Funds: Insiders' Trust, High Holdings, Perf Insights.

The increase or decrease in holdings by fund company employees is one of the important indicators that many investors pay attention to, reflecting the trust and support level of the fund company insiders for their own fund products. Data shows that the total holdings of fund company employees have reached a historical high of 13.613 billion shares.

Holding shares continue to rise

In recent years, as the A-share market has become more volatile and public fund sales have been under pressure, some fund company employees have continued to purchase their own funds, especially the situation of fund managers holding funds, which can be seen as a signal reflecting their confidence in the long-term performance of the funds.

Fund company employees, including senior executives, investment research leaders, and fund managers, purchase funds through self-purchase. On the one hand, it is to support the company's new products, especially when the market is cold and fund issuance encounters difficulties; on the other hand, it is also due to their understanding and trust in the fund manager, believing that "it's better to buy familiar than new," and out of trust, they choose their own funds. In addition, fund managers who buy the funds they manage tie their interests with the general holders of the fund by investing real money.

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Looking at the data disclosed in the fund's annual and semi-annual reports, the holding shares of fund company employees have continued to rise in recent years. This year's semi-annual report data shows that the total holding shares of fund company employees reached 13.613 billion shares, which was only 6.761 billion shares in the 2021 semi-annual report, meaning that the holding shares have doubled in three years.

Six funds are held in excess of 100 million shares

As of the end of the second quarter of this year, six fund products (ABC type funds are combined for the same statistics, the same below) were held in excess of 100 million shares by "insiders," among which the money market fund Easy Fund Cash Income A was the leader with 457 million shares; the hybrid type FOF fund Easy Fund Advantage Leading Six Months Holding A was in the second place, with 237 million shares; the stock type fund Geng Value Pioneer was in the third place with 195 million shares. The holding shares of three money market funds, Fuguo F-Wallet A, Huitianfu Money A, and Nanfang Daily Profit A, are also relatively high, all above 100 million shares.

Easy Fund Cash Income A was established in February 2015, with a total return rate of 30.73% since its establishment and an annualized return rate of 2.83%. During the reporting period, the fund mainly allocated assets such as interbank certificates, interbank deposits, and short-term reverse repurchase agreements, and flexibly adjusted the proportion and duration of various assets in the portfolio during market fluctuations. Overall, in the first half of the year, while maintaining the liquidity needs of the portfolio, the fund achieved a relatively stable return, with a growth rate of the unit net value of 0.96%.

Further statistics found that among the fund products held by fund company employees in excess of 50 million shares, money market funds all achieved good positive returns, while the performance of stock funds and FOF funds was poor.

The two FOF funds under Easy Fund, Easy Fund Advantage Leading Six Months Holding A and Easy Fund Advantage Value One Year Holding A, had a return rate of -2.44% and -2.18% in the first half of the year, respectively. In addition, the unit net value drawdown of the stock type fund Geng Value Pioneer, Geng Hong Kong Stock Connect Value, and the hybrid type fund GF Industry Strict Selection Three Years Holding A all exceeded 5%.29 Funds Gain Favor

In the first half of this year, against the backdrop of market fluctuations, 3,718 products saw an increase in the number of shares held by fund company employees compared to the end of last year, 3,669 products remained unchanged, and 3,941 products experienced a decrease in the number of shares held by fund company employees.

The well-known fund managers of Fuzhou Fund, Zhang Bo and Wu Luchong, co-managed the Fuzhou Tianshi Currency A and Fuzhou Fubao A, with the number of shares held by the fund company employees at the end of last year being 1.2335 million and 119 million respectively, which increased to 20.5636 million and 131 million by the end of the first half of this year. In addition, internal employees of Fuzhou Fund also increased their holdings in the Fuzhou AnYi A and Fuzhou Income Treasure A, which they co-managed.

Zhonggeng Fund's internal employees increased their holdings in the Zhonggeng Value Quality One-Year Hold managed by Wu Chengen by 8.886 million shares. In the first half of the year, the fund manager was Qiu Dongrong, and Wu Chengen took over in July of this year.

According to data from Data Treasure, in the first half of this year, 29 products saw an increase of more than 10 million shares by fund company employees, with a total increase of 505 million shares. Among them, there were 12 money market funds, with a total increase of 199 million shares; equity funds (including stock funds and hybrid funds) had 8, with a total increase of 119 million shares; bond funds had 8, with a total increase of 167 million shares; and there was 1 Fund of Funds (FOF), with an increase of 19 million shares.

In terms of returns, among the funds that saw an increase in holdings by fund company employees, bond funds all achieved floating profits in the first half of the year, with relatively good short-term performance. The bond fund with the largest increase in shares, CITIC Construction Investment Xinxiang A (with an increase of 52.6916 million shares in the first half of the year), achieved a return rate of 1.4%. The return rates of Guoyuan Yuanying Six-Month Fixed-Open Bond, Xingye Global Hengsheng 90-Day Hold A, and Guoyuan Yuanying Four-Month Fixed-Open Bond were all above 2%.

Equity funds were more diversified, with Dongfanghong Zhongzheng Dongfanghong Dividend Low Volatility A, Yongying Ruixin A, Beixin Ruifeng Research Selection, and Quan Guo Jiayuan Three-Year Hold A all performing commendably in the first half of the year, with return rates of 14.61%, 8.17%, 5.26%, and 3.14% respectively. On the contrary, Jinyuan Shun'an Medical Health A, Yifangda Zhongzheng Medical Connection A, and Huaxiang Youxuan Value recorded losses of 24.23%, 22.48%, and 11.09% respectively.

How about the holding returns?

Can ordinary fund investors follow the funds bought by internal employees with confidence?

Data Treasure, taking into account fund products established before 2024, with a holding ratio of more than 5% by fund company employees at the end of the second quarter of this year and an increase of more than 1 million shares in the first half of the year, found that the funds that saw a significant increase in holdings by internal employees in the first half of the year overall showed a slight loss, and the return rates varied greatly between different products.Specifically, the equity funds ICBC Yue Xiang A, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank An Sheng Science and Technology Innovation One-Year Fixed Open A, ICBC Selected Return A, and the QDII fund Huitianfu Gold and Precious Metals A all achieved a growth rate in the first half of the year of over 10% after adjusting for rights.

In the first half of this year, ICBC Yue Xiang A heavily invested in high-dividend sector stocks such as energy, materials, and finance, including China National Offshore Oil Corporation, PetroChina, Zijin Mining, China Shenhua, and Agricultural Bank of China. The top five performing sectors in the first half of this year were banking, coal, petroleum and petrochemicals, home appliances, and electricity and public utilities.

In contrast, ten products including Jin Yuan Shun An Medical Health A, E Fund Medical Connect A, and Green Innovation Growth A suffered losses of more than 10% in the first half of the year, with Jin Yuan Shun An Medical Health A incurring a loss of 24.23%. In its semi-annual report, Jin Yuan Shun An Medical Health A stated that the medical health market was significantly under pressure and performed poorly in the first half of 2024, with the allocation ratio of non-pharmaceutical funds further decreasing.

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