[Post 110] Event and Convention: FSM Invest Expo 2020 part 2(Rise of the disruptive technology fund)

Continue from my previous post...

One interesting thing that I have noticed throughout the event was the offer of disruptive technology fund by various fund houses such as BLACKROCK, FRANKLIN TEMPLETON, and Nikko AM(P.S not sponsored by them!)

So, the big question here is "What is disruptive innovation? 

Our definition of disruptive innovation is the introduction potentially changes the way the world works. 

The Nikko AM ARK Disruptive Innovation Fund enables the investor to easily access emerging and growth companies through listed global equity market opportunities.  we have identified five major innovation platform that enables long term investment opportunities

What are the five innovation platform?

• DNA sequencing 
• Blockchain
• Robotics
• Artificial Intelligence
• Energy Storage

These five innovation platforms rely on or benefit from the development of new products or services, technological improvements, and advancements in scientific research relating to. Genomic Innovation, Industrial Innovation, Internet Innovation, and FinTech Innovation. 

Industrial innovation categories

1. Autonomous Vehicles 
2. 3D Printing 
3. Automation & Robotics 
4. Battery Technology 
5. Space Exploration 
6. Mobility-as-a-Service 
7. Innovative Materials 

Genomic Innovation categories

1. Programmable Biology 
2. Stem Cells & Immunotherapy 
3. Digital Health 
4. Biological Hardware 
5. Diagnostics 
6. Beyond Health 

Internet Innovation categories

1. Cloud Computing 
2. Big Data 
3. Neural Networks Mobile / loT 
4. Digital Media 
5. E-Commerce 

FinTech Innovation categories

1. Transaction Innovations 
2. Customer Facing Platforms 
3. Risk Transformation 
4. Frictionless Funding Platforms 
5. Bitcoin / Blockchain 
6. The New Intermediaries 

But why invest in disruptive technology? 

Despite its potential, the magnitude of disruptive innovation, and the investment opportunities it creates are often unrecognized or misunderstood by the traditional investors. Our Investment process recognizes that true disruptive, cuts across sectors and geographies, and spawns further innovation, stimulating growth over extended time horizons.

Potential Growth 

There are five primary disruptive platforms that are expected to generate more than US$50 trillion in business value and wealth creation over the next 10-15 years. Today they are in their infancy and account for less than $6 trillion in global equity market capitalization. 

Why invest in Nikko Am disruptive innovation fund?

1.Not your typical FANNG and BAT

Unlike traditional assets manager, the team at ARK devote 100%of their time researching and investing technologically enabled innovation 

The team is made up of experts in multiple areas of innovation such as biomolecular engineering, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, robotics blockchain, technology

This result in a distinctive portfolio of what the team believes to be true disruptive innovators such as CRISPR technologies,Stratasys and 2uINC beyond typical technology stocks

2. Capture early-stage disruptors

 ARK Invest's Open Research Ecosystem is designed specifically to identify disruptive innovation at an early stage, enabling the investment team to sift out and uncover unique insights, which the team believes to be true early-stage disruptors. 

3. Low correlation to traditional asset classes 

The Nikko AM ARK Disruptive Innovation Fund has little overlap with traditional indices, so it can complement traditional strategies. Thematic investing in disruptive innovation can offer low correlation to a number of core asset classes held in most investors' portfolios.

(Investor of the fund should have long term investment horizons) 

The Nikko Am ARK disruptive innovation fund seeks to capture long term capital growth by taking advantage of changing trends created by technology-enabled innovations that cut across economics sector, industries and geographic region(ARK investment management LLC(ARK), a strategic partner of the Nikko AM group, is the investment advisor for the strategy. Based in new york, ARK is an investment manager focus solely on disruptive innovation that should change the way the world works.

