Latest news with #AmyZhang
Business Times
14-07-2025
- Business
- Business Times
BT Money Hacks: Are Stablecoins a Smarter Way to Hold Your Cash?
They promise stability, speed, and low-cost transfers so what's not to like? But behind the slick branding, stablecoins are far from a sure bet. In this episode of Money Hacks by The Business Times, host Howie Lim speaks with Amy Zhang, head of APAC at Fireblocks, and Koen Hoorelbeke, investment strategist at Saxo, to demystify what stablecoins really are and what role, if any, they should play in a typical investor's portfolio. Singapore's Monetary Authority has just rolled out one of the most advanced stablecoin regulatory frameworks in the world, far ahead of peers like Hong Kong and the US. That's fuelling optimism but also raising questions about risks, use cases, and whether stablecoins are truly as 'stable' as advertised. Why listen? Because stable doesn't mean safe Stablecoins can still fluctuate in value, depending on demand and the exchange you're using. Because Singapore's regulatory edge matters Clear rules mean more trust and opens the door to institutional adoption and better retail platforms. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Because they're a payments game, not an investment Think low-cost, cross-border transactions. Not passive income or capital gains. Because retail adoption is growing fast Especially in emerging markets, where stablecoins can offer dollar exposure in places where banking access is limited. Because due diligence still matters Who issues the coin? How are reserves held? What happens when regulation shifts? These are the questions investors should be asking. Listen now as Howie Lim cuts through the crypto gloss to help listeners understand how stablecoins work, where they fit into the financial landscape, and when to approach with caution. Find more great content at . For feedback or episode ideas, email the team at btpodcasts@ --- Send us your questions, thoughts, story ideas, and feedback to btpodcasts@ --- Written and hosted by: Howie Lim (howielim@ With Amy Zhang, head of APAC at Fireblocks and Koen Hoorelbeke, investment strategist at Saxo Edited by: Howie Lim & Claressa Monteiro Produced by: Howie Lim A podcast by BT Podcasts, The Business Times, SPH Media Follow BT Money Hacks podcasts every Monday: Channel: Amazon: Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube Music: Website: Do note: This podcast is meant to provide general information only. SPH Media accepts no liability for loss arising from any reliance on the podcast or use of third party's products and services. Please consult professional advisors for independent advice. --- Discover more BT podcast series: BT Mark To Market Podcast at: WealthBT at: PropertyBT at: BT Market Focus at: BT Podcasts at: BT Branded Podcasts at :
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Alger Small Cap Focus A (AOFAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
Any investors hoping to find a Small Cap Growth fund could think about starting with Alger Small Cap Focus A (AOFAX). AOFAX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. AOFAX is one of many different Small Cap Growth funds to choose from. Small Cap Growth mutual funds build portfolios around stocks with markets caps under $2 billion and large growth opportunities. Additionally, these portfolios typically highlight smaller companies in promising markets and industries. Alger Funds is based in New York, NY, and is the manager of AOFAX. Alger Small Cap Focus A debuted in March of 2008. Since then, AOFAX has accumulated assets of about $127.36 million, according to the most recently available information. The fund's current manager, Amy Zhang, has been in charge of the fund since February of 2015. Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of -5.15%, and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3 -year annualized total return of 0.41%, which places it in the bottom third during this time-frame. It is important to note that the product's returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund's [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Compared to the category average of 15.37%, the standard deviation of AOFAX over the past three years is 22.17%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 23.08% compared to the category average of 15.18%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.09, so it is likely going to be more volatile than the market at large. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. With a negative alpha of -18.27, managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Investigating the equity holdings of a mutual fund is also a valuable exercise. This can show us how the manager is applying their stated methodology, as well as if there are any inherent biases in their approach. For this particular fund, the focus is largely on equities that are traded in the United States. This fund is currently holding about 90.5% in stocks, with an average market capitalization of $7.11 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors: Health Technology Other Turnover is about 60.26%, so those in charge of the fund make fewer trades than its comparable peers. Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, AOFAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.22% compared to the category average of 0.99%. From a cost perspective, AOFAX is actually more expensive than its peers. Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $1,000; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50. Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included. Overall, even with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and higher fees, Alger Small Cap Focus A ( AOFAX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a somewhat average choice for investors right now. For additional information on the Small Cap Growth area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into AOFAX too for additional information. And don't forget, Zacks has all of your needs covered on the equity side too! Make sure to check out for more information on our screening capabilities, Rank, and all our articles as well. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Get Your Free (AOFAX): Fund Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
South China Morning Post
15-06-2025
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong wants an ecotourism boom, but can its parks handle more visitors?
