US rate hike

The Federal Reserve had been talking about raising interest rate for months. We'll only know whether this ongoing topic will becomes a reality in coming December.

The US dollar has been the best performing currency for the year. Trading at 1USD= RM4.294 today, year to date Ringgit is almost 21 percent weaken against USD.

If the rate hike is confirmed in December, we are not surprised to see US Dollar surged above RM4.50 in short term. However, US dollar had rallied for a year. Short term correction might sent USD/RM below RM4, says around RM3.80. 

Since HK dollar is pegged to US dollar, we will convert more HK dollar for our Hong Kong portfolio if Ringgit is strengthened.

Ringgit Malaysia

Most currencies devalued against USD lately, but Ringgit Malaysia (RM) has been the worst performing currency among South East Asia currencies. As of today, 1USD is equivalent to RM4.27 whereas in August 2014, USD/RM was 3.15; a total devalued of up to 35%. It is a good news if you are holding USD. But, as a Malaysian, our purchasing power had decreased. 

While RM was strong few years back, we took the opportunity to travel overseas. Not only that, we converted RM to a basket of foreign currencies; SGD, AUD and HKD just to name a few. 

We've converted our SGD back to RM and made a small profit. We are still holding our foreign currencies and not consider to add on for the time being, unless it comes to an attractive level. We will continue monitoring the basket of currencies and make decision according to market condition.