Monday 30 May 2016

Latest : Conference Program Released for upcoming Phillip Capital's 7th Annual Investment Conference

Just received another update from the conference organizer!

Here's the finalized conference program for the upcoming Phillip Capital's 7th Annual Investment Conference:

Morning Session
Those with red boxes are speeches/talks related to Unit Trust Investment
Afternoon Session
Those with red boxes are speeches/talks related to Unit Trust Investment

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So what are you waiting for? 

Attend one of the most anticipated Investment Conference in 2016 and get the latest investment insights and market outlook!

Grab our a FREE ticket worth RM98 now by via this link below:

Thursday 26 May 2016

Latest : Finalized list of Distinguished Speakers for Phillip Capital's 7th Annual Investment Conference!

I've just received the latest information from the organizers! 
This is the FINALIZED list of distinguished speakers whom will be speaking at the upcoming conference.


Among the popular speakers which will be speaking at this year's conference are:

Lee Sok Yee, 
Chief Investment Officer of Kenanga Investor Bhd. 
Achievement: Made a name for herself by transforming Kenanga Growth Fund (KGF) into a top performing Equity Malaysia fund since joining KIB in 2013. Under her helm, KGF has managed to win consecutive Lipper Awards for Category Equity Malaysia as well as consistently sit at the top two position in terms of (%) Annualized Returns for 5Yrs and 10Yrs. This fund is also under our Invest Made Easy Recommended Fund list!

Performance of Kenanga Growth Fund since
Miss Lee Sok Yee took over as CIO of Kenanga Investor Bhd.

Chen Fan Fai
Chief Investment Officer of Eastspring Investments Bhd.
Achievement: As CIO of Eastpsring Investment Bhd. since February 2013, Mr. Chen has managed to ramp up the performance of several funds from Eastspring. The most noticeable performance is that of Eastspring Investment Small-cap Fund. This fund is the undisputed top performing fund under the Equity Malaysia Small/Mid cap category for 3Yrs and 5Yrs. This fund is also under our Invest Made Easy Recommended Fund list!

Performance of Eastspring Investment Small-cap Fund since
Mr. Chen Fan Fai joined as CIO of Eastspring Investment Bhd.

Gerald Michael Ambrose
Chief Executive Officer of Aberdeen Islamic Asset Management Sdn. Bhd.
Achievement: As CEO, Mr. Gerald is responsible for overseeing the group's Islamic fund management. One of the biggest attraction offered by Aberdeen to investors is the Syariah Compliant, Aberdeen Islamic World Equity fund. Investing into this fund allows Islamic investors to have an option to diversify into overseas big name equities. Just check out the fund's Top 10 holdings as well as country allocation as shown below:

Overseas Equities exposure offered by Aberdeen Islamic World Equity Fund

Andrew Wong
Chief Investment Office, Equities, AmFunds Management Bhd (AmInvest)
Achievement:  As CIO, Mr Andrew Wong is responsible for the investment management of all equities funds including asset allocation. His duties include formulating strategies to optimize returns for the funds within the risk framework required. One of the consistent performing fund under the management of Mr. Andrew Wong is AmMalaysia Equity fund. Categorized as a Equity Malaysia Large-cap fund, AmMalaysia Equity fund has built up a portfolio Blue Chip Stocks such as Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Public Bank, Maybank and Axiata. Under Category Equity Malaysia Large-cap, this fund is ranked in the Top 3 in terms of (%) annualized return for 3Yrs and 5Yrs according to data from Morningstar.

Consistent performance by AmMalaysia Equity fund under the category of Large-cap Equities.

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So what are you waiting for? 

Attend one of the most anticipated Investment Conference in 2016 and hear what these distinguished speakers have to share about investment, their insights as well market outlook!

In a special collaboration with Invest Made Easy, the generous Conference organizers has allocate to us 50 FREE tickets worth RM98 each for our readers to attend the conference.

Check out how you Too can earn a FREE ticket by clicking on the link below:



Friday 6 May 2016

Earn a FREE ticket to Malaysia's Biggest Investment Conference (Sponsored by Phillip Capital Malaysia)

Where Investors & Financial Experts Converge
Malaysia's Biggest Investment Conference is back again for its 7th Year! 

What's in store at the conference?
  • More than 10 distinguished speakers to share their insights on global economy, investment strategy and investor's sentiment
  • Renowned investment and fund management experts both locally and overseas
  • Panel discussion on strategies for the second half of 2016
  • Concurrent sessions on a wide range of topics from equity, derivatives and investment approach to cater to participants' diverse interest
  • Focal point for investment and wealth management insights
  • Excellent opportunity for networking and personal interaction with industry professionals and service providers

Time, Date and Location?
Date : 18th June 2016
Time : 9am - 6pm
Location : Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur

Now here's your opportunity to earn a FREE ticket to the conference courtesy of Phillip Capital Malaysia!

