hi snowcrash did i missing something? correct me if i'm wrong, this is the thread for investment right? so is there any problem with my post?
what is your suggestion?

Hi Putra, this thread is exclusively for Unit Trust/ Mutual Funds. GECS does not appear to fall under the category. I suggest you use the NewTopic option and tell us about your experience.

This post has been edited by snowcrash: Jul 21 2009, 09:25 AM

Dear guys,

a bit of sharing. OCBC is currently offering 4% guaranteed bonus for your regular investment (excluding any fund performance). so let say for that year, ur fund performance giving you dividend of 10%, ur overall return is 14% per annum. it is really attractive.. and you can choose to invest in 3 different funds to diversify your portfolio. and minimum amount is only 30k.

PBCPEF = PB China Pacific Equity Fund
PBGF = PB Growth Fund

For your PBADF,

Investment Value = (11,428.57 x 0.2553) = RM 2,919.71
Loss = RM 2,919.71 - RM 3K = - RM 80.29

I think you just let the fund perform and put the rest of your money into a new fund such as PBGF + another low loads fund. Maybe PBFI - PB Fixed Income Fund. For current market condition, invest 70% in PBGF and another 30% in PBFI.

Equity fund + (Bond or Money Market) fund = will create something similar to any balanced fund.

Looks like OSK-UOB offering new fund:

OSK-UOB Gold and General Fund

I've been looking for a fund with commodity exposure, and I just missed the PNREF boat.... any opinions on it so far as commodity exposure goes?

BTW, the fund is availale through FundSuperMart, sales charge 2% .

To all sifoos here,

A fund noob needs your help, I plonked down RM5000 as initial investment for CIMB MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Equity Fund, now after one year, my principal has been reduced to just around RM4000, giving a ROI of -18% Any opinions from all the sifus here whether I should hold on to it or switch the money to another CIMB fund?

Not too sure about the condition in the Middle East but I'm looking good at China's economy... Any good info on China funds?

In my opinion, MENA region will be recovering soon, as they are mainly the petrol producer and exporters. When economy improving the demand for commodity will be improved also, so maybe u shd keep the same fund, unit trust investment is for long term. For china equity fund, i personally think that the share market in china has gone crazy, so u may buy at higher unit price for china equity fund if u were to switch now.

If u still think China equity fund can increase further, i will suggest u to keep 50% (2000rm) at MENA fund and switch 50% (rm2000)to CHina equity fund

is there any fund that can yield a 8% return P.A.?

i'm still very very new here, i have no idea on the difference between BOND and investment ... trust ... etc etc..

i am planning to invest some money. not much...

whhich type of investment/funds.. etc etc.. has the lowest risk?

Thanks cheahcw2003 I've decided to hold onto the MENA fund for the time being, the demand for commodities from the MENA region especially oil is increasing, as seen from the rise in crude oil price. If I read correctly, major oil producers like ExxonMobil are delaying their oil exploration activities, so the supply of crude oil is beginning to stabilise.

Fillet, I'm also a noob in investment, just beginning to get my feet wet by putting some money in unit trusts and reading up.

Unit trusts aka mutual funds are funds set up by investment banks to invest in the underlying equity. There are funds which invest in commodities, utilities etc. There are also funds which invest in a particular region such as China or the Middle East. To know which fund to invest at a particular time is the crux of the matter. It depends on the market condition at that time. When you invest your money in a mutual fund, your fund will be aggregated with funds from other investors. The investment bank will assign fund managers who invest the money on your behalf. The funds will be invested in a group of stocks from different companies, sometimes a certain percentage will be invested in stock markets while the remaining will be invested in other markets such as bond markets. This has advantages as well as disadvantages, since an investor is basically putting his hard-earned money in another's hand, trusting him/her to make correct decisions. You can find comparisons of mutual funds on financial publications such as The Edge or Personal Money. However, the sifus here will probably tell you that "past results are not an indicator of future results". This is true since market conditions change all the time.

http://www.invest.com.my:8080/personal/learn/basics/

In my opinion, risks can be mitigated by understanding what you're investing in. Stock markets are notorious as being high risk while properties are seen as being low risk, however it depends on how well you understand them. If you've done your research before hand and avoid making rash decisions, I believe stocks can be relatively low risk as well, vice versa for properties.

Try spending a night reading the forum, wikipedia and other websites. I believe it'll be well spent.

This post has been edited by motolola: Jul 27 2009, 01:04 AM

you are welcome, motorola.

Beside unit trust u can also consider ETF, exchange traded funds that help u to invest in the baskets of stocks or commodity. there is no entry fees like unit trust (charged from 2-6% for initial charge). You only need to pay a minimum amount of broker fees of 0.2% and some stamp duty like when u buy shares in KLSE.

ETF could be traded only in stock exchange during the trading hours. The annual management fees for ETF is ranging from 0.3% to 1%, mostly around 0.5%, compared to most of the unit trust company charge 1-2% managment fees for equity funds. The historical figures showing that the ETF/index fund usually perform better than the man-managed fund. In KLSE we have 2 equity-ETF and 1 bond-ETF. In more matured market like Singapore and HK, they have > 50 ETF in their stock exchange, thus provide more options (ranging from REITS, index, regional equity, bond, commodity and etc).

Continuing a discussion started in the PublicMutual threads but drifted towards Fundsupermart discussions, I'm using one of their Research Portfolios, specifically the Aggressive one. I've done some readjusting based on funds that had either cheaper Sales charge or a cheaper Regular Savings Plan sales charge. My personal pref was towards exJapan & Emerging Markets funds, & is heavily weighted (>90%) in equities.

However, 1 caveat. My reasoning is that I'm planning on holding & drip feeding some money every month into this portfolio for AT LEAST the next 3-5 years. As such, I No longer care about the market direction since I am investing for the long run.

Keeping that in mind, I'd like to find out more about ETFs. How does someone get inot them if they've never done sharedealing & don't have a CDS/ remisier? Can I do it through HSBC/ Alliance (their online Share App tool)

1% sales charge looks enticing, but why is fundsupermart able to offer 1% when other banks charge so high?

ETFs are traded like stocks. You'll need the usual tools for buying shares, a cds account and a share trading account (online or with remisiers). Hmm neva use hsbs or alliance bank before, but if you can buy your usual shares through them, it should work for ETFs.

cheahcw2003, do you have ETFs in your portfolio? How risky are the equity ETFs in particular?

For the bond ETF (it was launched in 2005), I've read its annual report and the annual yield for 2006 was 4.*%, 2007 was 2.*% and for 2008 it was 7.7%.

Management fees are 0.5% p.a. and 0.4% p.a. for the two equity funds. 0.1% p.a. for the bond fund. Usual brokerage fees + stamp duty + clearing fee applies for buying and selling.

This post has been edited by motolola: Jul 27 2009, 08:50 PM

Hi guys,

I'm on the lookout for insurance, and then I realized that some investment accounts offers free insurance with investment, which is great for me.

Any thoughts of any that is:
a) Islamic
b) Low investment (RM1-2k)
c) Short or long term considered.

If anyone else interested, Public Mutual lists all their free insurance-linked investment plans here: http://www.publicmutual.com.my/page.aspx?n...surance-product, but that's as far as I know.

Thanks in advance.

IMO,

There's no free lunch in the world.

1. One will be tied to that particular group of funds, losing the flexibility to move or change the contributions to other investments. Also, what happens if the fund shuts down? The remaining balance in your fund account will be refunded and one will end up with no insurance.

2. "The amount of insurance coverage is equal to the NAV of units held in the ratio of RM1 insurance coverage for every RM1 NAV of units held. As the NAV fluctuates, the coverage will also fluctuate accordingly."

