It is still difficult to make money after 3 years of "locked" equity funds, and the people are worried: "Losses are also redeemed"

Author: Cao Lu

In recent years, in order to guide investors to invest for a long time and reduce the behavior of "chasing up and killing falls", fund products with holding periods have continued to emerge. However, according to the reporter's observation, due to poor performance, the experience of some investors is not as expected. With the expiration of many "three-year" active equity fund products, the performance and holding experience have also aroused market discussions.

According to the statistics of Yicai, among the 65 active equity funds with a three-year holding period in the whole market (only counting the initial fund, combining different shares, the same below), 10 products have expired the first three-year operation period, and the difference between the first and last performance of the range exceeds 70 percentage points; In addition, among the 10 products that have matured this year, some have lost more than 20% so far.

The performance of products established since 2021 is even more worrying. Among them, the "three-year" fund established in 2021 was "completely wiped out", and the cumulative return as of May 5 was negative; Half of the products established last year fell by more than 24%, and the net value of the products has fallen by 10%.

3-year "holding period" still losing money?

Choice data shows that as of May 5, there were 24 active equity funds with "three-year holding" in the full name of the fund (including flexible allocation, partial equity hybrid and balanced hybrid funds, and only initial funds are counted). At present, 65 products have completed their first three-year operation period. So, are these products all profitable?

Overall, although there was a clear divergence in the range rate of return between products, 8 products achieved positive returns in three years of operation. Among them, the best performance is Anxin value-driven three-year holding, with a range performance of 60.6% during the operation period; The three-year hybrid A, which expired not long ago (April 2023, 4), had a range return of -17.10%. A simple calculation shows that the difference between these products has exceeded 22 percentage points.

In addition, Dongfanghong Qidong three-year holding hybrid, Xingquan Social Value three-year holding hybrid, Ruiyuan equilibrium value three-year holding hybrid A range returns all exceeded 40%. However, from the daily chart, the net value of the above products is not "smooth sailing". For example, the net value of the unit of Hybrid A held by Ruiyuan Equilibrium Value for three years reached a maximum of $1.8501, which also fell to $0.952. If you "chase the rise and kill the fall" through the general fund, it is difficult to step on the rhythm.

According to CBN, there are also 2020 three-year "holding period" fund products established in 10, which will usher in the expiration of the first three-year operation period this year. However, from the current performance, more than half of the products are still losing money since their inception.

The data shows that as of May 5, only three products have achieved positive returns since their inception, namely Hui An Hongyang Three-Year Holding Period Hybrid, Honde Ruixing Three-Year Holding Period Hybrid and CEIBS Jia and Three-Year Hybrid A, all of which have achieved cumulative returns of less than 24% since their inception.

There are also 20 three-year holding funds with a decline of more than 3%, namely Xingquan Hefeng three-year holding hybrid, GF Ruixuan three-year holding period hybrid, and E Fund high-quality strict selection three-year holding hybrid, which expire in August, November and December this year. Among them, E Fund's high-quality three-year holding hybrid is managed by star fund manager Xiao Nan, with a total fund size of 8.11 billion yuan.

It is worth mentioning that the three-year holding hybrid of E Fund Quality Enterprise managed by Zhang Kun, the three-year holding hybrid of Dongfang Hong Zhiyuan managed by Sun Wei, and the Bosera Research Reserve Holding Period Hybrid A managed by Sha Wei will usher in the expiration of the three-year operation period in June this year, and the cumulative returns of the above products are -6.1%, -9.0% and -61.4%. In other words, there is not much "time" left for the net value of these products to return to positive.

High-level issuance almost "wiped out by the whole army"

In fact, compared with products established in 2020 and before, the three-year holding period fund products established since 2021 have performed more "tragically". According to Yicai, during 2021, a total of 27 "three-year holding" active equity funds (including flexible allocation, partial equity hybrid and balanced hybrid funds, and only counting initial funds) were established in the market, and up to now, the above products have been "completely wiped out".

Choice data shows that as of May 5, the cumulative returns of 24 three-year products since their establishment have been negative, and seventy percent of the products have accumulated losses of more than 27%.

In terms of comparison with the index, as of May 5, the Shanghai Composite Index has fallen by 24.2021% since 7. This also means that in the above funds, there are still most active equity products with range returns that underperform the index.

In addition, the performance of the 17 active equity three-year holding period products established last year has already widened the distance. At present, only 2 fund products have achieved positive returns so far, namely Dacheng Ingenuity Excellence Three-Year Holding Hybrid A and Invesco Great Wall Research Drive Three-Year Holding Hybrid, with cumulative returns of 8.49% and 2.06% respectively.