Invest Made Easy in a special arrangement with Phillip Capital is once again offering you an opportunity to attend the conference absolutely FREE! For those who still remember, last year we gave out FREE tickets only to readers registering a new account with eUnitrust.

This year we've stepped up our game! Apart from obtaining 50 FREE tickets from our sponsor, we are also offering three methods for readers to earn a free ticket. All you need to do is to fulfill any one of the method below:

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Method 1 : Register a FREE account with eUnittrust
Successful registration of a new eUnittrust account entitles you to a free ticket to the conference!



Method 2 : Refer a Friend to register a FREE account with eUnittrust
For existing eUnittrust account holders, surely we have not forgotten about you. Just tell a friend about how awesome eUnittrust is and refer he or she to register a new account. Successful registration of an account by your friend entitles the both of you free tickets to the conference. How awesome is that? Now the both of you may attend the conference together!



Method 3 : Subscribe to Unit Trust Made Easy
Subscribe to Malaysia's first ever unit trust learning platform. Unit Trust Made Easy is designed to help you kick start and manage your own unit trust investment via a comprehensive 5 Steps Guide. Successful subscription will entitle you to a free ticket to the conference! 



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For any question or inquiry, reach out to us via email at shanesee03@gmail.com or Facebook message us at https://www.facebook.com/investmadeeasy/

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What is eUnittrust?
eUnittrust is an online unit trust platform own and managed by Phillip Capital Malaysia. This platform is the future of unit trust investing as it allows the investor to take control and manage their own unit trust investment.


Why everyone should absolutely have an eUnittrust account?
  1. You can now buy, sell and monitor your unit trust investment online at only 2% sales charge. The best thing is that eUnittrust tend to carry out regular promotional campaigns which allows you the opportunity to invest for as low as 0% sales charge! Now that's what you call saving on sales charge!
  2. You get to choose from a vast variety of unit trust funds (>300 funds) from famous Fund Houses such as Kenanga, Eastspring, RHB, AmBank, Manulife, Affin Hwang and many more. This allows you to have a wider option of top performing funds to choose from instead of just buying funds from an agent affiliated to only one company in particular.
  3. You are in control of your own investment. By that I'm referring to the power of investing directly via your PC/Laptop.Mobile. Investment transaction is made easy through online banking via Maybank, CIMB and many more. This makes investing much more convenient as compared to traditional practice of issuance of check or bank deposit slip.
  4. There's no risk of losing your money even if the online platform closes down. That is because the platform acts as a medium to help you invest with the fund house of your choice. For example if you invest in Kenanga Funds, the platform helps you to invest directly with Kenanga. Know that your investment is then passed on to Kenanga and not kept/held by the online platform. Therefore even if eUnittrust shuts down, your investment is still kept safely and recorded with Kenanga. 
  5. There's NO Registration Fee and NO Annual Fee for opening an account with eUnittrust. As a matter of fact, you can open an account without any obligation to invest. Look at it as having a tool ready for use when you ultimately decide to invest.
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What is Unit Trust Made Easy?
Unit Trust Made Easy is Malaysia's first ever 5 steps online unit trust guide created to help Malaysians kick start and take control of their unit trust investment.

Long has it been where Malaysians have to depend on others to advise them about unit trust. With this comprehensive five step guide created by Shane See (owner of investment blog Invest Made Easy), Malaysians can now learn all about unit trust, determine their own specific financial goals, discover their risk tolerance, apply the right strategy and utilize the best tools & resources in the market to invest.

In addition, Unit Trust Made Easy is also a living platform whereby the author will continuously update new information, introduce new strategies, provide updates as well as introduce new tools and resources.

In a nutshell, everything about unit trust investing for Malaysians is compiled into a single platform and readily made available at an affordable one time subscription cost of RM50.

Link to Unit Trust Made Easy:
http://shanesee03.wix.com/unittrust-made-easy

Link to Unit Trust Made Easy Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/unittrustmadeeasy/

Monday 2 May 2016

Malaysia Unit Trust vs ETF, which one is Better Performing?

Recently I came across a statistic that says only 4% of Mutual Funds in America were able to outperform the Market Index. That makes selecting a fund to invest in the United States is akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. The first question which appear on my mind was how many of our local unit trust funds were able to outperform the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) Index? How many funds in Malaysia that have outperformed the KLSE Index? This brings me to this blog post which I am about to share with you.

