Can share which platform you use for US ETF?
I'm having hard time convincing myself to buy ETF using small amounts due to the high % of transaction costs.
And I haven't figure out the tax implications too for Malaysian buying US ETF on capital gains/dividend...if anyone know where to point me to.

Not a user of AKRU but would AKRU give more exposure to US ETF?

Just throwing out options.

Still waiting for China and Asia ex Japan to gain momentum... stagnant for sometime now

check with them?
maybe FSM can do it "manually" for you?

not friendly for small potato investor who practising DCA like me, I am doing 5k DCA into ETF each time

u use TD?

Might be temporary only. The rumor was brought about by a news article in china calling online gaming into question. Sparking fears of gov regulations. But it's possible it's only just rumor.

Lol I actually did the oppose, since the Titans fund is pretty high now and China is dipping. Just swapped some only.

Sorry you mention relationship with the FM ? Does it mean if that guy/gal left and join other fund houses you will also withdraw and purchase the fund that guy/gal is managing in the new fund house ? Long long time ago, there are discussion on those very good fund manager how once they left monies flow out from the fund they used to manage to the new fund he/she now manage in the new fund house as investors chase after that talented FM trusting his/her skills to pick the correct stocks.

I agree. What I have listed earlier is if the overlap of the top 5/10 holdings stocks between funds is too high, then it maybe wiser to just purchase one fund rather than two or three in my examples. It is about stretching your X dollars to reach out to more diversified basket of stocks.

Here in Spore I find a few XXX Global, you look into fund factsheet the top 5/10 holdings are at least 90% US IT stocks. Same for XXX Emerging Market, you look into fund factsheet it is China plus India. The fund name is so misleading to me. When I read Global how can the top 5/10 holdings all concentrated on US IT stocks? Likewise for Emerging Market.

Someone told me the word Global is just a mandate given to the fund manager he can pick stocks around the world but he can buy 90% US IT stocks and it still satisfies the Global mandate. Same argument for Emerging Market. If that is the case, investors now need to be extra careful, do please peruse the fund factsheet in detail to know what you are investing into.

I have been investing with FSM when they launched in 2000 which is much older than StashAway etc new entrants. I already have a diversified portfolio. But me now coming age 50 want to allocate a small portion to be riskier get higher returns hence I target single country or sector.

Having gone through 1998 financial crisis, 2008 Lehman brothers crisis and now Covid19, I have learned the time to invest is when everyone pull out. However this Covid19 may last much longer so I doing more research and hence the questions I ask in forum.

There are some funds with risk rating 10 and seem to follow more obscure index. There are funds where it can only invest in Asian small companies. This truly test the FM skills to pick the stocks but the returns are huge.

Single country and sector is risky but with good returns once they bounce back. Agree some single country really CMI I follow one country 3 years still red colour so cut loss sell. China India US are best bets IMO especially China really rocket from year 2000 to now.

South America, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Russia, Australia etc are all those I have not tried and look risky indeed. Look at Brazil recently.

My personal view is it is a factor but not the overall main dominating factor. Reason being typically for UT they do not just buy all the stocks that comprises of the index, if they do that then it is the same as ETF and yet they charge more fees? If that happen please just invest the ETF instead.

UT in order to outperform the index has the flexibility to invest in other stocks not inside the index and for some even invest in some high yielding bonds or other income generating instruments etc. This is why last time the some investor argument is UT is not an exact apple to apple comparison with ETF. UT need to do more work which translate to higher mgmt fees.

My past research indicates some UT typically follow 50-70% of the same stocks in the index. The remaining are in other stocks outside of the index and other investment stated above.

Again just to be fair to ETF supporters, there are quite a lot of under-performing UT throughout my 21 years of investing which can explain why ETF found many supporters over the years. The reason why I still have not entered ETF is in my earlier replies. CPF,dividend,fees criteria which maybe different for different investors. To also clarify, I have bought a few REIT aka dividend paying stocks just not ETF btw.

I think comparing ETF with UT is not a really apple to apple comparison. Perhaps ETF vs individual stock vs REIT stock is a closer comparison. They share the same fee structure each buy/sell pay fees, fractional aka odd lots selling etc.

After finding out I can access FSM Msia I do a scan. The recommended funds are not bad. But the Fund Selector Show Columns lack the Dividend Yield %, Dividend Frequency for those who want to target dividend paying UT.

Overall I think the number of Fund Managers are too little. Even the recommended funds section has too little funds.
For e.g Spore recommended funds section our selections are
Core Portfolio Equity,Asia Ex Japan,Asia Pacific Ex Japan,China,Europe,Global,Global Emerging Market,Greater China,Japan,US
Supplementary Portfolio. ASEAN,Emerging Europe,Latin America,China-Local,India,Msia,Russia,Spore
Sector Portfolio. Disruptive Innovation,Financials,Healthcare,Property,Resources,Technology,Asia Pac Property

When lee82gx mention very little funds worth to hold more than 3 years I now tend to agree with you. Your choices seem more limited so perhaps may want to consider ETF or even stocks. Maybe as times go by FSM Msia bring in more fund managers and funds you consider again.

Btw not sure how Bursa exchange charge but in Spore SGX, besides the 8.80 we pay to FSM we still need to pay some small percentage to SGX as fees. So while ETF,stocks offer faster or more profits please keep in mind all these charges. They are applied for every buy/sell and that includes RSP as well. These fees will add up depending on your trading frequency.

For SGX Reit stocks, instead of dividend payout we can opt for shares so these shares is like normal shares and you no need pay fees. I am not sure about Bursa Reit stocks though. Reit stocks are quite a hit with Spore investors. Got "allowance" and yet still remain invested in the stock. The capital gain may not be high but remember if you sell all, you need to find another stock or buy back again. This is quite troublesome for semi-passive investors.

My worst investment decision ever made. Yes I can handle those high risk investment. For long term it may outperform but currently down by more than 20% even when other index funds are in green ( before omicron news).
Maybe I failed as  an investor.
Anyway going to continuous dca to minimise the loss.
Should've allocate more into index funds.

What's your thoughts on these two? Based on the historical performance, TA's fund seems to be doing quite well. And the tech market seems to be growing further in the future. The Maybank's fund also not to shabby over the past 6 months that you've shown. Also, what made you to invest in either of the two funds? Your input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Yea thinking of choosing either of the two funds since they both are quite similar.
1. I think I get this. So basically choose a fund from a fund house that offer other funds that are good, in the case of the fund that I chose turn out to not performing well I can easily change. Is this correct?
2. That's the thing, since both initial and subs amount are the same for the two, and at quite a high initial price, making it hard for me to choose. They do however differ in min redemption and min holding tho.
3. The fact that Maybank's fund is relatively new kinda makes it more enticing to me, as it has more room to grow in term of the NAV? (I could be wrong here tho)

Thank you for your thoughts.