Fund characteristics 

Seek to capture long term growth  and capital appreciation created by disruptive innovation

• Actively managed, high conviction portfolio
• low overlap with broad market indices 
• Unique research process is driven by ARK Open research ecosystem
• investing across multiple sectors, geographies and capitalization 

Fund details:

Nikko Am Ark disruptive innovation fund
	SGD class B	USD class B
Total fund size :	USD 2,481,655 as of November 2019
Minimum investment:	USD 1,000 or equivalent in other currencies
Legal structure:	sub-fund of Luxembourg  SICAV qualifying as a UCTIS
Investment manager:	Nikko asset management America, inc
Investment advisor:	ARK investment management LLC
Management company :	Nikko asset management
Management Fee	1.50% p.a
Sales charges:	Up to 5.00%
Dealing:	Every valuation day
Base Currency:	USD
Inception date	26 July 2019	11 january 2019
ISIN code	LU1861559042	LU1861558580
Bloomberg tickers	NIKAD85 LAX	NIKADBULLX

Onto the next brochure!

The Emerging Market Appeal in a Low-Yielding world 

Global investors searching for income opportunities may find the current climate particularly challenging. With developed market fixed income yields at or near record lows, yield-seeking investors may need to look outside the at to satisfy their income requirements — the answer lies in emerging markets (EM). 

Why Emerging Markets Matter

It is difficult to dispute the long-term investment case that emerging market presents. Investing in EM provides exposure to countries with the lion's share of today's global GDP expansion, whch is estimated to be two-thirds of the world's GDP by 2024, up from one-third in 1980. 

EM equities have a stronger potential for capital growth 

EM fixed income has higher yields than developed market

Why Templeton Emerging Markets Dynamic Income Fund 

The Fund is designed to deliver on the goals of an active, multi-asset approach to tap the EM growth story, by dynamically allocating assets between equities and fixed income to capture opportunities and deliver income. 

Seeks capital appreciation and consistent income 

• Targeting consistent and sustainable income(Distribution rate resets annually, using multiple sources of inputs and expectations)

Integrated and Dynamic Investment Process(Dynamic asset allocation dials asset class exposures up or down to capture the greatest opportunities )

Three Pillars of Expertise; One Strategy (The fund draws on the expertise and experience of three investment teams in the emerging markets equity, unconstrained global macro and income investing space)

Experienced and on-the-ground management team 

-Michael Hasenstab, Ph.D. Chief Investment Officer Templeton Global Macro San Mateo, California, USA 

-Chetan Sehgal, CFA Director of Portfolio Management Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity Singapore 

-Vivek Ahuja Portfolio Manager Templeton Global Macro Singapore 

Consistent, 

-Subash Pillai Regional Head of Client Investment Solutions, AP AC Franklin Templeton Multi-Asset Solutions Singapore

Consistent long-term performance 

-The Fund has delivered consistent outperformance against its peer groups

That's all for the FSM Invest Expo 2020!

[Post 109] Event and Convention: FSM Invest Expo 2020 part 1(New Cheapest brokerage in Singapore:IFAST GLOBAL?!)

I know that this is probably a super...rrr late review, but I finally had the time to wrote about it after my exam,so...here we go!

Personally, I had never been to FSM INVEST EXPO as I had only signed up for my FSM brokerage account in 2019. So this was my first time attending FSM INVEST EXPO.

There wasn't any schedule that I was adhering to throughout the event, so it was more like "own time own target"

As usual, conventions like this were always full of people!

Layout of the event area

Schedule of the event

1) Near the stage

2)Nikko AM booth(promoting disruptive innovation Fund)


3) stock pitch

4)Game booth(LASSO THE BULLS & AVOID THE BEARS!)

5)  UOB offering tea(who doesn't like free stuff?!)

6) Shroeder offering free churros

7)Yes,i love free stuff too!

 8)And lastly,the Stage area

And of course, I did not win the lucky draw...

So that was roughly how was the event like for me, in my opinion, I think it should be held over two days instead of one like AFA as this will allow more talks to be held.

Onto the brochure!

First, of course, the most exciting news that I have encountered in FSM Invest Expo 2020...

Cheapest brokerage in Singapore!

Yes, indeed, its 8 dollars per trade on the mobile device, but is it trustable? or is there any hidden catch?

