Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Difficult to assess the risk

Mr. Tan,
I would like to seek your opinion on the MQ yield 2.08% product, as advertised in Strait Times . Do you think this is safe ?

As you know, the interest rates for FD is so low. I am thinking of treating this as a FD for 2 years. Coupon 2.08% annually, payable every 6 months.

This is a capital guaranteed. Provided Macqueries Bank does not go burst. This seem unlikely to happen. Can you please highlight other possible risks ?

REPLY
This is a structured financial product. I avoid all structured products, for the reasons given in this FAQ:http://www.tankinlian.com/faq/sinvest.html

In the document for this product, the issuer said that the "principal protection" does not apply under certain circumstances. Honestly, I do not know how to assess this risk (but it is not something you can just dismiss away) I am also not able to spend time to study this risk. Often, it cannot be calculated anyway. So, I always avoid these types of products.

1 comment:

  1. I happened to write about this in my blog. Feel free to visit.

    http://akhiat.blogspot.com/2008/04/misleading-ad.html

    Adrian Khiat
    http;//akhiat.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete