All the best man. I'm not sure if I can give advice to someone twice my age, since my investment horizon and goals would be much more different to yours. But the key thing would be to start with a diverse portfolio. Simple recommended is to go 30/30/20/20 on Global Developed/Asia Pacific/Gloabl Emerging/Malaysia.

We live in a bit of uncertain times. If the US starts a trade war with China, China market might go down but South Korea/Taiwan/Japan may see a rise since they are US friendly, for example. Europe is very uncertain, I personally think it's a basket case in the near term with the Brexit uncertainty and upcoming French/German elections.

So best thing is just to diversify. In the short term there may be a divergence but in the long term the trend should be upwards.

Today it has been a humbling experience. The first time I put in lump sum into all my funds, I got very lucky with timing. But the second time, I have got beaten. Badly.

The Russell 2500 is down by nearly 2% and I tripled my US Small/Mid Cap exposure last Friday. So yeah...if only I had held out a bit longer. On the flip side had I held out and instead the Russell 2500 gained 2%, then I would have regretted my decision too.

Now just thinking if I should be getting my fingers itchy and switching out of any Global and European funds tomorrow. The futures don't look pretty anywhere, but they look worst for developed markets. I know I will regret it if I switch and instead they improve...likewise if I don't switch and they get worse.

Yeah correct, but Monday US stocks lost a lot. Russell 2500 which is the benchmark down by 1.5% for the day.

Anyway today I did three switches. Finally. They have all been submitted.

TA European > SEA
CIMB Global > Australian
CIMB China > China,India,

I also wanted to switch to the RHB Gold Fund but sadly neither my Asian Income nor US Equity funds are showing my actual units due to dividend and topup. So I didn't do so.

Maybe all of this is stupid, but it's a learning experience.

Trading a US stock also not cheap, doing this nonsense is cheaper and less risky.

This post has been edited by contestchris: Jan 31 2017, 01:15 PM

Don;t make up stories. Each trade is RM0, for me at least. Intra-house switching. No credit points nonsense.

Sometimes these fellas goreng goreng lah. RHB Asian Income also a lot of goreng goreng going on.

Come on man. The main idea here is to outperform the "base" fund in whatever period of time (1 week, 2 week, 1 month etc). Outperform, even by just 0.5%, is good enough. Outperform can also mean negative.

Say I have a CIMB Global Titans. I switch to CIMB Australian Equity. From the time I switch out to the time I switch back in, CIMB Global Titans makes a 0.8% loss. In that same time CIMB Australian Equity makes a 0.3% loss. It means I "gained" 0.5%. It sounds like a small thing to you, but if every year I can make an additional 0.5% from switching...walao, the compounding power is huge.

Example:

RM1,000 at 9.0% for 30 years = RM13,267
RM1,000 at 9.5% for 30 years = RM15,220

Of course, today I did my first ever switching. And of course, I don't intend to just gain 0.5% only. But let's just see. This is theory for now. Can it happen? Everyone here seems to think not. I'm going against the grain, for better or for worse, and will share my experiences and outcomes.

Does anyone know what the below means? It is taken from their FAQ about Intra-House switching:

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The switch-sell and switch-buy orders will be transacted on the same business day the order is received before 3pm. Otherwise it will be transacted on the next business day.

However, please note that there are 2 business days lag time should you switch buy into RHB Money Market Fund, RHB Income Fund 2, RHB Institutional Islamic Money Market Fund and 1 business days lag time if you switch buy into CIMB-Principal Equity Growth & Income Fund, CIMB-Principal Greater China Equity Fund, CIMB-Principal Income Plus Balanced Fund, CIMB-Principal Global Titans Fund, CIMB-Principal Australian Equity Fund, CIMB-Principal Strategic Bond Fund, CIMB-Principal Asia Pacific Dynamic Income Fund, AmSchroder European Equity Alpha Fund and Kenanga Asia Pacific Total Return Fund.

--------------------

What exactly is meant by "business day lag time" here? Has anyone intra-house switched into any of the funds above? Care sharing your experience?