So what is IFAST GLOBAL? (P.S not sponsored by them)

• iFAST Global Markets ("iGM"), a division of 'FAST Financial Pte Ltd, was launched with the main objective of providing consumers with complete commission transparency in insurance and investment products. Our team of Investment Advisers are dedicated to the vision of providing transparent, ethical, and suitable advice to benefit investors by reducing commission bias which may be unknown to consumers. 
• As an advocate of full transparency in insurance and investment commissions, we will only recommend only product that we understand and believe in

IFast Financial Pie Ltd (Singapore) Licenses: 

• Capital Markets Services Licence and Financial Advisers Licence issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) 
• Central Provident Fund Investment Scheme (CPFIS)-registered Investment Administrator 
• CDP Depository Agent 
• a Trading Member of SGX-ST and Clearing Member of CDP 

What investment products do they offer?(Source)

UNIT TRUSTS 

• Funds invest in a diversified range of assets. A fund's diversified portfolio means risks can be better spread over the assets In the fund.* 

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 

• Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are EID investment funds that are listed and traded on a stock exchange.* 

BONDS 

• A bond is a debt security. It is a form of borrowing_ Governments and companies issue bonds to raise funds. When you invest in bonds, you are lending money to the issuer for a fixed period of time 

STOCKS 

• A company offers its shares to investors to raise money. The company may need such funds for reasons such as to grow its business, acquire new assets, or remain solvent.

DISCRETIONARY PORTFOLIOS 

• DPMS is a service by iFAST that helps investors invest via a discretionary managed portfolio.* 

INSURANCE

• Insurance is meant to protect you, youth family, and things you care about. The insurance you buy depends not only on what you want to protect but also what you can afford.* 

And finally, is there any hidden catch?

source

Yes, of course, there is a hidden catch. For the first 100k, there is a 0.28%p.a

So if u had invested with 10,000(below 100k), the charges would be $28(0.28%) annually

Assuming you are trading in SGX stock, you need to trade at least 7 times per year to breakeven when comparing with the normal FSM fees of 10 dollars per trade(Notes:All figures are estimated)

IFast GLOBAL

• Buy transaction fees: $8
• Sell transaction fees: $8
• Annual fee $28
• trade time: 7 times
• total cost: ((8+8)*7 time) + 28 =$120 

• Buy transaction fees: $8
• Sell transaction fees: $8
• Annual fee $28
• trade time: 8 times
• total cost: ((8+8)*7 time) + 28 =$156

FSM, STANDARD CHARTED, OR DBS CASH UPFRONT

• Buy transaction fees: $10
• Sell transaction fees: $10
• Annual fee: $0
• trade time: 7 times
• total cost: ((10+10)*7 time) + 0=$120

• Buy transaction fees: $10
• Sell transaction fees: $10
• Annual fee: $0
• trade time: 8 times
• total cost: ((10+10)*8 time) + 0=$160

Conclusion: In my opinion, it is definitely the brokerage you want to get if you are trading frequently in SGX stock. Unfortunately compared to another brokerage in the US such as Robinhood $0 USD per transaction, or even SAXO 4.99 USD per transaction, Singapore brokerage fees definitely still have a long way to go to hit below 5 dollars or even 0 dollar

That's all for this post, will continue with more brochures update from FSM Invest Expo 2020 in the next few post!:)

part 2 here...

[Post 108] TipforThought:Useful Singapore Finance Telegram channel

List of Singapore finance telegram channels

Updated: 21/5/2020

To be updated from time to time!Do comment below if you have any idea:)

Discussion channels(stocks and forex)

@investorsexchange  (stocks discussion telegram group)

@DividendInvestment(stocks discussion telegram group)

@FundamentalInvestors(stocks discussion telegram group)

@FinanceCafe(stocks discussion telegram group)

@sgfinancialndependence (stock discussion telegram group) 

@sgstockchat(stocks and forex discussion telegram group)



Discussion channel(crypto)

