... no sweat if local fund is 10% or less. Most portforlios could be at record peak... again.

HSI +1.91%
HSCEI +2.91%
TAIEX +1.08%
NIKKEI 225 +0.70%
STI +1.09%

KOSPI also positive... +0.12%

Those who had bought and topped up during last week's dip...

"our strong currency"
I don't whether to laugh or puzzled or mad ... so just

... don't get mixed up on daily movements with weekly, monthly, or quarterly changes.

Good plan! Buy low, sell hight. Buy high, sell higher!
Don't forget the cut off time when making the purchases.

Good luck!

... and the good news is that the markets are still going up today, abeit not as high as yesterday. For those who has made enough and was thinking of getting out, today is another good time to do so.

If still greedy for more... the market outlook for the next 2-3 months is looking good, the momentum is still there because there is still a lot of kiasu and fomo (fear of losing out) still getting in to grab a piece of the action.

Bitcoin cpuld possibly burst first, and its ripples will then disrupt the stock market rally momentarily. In 2018, Fat boy could also resign like Mugabe and Asia Pac stock exchanges will leap in joy...

On the local front, the coming CNY would be a damp affair... prawns and fish at all time high prices due to bad weather, RM still "strong" at above 3-to-1 SG$ and above 4-to-1 US$, retirees getting lower rental income (if they managed to get tenants), more main street shops closing due to higher wages (minimal wages is slowly and gradually making its impact on the economy).

The negative outlook maybe biased due to recent frant page news... today's news also not helping to dispel the negative outlook... shop break-in in Klang over 100 break-ins in 3 months.... there are still cases of little napoleons purposely sabotaging their employers (as in the case of the woman driver being summoned and has her wheel clamped when she parked in the slot for handicaps - even when the little napoleans saw that her mother cannot walk and needs a wheel-chair. Oh, not to forget, it was in Georgetown. If I am the mayor, after the recent floods 2weeks ago, I would give motorists a break and gives free parking for a month).

And also the other news of a whole family of 5 commiting suicide, possibly due to debts. Sigh.

A samaritan paid the summon on behalf of the woman driver. Local economy becoming so bad meh... got money just enough for fuel... no money for summon and accidents... maybe this is why everyone is so stressful... a little bit will push them over the edge and make them angry... this is the reason behind all the road rage and vocal outbursts?

In short (let's get back to topic), foreign funds more favorable in the next 2-3 months...

Go big or go home!

Don't forget that IDS got its growth not from the listed small-cap companies in Bursa... the high returns are from companies outside the small-cap index... can't recall what's the other index is called, it is something like 'gem' similar to the fledging stocks in the Hong Kong exchange... anyway, these smaller than small companies poses higher risk... any one single unfortunate event can affect its stock, "Notion VTec shares hit limit-down after fire incident ..."

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/2017/10/20/...ing-plant-klang

I rather risk 90% into Asia Pac or Greater China funds...

Anyway, this is unit trusts we are talking about... worst case scenario, short term trading plan becomes long term buy-and-hold strategy. Win-win situation.

This post has been edited by j.passing.by: Nov 22 2017, 04:32 PM

When the ringgit fell a few years ago, I thought the fall was due to forex manipulation by the big hedge funds... and was waiting for a quick rebounce... and missed one whole year of purchases waiting for the rebound.

Let's get real, the current exchange rate is based on solid economic fundamentals.

And the underlying economic fundamentals comes from all the developments, and all the social, cultural, education, and infrastructure growth in the past 60 years.

Turning all the fundamentala around is like turning a titanic ship around to the right direction... it will take years since social changes can be very, very slow, maybe never... like changing back to having English schools.

(English shools was one of the economic edge we have over our neighbouring countries... except Singapore, of course.)

In short, don't hold your breath... invest for events that are more possible to happen, rather than invest and hope the event will happen.

No lah, the emas index is a solid index of the large and mid cap companies that are not included in the KLCI index... or maybe it do includes the top 30 companies in the bursa. Anyway, the emas and the KLCI are the main indices.

This smaller-than-small cap index was posted in a recent post a few days ago... too lazy to find and know more, since not too interested in it... knowing more uninterested info is like keeping more garbage in the brain with limited grey cells.