Well, that's then both good and bad, if used correctly. If ALL global markets are falling for two days in a row (like Monday and Tuesday) it can be used as a tool to make no losses for at least that one day.

But I think this is a FSM limitation. CIMB Clicks doesn't say anything about it and I believe they should transact the buy and sell switch order at the same time.

Also so far all three of my switches are already making money. Due to today's holidays, I can only gain control of my switch next Monday. Will switch back to Greater China and Global Titans then and let you guys know what the results are. I am still holding off on going back to TA European as there seems to be some weakness in European for now.

No. The index in Indonesia up by 1.2%, Singapore up by 0.4%, India up by 0.9%, Australia up by 0.6%, HK down by 0.4%, US/Europe market down (for yesterday, since these are lagged by half and one day each). I think I will make some % gains, let's wait and see. I don't even know based on what day will it be transacted - if they are transacted based on the prices dated 31/1/2017, then it will be very good for me. Again, I repeat, zero fees.

Eh, I have done my research beforehand. What are my other options? Buying and selling ETFs on the US markets is very costly.

Here, at the very least my money is secure with fund managers who know what they are doing.

Sure if I was a millionaire I will cut the middle man, but with my measly thousands of ringgit I a man just a small fish.

I've spent the last month researching about Fund performance behaviour. I emailed Schroders, Principal Global and Henderson Horizon to ask about their fund pricing timing.

The money floats for 3 business days. The switching in and out is done on that same day. The valuation of the fund can be estimated based on its correlation to the benchmark and by studying stock market futures.

If my "base" and original fund portfolio makes 8% and if I can just eke out 1-2% a year, it's good enough. But based min my research even more is possible if you understand the market. Already I think based on today for the switched funds I gained about 0.7%, so there's that.

This post has been edited by contestchris: Feb 1 2017, 04:57 PM

It's still going to be a loss because at mid day yesterday the Stoxx 50 was at above 3265 and the Stoxx 50 is currently only at about 3260 despite a 0.90%+ gain. So it's a net loss.

This post has been edited by contestchris: Feb 1 2017, 07:20 PM

I think that's a bit too much lah - the figures you have there...but who knows right. I am not attempting to speculate. Of course, out of 100 switches even getting 70% of them correct can lead to a good increase in returns. I do a lot of reading to get a handle of the market. And yes I am only doing it with a small sum at the moment. Two of the switches were short term, one is a medium term switch.

The problem is, going from equities > money market > equities will cost me 2.5%. So if I think the market is going to tank big time, I have to cash out. No other option for me. Unless I think it is only a regional crash, then I divert the funds away from that region temporarily. Which is why, one of the things I ensure is that the fund houses I buy in to have a range of offerings - local, regional, global, discrete regional/global and bonds. So that when the time to switch out comes, there are legit options available to move out without incurring costs.

If I use FSM it will be free to do equities > money market > equities, but their intra-house switching for CIMB funds have got a lag of 1 day. That lag is keeping me away for now as my CIMB funds are 50% of my portfolio and they have the most diverse range of funds regionally to effortlessly switch between.

I don't think fund managers will close it down lah. At the moment zero switching fee is the selling point for them. Plus, you need to get your timing absolutely right for this and devote time researching and following the markets, which not many may be able to do. And of course skillful traders with lots of monies will go direct into the stock exchanges.

But yeah, I may need to start deleting all my posts if I find this successful and zip my mouth. At the moment I am just excited and everything is just a theory.

This post has been edited by contestchris: Feb 1 2017, 07:14 PM

I'm not saying I am correct...not at all. But in deference to everyone's advise over here, I felt strongly enough to give it a try. Why not? I may lose 1-2% AT MOST, but it's a learning experience. I respect everyone's views here and I learned a lot from the kind members. They have gone through thick and thin, I'm yet to go through those phases. I begun investing on 27 Dec 2016...still just a very small baby, a few days older than a month.