Before we get started, I'm pretty sure most of you would be wondering why I'm comparing between Unit Trust (UT) fund vs Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)? Why am I not making a direct comparison with the KLSE Index instead?

Well the reason is like this. ETFs are generally design to mirror a specific index buy buying into stocks that make up the index. In this case, I have selected an ETF that closely reflect the performance of KLSE Index because of two main reasons:
  1. The ETF mirrors the KLSE Index, thereby providing a close to fair representation of the index.
  2. An ETF is available to investors. In other words at the end of this post, if you find that investing into the Index is more attractive, you can do so buy investing into the ETF.
Now with that aside, let's begin with the comparison of Unit Trust vs ETF that mirrors the KLSE Index

Introduction
The purpose of this blog post is to find out the following outcome:

  1. How many unit trust funds under the category of "Equity - Malaysia Large-cap" were able to outperform the ETF that mirrors KLSE Index 
  2. How many unit trust funds under the category of "Equity - Malaysia Large-cap (Syariah)" were able to outperform the ETF that mirrors KLSE EMAS Shariah Index 
  3. Additional comparison of ETF versus "Equity - Malaysia Small-cap" and "Equity - Malaysia Small-cap (Syariah)" funds

ETFs background

  • ETF that mirrors KLSE Index - "FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ETF" 

ETF Information provided by Morningstar

  •  ETF that mirrors KLSE EMAS Shariah Index - "MYETF DJ Islamic Malaysia Titans 25"

ETF Information provided by Morningstar
Unit Trust (Equity - Malaysia Large-cap) vs FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ETF  
There are currently 46 unit trust funds parked under Category Equity - Malaysia Large-cap. Comparison between UT from this Category and ETF would be in terms of performance for:

  • 3 Years Annualised Returns
  • 5 Years Annualised Returns 
Do take note that comparison for 10 Years Annualised Returns could not be done because the ETF does not have a 10 year track record yet. 

3 Years Annualised Returns Comparison 
Basic Information
  • Comparison based on UT Funds and ETF performance as of 29 April 2016
  • Total UT funds : 42 funds with 3 Years or more track record
  • FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ETF (3 Years Annualised Return) : +2.11%
Results
34 out of 42 funds outperformed the ETF (80.95%)
3 Years Annualised Returns of Unit Trust vs ETF
Click Image to Enlarge
Total Returns if an Investor were to invest RM10,000 over 3 Years
For the purpose of calculation, I have selected the Ranked 1 UT fund for this Category which is Eastspring Investments Growth Fund. In addition, the deduction of 2% Sales Charge for investment into UT via eUnittrust have also been factored in.

Results of the calculations are as shown in the table below:


Initial Investment Charges
Initial Investment Amount (RM)
after deducting charges
3 Years Annualised Returns
(%)
Total Returns after 3 Years
(RM)
FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ETF
None
RM10,000.00
2.11%
RM10,646.45
Eastspring Investments Growth Fund
2% Sales Charge via eUnittrust
RM9,803.92
9.20%
RM12,766.38

Another point to add would be that any UT fund under this Category with a 3 Years Annualised Return of 2.8% and above would outperformed this ETF.

5 Years Annualised Returns Comparison 

Basic Information
  • Comparison based on UT Funds and ETF performance as of 29 April 2016
  • Total UT funds : 38 funds with 5 Years or more track record
  • FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ETF (5 Years Annualised Return) : +3.55%
Results
23 out of 38 funds outperformed the ETF (60.52%)
5 Years Annualised Returns of Unit Trust vs ETF
Click Image to Enlarge
Total Returns if an Investor were to invest RM10,000 over 5 Years
For the purpose of calculation, I have selected the Ranked 1 UT fund for this Category which is Affin Hwang Select Opportunity Fund. In addition, the deduction of 2% Sales Charge for UT investment via eUnittrust have also been factored in.

Results of the calculations are as shown in the table below:


Initial Investment Charges
Initial Investment Amount (RM)
after deducting charges
5 Years Annualised Returns
(%)
Total Returns after 5 Years
(RM)
FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ETF
None
RM10,000.00
2.11%
RM11,100.47
Affin Hwang Select Opportunity Fund
2% Sales Charge via eUnittrust
RM9,803.92
9.72%
RM15,589.38

Another point to add would be that any UT fund under this Category with a 5 Years Annualised Return of 2.6% and above woud outperformed this ETF.

Unit Trust (Equity - Malaysia Large-cap (Syariah)) vs MYETF DJ Islamic Malaysia Titans 25    
There are currently 33 unit trust funds parked under Category Equity - Malaysia Large-cap (Syariah). Comparison between UT from this Category and ETF would be in terms of performance:

  • 3 Years Annualised Returns
  • 5 Years Annualised Returns 
Do take note that comparison for 10 Years Annualised Returns could not be done because the ETF does not have a 10 year track record yet. 

