I think I share this before the word Global is so misleading always read the fund factsheet. A lot of global funds top holdings are US centric hence the drop in price when US index drop. A rare few are Europe centric and some is really global. The truly global are the ones that drop the least currently in my fund portfolio. But this truly global will not rise as fast as those US centric global in a bull run.

We Hokkien got saying "Want cheap, want fresh, want live nearby" very hard to achieve in reality same as mutual fund investing. But diversification is what I strongly believe in. It cushion your losses but expect no first spot runner in bull run though.

Small cap funds are always very risky lose big and win big. I would suggest get the Asian level small cap instead of ASEAN. Check if it is available for sale in FSM Msia.

Hahaha tiger year so use tiger king. All along ppl use lion king.

You say it well author bias. Mutual fund for some ppl is capital. How use $100 can buy already? Of cuz if author is trading speculative small cap $100 maybe can buy but in order to reap great profits I doubt his every trade is $100 only. Such posts come with a bias in whatever the author want to say. If you pose this question $100 I can buy? to the author, I wonder if he will say the same tone. Always read such post with a pinch of salt.

Fractional shares come with the hard to sell off part. It is much harder to sell and sometimes you don't transact at the price of the full share it is lower as no buyer want to buy fractional and himself become fractional. Usually in a bigger broker they can consolidate every investor fractional shares into 1 full shares to trade in the full shares market. I think someone mention he tried fractional before still can sell but must wait 10 minutes compared to normal full shares at the same price it is almost instantaneous. The comm fees for fractional shares trade need to factor in also.

You mention author trade for a living then it make sense becuz to really earn your income the highest returns/losses come from individual stock trading and definitely not from mutual fund or even robo-advisors. They trade for a living versus we invest for mid to long term while holding a full-time job. Different scenario but if based as a trader mindset the post is accurate IMO.

He is not wrong becuz you see for us who have full-time jobs, we don't really have all the time to research which stock to buy so we pay fees for someone in this case fund managers to do the work. Compared to a guy whose full-time job is to trade of cuz since it is his livelihood he need to research it well becuz every failed trade means today no monies earn means monthly salary reduced or zero.

I think the argument of expensive fees paid for fund managers must be taken into context. He is not wrong but say for somehow who has a full-time job paying say 5-10K monthly shouldn't he focus on the full-time job to make sure this salary don't disappear as in jobless? Then the "free-time" really want to rest so delegate the stock research job to fund managers instead.

The post should be more objective by perhaps putting disclaimer becuz if this post is mindset from a full-time trader it is accurate as I say earlier. But if is mindset from a full-time worker it is debatable becuz really sometimes we just want to rest and pay monies let ppl do the work for us. We just research on best fund (which is less taxing than combing individual stock financial reports etc)

Absolutely agree with you. This downturn just showcase the capability of this fund manager. Going all cash is quite an extreme approach by fund manager IMO. As to whether investors still want to stick with is each investor choices.

If you like FD stay it that way. Now is bear market times. It is good for those who have not experienced before to finally experience it in one whole investment journey. Once out of bear run, hopefully one become a seasoned and veteran investor. Some will continue invest some will exit and goes for more safety instrument like FD you suggest.

These are trying times to eke out profits from equities and bonds markets. Based on latest FSM articles they are suspecting many more deep hike rates ahead and how to do we still churn profits in such times? They lay down below points.

1. Invest Asian markets like Asian ex-Japan equities in core regional equities portfolio
2. Invest in commodity-related equities as a hedge e.g Natural Resources, Energy, Mining, Gold etc
3. Invest in global financials
4. Invest and choose short duration fixed income exposure

Not saying FSM recommendations are correct on every point, at least I know point 1 a lot of SA has deep mistrust on the KWEB in their portfolio etc. So share my recent focused DCA (now include ETF from FSM ETF RSP)

FSSA Dividend Advantage A QDIS SGD
FSSA Regional China A Acc SGD
Blackrock World Mining A2 SGD-H
HKEX (3143): ChinaAMC Hong Kong Banks ETF (bi-annual dividend)
SGX (CYC): ICBC CSOP FTSE Chinese Government Bond Index ETF (bi-annual dividend)
SGX (GSD): SPDR® Gold Shares

I have stopped my DCA for all other region,sectors now as market too choppy and I think I maybe missing a global financials portfolio.

Anyone of you find the equivalent offered in FSM Msia tied to the above points?

You are so lucky to meet bear market at the start of your investment journey. I started around 2000 dot com bubble era and it is painful but it make me stronger as in whether investment is still for me. I decided full time job still must do and take investment as a side project.