The performance has fallen by more than 9% to 20 products, among which GF Growth Power three-year holding period hybrid A managed by Zheng Chengran, Xinao Zhiyuan three-year holding period hybrid A managed by Feng Mingyuan, and China Life Security Shengze three-year holding hybrid A have a cumulative decline of more than <>%.

China Life Security Shengze's three-year holding hybrid A is the three-year holding period fund with the largest loss. As of May 5, the fund has been established in January 24 for nearly 2022 months, with a cumulative decline of 1.16%; Its latest unit net value is only 31.68 yuan.

"The global macro situation is complex and severe, and the downturn in the capital market is the main reason for the poor earnings of this batch of products." A relevant person from a fund company in South China told First Finance and Economics that taking 2022 as an example, under the impact of multiple internal and external factors exceeding expectations, the global capital market has been in turmoil, and the domestic equity market has fluctuated sharply, bringing great challenges to investment.

Another person from a medium-sized and large public fund company has a similar view. He told reporters that the poor performance is related to the time node of the establishment of funds, and most of those funds were established at a relatively high point in the market. In 2021, the fund industry will show a differentiated market of style switching, and the industry with heavy positions of fund managers will fall into adjustment, and it will be more difficult to tap the income of individual stocks.

"There is still a gap between dreams and reality"

In recent years, as the concept of value investment and long-term investment has gradually been valued by the market, fund companies have also continuously increased the layout of active equity products with "holding period". The reporter noticed that due to the "three-year contract", the fund managers of these fund products are obviously "high-allocation", and most of them are fund managers who are "famous" in the industry.

"It's hard to sell this product." A fund company that has not laid out related products told reporters, "Products with a longer lock-up period are more difficult to issue than ordinary funds, and are generally top manufacturers or star fund managers with appeal, and channels and customers are recognized." ”

For fund companies that have already been laid out, "through the 'mandatory' holding discipline, to a certain extent, the hands of investors who 'always want to trade' are controlled, and time is exchanged for space, striving to obtain compound interest value; at the same time, the limitation of the minimum holding period can alleviate the liquidity pressure caused by frequent application and redemption to a certain extent." A fund company person in East China told reporters that this is conducive to reducing investors' irrational short-term behavior, so that they may have a better experience.

It is not difficult to find that the fund company's layout of three-year products is to encourage investors to invest for a long time, alleviate the pain point of "the fund makes money, the people do not make money", and improve the investor's experience of holding the foundation. However, it cannot be ignored that the experience of some loss-making holders is not as good as expected.

"I'm losing more and more of the holding period fund I bought." An individual investor told the first financial reporter that as a "little white" investor, he was worried that he would "not be able to control" in the investment, so he chose a holding period fund managed by a well-known fund manager in the industry, but now there are still a lot of losses in the product operation time of more than half.

When asked if he would choose to redeem the product after the business was liberalized, the individual investor said, "Yes, and probably won't buy it in the future." In his opinion, the feeling of watching the net value of the product fall but not being able to operate it is actually not good, "I said before that I didn't make money because I couldn't hold it, but I may not make money after three years."

"Holding period products can help investors reduce irrational short-term behavior, but the continued poor performance of the product will lead to the accumulation of investor dissatisfaction." An investor with long-term investment experience pointed out in an interview that good product performance is naturally happy, but under the premise of sacrificing liquidity, it still reaps negative returns, and investors are not only embarrassed, but also constantly consume their trust in fund companies.

At the same time, the reporter also saw some similar remarks in the public platform about the investment of holding period funds, such as "as long as it is released, it will be redeemed immediately, no matter how much it loses", "if you lose 20%, you have learned a lesson". In fact, this pressure is also transmitted to channels and fund companies.

"In fact, we have also conducted research and analysis through channels or for our own customers, and found that most investors have a relatively low tolerance for drawdowns and volatility." The above-mentioned South China Fund related person told Yicai that combined with experience and lessons, fund companies need to do a good job in asset and liability management in actual operation.

He further said that on the asset side, fund managers need to continuously improve the level of active management capabilities, especially to improve the long-term stability of performance and the ability to control drawdowns, and integrate investor experience into their own investment decisions and frameworks.

On the liability side, it is also necessary to strengthen investor education, guide investors to have a deeper understanding of the characteristics of public funds, net worth wealth management products, more clearly position their own income expectations and risk tolerance, do a good job in investor suitability management and matching, and gradually establish a more scientific and rational investment concept in the accumulated investment and financial management, and find products that suit them.