A typical misconception is expecting that past performance is indicator of future returns. Nothing has been further from the truth especially when it comes to actively managed funds.

History tends to repeat itself, yes but never when it’s convenient.

Beware of the sunk cost fallacy in dcaing your favourite or worst idea ever fund.

You think you are reducing your average, yes, but you may forget that it would’ve been much better working if you bought something that is actually only going to appreciate over time.

Every good stock and fund I know averages UP.

its just yklooi's polite way of saying you talk air without data.

actually i tried to counsel you a few times here. Not to condemn you, but you only fail if you give up. If nothing else, I think overconfidence and not listening to advise is something we can all improve upon.

Learn from the mistakes.
Why don't we all list our portfolio actions of the year, thought process, due diligence and then see if we can learn?

I have been investing for >15 years - equal to the length of my professional, full time career from which my source of investment capital comes. I AM STILL LEARNING TODAY.

Why don't I suggest you read a few books:
1. A random walk down walls street
2. One up on wall street

Here are some of my poorer moves across the year:
1. Classic herd mentality on hypergrowth story of the year - ARKK, CXSE, ONLN
2. Expecting history to repeat itself - See above.
3. Selling too soon - UPST. Buying too high - lol I have many of these.
4. Not having a long term mindset.
5. Toping up losers, selling winners.
6. Not reading some of the writings on the wall - TOPGLOV lol.

Catch 22, because you get taxed immediately for any dividend distribution.

Yes. But when you declare it in return it is to “claim” some back as it is taxed at max rate while you possibly do not belong in that bracket eventually.

In the end, when the public listed company declares a dividend, they need to pay tax first on nett profit and then after you as shareholder get it, you are taxed again. This is why I never favour dividends for growth stocks personally.

Whatever MUM says, is just telling u above in a more formal way.

If you don't know what you bought you also won't know what you are selling. Investing is not like this.....you should tell us your thesis instead. Otherwise another -65% later and your principal is only left 30% from the start. You will be doing donation instead of investing.

Appreciate your help in providing examples. But after decades I too have come to understanding that Mutual funds are few and far in between in those able to outperform indices.

1.Principal Islamic Tech- A very short tenured fund - track record is uncertain. Purely from a returns perspective, yes outperforming index. But frankly you buy any Mag 7 in a basket and you will outperform from 2022 onwards. It was a greatly timed opening. Not to mention the fees you pay Principal for helping you buy the exact same thing from Franklin templeton for much much less fees. This fund is a great rent seeker.

if you want another example - United global tech fund. Super outperform Nasdaq / SPY500 during launch but now is stagnant. Same as ARKK.

2. TA global tech - A favourite, but again just the equivalent of QQQ over 3 years and 5 years and 10 years.

Unless you are looking to trade your unit trust after a year which is weird since you pay what up to 5% in fees, it washes away all your small gains.

Holding it long - you pay 2% fees every year which again cumulates to a lot of fees.

May I ask, what funds you have, and what long term returns that consistently beat the benchmark / market for you?

withholding tax is for dividends, not capital gains.
they are mutually exclusive.
As of today, capital gain tax is not applied to foreign investors or foreign persons filling w8-ben form.
So, even the 20% was not applied to you as of today.

Speculatively speaking, changing it to 28% will unlikely automatically changing the above applicability (to foreign investors).

However, any changes to tax structures even if it ONLY affects US entities, will have ripple or rocking effect to the market. Case in Point BRK / Buffet is on a selling spree, ostensibly due to tax structure and looming taxes applied to capital gains of their BRK holdings. So, they have been selling AAPL by the billions and BAC by the billions daily, and you can see it causes the market to move.

Normally increase in tax is usually not a great thing for investors and speculators, at least in the short term.

One of the few funds remaining in my FSM account that I let to run. It’s been 7-8 years for me and have well tracked QQQ in annualised returns, minus the fees.😜.