Episode 16: My Story with the High-Return Category (The Fund Award Survey)

Before the Submit Button

I opened my Rakuten Securities dashboard and found myself looking at the survey page for the 9th Fund Award.
A survey, how intriguing. Let's give it a try.

What do we have here? "High-Return Category"

To be perfectly honest, I used to think this particular category was a bit far removed from my world.
After all, I am someone who accumulates low-cost index funds for the long run.

Even so, I couldn't bring myself to close the survey page.

Dilemma, and a Little Flurry of Anticipation

As I went to answer the questionnaire, the very moment I looked over the list of candidate funds, my heart skipped a beat.

This was because two of the funds I regularly keep a close eye on had been nominated.

"I knew it," I thought to myself.

The things I had been watching weren't completely off-target. That realization made me genuinely happy.

Two Side-by-Side Contenders

iFreeNEXT FANG+ Index Fund
Tracers S&P500 Gold Plus

Both are index funds, and both belong to the high-return category, huh?

That is certainly true, but the underlying core concepts behind these two funds are completely different.

Thoughts in Front of the Vote Button

The iFreeNEXT FANG+ Index Fund follows an index that is strictly and heavily concentrated on high-growth stocks.
It is simple and easy to understand. It is also eligible for both the NISA Accumulation Investment Category and the Growth Investment Category.

On the other hand, Tracers S&P500 Gold Plus combines equities with gold, utilizing a mechanism called leverage. It is not eligible for NISA.

Here, I ran into a dilemma.

Philosophy? Design structure? Or the ultimate results? I wrestled over which one was truly more fitting for a high-return fund choice.

And in the end, the choice I cast my vote for was Tracers S&P500 Gold Plus.

The reasoning was astonishingly basic.

Simply put, this one yielded higher historical returns.

It wasn't some beautifully crafted logic. But as a human being engaged in investing, it was an honest, unfiltered judgment.

The Results Made Public

A short while later, the results of the Fund Award were released to the public.

The fund selected for the Grand Prize was the iFreeNEXT FANG+ Index Fund.

And Tracers S&P500 Gold Plus finished in 2nd place.

It was the exact opposite of the answer I had submitted.

Yet, strangely enough, I didn't feel any sense of frustration.

To Tell You the Truth

Some readers who have followed along up to this point might be wondering, "Well then, which one are you actually investing in?"

Let me be fully transparent with you.

In reality, I consistently accumulate both the iFreeNEXT FANG+ Index Fund and Tracers S&P500 Gold Plus.

First place or second place—honestly, either is perfectly fine with me.

Because from the very beginning, I was never the type of person who restricts himself to picking just one. When in doubt, I buy both.

What the High-Return Category Taught Me

The High-Return Category doesn't hand you a single, flawless answer.

Instead, it acts as a mirror that clearly reflects what kind of metrics you base your actions on.

I look at design philosophies, I evaluate the numbers, and my heart sways based on actual results.

And in the end, embracing those internal contradictions, I keep building up positions in both, bit by bit.

That is exactly the kind of investor I am.

The next place I turned my attention to was the NISA Accumulation Category.

Takeaway from this Episode

In the world of investing, there is no such thing as an "absolute correct choice" or a single "number-one answer." What truly matters is developing your own personal benchmark—the core criteria you use to choose and the reasons behind your moves. By continuing to think through choices even when facing uncertainty, your unique values as an investor will steadily mature. More than the immediate results, it is the disciplined stance of building upon your own personal judgments that becomes your strength for the future.