===========

Small-cap index https://www.investing.com/indices/ftse-malaysia-small-cap

ACE market index https://www.investing.com/indices/ftse-malaysia-ace

click the 1W (weekly) view to zoom out the trend to 2015... higher volatility in the ace market.

To see the long list of companies listed in the main board and ACE market:
http://www.bursamalaysia.com/market/listed...ies/ace-market/

What is the ACE Market? https://capital.com.my/investors-funds/publ...bursa-malaysia/

The ACE Market which stands for ‘Access, Certainty, Efficiency’ is actually the new name for the formerly known MESDAQ (Malaysian Exchange of Securities Dealing and Automated Quotation) market. MESDAQ came into existence in 1997 when it was the home of mainly technological stocks and today it is replaced by the ACE Market under Bursa Malaysia. The ACE Market was derived together with the unification of the Main and Second Board into the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia in 2009.

The ACE Market is seen as the ideal market for start-ups and new companies which are run by entrepreneurs who are looking to push for more capital by listing their companies public. This is where they might not have the large and high amount like companies in the Main Market but would probably have a strong product or service portfolio which if given more capital, would surely succeed.

The ACE Market is very much like the GEM (Growth Enterprise Market) in Hong Kong or Catalist of Singapore and companies in ACE Market are sponsor-drive and it is not only limited to the technological sector when it was called MESDAQ.

This means that companies from any sector or size can apply to be listed in the ACE Market where it is designed to offer a more efficient and certain way for you to do so. Typically, the regulations for listing in ACE market are less stringent and the company need not provide the track records like how it is required in the Main Market.

===============

Kuala Lumpur Technology Index
https://www.investing.com/indices/kl-technology

... click the 'Components' tab to show the list of companies under this index.



This post has been edited by j.passing.by: Nov 22 2017, 07:45 PM

Well done! Let's compare a bond fund against an equity fund, and bash it for its lack of growth.



==========

BTW The local bond funds suddenly jump up in yesterday's nav price, gaining about 2 weeks worth of the usual daily increments.

Whar correlation is there when the funds are in different asset catergory - with one a bond fund, and the other an equity fund?

Bond funds and fixed income funds are for lessening the overall portfolio risk by lowering the equity portion within the portfolio. Lower the equity portion by having a higher bond/fixed income portion.

This particular bond fund is a totally foreign bonds... its higher than normal growth in the recent past 2 years was due to the fall of the ringgit. It is like putting money into a fixed dposit in a Singapore bank in 2012 and wait for the ringgit to fall... you would gained returns in the region of 25-30% eventhough the FD interest is miserable.

The gains this year would be flat or negative due to the forex again.

Lastly, try to make apple to apple comparisons. Making apple to orange comparison is a bit silly... and generally, would not get us anywhere.

Cheers.

This post has been edited by j.passing.by: Nov 23 2017, 03:04 PM

What is there to talk about when you only want to listen to yourself and stubbornly refuse to listen to others when they present a valid counterpoint to you?

This is not an exchange of thoughts or opinions... it is more like "I am correct. Since I am correct, what yoo said is wrong. You wasted my time in talking to you."

Cheers.

This post has been edited by j.passing.by: Nov 23 2017, 03:39 PM

Well, you have shown me nothing... just to tell be both are foreign funds, when I was telling you that one is a bond fund and the other an equity fund, plus I already told you the bond fund is totally a foreign bond fund.

Why do you have to be so personal in the opinion and try to counter me by assuming that I am holding this particular bond fund?

I don't follow too closely on what Xuzen said in his posts on his recommended portfolio. The thing is that bond/equity ratio is to balance the risk of the entire portfolio. This is what I said in my previous post.

So tell me again, what is new that you want to tell me after reading my post above. Just a repeat that an emerging market equity fund is equivalent to an emerging market bond fund?

This post has been edited by j.passing.by: Nov 23 2017, 04:04 PM

"because RHB EMB has high enough volatility that make itself has similar risk with balanced EQ fund. Clear?"

So you can compare 2 funds in 2 different asset category due to its recent history and volatility are the same or almost the same?

