Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Complaints about the Swing Fund

My friend told me that the Chinese newspaper publised complaints from several investors about the poor return from the Swing Fund. They earned a miserable return of about 2% after investing for 5 years, or 0.4% per year.

They were promised a product that guaranteed no loss of capital. They were told to expect a better return if the stockmarket did well. In fact, the formula is based on the return from 15 selected stocks.

During the past 5 years, the global stockmarket must have increased by at least 50%. The Singapore stockmarket increased by more than 100%.

In spite of this unusually favourable climate, the investors of the Swing Fund get a poor return of 2%. No wonder, they are very unhappy.

Lesson: Do not invest in complicated financial products that are based on a formula that gives you the worst of a number of selected stocks. One of them will perform badly, and the investor will lose out.

Lesson: Do not trust these products, even if they are marketing by respected banks.

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