Hence, assuming one is starting with RM2k (per year i assume), the maximum coverage is RM2k (first year), RM4k (second year) and so on.
This in inferior to the usual life insurance products. The amount covered by usual life insurances are typically much higher than your premiums combined. One will have to put down a large amount of money, say RM100k, to be covered to RM100k.

IMO, it will be better to separate both investment and insurance. For insurance-linked investment, take the insurance as an extra cookie. Same goes for investment-link insurance policies.

Try asking your questions here...
Public Mutual discussion
http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/511793

Life insurance
http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=429729

This post has been edited by motolola: Jul 28 2009, 01:40 AM

As I understand it, it's due to a lack of overhead costs as well as no middlemen/ an army of agents trying that they have to pay commission to.

BTW, sense_less143, I agree w/moto in that the insurance you get with your investment - whether it's PM's free insurance or the Takaful policies that HSBC Amanah keep throwing in on their Structured Investments - are fairly weak as insurance/ protection policies. Look for something that's primarily an insurance for your best bang. If you still want an investment element, maybe look at an endowment style policy instead. However, I still recommend keeping investments & insurance separate.

great advice, cheers guys!

Hi motolola, yes i did include ETF commodity in my porfolio, it is managed by Lyxor Financial Group, but this fund is only available in Singapore/HK, i have a trading account in HK, so i can buy this stocks thru www.hsbc.com online. I invest it for long term as i believe in long run commodity prices will be at its upward trend. There are few similar funds in the local market namely Hwang DBS Global commodity and also the recently launched Public Natural Resources Fund. But the cost to invest in these funds are higher.

For example, for Lyxor ETF commodity fund, no entry fees, the yearly managment cost is just 0.35%p.a., for Public Mutual's it is charged 5-5.5% entry fee (depends on the amount u invest) plus annual managment fees of 1.7%, so it is costly to invest in the latter, before u even invest u already loose out 5.5%, you will be only breakeven when the unit price goes up by 5.5%.

Thanks for sharing the management fees/returns for the ETF that listed in KLSE, it is informative. Can i know where did u get the information? online? mind to share the link?

This post has been edited by cheahcw2003: Jul 28 2009, 10:12 AM

I'd like to do a comparison between the 2 equity ETFs available in Malaysia. Can someone point me to where I can get a chart/ report on their values, if possible for the last year or two? The closest thing I can find on their website is this for the FBM30 but I can't find anything similar for the DJIM25 - the only thing they seem to have is daily reports.

Alternatively, is there anyway for me to look up their past performance on Yahoo Finance or the like? Can't for the life of me figure out their short form/ symbol.

snowcrash,

I don't blame ya, the short forms are cryptic as hell, why can't they just put sth simpler lol

http://www.klse.com.my/website/bm/products...ated_links.html
http://www.klse.com.my/website/bm/market_i...rices/index.jsp
I tried Yahoo Finance but only 5 days worth of data is available. Maybe you can try going through their annual reports. The annual return for FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI etf for FY08 is terrible

http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/business-ne...a-klci-etf.html
FBM30etf has been rebranded to FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI etf.

cheah,

No problem, thanks for sharing too. How long do you plan on holding to the ETFs?

http://www.btimes.com.my/articles/etf21/Article/
The cost to invest has a significant impact on the returns of a portfolio. Much like shares, ETFs trade on a stock market and investors must pay for brokerage fees, stamp duty and clearing cost. The manager fee, however, depends on the ETF issuer and can differ. Malaysia's first equity ETF, FMB30etf managed by AmInvestment Services Bhd has a manager fee of 0.5 per cent per annum. Asia's first Islamic ETF, MyETF-DJIM25 which is managed i-VCAP Management Sdn Bhd levies a manager fee of 0.4 per cent per annum. The country's first ETF, ABFMY1, is a bond ETF with a manager fee of 0.1 per cent per annum.

This post has been edited by motolola: Jul 28 2009, 03:20 PM

Oh how do u get the value 0.2553? From the market wrap up received from PMutual?

PBFI =?