Unless you're legendary investors, don't try to time the market. Not especially with mutual funds as it may cost you sales charges.

Even via direct ETF / stock we won't recommend doing it as well. Typically speaking, time IN THE market matters more than TIMING THE market. There's many studies about it, in the long run, a DCA person into SNP500 earned even more than a best market timer whom accumulated cash up to market bottom and lumpsum invested everything.

Heck, even a worst timer of accumulating lumpsum and dump in during market PEAK before crash had a sizable portfolio size after 35+ years tenure.

5% drop for -8k.

Portfolio must be huge

Jokes aside - just ride with the flow. Maybe can top up

I just topped up my China Tech exposure given the recent shock (but not via FSM, I only do ETF now.)

HKG: 3067

Lower expense ratio @ 0.25% (vs. 0.73%)
And don't want to deal with 30% WHT
And also don't want to deal with multiple currency layer
KWEB: MYR >> HKD (ibkr doesn't accept MYR) >> USD to buy KWEB which invests in China equity >> RMB/HKD

3067: MYR >> HKD which invests in H-shares

This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Nov 11 2020, 08:32 PM

Long term (30+ years) ok la.

Imagine topping up during s&p peak at January 2020 and after 11 months only barely got back to original level but long term its just a few decimal points

So true

I need to increase my China exposure. Too skewed towards US at this stage



This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Nov 12 2020, 11:20 AM

My excel sheet punya pivot got in my signature but my current (developer) version is newer

You can use my v3.1c - has same features just slightly uglier chart (but you can change design easily)

Very balanced portfolio - your "Others" equity includes Malaysia also? Or you leave Malaysia to EPF to manage?

My bitcoin laughable lah, barely 0.05% of my portfolio. I'm also still skeptical in crypto so only put <0.5% in it just to "learn by banging wall" (how I learn things, typically)

Real Estate "direct" as in REITS? Or physical direct?

I actually quite like EPF's ROI / IRR and not really in favour of touching it

This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Nov 12 2020, 02:34 PM

One thing that might help - is to stop looking at news (contradictory I know)

Maybe then won't feel as worried and let emotions take control of your investment.

Nothing is easy. Since you've decided to use EPF fund to invest, just stick around and stop looking at news and continously switching funds. Even if returns don't kill you the switching fees (if any) will. Revisit your portfolio half a year (or a year, or two) later and decide if rebalance is needed or if direction change is required.

Emotions and Investment don't work well together.

Very true! Robo advisor is basically like auto pilot taking out humans from the equation. We're our worst enemies of gone uncontrolled


Well said! Just keep the goal (10-30 years) in mind and sit tight when sailing the sea
Waves are normal when sailing - there's no rough seas without waves!

Why not just DCA PRS contributions 250rm x 12 months?

Not just the upfront sales fees

Sales charge 1.5% vs USD 1.50
Recurring Annual Mgmt Fee 1.8% (no double charge but still...) vs. Expense Ratio 0.75%
Minimum Initial investment 5k++ vs. as low as 1 unit (market price today @ 127usd)

Seriously if the fund is listed as Active-ETF on stock exchange, just go for it directly rather than feeder funds via unit trusts

This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Dec 11 2020, 01:05 PM

Thanks keenauto!

ironman16 here you go. Basically just open foreign brokerage to buy oversea listed stocks / ETF. Personally I'm holding a few different ETF's from NYSE, LSE, and HKEX exchanges respectively.

Step-by-step to getting started via TradeStation Global (Interactive Brokers)

There's a few type of ETF.

"Accumulating" basically reinvest at fund level without even requiring actions on your brokerage.
While "Distributing" will distribute dividends to you.

At brokerage side, some provides "auto reinvest" feature like trading212 / ibkr tsg. But with tsg(ibkr) you don't have access to fractional shares so I don't think it'll be worthwhile, given that you're charged min 1.5usd for commission.

Better off choosing accumulating funds if possible, else just keep in your cash account and use in your next larger trades.

Just two examples of exact same fund, look at distribution policy.

Other important things to look at are such as Currency, Fund Domicile, and Expense Ratio. Those examples were Domiciled in Ireland (for 15% Witholding Tax for Malaysians, instead of 30% WHT if domiciled in the US) albeit in different currencies (but has same underlying shares)



"Distributing" (i.e. distributes dividend AFTER witholding tax to your brokerage account for manual reinvestment, or auto reinvestment by your brokerage with typical trade commissions)

https://www.justetf.com/en/etf-profile.html...in=IE0031442068

"Accumulating" (i.e. accumulates dividend within your holdings AFTER witholding tax, without involving your brokerage hence no "trades" were involved)

https://www.justetf.com/en/etf-profile.html...in=IE00B5BMR087


Another thing to note - sometimes the EXACT SAME ETF will have listings in multiple stock exchanges



Read more:
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/4744515
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3396549

Tradestation minimum holding requires $1000 (but I think they just changed it earlier this month to $2500) worth of portfolio (stocks, cash, ... etc.)

You can start with UT first but start researching. UT's 1.8%++ fees will eat into your profits in a long run.

Just add the units back into your total holdings with zero value (cost)




This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Dec 21 2020, 11:32 PM

Should be still doable. I keep track of total cost of entry vs. Current market value too.

Just set those units to have 0 value/cost.

Mine deduct on 8th ~ 11th of the month and transact/purchase on 15th usually. So far never miss (March's deducted on 9th Mar 2021)

Yeah direct debit via bank account

Could it be because of the trading hours? Probably yesterday midnight over there.

Also for US denominated ETFs if you're buying and holding long term, gotta watch out for estate tax (on your demise) and also dividend withholding tax (for distributing ETFs) since Malaysia doesn't have tax treaty with the US.

I personally go for the Ireland denominated ETFs route.

Edit: since it's via FSM, make sure to check the fees also in case of dividend distribution. Don't know about FSMMY but last time when I used FSM HK for USD holdings, after all the fees I essentially got almost nil dividend (and that was the triggering point of me jumping into the whole IBKR route)

This post has been edited by polarzbearz: Apr 25 2024, 07:22 PM