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

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).

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 am targetting the commodity ETF at 20% return, once it reaches, i will sell. commodity price fluctuates, but in the long run i guess it will be at the upward trends. I agree with u that the cost to invest has significant impact on the returns.

Has anyone have experience to invest via CIMB online banking called CIMB Click?
i heard that all their funds (including other fund hse like AMinvest, RHB invest, Prudential, HWDBS funds) are sold at 0-2.5% initial charge only (compare to other fund houses charge of 2-7%), Many performing equity funds are sold at 0% cost, if u subscribe online at CIMBclick, i am interested, anyone can share their experience?

September 28, 2009
Jim Rogers On Commodities Price Outlook

"When the global economy recovers, demand for commodities will rise, so will prices. If economies remain weak, governments will print money, and commodity investors can then benefit from the effects of inflation."

in China International Financial Services Conference, held at Guangzhou in South China

Sound like commodity fund is a good option at this moment. Any comments?

Very informative sharing, rosdi. I do not have a UT consultant, i usually made my own decision. I read around 50 articles on investment/economy financial news every week either online or newspaper/magazine. Exit strategy after loosing 5% is quite strict actually if u r talking abt equity fund, some volatile equity fund could reach 5% changes within a week time. For me i will set 10% variance for equity fund, and 5% for bond fund.....just my personal opinion....

i am not the fan of these so called capital protected products, it is only protected when u hold it till maturity, if u have funds that u r not going to use it for the next 4 years, u can go ahead, otherwise u can forget abt it. There are many other investment products with flexible withdrawal and higher return.

i understand that it is a bond fund in nature but the 2% initial charge that stop me from investing on it.

The dubai crisis only affected Asian stocks, European stocks still doing fine judging from their index now

you are right, it was just a smoke. Market start to recover already.

The ASB interest rate is paid once a year at the end of the year, but on monthly rest basis. it is based on the lowest balance of the month. SO it is regardless if u invest early of the year or end of the year. Diciden still calculated based on the lowest balance of the month.
ASB ay better dividen than any bank's saving account.

i hope i can have the crystal ball, to my opinion, i think for AS1M 1st year dividen it will at lease match the ASW or ASM, so that to attract investors to invest more. Now only 2.8Billion being subcribed where PNB is targetting on 10Bil.

if u r targetting on 4.5%, u may choose:-
a) AS1M by PNB
b) Invest Save products that offered by many commercial bank, the only shortfall is long tie up period
c) insurance saving policy, pays >4% with insurance coverage.
d) REITS
e) Bond funds

AS1M is an equity fund with fixed price. This is an unique product. No track record for the dividen payout. But i believe the 1st year return will be good as it is a baby of our PM

I have a low risk profile, i invest in fixed income fund, sunch as Templeton Fund products. Annual return so far is > 20% p.a.
i invest thru fund supermart hong kong. The good thing abt investing in these foreign funds is that the return of the funds are on accumulating basis. No income will be declare so avoid form being taxed by the government authority. The fund price will appreciate with the add on profit.

This post has been edited by cheahcw2003: Apr 5 2010, 09:32 PM

my ratio is 65% bond: 35% equity, yeah....i am an older man (in my mid 30s)....
Templeton is a reliable fund manager, they have both good equity/bond fund. Free Swicthing done in the same day also. Initial charge is only 0.2% vs annual return of 50% p.a. (Templeton Emerging Mkt Bond Fund) & 42% (Templeton Asian Bond Funds), much better than FD, plus low risk....

yes i aware of the risk. Most of the emerging currencies are appreciating against USD for the last 2 months. So i am investing in these funds to take advantage of the emerging market currency appreciation, as Templeton fixed income funds are denominated in USD.

I also aware of the rising interest rate will affect bond's return. but then it is not significant i guess, Msia is the 1st country in Asia to raise its interst rate by 0.25%, other asian currencies doesnt know yet, but most probably the increament in interest rate will be very mild.....bond return not necessary have adverse correlation against interest rate. Most of the time it is affected by dd vs ss of bond. I guess it will have another good year. I did not use 12 months historical figures to estimate the fund return, i used the 1st 3 months 2010 bond return as a based and annualised the return and got the figures that i mentioned on the earlier posts...think bond fund is still do-able....

This post has been edited by cheahcw2003: Apr 5 2010, 10:51 PM

theoritically u r right. when economy is recovering, equity is better place to be, but usually i dont trade following the theory from the investment text book....my ratio was 60% equity: 40% bond 6 months ago when KLSE below 1000 points/HKSE is below 18000 points. Now switch some equity to bond to lock in some profit (now 35%equity:65% bond)....will convert more to bond if equity gone up another 15%-20% again.....and the otherwise if equity is dropping.....

the emerging market bond that i talking abt (Templeton brand) is low risk countries, they trade Brazilian/Korean/Indonesian/Chile/Poland bonds. Not Zimbabwe, Cameron, Center Africa bond funds...

the top 5 holding of Templeton Emerging market bond as at 31 Jan 2010 is as follows:-
1. Korean Tresury Bond (7.28%)- Govt Security
2. Petrol Venuzuela (6.13%) - Private/Energy
3. Government of Argentina (3.21%) - Govt Security
4. Brazil National Tresury Notes expired on 2045 (2.96%)- Govt security
5. Brazil National Tresury Notes expired on 2017 (2.17%) - Govt security

with the above portfolio i am comfortable with it. most of the bond are issued by the government, except for the Venuzuela, which is by private entity which is very strong politically linked. China government has bought plenty of agri land in south american to plant food. they have also enter some petrol contracts with Venu's government. China will not let these country down, i guess. In addition, these countries are doing very well for the time being, as they are very strong in commodity/ agricultural export. The fund also hold 12% in cash which can meet any immediate cash out.

the top 5 country holding are:
a) Venuzuela -11% (mainly Petrol companies like our Petronas)
b) South Korea -10%
c) Brazil -8%
d) Indonesia -7%
e) Russia -5%
the rest of the % fund are spread among 25-30 more countries, so i guess the risk are widely spread. SOuth Korea and Indonesia are the 2 rising stars in the part of Asia too.

the average bond grading are BBB, mainly because they are from emerging countries, the country risk also take into consideration when rating the government securities....but then the rating agency is from USA...so the rating could be bias.....Lehman Bro/AIG/Citibank's bond used to be graded as AAA, but then see what happened to these companies in late 2008????

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Added on April 6, 2010, 11:42 ammy bond fund investment not only with Templeton Emerging Market Bond fund, i also invested in the following 2 funds:
a) Templeton Asian Bond Funds
b) Templeton Total Return Bond Funds

my fund is equally spread among these 3 funds. Gark, what is your comments about the other 2 funds?

This post has been edited by cheahcw2003: Apr 6 2010, 11:42 AM