This afternoon I have received a sms from my friends and he told me that he want to invest in public mutual funds. I hope that all of my friends can invest public mutual funds and put their money to work to get better returns on their saving in order to beat inflation and gain the interest from compound interest.
Investing in mutual fund is like investing in market share.
Even though using EPF money to buy…still need oneself to monitor the price movement,global news especially US market and it’s own country political news as well.
i remember i started invested my epf money in Southern Mutual Fund way back(not sure when)…and i suffer losses as i failed to react according to market situation back then.
This time i was well-prepared as i take charge of my portfolio even though i am using EPF money.
Do u know that all mutual fund agent are only thinking about making commission as it is their bread and butter?
Standard practise…they will always keep track and start calling their investor every 3 month for reinvestment.
I have invest in Public Mutual Fund thru my former colleague who have resign and now working fulltime mutual fund agent.
i always do switching between funds in order to generate profit.
Anyway..as EPF introduced strict fund investment to certain local fund which nows limits my maximise profit making strategy.
Luckily i decided to sold off all my EPF fund investment which generated me a 56.67% return before the Malaysia General Election.
Can’t imagine my losses if i have not sell off.
Sold at 18.02.08
P.Index……………0.8395
P.Regular Saving……0.7228
P.Growth Fund………0.6616 (this fund not longer under EPF)
Price closing 17.03.08(after Malaysia Election/USA fiasco)
P.Index……………0.6888
P.Regular Saving……0.6176
P.Growth Fund………0.5536
If i have not sold off….i would have incur paper lossses at Rm12K minimum
But i guess it is a good thing to invest now as the market have drop a lot..
I have just invested thru EPF on Public Mutual new fund…think it is call Islamic Treasure which is a aggresive fund..
My advise….investing in mutual fund still need careful consideration.
I was trying to read more about investment link through searching the internet (someone ask me to do a comparison between investment link and unit trust) and that’s why I came across your blog and was attracted by your topic
First of all, I am an unit trust agent with P. Mutual.
If I am allowed, I would like to make a comment on EddyBigBear’s statement:-
“ Investing in Mutual Fund is like investing in market share” – Not really entirely correct.
No doubt the funds are being investing in share market, but due to the diversified investment strategy, the risk is much lower as compare to investing directly into share. This is especially true when your cash is limited. For eg, if you are having 10k to invest in share market, how many good counters can you invest into? 1 or 2? So, you have all your eggs putting into these 2 counters, for instance. Then your choice of share have to be made right to avoid investment losses. But via mutual fund, the same 10k are being spread across to hundred of counters. Even 10% of the choices that fund manager made were wrong, it will not heavily jeopardize the entire investment portfolio. Hence mutual fund is far lesser risk then investing directly to the share market. Let me ask you, are there a chance of your investment of share gone worthless, yes, why not? If the counter you chose gone bust. So, what is the chances of your mutual fund gone worthless? Yes, only IF all the counters chosen by the fund managers gone bust together? See the point?
“ always do switching between funds in order to generate profit”
Well, as an qualified consultant, I will STRONGLY against the heavily switching method. If we are so good in switching from fund to fund, or so good in timing the market, we should be investing in the share market and not mutual funds. Based on my experience as an investor, and unit trust agent, I have seen more than once a switching that was gone so wrong that the investor misses the entire boat. For eg, if we could recall back in Aug 07, when US sub prime issue was surfaced, many investors whom has invested in China Fund or Far East Dividend fund was panic and switch to bond in order to so call “avoiding” further loss (or some of them call it loss cutting), but on 20 Aug, China announced her individual investment scheme, which brought the market rocket high almost instantly and our China Fund from negative 10% shot up to 20% return in less than 2 months. Many had missed the boat. But why cry? Because the fund was brought low again due to the current market crisis. So, what is my point? My point is we can never time the market, even the best investor – Warren Buffett had said he can’t either!
That’s why for those whom opt to invest in mutual fund, please understand, it is meant for long term investment in the first place. So, do not get too emotional. Just do your dollar cost averaging method, i assured you that you will be just fine. For mutual fund investment, is never about timing the market, it is about the time you are in the market due to compounding factor. Look at our P. Mutual proven track record, these are the records that under the circumstances NO SWITCHING exercises were being done!