@CryptoSG: https://t.me/CryptoSG



Personal finance and blogs

@budgetbabes (budget babe telegram channel)

@Dollarandsense(Dollar and sense telegram channel)

@PersonalFinanceSg (Seedly)

@SingaporeFinanceBot(Finance bot)

@Sonicericsg (personal finance blog)

@wokesalaryman (Comics strip of personal finance)

@fipharmarcistsg(personal finance channel of an pharmacist undergraduate)

[Post 107] Zero dollar project updates:carousell,Bitcoin Faucets,Short Link,Online survey

Updates for zero dollar project

1.Carousell
2.Bitcoin faucets
3.Short link
4.Online survey

1.Carousell

My carousell:carousell.com/eric996

Did not keep track due to studies,assume NIL

2.Bitcoin faucets

Current coinpot holding

Bitcoin core: 6786 Satoshi
Bitcoin cash: 19116 bch
Dogecoin: 72.2. doge
Litecoin:  0.00253219 ltc
Dashcoin: 0.00092824 dash

3.Short link

Total earning for short link since last update:$6.58+$9.88=$16.46  (Unfortunately mar-may payout had been held back due to covid-19


4.Online survey

Current online survey on my list...(Bold mean that these survey websites have been verified for payout)

4.1 Toluna
4.2.surveyon
4.3 YouGov
4.4 mobrog
4.5 ipanelonline
4.6 viewfruit
4.7 mysurvey
4.8 millleu(App on google play store)

Survey that payout mobrog,yougov,

The total payout from last project update:$6.25+$6.25+$6.25+$6.25+$25.06=$50.06

Total earnings for lastest update of zero dollar project:$50.06+ +$16.46 =$66.52

That's all for the updates  for my zero dollar project!

[Post 106] Investment Book Summary 1:Secret of millionaire investor by Adam Khoo

For the first book review ever on my blog, I am going to summaries some key points from the book that I have just recently borrow from the library "secrets of millionaire investor " by Adam Khoo.

The book is actually quite interesting to read compared to at least 70% of investing books out there. Not a sponsor post by the way(is there even anyone that wants to sponsor me?😂).

Anyway, back to the book. The next few posts are going to be the key points from the book.

Chapter 1 is basically an introduction, so let's begin with chapter 2.

Chapter 2:The power of investing in building your wealth

1.Investing in low risk and high return

• Most investors in the world are risk-averse,(surprise surprise, Warren Buffett is one of them!)

2.A quick introduction of the US stock market

• There are three primary U.S. stock exchanges: New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, and American stock exchange 

•  The general market performance is measured by the index

• An index is a chosen stock portfolio that is used to represent the entire stock market

• One of the most common stock indexes to evaluate the U.S. market is S&P 500(now you know what it means and you can show off in small conversations with friends),

• The S&P consists of the top 500 companies in the US market and represents more than 70 percent of the US market

• The S&P 500 is calculated by taking the average price of the top 500 companies

• Another popular index is the DJI (Dow Jones industrial)index (another term to show off to friends)

• The DJI index consists of 30 largest companies in the US, similar to our STI ETF

3. Choosing the US market or the Singapore Market?

• The author recommends the US market as he makes the best return from there

4. Why the author prefers to invest in the US market?
 
A wider selection of stocks and deviation

• Over 9,000 listed companies in the US market compared to 620 companies on the Singapore market

• Easier to find a company that is able to meet the criteria to invest

• US companies have a higher potential to increase earnings and sales as the number of  US consumer is huge compare to the number of Singapore consumers

• More US companies stock have options written on them allowing us to use a wider range of trading strategies

Higher liquidity and volume

• US market has a higher volume of stock liquidity per day.

• Us market also has "market makers" who will buy the stock that you are selling even if there are no people who want to buy

Superior research data and tools at a much lower cost

• Basically, US stocks data such as financial ratio are more easily and readily available on the internet compare to Singapore Stock(totally agree with this!!, not all the financial ratio of a Singapore company may be found easily online and often one have to used paid service to analyze Singapore stocks)

• The US has cheaper brokerage fees compare to Singapore(totally agree!!)