Not sure if I get you. I had 3 CIMB, 2 RHB, 1 Eastspring/Kenanga/AffinHwang/TA. The only issue I have with switching is with RHB due to RM25, so I am not touching those until I get 20k into my RHB funds and consolidate them together. RHB actually has the most potential since it has a Gold Fund.

My Eastspring and Kenanga investments are local and I do not intend to be switching these, unless things are really bad, cause both KGF and Kapchai have a good track record of outperforming the index.

All the fund houses offer a great selection of local, regional, emerging and global funds, including discrete foreign countries. Choosing a fund house with a wide selection was an active decision I made, to be honest. And all except RHB offer free switching, but RHB is the only one with a Gold fund which will be a useful tactical weapon once I got a bigger capital in there to minimize the RM25 switching fee (in % terms).

My current ROI till 27/1/2017 (exactly one month since I started 27/12/2016) is 4.012%. In that period of time I did ZERO switching. My first switching was on 31/1/2017, so I sadly do not have any results. Not sure what you mean by "that many trades", plus "your returns should be more than mine which is passive"...the returns could also be much less.

But due to the massacre on Monday and Tuesday I expect my portfolio returns to drop substantially. Plus the US and Europe have recovered today and I missed out on it so in all probability I have made losses on my switching. So from 4% it could go down to <2% by the end of the week due to my itchy fingers.

This post has been edited by contestchris: Feb 1 2017, 11:41 PM

I don't see why there is a need for service charge? Also, on CIMB Clicks you can switch partial units. Maybe it's different on FSM. Can provide a screenshot of the switching page?

Do share your portfolio if you don't mind, curious to see the composition. I assume it is heavily weighted to Asian equities.

Also is this ROI based on IRR or just end/start calculation? Did you top up in between the one year period?

Btw congrats! 10% a year is very solid.

Dude, I opened my CIMB Unit Trust account in 2 minutes which is so incredibly convenient. It was instant. I didn't deal with any Relationship Managers or Agents. I have full and total control over my Unit Trust account. If you look at my portfolio, if I had waited for the account in FSM to be created I would have "lost" out on quite a substantial gain.

Plus, at that point in time I never heard about FSM and I was afraid of putting in a lump sum of money into an "unknown" entity.

Don't worry about me, I run the numbers and understand the "loss" I make on the slightly higher fees. I know when to get in to FSM.

PS: Btw please don't blame me for joining this thread. I was directed here by a few members of this thread and also the moderator, who said I shouldn't be making new threads about unit trust and should just post here. Plus, you guys are a genuinely nice and helpful lot of people. I do think FSM is superior to CIMB Clicks in almost every way, so there's that. The reason I don't want to use FSM yet is for many reasons - one of which is in the event of a financial crisis in the near term, I will cash out from CIMB Clicks, sit on the sidelines as the market crash (and at the same time create FSM account) and then take advantage of 1% or even 0% SC with my lump sum. Or alternatively do it in such a way I can maximize the 1%, I don't want to "waste" it.

I also of course am not just going in to unit trust. I am learning "value investing". Buy small/mid cap stocks after conducting extensive research, then sell them at a profit.

This post has been edited by contestchris: Feb 2 2017, 11:41 PM

Care to share portfolio? I assume it's Asian heavy. Global/US/EU didn't do well in January.

Probably got a bit too lucky with the magnitude of gains, but switching day one is good. Transacted on 31/1 so these gains are for 2/2 relative to that date.

CIMB Titans > Australia: Gain 1.92%

CIMB China > Ch/In/Id: Gain 0.81%

TA European > SEA: Loss 0.36%

The final switch is a long term switch. The other two, I'm not so sure. Will do research over the weekend. They were initially supposed to be short term switches only.

This post has been edited by contestchris: Feb 3 2017, 07:43 PM

Your numbers are off. CIMB China lost 0.1%, Global Titans gained 0.3%. Meanwhile CII gained 0.7% and Australia gained 2.15%. TA Europe gain 0.6%, TA SEA gain 0.24%.

This post has been edited by contestchris: Feb 3 2017, 08:42 PM