Straight Talk - Revisiting diversification: The must-have tool for investors

In January 2024, Chua Soon Hock, CIO of the $330 million fund Asia Genesis Asset Management PTE Ltd, wrote a letter to his investors: "I am writing to you with a heavy heart and utmost regret. Asia Genesis Macro Fund has had a significant and unprecedented drawdown of -18.8 per cent in the first weeks of January. As such, I am making the painful decision to close the fund and return your investment". He goes on to state, "I have reached the stage whereby my confidence as a trader is lost... I have lost my knowledge, trading and psychological edge." Hock's fund bet against the rising Japanese markets and bought into the falling Chinese markets. Both bets went against him.