Amy Zhang is dressed in full sportswear, with sunglasses and a lightweight hiking backpack. She is one of many visiting Hong Kong's Dragon's Back following the social media craze in mainland China over 'in-depth travels' in the city. 'The beautiful merging horizon and skyline make good photos for my friend circle on WeChat and RedNote,' the 30-year-old education worker from Hunan province said, referring to her networks on the Chinese social media platforms. 'I only wish for better toilets because of the queues, and clearer instructions for where to get water, as we didn't know whether the water from the roadside tap was drinkable.' It was an average Saturday morning when the Post visited the Dragon's Back – one of Hong Kong's top hiking routes that follows a ridge above Shek O and Big Wave Bay – last month. About 100 people, many of them tourists, were seen hanging around the peak, with some trespassing into fenced-off areas near the cliff despite signs warning of 'habitat restoration', simply to grab a photo. Queues were formed not only at bus stations but also outside toilets, at viewing points, large rocks and directional signs.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Market's 'hidden gem': Mid-cap stocks offer 'best of both worlds'
Mid-cap stocks are an area of opportunity that investors often overlook, Alger executive vice president and portfolio manager Amy Zhang tells Wealth host Brad Smith. Watch the video above to hear more. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Wealth here. stocks, rising after the May CPI report shows inflation rising at a slower pace here. My next guest says that mid caps are overlooked by Wall Street, making them fertile grounds for active stock pickers. Joining me now, we've got Amy Zhang, who is the Alger executive vice president and portfolio manager. Good to have you here with us this morning. Where are you seeing opportunity in mid caps right now? Good morning, Brent. Thank you for having me on. Yes, I mean, happy, you know, I think it's really a hidden gem. Um, you know, has the best of both worlds compared to small cap and large cap, you know, has the discovery value similar to small cap is during a not very well covered by the street and a very inefficient. Uh, but it's also has similar financial quality compared to large cap and similar liquidity. So it really makes it a very fertile ground for active management and I still think and the you I think investors typically are still under allocated in the mid cap space. How are you evaluating small and mid caps amid what we're watching play out in the bond market, knowing that they're more dependent on the fluctuations in the cost of capital? Well, uh some of them do. Uh you're absolutely right, but you know, at Alger we're stock pickers. So really we focus on bottom bottom up um analysis and really we favor companies has very strong um balance sheet and um very um strong casual generating capabilities so they can fund their own growth. Okay, so as you're picking names, who are those names that rise to the top of the the list? Well, one of our high conviction names um also um been a long-term shareholder we've invested in RBC Bearings since 2020. Um it's a you know, at at at Alger as stock pickers we invested in exceptional small make companies to have the potential to become exceptional large companies and RBC really exemplify other characteristics we look for in a um exceptional um, you know, company. Um the company, you know, it's a market leader in highly engineered precision bearings for commercial aerospace, defense and industrial markets. Um those are very, you know, mission critical bearings, are highly regulated, require very stringent performance requirements and those are really, you know, very uh critically important to manufacture and operations of, you know, aircraft, mechanical system, um and they reduce wear tear, energy loss, um and facility, you know, power transmission, control, pressure and flow. So it's a very special um uh, you know, the company also has very special company but they also have the best uh breadth and the depth of a company. Um and very diversified in their markets, um but also has, you know, they are um major vast majority of their products are solely source. So it's very hard to replace them. That give them a very strong uh competitive mode. So in today's world, people worry about, you know, inflation, uh and a recession and we always say we want to invest in like a motorboat, like, you know, RBC, they have their own idiosyncratic drivers, their pricing power. Um specifically, notably the biggest, you know, the fastest growing segment is commercial aerospace, which, you know, we think it has a very strong uh tailwind for multi-year cyclical recovery. Number one is because, you know, that industry saw a very steep um, you know, downturn in 2020 and 21 due to COVID travel restrictions. But also, um, you know, with the additional headwind including the grounding of Boeing 737 max, uh and industry wide supply chain constraints. But all those issues are resolved now. So we think you know, RBC is very well positioned to benefit from the multi-year, probably 10 plus year of cyclical recovery. What what should investors be keeping tabs on with regard to tariff policy as it flows through to small and mid cap names that you're tracking? That's excellent question. I think company we should focus on company can control their own destiny like RBC bearings because you want a company have differentiated products, that pricing power, so they can pass, you know, because the product is so mission critical, they can pass, you know, most of their tariff, uh, you know, that to if some of all of them, right, to their customers. So I think so we really that's why we really focus on company have very strong um competitive advantage, um and have pricing power. Amy, good to see you. Thanks for joining us again. Yeah, thank you for having me. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Market's 'hidden gem': Mid-cap stocks offer 'best of both worlds'
Mid-cap stocks are an area of opportunity that investors often overlook, Alger executive vice president and portfolio manager Amy Zhang tells Wealth host Brad Smith. Watch the video above to hear more. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Wealth here. Sign in to access your portfolio
