Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Some structured products are good?

Hi Mr Tan

I have been following your blog for a few weeks.

You wrote about the bad features of structured products. In my opinion, not all structured products are bad. There must be some structured products in the market, which are suitable for investors. Do you agree?

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MY REPLY:

I agree with you. Maybe you are right.

So far, I have not come across any structured product that add value to the investor. Most of the products seem to take away value, due to the cost of developing, marketing and structuring the product.

During the past months, many investors have approached me for advice on the structured products that they have bought. They were confused. Why is their investment showing a loss? Will they make a gain?

I studied the structured product. It contains a lot of detailed information, but the key information is usually missing.

Although I am an actuary, I cannot understand the rationale of the product. How can an ordinary person figure it out?

Some of these cases are really sad. Here are people who worked so hard to save money for their future needs. They have been misled into investing in a product that will give a poor return for 3 to 5 years. Some even made a loss.

If I find any good structured product, I will put my money into it. And I will share my experience. (So far, I have not found any).

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