Read the above post on why the volatility comes about, due to the fall in ringgit... maybe expand the performance chart to 5 or 10 years... and see how its trend was like before 2013...

Okay, you have a different opinion from Xuzen... fine with me, as I don't want to find out how that post and conversation between him and you, comes about.

Regardless, it is still silly to compare apples to oranges, and use an orange to replace an apple.

Equity funds is a lot different from bond funds... eventhough they are both foreign funds... hence forex changes will affect the net performance growth differently... if the former has a gross return of 35%, and its net return becomes 30% due to forex, then the later a gross return of 6% will have a net growth of 1%.

It terms of percentages, forex impact on the bond fund is higher, and is more significant.

So... while it is true that forex will have an impact on all foreign holdings whether cash, bond funds, equtiy funds, etc. the impact is not the same as we cannot ignore and disregard the total returns from the funds themselves.

It only makes sense by looking in the review mirror and takes into account the sharp fall of the ringgit beginning from the 3rd quarter of 2014.

If we disregard the sharp fall of the ringgit from end 2014 to end 2016, then where is the "high risk/return characteristic" of the bond fund?

See this link in Morningstar on the fund's return... https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?act=Post...9&qpid=87131468

The returns before and after the above ringgit-fall period:

2013 = 0.31%
YTD = 3.37%

A bond fund is still a bond fund, and it is still considered as fixed income catergory. A balanced fund can be classified as both a fixed income and a growth fund... in the long run, they would be hard to out perform an equity fund that was geared for high growth.

By treating the bond fund as a balanced fund, you could be taking less risk than you think you were taking... since it is now included inside the equity portion of the portfolio.

Anyway, the main point of having any diversification of having different funds either in different regions or categories is consistency. It should only be changed if the market outlook or market forecast we held changes drastically than previous forecast or outlook.

Who knows... the ringgit could fall another round of 25% to 5-to-1 USD.

What is more important to a new investor into UT funds is what is his investment objective - short term or long term? How he intends to do his purchases? Spread over the entire duration of the investment period or half of the duration or in a matter of weeks, ie. lump sum over a few weeks.

(Please note: lump sum as a single sum of money; as opposite to doing the purchases using money out of monthly income/salary.)

The bull rally has been over 1 year without any 5% and more correction, so far the dips is about 3%... maybe it will happen this week, nobody knows for sure.

Spreading the purchases thin or not depends on the market outlook/forecast... will the markets continue its upward momentum in the next 12 months? If you are cautious, then spread the purchases thin, and do regular monthly purchases - as in DCA or VA purchases.

If you are bullish, and either go big or go home, then do a lump sum investment. A lump sum as said is a single sum of money, and whether this single sum is invested over a day or over several weeks, it is still a lump sum investment.

Usually this lump sum amount is a big amount of money. Usually a financial advisor would suggests spreading this big amount of money over several fund categories, a balance of fixed income funds and several equity funds. The equity funds can be various, some could be in a single country market, some in regional markets. Overall, this is known as diversifying the portfolio with asset allocation... meaning putting eggs into different baskets to spread the risk.

How to do asset allocation? First, what is your market outlook? You need have some market foresight if you want to gain the extra edge from the asset allocation.

If you don't have the foresight or not brave enough to do any market predictions or speculations, then you might want to spread all the allocations evenly - all having the same percentages.

If this is the case of a new investor having worries of market uncertanity and unsure how to react to sharp and sudden changes to the market, it is equally good (if not better) to be cautious and spread the risk by taking risk bit by bit, little by little, by spreading the purchases.... as in using regular DCA or VA purchasing strategy.

The new investor can begins slowly with one fund. Don't have to follow the common "financial advisor" recommendations of asset allocation and whatnot.

This post has been edited by j.passing.by: Nov 30 2017, 01:50 PM

The Dow index dropped 1.5% upon breaking news on Flynn, and closes -0.17%. Asia markets were already closed for the day...

With some Asia Pac funds dropping more than 2% on Thursday, the last day of the month, Nov is a negative month for most portfolios... though it was a deeper dropped for the past week, with some funds in the region of -5%, I think a lot of portfolios would have dropped about 1.5% to 2% in November, as they have made some gains in the first week of November.

