you think market will rebound soon and wish to stay with equity funds, better pick only bluechips or dividend funds for now.

This is why short term timing doesn't work... in funds switching, we go for mid to long term.

Well, gotta look at the big picture. Do research on the economy as a whole. For me, I look at the fundamentals since I'm going for mid to long term. I don't mind if my equity funds lose a few % in short term since I do not plan to withdraw them anytime soon. If the price becomes too expensive for me, I would invest more in bonds or cheap foreign equity.

Something for you to start with, look at the P/E, and the potential earnings of the selected market. Oh..also, oil prices have fell a few % because of the speculation of USA will consume less oil. It's not a bad thing after all.......



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Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

You can always track the fund manager. Some fund managers from PM are assigned to several funds. There could be a regional boom somewhere else now and it happens that this star manager is managing one of the funds there... worth your time to do extensive research on those.

No market can continuously gain over 25% for more than 5 years because the firms earnings simply cant get 25% growth every year. There's this thing calls economy cycle. Is Msia at its peak already ? I personally think no.

Real estate investment in general is less risky and provides less return than stock market as well. The pro is income stability, get to receive rental every year. Good for retired people... might not be suitable for aggressive young people.

Old funds might not mean it holds stocks for years. It's all depend on the fund manager strategy. One can see how actively a manager is in trading the fund with this PTR (portfolio turnover ratio).

For a PTR = 1, means the portfolio turnover once every year.
For a PTR = 0.33, means the portfolio turnover once every 3 years.

Most smallcap funds have high PTRs and bluechip funds have low PTRs. But most do have a complete turnover once in <5 years from what I observed.

You can find that from the Annual Report.

I think you can download an e-copy of annual report if you register with PM website.

Hmm... hmm.... another new PM fund is coming, will find out on Monday.

Switch to MM or bond fund lo.

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Added on August 10, 2007, 11:33 amNo idea, Monday meeting will find out.

This post has been edited by ejleemy: Aug 10 2007, 11:33 AM

Your agent has the system that can access to your portfolio... just ring your agent up for any enquiry. Easiest way.

You can use photocopy switching forms for submission... next time make a few copies when u get a blank form.

Money market fund is for short term parking purpose.

It invests in high liquidity short-term investment securities like banker's acceptance, treasury bills, bank negara bills, cagamas bonds, NCDs etc.

The current MM rate is ard 3-4% p.a. only. I view all MM fund are the same since their holding maturity date are very short and they all have similar holdings.

If you are planning to park your funds for just a few days/weeks, MM fund will do.

If you are going for several months parking, bond fund should yield better. None of the PM funds has direct exposure the US subprime mortgage market, hence very low default risk.

Switching from Equity Fund -> MM fund, cost = RM 0
Switching from Equity fund -> bond fund, cost = RM 25

Try to perform both switching scenarios on your paper, pick the one more profitable (in net cost) to your advantage.

Well, lets see the pros and cons

Pros
1. You get to take 2.85% of your 5.45 (or 6.5%) intial service charge back in your pocket
2. Access to PM agents training and services - some are free, some are avail at low cost, CAMS (the agency monitor system) subscription is ard RM 100/year
3. Update on the latest PM news
4. Side income if you sell to your family members/friends (you gotta service them as well)
5. Other agents incentives and benefits if you meet certain sales quota like free insurance, subsidy on car/house, subsidy on CFP program. FYI, Some of these quotas are quite high.
6. Career benefits and advancement.
etc etc

Cons
1. Sales Quota = RM 30k/year, NOTE : this is 30k equity fund sales. Bond and MM funds do not apply. They will fire you if you do not meet the quota. But usually for the beginners, they can appeal and PM will give them another chance.
2. To join the agency force, first you gotta pay RM 247.50 (not sure if this has been changed) for course material, exam fee etc. PM will refund the entire RM 247.50 amount if you pass the exam on your first try and manage 30k sales within 6 months. So, take this as your initial investment and a challenge to make 30k sales in 6 months.
3. You probably need to take ~2 days leave to attend the required training and take exam. The training course will take 1 full day (or 2 evening classes - but this always full, so gotta sign up fast), exam will be held another day at TPM.
4. You do your own investment, are you good enough to make your own financial plan ? You get to save 2.85% of your cost if you are your own agent, but if you are not good enough, you can lose the entire 2.85% or even more back to the market. This is the major risk if you have little clue on what you are doing. However, if you have a helpful and knowledgable upline, he/she can offer you very good advice on this matter.
5. minor cost on renewing FMUTM license, forms, brochures, name cards etc you gotta pay for them.
6. time and commitment. New funds briefing, agency meeting, investment talk, servicing your clients (not just sales, also after-sales service)... will take you time and commitment
7. career prospect - depending on how you view it. There are more and more people joining this industry, and competitions are everywhere. If you intend to do well and stay, I highly recommend you to get yourself a CFP.
etc etc

Bottomline is you gotta have the interest in this field if you wish to join. Don't join because of $$$ only. If you wish to join, you should find a good upline who can guide you well - look at the cons part 4.

For those who are interested in this career, can PM me for more info.

PCSF below .215 now, I'm going in next week.

http://ejleemy.blogspot.com/2007/08/market-correction.html

Those happened earlier this year and last year were market correction ya. Now the current one.......Market correction also ? Initially I thought that way, but I don't think so now. The problem has become too serious that will slowdown the global economy from the forecasted 5%to 3% only this year. 95% investors didn't see this coming. Even the almighty goldman sach, the #1 most profitable American investment company also got hit hard by this crisis.

Our export will suffer as demand reduced, our luxury property will suffer because of the expats can't afford it anymore, our people suffer from stock market losses, margin calls everywhere... things don't look good anymore.

Looking at the china market now, they will be the first one to recover in Asia... they have the strongest reserves, no worry about crisis.

This post has been edited by ejleemy: Aug 17 2007, 02:59 PM