I have the same thought too. Experienced similar thing in FSM where there were losses in the first 1-2 years but it bounced back. Just have to trust them.

What is the real purpose of this portfolio?

If its for minimal risk, then I think you've achieved this. If you actually think you want to achieve 6.5% per annum gain, then you need to switch up the risk index. A very low risk portfolio will be bond heavy and bonds do not do well in any bullish market. They only rise a lot when the market is quite bearish.

If you wanted to have no risk and maximise the income, then tax deductible things like prs and sspn is even better. Next will be fd and money market funds.

For StashAway you should be investing for at least 3 years, it's not designed for short term gains.

When you 1st deposit be expect to loss at 0.5% to FX conversion value

Then on bullish markets after 2 weeks you should break even or even gain as the ETFs will go up in value

Don’t worry too much because anything less than 8% loss is normal on high risk 30 or 36 which is normal when you 1st deposit

Looks like StashAway has more investment funding:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/25/robo-advi...-capital-india/

Walao the conversion rate not that much lah, like 0.1% only.

Spot rate is only 0.1% but bank FX conversion rates internally it is about 0.5%

You can deposit rm10k but the conversion gives you about 9950 the least and about 9970 the most

You are confused between spot rate and conversion as both are different in terms of Citibank

0.1% spot rate is by Citibank while another 0.3-0.5% goes to the broker on conversion before buy order executed

Do you have any record of this 0.3% going to broker?

Pretty damning. Proof mari lai.

i tried to check back, no such loss. Still within 0.1%

No idea how he calculated 0.5%. Like the others, I get a ~0.1% rate too.

Here's my numbers, and I chose the best rate at BNM's website to compare the SA rate to.

Date	SA rate	BNM 5PM selling rate	%
2021-04-15	0.2421	0.2425	0.16
2021-04-01	0.2410	0.2414	0.16
2021-03-17	0.2424	0.2428	0.16
2021-03-03	0.2467	0.2470	0.12

If I had chosen the mid-market rate I'd get 0.04-0.08%.

Note that I'm on the USD portfolio, customers on the GBP portfolio might get different numbers.

Second this

Asked a friend and he said the rate was 4.1203 on Nov 16 2020 when StashAway did the conversion.

BNM rate was 4.1145 (mid rate) and selling rate was 4.1170.

So around 0.15% to 0.08%.

https://www.bnm.gov.my/exchange-rates?p_p_i...et_quotation=rm


Those concern can cross check at the above link.

Simple reconvert back your actual holdings after USD to MYR after the 1st buy order and you willing realise the missing amount upon the 1st purchase

Spot rate minus -0.1% is correct but however buy order purchase in USD and convert back to MYR you will notice the missing 0.3% to 0.5%

Small amounts not noticeable because of decimal rounding and you will notice it if large lump sum amount being deposited

A very good example if this week someone deposit rm411 they will only get usd99.28 to purchase the ETF this week

EXAMPLE if my Core 22% portfolio:
Nett deposit: RM10k
Current value: RM11k

if i withdraw back to my Malaysia bank account, I get back Rm11k? The amount shows at Current value(MYR) is after Forex conversion rate?

This post has been edited by JeffreyYap: Apr 27 2021, 07:53 AM

It doesn’t make sense.
Reconvert back to myr on daily basis has not real meaning.

The moment you have already bought at USD prices at spot conversion 0.1%, after the holdings are recorded and bought and listed to your account 1 day later you are immediately subject to the future forex rates of another 0.1%

But you were saying that 10000 becomes 9970 BEFORE the buy order is executed. Please clarify.

What date are you quoting for RM411 to USD99.28? Can you show us the record?

You do realise that some of the money goes to portfolios' cash allocation, right?

All the portfolios have 1% held in cash. That's why buy order amount is always less than the amount converted.

That might account for the missing amount that isn't used to buy ETF units in your calculations, on top of MYR's volatility in forex rate.

This post has been edited by DragonReine: Apr 27 2021, 10:41 AM

Maybe the forex rate slipped a lot in 1 day and you forgot to do the conversion on that date itself.

No, he said before buying. After buying then of course it can happen. Meaning to say he deposit MYR10000, and only MYR9950 or MYR9970 is used to convert to USD at spot rate. I don't have any record of such activity. For me, every single MYR is converted at spot rate, -0.1% and kept in USD until I sell. Then, yes, some are used to buy ETF's on the same day, some on the next 1 or 2 days, and finally an amount of USD is never spent, and kept as USD cash. By then you are talking about another few days of rate changes and of course it is no longer useful to "refer to MYR value" as it inevitable includes days of rate changes and is live, and it is not even reflective of the actual value if you DO decide to sell back to MYR (Because your effective actual rates are 2 days later, when your ETF is sold on at least 1 day later, and then only converted back to MYR).

