Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Capital Guaranteed Fund I

“Where there is a demand, there is a supply.”

Capital Guaranteed Fund was once a selling like a hot cake product in western world. Its popularity became less when investors there found out that its performance was not so impressive as they expected. The smart promoters shift their target to another part of world: wealthy Asian, but less educated compared to their western counterparts.

Since 97/98 Great Asian Financial Crisis, investors in Asian countries become a man after shock: any investment tagged with “Capital Guaranteed, Zero Risk” will receive a warm welcome from these investors. While for every prudent and rational investment should first preserve capital and then only look for capital appreciation, the fund promoting “Capital Guaranteed, Zero Risk” is another story.

Recently, quite of number of funds pop up with tagged of “Capital Guaranteed, Zero Risk” in Malaysia to lure investors. Let’s look at how 1 of the fund structures its “Capital Guaranteed, Zero Risk” product.

NTD launched its RM 300 million DUT Fund. The fund is an offshore fund with capital guaranteed feature. Investors who buy DUT Fund must starts with initial investment of RM 5,000. The fund is for 3 years maturity, where the capital is guaranteed after 3 years period while at the same time, POTENTIALLY GAIN from any capital appreciation. 85-90% of the investment would be placed with a negotiable investment deposit to ensure capital return guarantee and invest the remainder in 5 regional indices, namely, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Taiwan and China. To entice investors, the promoters show their back-test that over past 3 years, these indices appreciated at the rate of 34% per annum. Without deep thinking, everything seems great, isn’t it?

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