Friday, April 8, 2011

What we are facng (2)




Marc Faber on CNBC explains.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

What we are facing.

The development in the US and Japan is not going well. How is that? Read through the two articles.

US: The coming crisis in the US and how we should protect ourselves

Japan: The rising sun is, indeed, falling

And finally, to sum it up, I present here an interesting graph:

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Gold trend

RSI and the price of gold shows 4 waves divergence, i.e. gold price has four peaks, one higher than the previous one (except the last one), while RSI also has 4 peaks, but one lower than the previous one. This is a very strong signal of an adjustment of gold price.



But the adjustment might just provides us a good opportunity to buy gold. It seems that gold still has a long way to reach its peak. The current international monetary system that uses the US dollar as the major anchor is breaking down. Confidence in the US dollar is weakening around the globe. That's why we have witnessed price surge in commodities. Before we reach a new international monetary system, gold will protect us from currencies devaluation and the coming inflation.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Low interest rates impact return of insurance policy

From AIA IPO Prospectus:



Low interest environment for the last decade created by the US -- to be specific by Greenspan and Bernanke, reduce the return of insurance companies' investment.

Yields on fixed income securities are highly related to interest rates, lower interest rates would result in lower yields for fixed income securities. As insurance companies invest most of its money in fixed income securities -- for example, AIA has 90% of its investment in fixed income securities -- lower yields received by insurance companies reduce their profit. This directly limit their ability to pay policy holders dividend, such as the non guaranteed dividends.

Not a good idea to use insurance policies for saving under low interest rate environment.

Friday, November 12, 2010

美國國債

US TREASURIES COUPON MATURITY DATE CURRENT PRICE/YIELD
3-Month 0 02/10/11 0.12 / .12
6-Month 0 05/12/11 0.15 / .16
12-Month 0 10/20/11 0.21 / .21
2-Year 0.38 10/31/12 99-28 / .44
3-Year 0.5 11/15/13 99-19 / .64
5-Year 1.25 10/31/15 100-06 / 1.21
7-Year 1.88 10/31/17 100-09½ / 1.83
10-Year 2.63 11/15/20 99-31+ / 2.63
30-Year 4.25 11/15/40 100-26+ / 4.20







































Saturday, November 6, 2010

美國銀行

剛發現美國銀行股價四月以來已跌41%。淨資產對股價竟有50%折讓。大平賣?還是又出事?就當是警鐘試鳴。

Thursday, September 2, 2010

強迫金

強積金保本不保本,保證無保證,政府強迫市民蝕錢。有心人羅家聰於信報分析強積金十年回報,証明強積金強迫市民蝕錢、強迫基金經理賺佣。你不理財,財不理你。下年強積金半自由行,不過一年只能轉一次基金,大家自己「執生」。

羅家聰先生之鴻文,貼在這裡,絕無侵權之意,只希望能有更多人讀到,故版權問題,希望能通融通融。

 




十年強積金 強益眾基金 強迫蝕本金 有誰會甘心?


羅家聰 信報




早想寫寫有關強積金的表現,只是沒有時效性的議題往往排在後面,拖到今天。
積金局月前剛發表的年報有詳細統計,現先抄些資料出來看看。既有「保本基金」又有「保證基金」,且有「混合基金」又有「其他基金」。首先要搞清楚的,是什麼基金究竟是什麼東東﹖



基金分為六大類
觀 

圖所見,年報將基金分為六大類,最顧名思義的有「貨幣或其他」、「債券」及「股票」【圖1】。那末,「保守」(前稱「保本」)、「保證」及「混合」又是什 麼呢?