Heck it may even be more. But the key here is whether you do get charged more than spot rate - 0.1% because that is a lot of money in the long run.

Depends on the market value when the sell order is executed it might be higher or lower on the the day when the sell order is executed

Like I said go check this week rate and you will know because you are investing small sum hence you are not exposed for conversion losses

Yes this after deducting 1% in cash and the missing 0.5% is because forex conversion on the volatility of exchange rate

If you check on your MYR and USD and you will realise the difference in the % of the performance which accounts for it as the range will be 0.12 to 0.5% on depending on the time horizon

you said it yourself, that RM411 becomes US$99.28 and I consider that a "small sum".

How do I go check this weeks rates? I mean Sunday, Monday, Tuesday already 3 days. Who's ACTUAL Transaction shows RM411 became US$99.28? Did it actually happen? What is the date, actually? If it happened, yes, perhaps 0.88 % exchange rate is allegedly charged, but again, who actually encountered this?

I have checked through almost my entire portfolio spanning years and have not come up with 1 time when I see any conversion becoming worse than 0.15% and that's because I may be refering to BNM rates, while SA may have referred to some others. In any instance of high or low amount of money converted (3 digit to 4 digit USD) all can be reconciled in USD terms at 0.1% to 0.15%.

Since I don't want to list out my entire transaction records of everything, let me just show the newest one which is rather simple (new portfolio started from 12 April)

DATE TYPE AMOUNT STATUS
27-4-2021 Cash holding $12.81
15-Apr-21 Buy order $7.71
GLD (0.0085 units, Price: $165.39 USD) $1.40 USD
XLY (0.0103 units, Price: $178.07 USD) $1.83 USD
BNDX (0.0033 units, Price: $57.22 USD) $0.19 USD
KWEB (0.0222 units, Price: $74.24 USD) $1.65 USD
XLV (0.0039 units, Price: $120.59 USD) $0.47 USD
XLP (0.0075 units, Price: $69.39 USD) $0.52 USD
IVV (0.004 units, Price: $415.70 USD) $1.65 USD
14-Apr-21 Buy order $82.24
IVV (0.008 units, Price: $413.51 USD) $3.31 USD
GLD (0.0952 units, Price: $162.64 USD) $15.48 USD
SPEM (0.0985 units, Price: $43.98 USD) $4.33 USD
BNDX (0.0592 units, Price: $57.12 USD) $3.38 USD
IJR (0.1292 units, Price: $110.68 USD) $14.30 USD
KWEB (0.111 units, Price: $75.03 USD) $8.33 USD
XLY (0.0632 units, Price: $178.88 USD) $11.31 USD
XLP (0.1384 units, Price: $68.62 USD) $9.50 USD
XLV (0.1036 units, Price: $118.69 USD) $12.30 USD
13-Apr-21 Buy order $1,122.19
IVV (0.135 units, Price: $414.92 USD) $56.03 USD
IJR (1.5494 units, Price: $108.63 USD) $168.31 USD
XLP (1.6284 units, Price: $68.99 USD) $112.35 USD
XLV (1.4392 units, Price: $118.37 USD) $170.36 USD
BNDX (0.7936 units, Price: $57.16 USD) $45.36 USD
SPEM (1.2984 units, Price: $43.69 USD) $56.73 USD
XLY (0.9592 units, Price: $178.18 USD) $170.90 USD
KWEB (1.5128 units, Price: $75.20 USD) $113.76 USD
GLD (1.3976 units, Price: $163.42 USD) $228.39 USD
13-Apr-21 Currency conversion $24.95 Rate delta : 0.16%
RM103.30, Actual FX Rate: 0.2415 (Reference BNM rates : 0.2419)
13-Apr-21 Deposit RM103.30
13-Apr-21 Deposit $1,200.00

In easy terms: Total deposited USD1224.95, coming from $1200 (transferred from another portfolio) + RM103.30 (Converted at 0.16% loss vs spot rate = $24.95)

Purchased ETF's at 1122.19+82.24+7.71 = $1212.14
Cash retained $12.81
Total deposited = US$1224.95 reconciled.

All adds up. The only conversion is charged at Spot rate - 0.16%