Blood is shed everywhere in the stock market this week. Omicron is ominous!
I was never great in timing, but this time I was lucky for once in my stock investment journey.
Thank God for that!
I sold off a big part of my portfolio earlier this week immediately after Omicron news, and also sell before that to take profits. Furthermore, I also liquidate my AIA ILP fund last week, something that I have been contributing every month since 2007 for the sake of my agent contributing to his salary, although I know is a waste of my money and time.
BREAKEVEN PORTFOLIO YTD (EXCLUDING PROPERTY)
My current portfolio of shares, cash & precious metals are as below. 52% shares and 48% non-shares. Thank God, I do have bullets to do the scoop when time is riped or when my entry price is right!
Overall, my investment portfolio dipped 7-8% since the Omicron rout. Yet, compared to same period last year, excluding nett savings, and including dividends collected, my portfolio break-even.
The best performing fund in the world, ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) managed by Cathie Wood drops 25% this year. Therefore, I take comfort that I did relatively ok.
PROPERTY – THE BIGGEST WINNER FOR ME
My aforesaid investment performance excludes my property purchased this year.
Undoubtedly, this is the biggest win.
Based on the transacted market pricing, I have witnessed 20% increase in my property market value in less than a year. 20% is not huge, but mine you… IT IS absolute value increase. I haven’t include the additional rental that I am, and will continue to collect until I finally shifted in to enjoy the space.
So for those who spurn at property is because they are not apt in this field nor do they have the excess down-payment nor the guts to be tied down, because they hated working, they hated commitments, they are usually smaller in family size or single and do not need the space. Fair enough….
There are so many (not all) out there who think that they so good in stocks merely with a few years of investment experience without actual figures of long term success to back up.
This group of people will often use calculations and analysis and using percentage increase to justify why stocks are better, without considering the intangible emotional swings in stocks, and the absolute value increase. I seriously think it is either too young and childish, or really have too little experience in life or in investment.
Sorry to be so straight, but it is the truth! Not everyone is Cathie Wood who sees average 39% return since 2014. Neither is everyone who are so good in holding stocks for 10 years without “itchy finger buy/sell” or without “itchy eyes” to keep look at their overall portfolio to cause themselves anxiety. The emotional pain of stock investment is more real for the younger investors who cannot managed their emotions.
However percentage wise comparison, there is no doubt property is a safer haven in Singapore in the last 10 to 15 years compared to stocks. No one will “suka suka” sell and buy their properties because of it is some troublesome.
Yes yes yes… you challenged me to use Tesla or Bitcoin’s ROI compare to property in Singapore. Whatever you say….. *dud*. Still that is only the exceptional minority who will buy and hold and see 20, 30, 50x increase.
MY US STOCKS
To start, GRAB dive 33% after SPAC IPO. Anyway, I have never ever think that GRAB is a good company as of today. I never buy this stock.
My Tesla, Apple, Microsoft & Nvidia are still holding up strong, all in green with all dropping only slightly below their all time highs. Amazon, I sold all last two weeks and took profits when it was 3550 luckily.
My best timing, is when I took profits off Sea on Tuesday, and only left with small portion of the stocks. Really “Heng” otherwise another 20% drop there, which is a big amount for me since Sea is one of my largest holdings.
I sold off completely Chargepoint, ABnB, Astra Space, AMC all with little profit or breakeven.
Will continue to watch these companies and load appropriately.
Real bad decision is when I sold off Pfizer too early at 48 to take profit and now it is at 54.
My biggest Panadol is my relatively huge holding in Upstart that is seeing 30% decline. This is painful. My AppHarvest and Virgin Galactics losses are less significant because these are smaller holdings.
MY CHINA STOCKS
This has been the most difficult to see, although I still look at it. Hahaha… But I do take comfort because I bought most Chinese shares last year way before XJP announced his “common prosperity plan”. So it’s really not my fault and nobody can anticipates that.
I took the blame though and will learn from it that many times I have chance to sell BABA at a lesser loss, and buy back cheaper, but I never do that in too many occasions.
Sorry hor… many will not teach you to sell at a loss and buy back cheaper. They normally teach you to buy and buy and seeing the stock dip and dip!
