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The local unit trust industry, a popular form of managed investment, has been greatly affected by the beleaguered local stockmarket. Generally, the local unit trust performance received a heavy beating particularly for growth funds that invest principally in stocks. Some unit trust investors who thought that they were buying a lot cheaper not very long ago may be disappointed with unit prices sinking even lower. Unit trust investors should not panic and sell all their investment holdings amid the on-going market turbulence. Cutting losses on your unit trust investments which should be viewed as medium-to-long term is certainly not a wise strategy. You should take the current attractive prices as a buying opportunity. Why worry about short-term declines if you are investing in unit trust funds for your retirement which could be 10 years away? If you are a disciplined investor, adopting dollar-cost averaging method (consistent buying regardless of market scenarios) should be a more preferable thing to do. You do not have to crack your head trying to identify the ìrealî market bottom. The method will likely help you to avoid making past mistakes of trying to time the market. Dollar-cost averaging is a very simple method that can often reduce the volatility of your portfolio. Although dollar-cost averaging does not guarantee that you will not lose money but it minimizes your losses. Those who invests large sums at one particular point are likely to suffer more if they had not timed their investments properly. Unit trust is not a vehicle for speculation and will more likely improve on any market rebound. While avoiding the market right now seems to be the attitude adopted by many, unit trust investors should in fact do the opposite - buy now at a greater discount. Always keep in mind that you invest in unit trust for long term. Forget about investing in unit trust if you are a typical stock punter who buys stock XYZ at RM2.50 today hoping that it will rise to RM3.70 tomorrow. Like any other form of investment such as shares or derivatives, unit trust investments involve some risk although it is generally termed as safe investment. The amount of risk involved depends on the type of unit trust you select. In short, you should not view unit trust as a totally risk-free investment. It is hard to determine whether your unit trust is a good or bad one. If you have been investing in a unit trust with asset allocation of more than 80% in stocks, you should not be surprised to see double digit losses in your account - higher risk.