簡化而言,三者分別持有大量的存款或現金、債券及股票。至於最顧名思義的三類與顧名不思義的三類(前三類與後三類)有何分別,則要從實際資產分布比 較。
 
看過資產類別後,上述基金又投資在哪裏呢?觀圖所見,除「混合」外,大多皆是本港投資,起碼佔五、六成,多則八至十成也有【圖2】。如果計及北美投資,則不論美股也好美債也罷,比重起碼六成,其中三類(保守、保證、貨幣/其他)更近十成。

 

眾所周知,在本港買賣美股美債不難。我們不禁會問,為何百姓不可以自行投資,而要由基金經理代勞?基金經理的收費與表現是否相稱?雖然大家心中有數,但亦不妨先看客觀數字。以下再從年報中抄兩個表出來,首先是強積金的年化回報率【表1】。
 


環球股市2009年3月見底,由當時計起一年,人人都曉賺錢;故計某一年沒甚意思。當局強調強積金是長線投資,那就計有史以來吧。結果在表一的最右直行,自己看吧。至於基金的收費又如何呢?在下抄了另一個表,足本照抄,也請自行觀摩【表2】。
 






好,抄襲部分到此為止,以下做點簡單分析。剛述兩表顯然做得不好,除了次序上「大兜亂」外,類別亦不匹配,有妨礙比較之嫌。但只要將之「移燈換櫈」重組過後,還是可以互相配對的。
 
假設基金每年的開支比率相若(理論上,各年間的開支亦不應相距太遠),我們便可計算過去十年基金在扣除開支及再扣通脹(0.5%,表一)後的回報。
 


讀表可見,七類基金當中,有四類在未扣通脹已幾近見紅,扣通脹後則紅上加紅;這包括保守(前稱保本)及保證基金【表3】。保守也好、保本也罷,保障到什麼 呢?保證見紅?另外賺錢的三類亦不見得理想,每年實質回報多不逾3%。假使過去十年,持有各類基金的人數比例與今年3月底時各類基金的資產淨值一致,則十 年以來賺錢的人數比例應逾四分之三【圖3,藍加紅區】。



但實際上,相信轉來轉去之士數不在少。




不管有幾多人真正蝕錢都好,上述的表現確實令人「眼冤」。究竟同期的幾類資產價格表現是否如 斯不濟?基於上述,資產有三個類別──股、債、貨幣,而市場方面,本港及歐、美三大地區加起來已佔相當比重。隨便選幾類股、債、貨幣,即見其價格與利息合 共的年化回報率,大多皆為正數,且不只一、兩個百分點般少;而當中只有歐洲股市蝕錢。即使在扣除每年0.5%通脹後,大多仍有三、五個百分點回報的【表 4】。
 



坐擁現金跑贏通脹


教人更驚奇的,是過去十年的國債回報率均達 三、四個百分點,而一些大路貨幣如歐羅、澳元等更達7%以上。即使坐擁現金(sit cash)什麼也不做,都有2.4%回報率,跑贏通脹。怎麼這些基金竟可全部見紅?

即使以未扣開支計算,怎麼過去十年的貨幣及其他基金回報僅0.9%、持 有大量港元存款的保守基金僅1.3%、而持有大量港元債券的保證基金僅1.5%?這些基金究竟怎搞?低風險投資也大幅跑輸大市,簡直匪夷所思。
 
上述基準,已是基於最大路的股指、國債及貨幣來衡量,人人均可容易買到。

如是看來,縱是投資盲俠,只要選定某個股、債、滙的比例規律地按月買入,已可大幅跑贏基金經理;這還未計基金開支。
 

我們不禁要問,究竟強積金的「強」字意義何在?強迫儲蓄並規律地買入指定資產已很足夠,何解還要強迫市民蝕錢、強迫基金經理賺佣?
 






關乎臨老能否過世


在下幾個「一名經人」專欄當中,《信報》的影響力極大,故本文刻意在此發表。這關乎全港不少市民「臨老能否過世」,涉及龐大公眾利益。港府應深刻反省這個行了十年但「行之無效」的計劃,並對為何「輸錢十年」與「利益輸送」向公眾清楚交代。
近期人手極為短缺,本欄下周再停一次。
交通銀行(香港分行)