Eastspring Investments Bond Fund still has that little D symbol next to it. It's been there since the end of December. Have they still not processed the distribution yet?

I'm pretty nervous about 2017. Look at how high FSM's gold fund has gotten. Anyone thinking of selling in case of a financial crisis in 2017?

I think it will be months yet before anything serious is happening but all the signs are there. Trump is undoing Obama's controls on the investment banks including repealing the Frank Dodd Act. That's like inviting Wall Street to go crazy all over again. Who knows what else he's going to do?

We also have Brexit and of course in the middle of the year the French Presidential elections. If FN wins, they promise to take France out of the EU and that's it for the Euro.

Obviously I don't know anything for sure. I'm just asking around and see what the thoughts of others are.

The 2007 / 2008 crisis had less of an effect in Asia but it would be impossible for anyone in the US and Europe to ignore it. For us FSM investors who have money in many different funds, we need to be aware of risks on a global basis, not just Malaysia.

Following up on my concerns earlier, I sold one third of my Titans fund. I have no other funds that are directly US-based. I think gold will go up some more but I have no idea if buying one of the gold funds is a good proxy for that and the extreme volatility of those funds make me nervous. I'm keeping my Asian and emerging markets funds for now but I really, really want to move to a more cash position.

Are none of you really scared of a major financial crisis this year?

I survived the 1998 crisis by basically moving out of the country and working overseas. The 2008 crisis didn't have a big impact on the Malaysian economy but I did not have a very substantial stock investment portfolio before the onset of the crisis and made quite a bit of money by buying in the aftermath. Currently I have a lot invested in equities, both directly and through funds. It would kill me if the equity funds dropped by something like 20% to 30% during a big crisis. Maybe some of you are really tough enough to shrug off such large paper losses and just buy more, but it would give me a heart attack. I would prefer to stay in cash and buy back later even if I had to forgo some gains in the meantime.

I agree. This is just precautionary for now. If the bad news keeps popping up, I would reduce positions in the Asian and EM funds as well.

Potential bad news in the near term: French elections, border tax, US-China violence in South China Sea (not impossible if Bannon calls the shots in the White House).

It doesn't have to be binary, all this way or all that way. I have been in equities, either directly or indirectly through funds all this time. All I'm saying that the risk of global crisis seems more elevated than normal right now. Doesn't it make sense to divest some and hold more cash in anticipation? If we reach June and FN doesn't win the French elections, we can consider the risk to have fallen somewhat. If we reach the end of the year and Trump still hasn't put up his promised border taxes, we can consider the risk to be diminished even more. So I lose some equity gains for approximately a year and earn FD-equivalent interest instead. Is that so bad?

This post has been edited by wankongyew: Feb 7 2017, 11:25 AM

So anyone want to talk about the funds for "high net worth" investors? I have an invitation to a luncheon in which they are promoting AFFIN HWANG ABSOLUTE RETURN FUND II. The returns for it look crazy. 18.49 annualized return over the past 5 years.

Minimum initial amount is RM100k. I already have more than that in more than one fund with FSM...

Since you seem to understand their strategy, do you know if this counts as a hedge fund? I always read that hedge funds on average underperform due to their high costs but the stated returns on the one FSM is promoting is very tempting and I keep asking myself what is the catch.

Also, I feel very silly about buying big into a new fund just after announcing here that I think there might be a big crisis this year and that I'm divesting some investments. Then again, I suppose that if anyone can properly take advantage of a crisis, it would be a hedge fund.

If you'd followed my previous conversation, I was talking specifically about AFFIN HWANG ABSOLUTE RETURN FUND II since I was invited to invest in it.

https://www.fundsupermart.com.my/main/fundi...number=MYAHARF2