Quote Originally Posted by pico:
what are the risks? so far after reading this article,

this etf seems to be underperforming the benchmark a little bit, but etf's management fee is priced in already, so maybe that explain the difference?
As the fund's objective is to track the benchmark. The main risks are those associated with the benchmark and those with the manager.

A quick scan of the underlying bonds in the index (google iBoxx), although the index is denominated in USD with a notional value of US$53bn, the underlying bonds appear to be in local currencies across Asia issued largely by governments or closely related entities (eg China, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand).

The duration is 4.65 which is a measure of risk to interest rates. Approximately a 1% rise in rates results in a fall of 4.65% in the fund value.

There is currency risk given the bonds are in different currencies versus that which you use to invest (HKD).

The other risk is that of default by one of the bond issuers.

Quote Originally Posted by pico:
not sure how they manage this fund...i am just guessing, they just buy and hold the bond until maturity? (correct me if i am wrong here) so you get two dividend payout every year in jan and july...that comes out to be 3.6%...which is not that bad compare to savings rate. but you have to figure in the Script fee and handling charges for dividend payouts from your brokerages.(i think that is about 2.5% of your dividends)
The risk with the manager is that their attempt to follow the benchmark does not work. Not all the bonds in the index are easy to get hold of (low liquidity) and when paying interest overseas there are with holding taxes applicable in many Asian countries (Thailand, Philippines spring to mind).

When managing the fund they can't buy all the bond in the index, so they buy a sample of bonds which they hope will mimic the performance of the index. The index itself gets revised periodically so the manager should respond to these "rolls" as bonds mature, leave and enter the index.

I am not sure, but part of the underperformance could be due to the withholding taxes.