(My port made a new high on 8/11. Dropped less than 1.5% for the month. The pain was switching to more equity from bond in mid Nov, missed the timing by a day... but managed to make another switch on 30th. Let's see how December will be... with more iron in the furnace.)

==========

Be reminded that UT investment is relatively conservative to other investments.

Most of the people in this UT forum are cautious investors too... otherwise they wont't be here but in other investments like bitcoins and gold... not everyone is anxious to have the bulk of their savings in riskier investments, maybe some of their money but not the bulk of the money.

A daily drop of less than 2% is nothing compared to sharp daily drops of 5% and sometimes 10% and more in the underlying stocks in volatile markets like Hong Kong or Indonesia stock exchanges.

If the investor is still having a long term objective and long term purchasing power, he should carry on investing the money he don't need... this is spare money... and money put aside for taking risk.

The decision to take the risk into conservative UT funds was already made. Make the best of it by taking the higest possible risk by taking on the most aggressive growth funds (with sound, solid track-record) that you can find for the highest possible rewards.

Cheers.

PS. Solid track-record in the fund itself, and the market's record of perfomance growth is what keep you holding the fund and keep you from running away when the goings get tough.

Edit: Correction, last day of November was Thursday, not Friday. We're getting last Thursday's prices today since it was a holiday on Friday. Asia Pac market on Friday was mild...


This post has been edited by j.passing.by: Dec 4 2017, 04:45 PM

I will try to shoot you again for failing to understand the basic objective of holding any FI fund.

What near term preformance were you expecting out of a FI fund? Were you expecting it to behave like a true blood equity fund geared for growth?

He may have his reasons for holding the bond fund... everyone here knows all the ports shown here is for the sake of showing what we are holding, and if anyone view the ports as recommended ports, as like the recommended ports writted by professionals in FSM and other websites, they do know that the ports shown are not suitable for everyone.

Did you followed his portfolio bulat-bulat?

Again you are taking general discussions personally by assuming that I am holding the fund and now protecting my stand.

Maybe I missed those posts, but I don't see many new comers making any hue and cry over their portfolios, except you, time and time again stating the same posts that Xuzen was holding onto the fund.

So what if many other FI funds perrform better... nothing to shout out loud, as FI funds were not expected to give high growth to the port, but to lessen the risk of the entire portfolio by having less equity funds.

This post has been edited by j.passing.by: Dec 4 2017, 04:00 PM

Thanks for the support!

The posts in this open forum was not solely intended as a personal one-to-one conversation, but also intended for other readers/browsers as well. Good to know that they were read.

First, I don't think there are any "pros" here... as in hired guns giving free consultations, aside from the imbedded staff who gave the advisory links to the articles found in the FSM website.

If you don't trust the bank's relationship manager on financial matters, why do you trust people who came here to relax, unwind and 'blow breeze'? We might have been longer UT investors than you, and have some experience and stories to share... but do we have more knowledge about the markets than you do? Maybe we do, maybe not... but who would you trust when there are different opinions.

So what is your outlook on the markets in the next several months and next year 2018? If you are bullish and impatient to get a piece of the action before it takes off again, then top-up more frequently than you initialy planned whenever the funds dipped 1% or more.

If you are unsure... maybe re-read the post I written last week, as appended below. Maybe it could give you some ideas on what to do.

I think a lot of retail investors are selling... just looking for any excuse to take everythng off the table before their X'mas/year-end holidays for several weeks. Pension funds would be locking in their profits for the year.

As to whether it is a normal annual occurence, I don't think so. Normally December is a strong month and November usually seems to more turbulence.

Normally there's the year-end window dressing during the last week of the year... when fund managers would sell high volatile stocks in exchange for more popular large-caps stable stocks such that the annual financial reports would not show the riskier volatile stocks they have 'gambled on' in search of higher returns.

Some would suggest buying the more agressive volatile funds (like IDS or 'normal' small-caps funds) in the last week of the year, as the funds will reposition back their money into these volatile stocks in the beginning of the year.