“my advise…investing in mutual fund still need careful consideration”
I couldn’t agree more on this statement. It is wise to understand the risk associate in whatever form of investment you are entering into. Talk to you agent on the cost /risk involved. Understand the nature of the fund you are entering into. And once decided, give the fund time to perform.
Many so-call “CON”-sultant always practise the policy of invest invest concept only coz that is the time they earn commission.
Consultant should help investor to gain profit as this is will easily help consultant in gaining more customer in future thru word of mouth.
I still say Mutual fund is like Market share…just that the swing factor is less destructive as compared if investing in share market.
As u can see below;
Sold at 18.02.08
P.Index……………0.8395
P.Regular Saving……0.7228
P.Growth Fund………0.6616 (this fund not longer under EPF)
Price closing 17.03.08(after Malaysia Election/USA fiasco)
P.Index……………0.6888
P.Regular Saving……0.6176
P.Growth Fund………0.5536
As from today,15.05.08
P.Index…………..0.7558
P.Regular Saving…..0.5896
P.Growth Fund……..0.6366
As u can see….P.Growth Fund almost reach to it old level at 0.6616(18.02.08) where it was at bottom at 0.5536(17.03.08)
Well,
which scenario would u rather to be in?
(1)Don’t sell….wait until it almost reach back to 0.6616?(most consulting will ask u hold coz it will go back to almost the same price sooner or lator)…
OR
(2) Sell and buy back at 0.5536 and now enjoying the new price increase to 0.6366?
Eddy,
If you are skeptical over unit trust consultant and think that all the advice is about making money, then I guess is no point sharing with you of unit trust investment anymore.
Timing of market is GREAT, but if you have it time wrongly, you will miss out the entire investment objective.
Unit trust is about helping the customer to meet their investment objective at the end of the day. That’s why it is our job to educate our investor unit trust investment is meant for long term and not to be “play” like a share. The “playing” part is to be done by the professional fund managers.
Switching makes good sense to lock the profit,not to cut losses.
Anyway, don’t trust your unit trust agent, get some good books to read. See is there any book in the market teach you what you have mentioned. Or perhaps the books have not provide you with objective review because these books are written by unit trust community??
i am not against unit trust consultant but could u really tell me the real definition of
“Unit trust is about helping the customer to meet their investment objective at the end of the day”
Can u tell me what is the customer objective?
i can bet u even your own client wanna u to manage their fund so that by end of their retirement age that the returns at that time will be very very generous,
if EPF,let EPF manage it.
if not might as well put in fixed deposit or public fund like Amanah Saham National and forget about it.
hey jean,
we do have different view as i can see but share share is a good thing.
i am not a unit consultant expert anyway but i argue base on my perception that i should be making a handsome return as a shareholder of any unit trust.
By the way, u know anything about Apex Investment company and i was told that i can choose or take a pick of any stock for my portfolio?
But the agent did never get back to me.
Hi Eddy,
No. I am not too sure about Apex Investment Company. The best way will be going to their office to find out the details or speak to their agents. I am not sure are there many agents with them though.
Good Luck!
NO much rambling here…
OK now it is the time to buy buy buy and sit on it.
am i right,jean??
mmm..I am not sure is this the time to buy yet. US market and the regional market has been remained volatile in view of the ever rising oil price, inflation fears, credit worries…etc. The price was low months ago (ps: I only refer to Public Mutual funds – the only funds i constantly keep in touch with) but it has got up a little. So perhaps if you think the price is still consider cheap (most of them are), spread your investments to reduce the risk and to allow yourself have an opportunity to apply dollar cost averaging should the market goes against you.
hi eddy…
i can’t help agreeing with you despite the fact that i’m a UTC myself.
my upline keep telling me to remind my clients that UT is long time investment, no need to worry so much.
but I just dont believe the statement myself.
I reckon its better to sell or switch at high price, and re-enter at lower price. but of course, the switching fee/re-entry fee shld be calculated in when comparing against the returns.
-VV-
http://investpublicmutual.blogspot.com