2020 proved to be a tumultuous year for the financial markets. Despite the market volatility, major indices have reached new highs in August on the back of global quantitative easing. In this session, find out from Samuel Rhee, Chief Investment Officer of Endowus, on the following:

0:00 Introduction to Endowus

11:44 Review of the Financial Markets in 2020- daily volatility and drawdowns

17:13 2020 Sector and Geographical Winner and Losers

23:05 Endowus Portfolio 2020 Performance

32:20 Factor investing performance in 2020

39:00 How should we invest in 2021?

47:43 Understanding the Economy and the markets in 2021

56:58 Market Valuations and timing the market

1:03:08 QnA - Do you foresee section rotations in Year 2021, resulting in a re-opt in the core portfolio assets?

1:07:12 What are the 3 funds to invest into to have the best exposure in the major equity indices?

1:16:21 How is Endowus Fund Smart different from other fund platforms?

Excerpts from the Webinar:

Based on the market sector winners and losers comparison, do you foresee section rotations in Year 2021, resulting in a re-opt in the core portfolio assets? (1:03:08)

Sam: Endowus investment approach is all about being strategic and passive with our asset allocation. We believe in the science of investing and proven theories that can be applied to real life investing. Diversification is a key belief in Endowus investment approach. We want our clients' portfolio to be exposed to the whole market, across sectors, geographies and factors as well.

We are not in the business of forecasting or second-guessing where the markets will move short term. For example, growth stocks in the past were telecommunications companies, car manufacturing, and more recently, technology companies. Innovation and growth can take many different forms and it is difficult for us to pick the winning sectors and companies.

What are the 3 funds to invest into to have the best exposure in the major equity indices?(1:07:12)

Yulin: The basis which the question is framed upon is a good way to look at investing, which is to have exposure to major equity indices. This type of broad exposure can be obtained from investing in a single fund, or a mixture of funds. Our advised portfolio is made up of 4 funds, such as the Dimensional Core Equity Fund, Dimensional Emerging Markets Large Cap Core Equity fund and the Dimensional Pacific Basin Small Companies Fund and the Infinity S&P 500 which gives you passive exposure to major indices.

How is Endowus Fund Smart different from other fund platforms? (1:16:10)

Sam: The funds listed on Endowus Fund Smart is different from that of other platforms like Fundsupermart, because we do fund manager and fund due diligence. We not only work with existing funds in Singapore, we work with overseas and local fund managers to bring in best in class products for you. The curation of funds is critical because we would have done all the hard work for you - you do not have to choose from 50+ US growth funds. We would have downselected it for you, and make available only the best product.

Launching new institutional share class funds are also something unique to Endowus - we have worked with PIMCO to launch many funds that are SGD-hedged.

If you select more than 1 fund in your portfolio, immediately we calculate the historical returns of the overall portfolio, including the worst drawdown, average returns, worst and best outcomes and simulate the future returns. This holistic approach set us apart on other fund platforms which look at investing from a single fund perspective.

Get a head start on financial literacy & general investing by watching our Investing 101 with Endowus 4-part series here.