5. Four investment strategies, from beginner to expert level as follow

Growth strategy 1:Buying Market index and Sectors

• Index such as the S&P 500 index, Dow Jones index, Sector refers to the different sector such as healthcare, financial, etc
• (>12.08% return annually)

Growth strategy 2:Value investing

• A strategy employ of Warren Buffett. In value investing, you will learn to buy high companies at a fraction of what they are worth.
• In order words, you will learn when to buy companies stock at a cheap bargain(undervalued) and sell it when the market realize its true value
• (15% -25% return annually)

Growth strategy 3:Momentum investing

• A short time frame of 3-6 months. Momentum stocks tend to be priced above their fair value.
  However, due to the optimism of the entire market about the shares potential, these stocks tend to rise significantly in value within a very brief period of time before they are overbought and fall (this is when you sell and make enormous earnings).
• (>25% return within 3 to 6 month)

Growth strategy 4:Options trading

• the art of how to make 100%-500% returns on your money from as short as one day to a maximum holding period of 3 months, pretty risky

• (100% return within 1 day - 3month)

6.The psychology & habit of a successful investor

Buy on strict rules and not emotion

• Buy and sell based on rules and not emotions, for example, many successful investors sell their stock once the stock price drop below 10-20%.

• They do not let emotion define their buy and sell.

Become an expert and Don't rely on expert

• Simply read a little everyday, Don't rely on outside tips.

When there is nothing to invest in, Don't  invest

• It is not always a good time to invest, invest only when the investment criteria are met(e.g the financial ratio is healthy)

Take 100% responsibility for your result

• Don't blame others for your mistake, learn from your mistakes

Be passionate about investing

• You must enjoy investing and not see it just as a tool for money-making(When you see shopping malls think CapitaLand, food court you think koufu, etc).

• Better yet, be passionate till you dream about investment in your sleep(just kidding!)

Reduce Risk and maximize return

• A master investor will only invest if he finds an investment with a very high probability of success, one with very high potential upside with limited downside.
•  So, only invest when with minimal risks and very high returns.

Chapter 3 has an interesting pov of why we should invest in ETF if this doesn't convince you to invest in ETF, nothing will!

Chapter 3:Buying Index and Sector

Growth strategy 1:Buying index and sector

credit

From the chart above showing the S&P 500 performance from 1950-2016, you can deduce a few things

• In the short term, the stock is volatile (goes up and down).
• In the long term, the stock will only rise higher and higher
• The stock market is always on a long-term uptrend.
• This means that each low point is higher than the previous low and each high point higher than the previous high.

S&P 500 (an index comprising the top 500 companies in the US) obtained an annual compound return of 12.08 percent with reinvested dividends.

However, this does not imply that every year the stock market increased by 12.08 percent
Some of the years, you can see the stock prices drop, and in some years, the price increase. However, the stock price is always increasing in the long term

7. Why do stock prices rise?

• Stock prices are affected by company earnings

• The greater a company's earnings, the higher its shares will be priced.

• Over time, inflation pushes greater prices of the products and services of a company

• For instance, a MacDonald meal today costs twice as much as it did ten years ago and it will be even more costly in the future

• While the world's population is growing and becoming richer (particularly in developing nations such as China and India), more and more individuals are selling their products to them.

• For businesses, higher prices at higher volumes lead to higher and higher profits/earning. This constant increase in the company profits over time help to push their stock price higher

The next part is not from the book, though I  will simplify and summarise it

Here is a ten-year performance of the US stock market from 1970-1980

As you can see, in the short-term, stock prices randomly move up and down. If you had bought stocks at one of the peaks in 1973; you would have had a massive heart attack when the market plunged the next following year (1974). If you panic and sold the stock at the bottom, you would have made huge losses.

This is exactly why most ignorant investors lose their life savings in stocks and find it extremely risky. 

