Right now, with the bear market, the advice is often to buy stocks now, hold for as long as possible, and maybe sell them only later. These funds are meant for the long term. I wanted to enter into stocks but my short attention span can be a killer. I decided to buy AXA Chinese Tycoon Fund for a start. The fee is PHP 3,000.02 per month regardless of whether the market is up or down. In investment, it's pretty much called dollar-cost averaging or cost averaging. It's investing the same amount of money per month regardless the market is a bear or a bull. Right now, we're in a bear market so more units are bought when you invest. However, I prefer to mix and match both values cost averaging (add more money than the minimum) and cost averaging (entering the minimum amount for investment) to try and maximize profits.
The Chinese Tycoon Fund had its top holdings of the following companies in May 2022:
- SM Investments Corporation -- 23%
- SM Prime Holdings Inc. -- 19.6%
- BDO Unibank Inc. -- 13.4%
- JG Summit Holdings Inc. -- 8.1%
- Metropolitan Bank and Trust -- 6.0%
- Jollibee Foods Corporation -- 4.9%
- Universal Robina Corp. -- 4.9%
- Converge ICT Solutions Inc. -- 3.1%
- GT Capital Holding -- 2.3%
- Security Bank Corp. -- 2.2%
So, most of my investments via the Chinese Tycoon Fund are based on the late Henry Sy Sr.'s companies. Meanwhile, I also have some investments with companies from the late John Gokongwei Jr. and Tony Tancaktiong.
Meanwhile, the sector holdings are as follows:
- Industrials -- 38.8%
- Real Estate -- 24.5%
- Financials -- 22.8%
- Consumer Staples -- 8.7%
- Consumer Discretionary -- 5.2%
What I didn't understand (at first) were the premium charges. It happened during the first three years for Axelerator products such as the Chinese Tycoon Fund. However, it was a good thing I decided to ask before doing anything such as pulling it out. After all, I've been with Metrobank since 2007 (when I first opened a savings account) and AXA is linked to it. The premium charges go to the insurance portion. A small portion is usually invested in cash such as bonds. Bonds would be a beginner's best friend and a good addition to the portfolio. Since I wanted to enter into stocks--I bought the Chinese Tycoon Fund since I feel my short attention span could be a killer. The charge per year though is 2.5% which is kinda high. Though, a combination of active and passive management may justify why the fees are higher. There are a lot of risks involved and I think active management can be a good thing. AXA, being a trusted company, can be trusted with your money. I feel this Bill Baker guy on Youtube probably didn't understand the fund he bought or look at the market performance.
Though, I felt that I wanted to invest a little more. So, what I did was use GInvest on GCash. I did make the mistake of inserting money to test it during the high. However, I decided to research other methods beyond "buy high, sell low" to try and do some cost averaging and value cost averaging. The trust fees for ATRAM range from 1.0% to 1.5%. I decided to purchase a diverse portfolio using GCash to get more stocks (via Philippine Equity Smart Index Fund, read here) and some ATRAM Global Feeder Funds (read here). Dividends are reinvested which would be better. There'd be more units bought or some dividends will be used to pay the management fees. It's unfair, really, not to pay your fund manager, right?
So why am I still letting the AXA roll? It's because my PHP 3,000.02 will get more units now in a bear market. A bull market is usually an opportunity to sell some stocks though some will still prefer to invest (but less) in a bull market. A bear market is a time to buy more though some prefer to still invest the same amount in fears values will get lower. Though, one could buy a little bit higher than usual during a bear market. I would still want to keep my Chinese Tycoon Fund (while pursuing other funds) to make the best of active management and passive management.
References
Documents
"Chinese Tycoon Fund"