Why choose FTM
Depending on who you listen to, the markets are either about to come roaring back with the next great bull market or they are about to crash. Heated converstaions rage about if you should be long or short the market or which particular asset class an investor should be focused on. To be totally honest with you, the short term direction of the market has got me very confused.
But looking at it over the medium to long term, markets have gone backwards for the past ten years and, even though the recession in the US is finished , people are still hurting. Consumers have snapped their wallets shut, which translates into lower profits for corporate America. Lower profits keep a lid on job creation and, in turn the recovery. So, if you rely on the stock market to make money, right now you could be disappointed.
On top of this there seems to be a real disconnect from reality, with 40 US states expecting tax revenue to rise next year. This doesn’t make sense to me as house prices have fallen, affecting a major source of tax revenue, from land tax. Then there are falling sales tax receipts due to decreased consumption and of course less collected from corporate taxes. So at best I think that increased revenue from tax will be a pipe dream unless of course they raise taxes in which case it will hurt corporate bottom lines.
Right now, if I relied on market direction to make money, I would be tearing my hair out but with FTM which won the award for best fixed income fund offshore 2011 you can forget about the market direction. FTM isn’t tied to the market and whether they fall, remain flat or rise FTM still makes money.
In fact, to illustrate my point let me quote the title of an article on Bloomberg a couple of months back titled “The DOW Super Boom to drive the Average up to 38,820 by 2025”. Personally, I can’t see that happening and if we are over 15,000 by 2025 I would be very very surprised because the demographics and the slowing of western economies and falling consumer demand, coupled with increased savings, simply don’t support this. That said, anything is possible but a 257% increase over 15 years seems pretty unlikely besides, you would still be totally exposed to the whim of the market.
On the other hand, if FTM which you can think of like super charged bonds only achieved its targeted return of 12% per annum it would turn $100,000 into $488,711 over the same time period. Better still, FTM would achieve this while keeping 100% capital secured for 6 months of the year and 80% secured the rest of the year.
With life becoming more and more busier and more and more things vying for your time, it’s easy to forget why FTM is so different from equities and why it can achieve its targeted returns irrespective of what happens.