3 Years Annualised Returns Comparison 
Basic Information
  • Comparison based on UT Funds and ETF performance as of 29 April 2016
  • Total UT funds : 32 funds with 3 Years or more track record
  • MYETF DJ Islamic Malaysia Titans 25 (3 Years Annualised Return) : +0.93%
Results
30 out of 32 funds outperformed the ETF (93.75%)
3 Years Annualised Returns of Syariah Unit Trust vs ETF
Click Image to Enlarge
Total Returns if an Investor were to invest RM10,000 over 3 Years
For the purpose of calculation, I have selected the Ranked 1 UT fund for this Category which is Eastspring Investments Dana al-Ilham Fund. In addition, the deduction of 2% Sales Charge for investment into UT via eUnittrust have also been factored in.

Results of the calculations are as shown in the table below:


Initial Investment Charges
Initial Investment Amount (RM)
after deducting charges
3 Years Annualised Returns
(%)
Total Returns after 3 Years
(RM)
MYETF DJ Islamic Malaysia Titans 25
None
RM10,000.00
0.93%
RM10,281.60
Eastspring Investments Dana al-Ilham Fund
2% Sales Charge via eUnittrust
RM9,803.92
13.17%
RM14,209.99

Another point to add would be that any UT fund under this Category with a 3 Years Annualised Return of 1.6% and above would outperformed this ETF

5 Years Annualised Returns Comparison
Basic Information
  • Comparison based on UT Funds and ETF performance as of 29 April 2016
  • Total UT funds : 30 funds with 5 Years or more track record
  • MYETF DJ Islamic Malaysia Titans 25 (5 Years Annualised Return) : +5.75%
Results
10 out of 30 funds outperformed the ETF (33.33%)
5 Years Annualised Returns of Syariah Unit Trust vs ETF
Click Image to Enlarge
Total Returns if an Investor were to invest RM10,000 over 5 Years
For the purpose of calculation, I have selected the Ranked 1 UT fund for this Category which is Eastspring Investments Dana al-Ilham Fund. In addition, the deduction of 2% Sales Charge for investment into UT via eUnittrust have also been factored in.

Results of the calculations are as shown in the table below:


Initial Investment Charges
Initial Investment Amount (RM)
after deducting charges
5 Years Annualised Returns
(%)
Total Returns after 5 Years
(RM)
MYETF DJ Islamic Malaysia Titans 25
None
RM10,000.00
5.75%
RM13,225.19
Eastspring Investments Dana al-Ilham Fund
2% Sales Charge via eUnittrust
RM9,803.92
11.94%
RM17,231.63

Another point to add would be that any UT fund under this Category with a 5 Years Annualised Return of 6.2% and above would outperformed this ETF

Additional Comparisons
FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ETF vs Unit Trust (Equity - Malaysia Small-cap)
  • 3 Years Annualised Return - 31 out of 35 funds outperformed the ETF (88.57%)
  • 5 Years Annualised Return - 25 out of 34 funds outperformed the ETF (73.53%)
MYETF DJ Islamic Malaysia Titans 25 vs Unit Trust (Equity Malaysia Small-cap (Syariah))
  • 3 Years Annualised Return - 23 out of 24 funds outperformed the ETF (95.83%)
  • 5 Years Annualised Return - 12 out of 20 funds outperformed the ETF (60.00%)

Summary
Over in the United States, the general advice for investor is to pick ETF over Mutual Funds as tghe choice of passive investment. Apart from the under performing Mutual Funds as stated in the beginning of this post, charges and fees of Mutual Funds are rather high. These fees would ultimately eat into the total return of mutual funds resulting in further under performance. 

However the strategy of picking ETF of Mutual Fund is not a practical strategy for Malaysia market. If a Malaysian investor were to invest into ETF over mutual funds, he or she would probably make a whole lot lesser as proven in the statistics above.

It is crystal clear that a high percentage of Malaysia Unit Trust funds (managed by local fund companies) are able to outperform the ETFs (mirroring the Index) even after charges and fees are deducted. Now that all the facts are laid out, the debate of which one is better can be laid to rest.

Cheers and Happy Investing!

P.S : 
  • If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email at shanesee03@gmail.com
  • Don't forget to LIKE Invest Made Easy Fcebook by clicking HERE
  • I've recently launched an online learning platform called Unit Trust Made Easy to help Malaysians to kick start their own unit trust investment. For further details, check it out HERE