$$$ KPO and CZM $$$: StashAway - February 2018

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Thursday, March 15, 2018

StashAway - February 2018

We have decided to invest more money (from $500 to $1,000 monthly) through StashAway and I blogged about it here - Automating Capital Growth Through StashAway.

1. ACCOUNT SUMMARY (as of the last day of the month)

StashAway Account Summary for February 2018

Based on the statement (28 Feb 2018), we had $6.65 profit.

StashAway Asset Summary for February 2018

As of 13 Mar 2018, we have $22.24 profit despite a significant currency impact -$94.02.

SGD time-weighted returns: 1.0%
USD time-weighted returns: 5.2%

2. PORTFOLIO DETAILS 

StashAway Portfolio Details for February 2018

3. TRANSACTIONS

StashAway Transactions for February 2018

StashAway has improved the time it takes for our money to be invested significantly! I can definitely see/feel the difference.

SGD $990.00 converted to USD $751.69
Exchange Rate: 1.317032287

4. FEE CALCULATIONS

StashAway Fee Calculations for February 2018

No fee till August 2018 because I recommended more friends. The projected fee (assuming no referral) would be the monthly-average assets SGD $4,108.72 x 0.8% / 365 days * 28 days = $2.52

StashAway VS STI ETF
Since there is no way to compare the performances among the robo-advisors, I came out with a spreadsheet to track our StashAway portfolio performance (General Investing - Risk Level 28) against that of STI ETF which I will be updating on a monthly basis. For simplicity, I shall assume that one can either invest in Nikko STI ETF using POSB Invest-Saver or invest in SPDR STI ETF using SCB Priority Online Trading (no minimum commission). These would be the opportunity costs while we continue to invest in StashAway.

Apart from the absolute P&L, we should also look at the Reward-to-Risk Ratio where risk/volatility is taken into account. For more information, do read StashAway Clarifications - Reward-to-Risk Ratio. StashAway has the highest ratio of 1.25 which is significantly higher than the other 2 STI ETFs (< 0.4). Let me quote Freddy Lim (Co-Founder & Chief Investment Officer of StashAway), "for every dollar of risk taken, StashAway P28 is producing 1.25 times the return".

StashAway Portfolio VS STI ETFs for February 2018

This month commentary: Although the fees for POSB Invest-Saver is 5 times higher, the return is about 9.5 times higher than StashAway! What can I say, StashAway lost miserably! Hahahaha. Will we stop? Of course not, we are still very far away from our goal.

I think there is a need to redo/regenerate the volatility used to compute the Reward-to-Risk Ratio. Do take it with a pinch of salt for now. I have been compiling some data in order to do so :)

Which is the best? Only time will tell :)

This is the link to our spreadsheet - KPO & CZM StashAway Portfolio VS STI ETF which I have also added to Our Portfolio page.

StashAway Referral Link for Our Readers
Here you go: KPO and CZM Referral Link

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6 comments:

  1. Stashaway clearly underperformed other robos. Someone commented the risk return profile in Financesmith post.

    I realise the hype about rebalancing and optimisation too as all robos does it. And SA does not do trailing stop or profit taking and have a fixed 5% delta kind of rebalancing threshold both ways. In all due respect, robo in this part of the world is a poor way to invest. The asset allocation is funny too. Clearly recession was not imminent in the 6-12 months since 2018, why is SA investing so much into bonds? Even a junior school student can tell rising fed rates hurt bonds, let along algorithms. And the fees are ridiculously high in Asia as compared to US and no tax loss havasting to improve returns, nothing here. DYODD.

    http://financesmiths.com/index.php/2018/03/02/review-of-stashaway-and-smartly-singapore-so-far/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahaha. In my opinion, there is no need for trailing stop/profit taking if we are doing long term investment. These are concepts more applicable for traders.

      How much is being allocated to bonds is determined by the risk profile of each individual. Not sure what you mean by too much and funny.

      The backtest can be pretty flawed in the sense that it was only from 2016 to 2018. Honestly, 2 years is still too short and that was when equities performed very well, breaking new high constantly! The return from a diversified/asset allocation will never beat it during this period. Hence, it is being taken for granted. Only when recession comes, one can truly see its importance/performance.

      Lol. Junior school student? If only investing is that easy, there will be no poverty :)

      Delete
  2. At R28,
    Fixed income is 23.27%
    Hybrid bond is 14.85%
    Gold is 14.85% (and gold does not pay dividends and never grow like businesses.)

    Total of 52.97% in assets which I cannot see purposeful reasons over the last few periods other than marketing it as some risk reducer assurance to uneducated investors. Investors are better of following warren buffet 90/10 investing strategy if they are really in for the long haul.

    I could see the logic of the 2 year backtest since robos only started for so long. Further, if it is really as claimed robos are able to optimise based on “economic regimes”, then, backward periods do not matter since the algorithms are constantly optimising to give best risk returns profile. Even more so using your words, “recession” does not matter either since you are in for the long haul. and in the last few dacades there are more up days than down days and we presume this would continue. Rather, with active risk management and profit taking it will prove superior in the long haul. Clearly for now, data is speaking the truth that SA is underperforming in a fair comparison amongst industry peers.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I understand where you are coming from but there is no need for insult. Uneducated investors??? I guess you think you are the only educated investor then. lol.

      You need to understand that there are no right/wrong decisions when it comes to investment and your opinions are just yours. No need to enforce it on others.

      I cannot tell accurately (backtest isn't because the portfolio is kept static) if they are underperforming against peers but they are certainly underperforming STI based on my own spreadsheet.

      Delete
    2. I don't think he meant it as an insult. Uneducated investor is what it is. Someone who invest but has not much knowledge. That's the intent of the robos isn't it?

      Anyway like reading your blog. Keep it up!

      Delete
    3. Haha. I am pretty sure that's not what he meant.

      Thanks!

      Delete