Often we heard or read the headline – “Internet stocks is hot”, “Biotechnology is poise for explosve growth” “Nanotechnology is the next mega trend”.
As a lay investor I often ask myself, how do I participate in these trend?
I do not have sufficient fund to buy into a single stock, let alone a portfolio (which, incidentally, should be the preferred way).
So, how can I participate in the trend? The answer for me lies with unit trust.
Continue reading ‘Unit Trust as subsititute to Investing directly into theme?’
I’m beginning another regular series to look at unit trust mangers in Singapore. Kicking off, we take a look at First State Investments.
Founded in 1988 in Australia, First State Investments is the fund management arm of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The group is one of the largest fund managers in Australia with investment offices in Sydney, London, Edinburgh, Singapore, Hong Kong and Jakarta.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and is the second largest bank in Australia.
First State Investments (Singapore) offers a range of retail unit trusts that includes global and regional funds, as well as specialist sector funds.
The First State Regional China Fund is one my favourite fund and has performed very well in my portfolio.
Continue reading ‘Singapore Unit Trust Managers: First State Investments’
Investing in Unit Trust is easy. Like all things worth doing in life, you may need to climb a little learning curve. Do not be discouraged, the time investment you put in will reap many time return.
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
- Benjamin Franklin
If you are reading this I can assume you know how to get online and is perhaps looking to do self-directed investing online. (Sorry for the jargon, it simply mean investing yourself).
In this first installment on Unit Trust Investing, I will introduce how to get started.
Continue reading ‘Introduction to Online Unit Trust Investing’
A reader emailed and suggested I give introduction of how I started investing in unit trusts (mutual funds for some) and also tips for beginners.
This is something that I had been thinking about too. The only consideration is how to present the information and add value to them.
There are many sites that provide information on how to start unit trust investing. FundSuperMart’s school is one such example.
My idea is to blend together part experience, part guide and part factual. Watch for this series on Unit Trust Investing which I will intersperse with my series on Technical Analysis.
A question CPF investors often ask is, how do you compare the return between using CFP to invest and leaving the CPF monies in the CPF account?
CPF monies earn a risk free interest rate of 2.5% p.a. for Ordinary Account and 4% p.a. for Special Account. The interest is computed monthly and, compounded and credited annually.
To make things a little complicated, CPF investment is usually make through an angent bank which charges transaction fee and service fee. On top of that some unit trusts fund also charges a fee for purchase or redemption.
Taking all these into account, how to compare the return?
Let me introduce a tool to do that.
Continue reading ‘CPF Unit Trust Investment Profit & Loss Calculator’
dollarDex transformed their business model from their original online loan and financing model to include distributing unit trusts.
Things I like about dollarDEX
- Investing with credit card.
This is a killer feature and appeal to those that likes to mange their finance with credit card. Effectively you can use the credit money in advance and at the same time accumulate reward points for your card.
Although not all fund can be brought with credit card, this concept alone deserves full point.
- Performance chart comparing to CPF and bank deposit.
A nice simple chart that all other sites should have but don’t.
Things that dollarDEX can improve
- Browser friendliness.
Since I use Firefox, dollarDEX is the only site among the 3 that I have to switch to IE in order to use it. As a result I hardly ever visit it.
Of the 3 online unit trust retailers, Fundsupermart (FSM) is my favourite site for unit trust investing in Singapore.
What I like about fundsupermart.
- Good, informative, original articles. Unlike the other sites, FSM has editors that research and write articles. This set them apart from sites that uses fund managers stories. They also publish a magazine. Having SPH as an investor does shows.
- Simple and easy to use user interface.
- Good set of functions to search, compare and chart funds.
- Only unit trust site with a forum. This actually show that FSM “get it” when comes to online interaction and leveraging the online media to reach out and create community.
- SGS bonds. Though I don’t buy them, they are a good concepts and add to the investment mix. This and beening the first CPFIS Investment Administrator show that They are creative in delivering value to customers.
What fundsupermart can improve on.
- Articles are getting more “markety“. More objective and well-researched article please.
- Function to chart investment over time.
- Graph or table to compare invested amount against CPF or bank return.
Unit trust strategy for the current correction
I had been holding my unit trust funds and watching the current correction.
Originally my plan was to hold and wait out the correction. However, there are new signs to indicate that the current correct will be deeper than anticipated. In view of this, I’m switching strategy.
Most of my unit trust are invested with CPF monies. While some school of thoughts believe that dollar cost averaging is the best strategy, it is not for me.
Active management is my preferred strategy and I believe it is best for my situation. The point is not to catch the maximum (if I had taken action a month back) but to lock in profit.
It is painful to see the gain shrank. But it will be more painful if I had to cut at a lost later. I am selling my Asia, Japan, Korea, Thailand funds.