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?

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

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

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

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