However, let's say you brought at 550 points of the S&P in 1973, if you had held the stock until today, it would have increased to 2900, you would have made over 600%(without dividend reinvest)

Now let’s take a look at the actual gains and losses from the S&P 500 year-on-year(*Note: this refers to the percentage changes(or difference) of the stock price at the beginning of the year and the end of the year). Take note that these annual returns include the dividend(refer to credit)

                                                                       credit

From the table, you can see from 2000-2018, you will make a negative return in 2000,2001,2002(dot com bubble),2008(2008 financial crisis) and 2018(trade war)

But what if we put all in a 5 year period?

                                   

Average annual return of 5 year Period of the S&P500(yes, I calculate it myself)

From the table above, you can see the average annual return of 5 year period(the figure is taken and calculated from the previous picture of S&P 500, year on year) returned a positive figure.

So, what is the average annual return?

• The average used by investors to measure the performance of investments over a period of time

• It takes into account the effects of compounding interest and it is more accurate than using the simple interest formula

• The average annual return means that your money will increase 15.85% per year if you invest from 2010(see 2010-2014)

Most of the 5 year period average annual return is positive, this means that if you kept your money invested for at least five years, your chance of loss would be ‘zero’.

But as you can see in the period 1970-1974 and 2000-2004, it has a negative average annual return. To conclude, if you invest in a period of 5 years, it would decrease your chance in making a loss

However, what if we invest in a period of 10 years or more?

  The average annual return of 10 year Period of the S&P500

As you can see if you invest in a period of 10 years, the chance of loss is zero. That includes 2000 and 2008 two financial crises, dot com bubble and 2008 financial crisis). This means that your money will grow by 1.212% per year. It is not an impressive figure but it proves that investing in the stock market for a long term such 10 years,20 years, or even 30 years would ensure that the chance of loss is zero.

If you are interested to read the rest of the book, do borrow it from the library:), hope this post proves useful!

[Post 105] Learning investing/trading together part 23:Investing vs Trading

This week on learning investing/trading,we are going to compare Investing vs Trading.

credits

Overview

• Investing and trading are two a different way to profit from the market
• Investors and Traders both attempt to seek profit from the market
• Investors seek higher return buying and hold for a long period of time
• Traders seek even higher return by using various trading strategy to profit

Investing

• Build wealth slowly over an extended period of time by purchasing and maintaining a portfolio of stocks, share portfolios, mutual funds, bonds, and other investment resources.
• Investments are often held for years, or even decades, taking advantage of benefits along the way, such as interest, dividends, and share splits.
• Although markets naturally fluctuate, the investor will hold the stock when its share prices are declining, with the hope that stock prices will stabilize and any losses will eventually recover.
• Usually, investors are more concerned with market fundamentals such as price/earnings ratios and current ratio, etc
• Anyone with a CPF is investing even though they don't monitor their investments on a daily basis. Because the goal over the decades is to build a retirement account.

Trading

• Trading includes transactions that are more frequent such as buying and selling stocks etc. The goal is to achieve returns that surpass buy-and-hold investing
• Trading profits are created in a relatively short period of time by buying at a lower price and selling at a higher price. 
• It is also possible to make trading profits by selling at a higher price and purchasing to cover at a lower price (known as "selling short" or "shorting") for profit in falling markets.
• Traders usually fall into one of four categories: Position Trader: Positions are held from months to years.

1. Position Trader: Positions are held from months to years.
2. Swing Trader: Positions are held from days to weeks.
3. Day Trader: Positions are held throughout the day only with no overnight positions.
4. Scalp Trader: Positions are held for seconds to minutes with no overnight positions.

Conclusion

• If investing is a is like homework, trading is like preparation for an exam
• There are plenty more factor to take note of such as low commission rate due to regular buying and selling of share as they add up quickly
• Working hours: if you are working the regular hour of 9-6, the US market may be suitable for you as it does not clash with your working hours, otherwise you would probably have to place your stock order whether buy or sell early in the day before you go to work
• As they always say, why not a mix of both investment and trading?