Methodology and Data Download

Data sources

• MPFA MPF Fund Platform: returns, fees (FER), fund size and risk class for 451 fund classes in 24 schemes, data as of 2026-09-30.

• MPFA monthly fund prices: 75 month-end unit prices (2020-07 – 2026-09) used for our calculated metrics.

• Rule explanations from the MPFA, Labour Department, IRD and eMPF websites (linked on each page).

• The market-timing study uses overseas-listed funds as a market proxy (not MPF data), clearly labelled.

Metrics we calculate

• Annualised return: compound annual growth between the first and last month-end prices.
• Volatility: standard deviation of monthly returns × √12.
• Max drawdown: largest month-end peak-to-trough fall; month-end data understates intra-month falls (e.g. in 2020 US equities fell about −33.8% on daily data vs about −19.7% at month-end).
• Ranking filter: rankings include only funds with at least 60 months of prices and show months and n.

Data fixes and known issues

• In the MPFA October 2023 price sheet, the price for "Allianz Asian Fund – Class B" is identical to another fund's, most likely a transcription error; we blanked that month and recalculated the fund's metrics.
• 5 funds have no published FER and show n/a; we do not estimate.
• For some conservative funds, 5-year cumulative returns recomputed from prices differ from published figures by up to ~0.95pp (fee-recovery mechanics); we show published figures.
• The MPFA Fund Risk Indicator is shown as published by the MPFA.
• Some fund prices are bid prices.
• Fund sizes are current, and survivorship bias exists: terminated funds are not ranked.
• Some figures (e.g. 20-year proxy returns) differ slightly between versions of the timing study; we only quote out-of-sample test results.

Updates and citation

Data is refreshed monthly after the MPFA publishes a new month. Cite as: "MPF Watch (mpfwatch.com), MPFA data as of 2026-09-30". Data is provided as-is and may contain errors; the MPFA and trustees are the authoritative sources.