It is known that low risk assets and securities brings about lower returns, while high risk assets and securities would generally yield higher returns. This is the tenet of the risk-return trade-off known in investment circles.
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If someone comes up and tells you that there is a low risk, high returns financial product, you would really need to take a step back and think thrice about it.
Fraud aside, there are such things exist legitimately, but it does not exist permanently.
A good example of a legit low-risk-high-returns financial instrument is our own almost risk-free treasury bills (T-Bills). When short term interest rates began to rise back in mid-2022, for three years, we had enjoyed high yields from 6-month and 1-year T-Bills, whose average buying rates reached an all-time high of 4.36% and 4.24% respectively in Dec 2022. However, in Jul and Aug 2025, the numbers came back down to below 1.8% for both, the last time of which were that low was back in May 20221.
Thus for low-risk, high-returns, it is a simple case of “enjoy while it still lasts”.
As for the other end of the spectrum, i.e., high risk, low returns, any sane investor should be avoiding this scenario at all costs.
1 – SGS Prices and Yields – Benchmark Issues. Monetary Authority of Singapore. https://eservices.mas.gov.sg/statistics/fdanet/BenchmarkPricesAndYields.aspx (accessed 28 Sep 2025)
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