Bear markets tend to be the best times to start accumulating into a new investment product, so I thought I’d use this time to look into Roboadvisors. Platforms such as Stashaway, Syfe and others have been around for a while, but because of the breadth of options available at OCBC RoboInvest, with its 37 thematic portfolios, it interested me enough to give it a shot. Having an account with OCBC definitely also helped.
What is OCBC RoboInvest?
OCBC RoboInvest is a low-cost, hassle-free investment platform, designed to help the average investor get into the markets with ease. Choose between 37 thematic portfolios, with a lump-sum or monthly investments starting from USD$100.
RoboInvest’s 37 Thematic Portfolios
Here’s a look at the 37 RoboInvest portfolios currently offered by the platform:
| Aggressive | All Weather | Asia Tech | Australian Financials | Australian REITs |
| Balanced | Cautious | China Growth | Cloud Computing | Defensive |
| Dogs of the DOW | Future World | Gen-Z Winners | Growth | Hong Kong Consumer |
| Hong Kong Technology | Impact Investing | Mainland Europe Financials | Mainland Europe Healthcare | Mainland European Technology |
| Precious Metals | Resurgent Industrials | Singapore Cash is King | Singapore Stable REITs | Stable Aussie Giants |
| Stable Singapore Giants | Stable US Consumer Giants | Stable US Giants | Stable US Healthcare Giants | Stable US Industrial Giants |
| UK Financials | US Financials | US Tech Leaders | Yummy | Metaverse |
| Electric Vehicle | Cyber Security |
Even better, you can drill down into individual portfolios to get a sense of the portfolio companies in any particular fund. For instance, a quick look at the Metaverse portfolio reveals that their holdings include not just software companies like Microsoft, but also hardware companies like chip makers and semiconductor players AMD, Nvidia and Qualcomm.
Thematic portfolios are currently unique to OCBC’s RoboInvest, and globally, investors seem to be warming up to the idea of thematic investing, so if this is something you are curious about, they offer a pretty good variety of themes across regions.
What is the Minimum Investment?
One of the selling points for any robadvisor is that it is suited for the average retail investor, and will be easy for any new investor to come onboard, both from a product knowledge standpoint, as well as a financial outlay perspective.
Certain portfolios start from as little as US$100, such as the All Weather portfolio and the Future World portfolio. These portfolios are rebalanced every 6 months.
Other portfolios, such as the Metaverse portfolio rebalances every quarter, and therefore has a higher threshold of a US$10,000 minimum investment.
You can also deploy a monthly investment strategy to dollar cost average into this market, and effectively have a set-and-forget strategy.
There’s also no lock-in period on your investments, so you can withdraw at any time.
RoboInvest fees
The platform charges a 0.88% fee per year on the total value of your investments.
SideHustleRich Invests
And now, on to the juicy bit. Disclaimer: I work at OCBC, and because I was also interested in their thematic portfolios, I decided to dip my toes in a little.
Unfortunately (Or fortunately, as a buy-the-dip investor would say), with the exception of age and inflation, every other number is down.
I first bought into the Future World portfolio in April, and since then, that portfolio has dropped by a further 20%. I then bought some of the Growth portfolio earlier in June, and that promptly fell by 6% as well.
So my total investment of $600 is currently worth $507.95.
Still, I think these volatile market conditions provide a good opportunity to buy the dip, and I will definitely add to my portfolio monthly.
So far, my experience with RoboInvest, just from a usage perspective, has been very positive. If you have an OCBC savings or current account, and use the OCBC Digital app, you can literally get started in minutes.
What are your thoughts on thematic portfolios?