2000 era no ETF but the rise of mutual funds and of cuz the old stocks investment. Now 2022 stocks still around and the rise of ETF which is actually conceptually same as mutual fund with the low expense ratio freebie thrown in. Newer ETF are getting more actively managed and expense ratio rising too.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/nod-r...bership-2549551

Hope peace prevail soon and all back to normal and stock market recover!

In this market correction times, not only FSM investors even SA ETF investors are hit too. Depend how long you started in investment, if it is recently I can understand as I understand way back in year 2000 dot com bubble too. But every-time market will bounce back it is always a matter of when. That is why some wise man say only invest with monies you can afford to lose never touch your emergency funds etc. That is why I practice diversification a lot. Bank FD also have, Govt Savings Bond also have, insurance endowment plan also have etc. Over diversification lead to reduced returns but I feel it is much safer in the long run. Lastly always maintain some cold hard cash on hand even in bull market!

Can I know you started investment in Aug 2021 only? That is considered fairly newbie. So unlucky to get hit with market correction. But if you have other investment that is started say 10 years ago they are also bleeding red color? In investment time horizon quite important.

Ok noted. My Greater China fund in 2000 until now still green color and that is 22 years ago so when some ppl say investment got time horizon have some truth. So you considered old-bird already no worries soon it will rise again only dunno when.

Thanks for sharing. We need more postings from long term investors. This is to inform the SA investors in the other thread long term (if choose correctly) really can make monies but ETF is quite young started appearing around 2010 onwards? whereas for mutual fund, stocks they exist way before that so they got a longer history to prove their model is working. Frankly for me individual stock is still very risky compared to a basket of stocks in mutual fund and ETF. Returns maybe much higher in individual stock but the losses also follow too if choose wrongly.

US always the country that instigate. Why did the great Soviet Union disintegrate in 1991? If not USSR still one super big country. Now it breakup into so many and US slowly psycho them to go against Russia and now Russia really action US surprised don't dare provoke scared WW3. Who suffer? Those former USSR breakup countries loh. I am actually quite surprised Putin really wage war my gosh don't play play with him even more garang than China sia

You know your thinking applies way back many years ago on China too. But look how China has flourished along the years so much so that their stock market sneeze it actually affect Asia markets in many ways. They maybe holding their same old idealogy but economic and business wise to me more like capitalism (opening up for trade etc). Unfortunately USSR does not have the time horizon to prove themselves like China did since they kena split up around 1991 by instigator countries (ok I get it conspiracy theories) behind.

I have been with FSM since they started in Spore way back in 2000. All along I have said their articles while not 100% accurate do have some credibility. It would be good to read their recommendations once in a while. You do not need to agree with them but you can read their analysis and if it is logical or just BS. From my own experience they are about 50% accurate throughout the years.

First for me is FSM Spore so we can use CPF (Msia EPF) equivalent and cash for UT. Typically for CPF UT even if you sell profits go back into CPF until you can take it out at say age 65? So for CPF if I sell it will be I want to invest into another UT so it will be a switch-sell which means profits go back to a new fund not go back CPF.

For cash, you got more freedom. Typically I go for dividend paying UT. Since monthly dividend payout why sell? Sell still need to think profits put where unless you got emergency use. For non-dividend paying UT, I need to reward myself mah put so long no dividend only see paper profit so I will evaluate once a year and think profits good sell some units to get profits but seldom sell all exit fund. Sell all units from UT will be emergency use and recently I need sell all is a all Russia UT. On 24 Feb 2022 war announce I sell also late I lost 50%. Later that fund no more tradeable in FSM Spore so such things must act fast else stuck-ed.

Wanted to see how my China funds deal with the red colour after seeing the kweb ETF saga in the other thread. Behold most of the funds top holdings are no longer the Baba, Tencent etc familiar faces anymore. It seem the fund manager has actioned much earlier to avoid further losses. Mine last year bought China funds around -15 to -20%.

So fund manager got do work after we pay more for expense ratio. However I notice one fund still not much change in their top holdings and that explain its super red colour. Once all my China funds turn green colour that fund will be dropped. Take monies never do work and it is charging 2+% expense ratio!

This market correction period is for us to see fund manager got work for the monies or not. Lucky for fund they are allowed freedom to drop and move around to avoid more losses.

ETF are following index so they have to buy what is in the index unless that stock is dropped from the index. Now ETF supporters see the disadvantage? It's lower expense ratio do come with some flaws.

I am quite happy market correction come just when I started to try ETF. I always want to know besides lower expense ratio what do they bring on the table to compare with mutual fund.