I also sold off Sinopec 386 immediately after Omicron to conserve cash as I already enjoyed the tasty close to 10% dividends based on my cost.
Two of my largest holdings and largest paper losses are BABA and PDD. BABA is worst performer in terms of absolute value $ drop. My average price is 198 and now it is below 120. PDD is a greater nightmare with 60% decline. I also bought NIO at 55 and its only 32 now. Huya is another brain tumor as I bought at 21 and now it is hovering at 7.0. But this is not the worst. Worst is Koolearn bought at 32 and now at 8 although that is that smallest value of stock I own. My itchy finger also bought Futu at 66 and now below 40.
DiDi, is also one of the worst performers. My wife asked me to buy this using her fund during IPO, something I greatly objected! But she insisted. We average at 16.7 and now it is 6.0. Didi by the way is filing for delisting in US and listing in HK.
Alibaba Share Price Drop – An Undervalue Gem?
MY SG STOCKS
Yawn…
I am lucky to sold off all of my Starhill at 0.66 when my average cost at 0.46 to take profits last week to conserve substantial cash.
Unfortunately, I bought more of Capitaland China Trust (CLCT) in my SRS account at 1.20 and now it was 1.16. This is strategic because I wanted to transfer all my Singapore stocks gradually into SRS. So when my CLCT in my trading account outside SRS, breakeven at 1.19, I will likely to sell it off to take advantage of greater opportunity else.
Other SG shares such as KDC Reit, MLT, SGX, FCT, Thaibev, sees relatively little movement in terms of absolute value decrease. Still, they falls and it sores.
The one more sickening stock is Comfort Delgro when I purchased at 1.70. Why the hell did I ever buy into this stock in the first place? Ok… Covid recovery… now I remember.
LEARN TO BE WISER WHEN I ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRUTH
This article is not to display my competence in investing. I never am. But I learn to wiser with more stock crashes and “stock paper failures”.
It is also to tell the truth that like everyone else, I buy stocks at high price and they tumbles.
So if your stock drop, you can take some comfort that everyone’s else portfolio also fall. Just that some prefer not to tell you the truth, because our ears always only want to hear “radio beautiful music” and not the “truth”. In this way, they forever cannot learn.
ARE YOU EMOTIONAL IF STOCK CRASHES YOUR PORTFOLIO?
The paper losses I do see in my investment journey are not that small. They can be in excess of 6 figures. And I do have experience of single stock that goes to zero with total losses of 30-40KSGD.
So, question:
“Will you feel sad or will it affects your mood when there is a stock crash causing 20,30,40% loss of portfolio?” No…?
Most untrained amateur investors will pretend they are ok.. but deep down they panicked and feel down. This is normal because you are only human and you do not have sufficient experience, trainings, readings or writings, or even failure experience in life to reinforce your faith. Or, you are “Sibeh Suai”
HOW TO MANAGE EMOTIONAL STRESS FROM INVESTING?
Before I started investment in shares, I anticipated that one most difficult thing is NOT the managing of “paper losses” but our “emotional stress”.
That is one of the key reasons why I started blogging coupled with my reading of biography of the famous, and continuous learning via reading and attending courses.
Reading other people’s biography tells you that everyone has failures! The difference is the greater one will learn from it and bounced back stronger. The pathetic ones think that they are flawless and want others to think they are better and hide their flaws.
Writing my blog reinforced my faith in my investment and releases emotional anxiety. For instance, “the fundamental story did not change! The company figures are good.” Ok.. less emotional stress!
That being said, to teach that always to hold and buy buy buy when stock fall and fall is also very irresponsible. I doubt most average investors have deep pockets like Warren Buffett, after buying 1-2-3-4 times average down, they are dead in their reserves. So please be prudent when average down.
VETERAN VS JUNIOR INVESTORS
Veteran investors will know how to stay calm and make better and wiser decisions and gain in the long run. They will have experienced failures in life and learn from it, and are in the game for a longer time.
The junior ones normally like to come out and rant about their winnings and talk/comment arrogantly, when the stock market is at all-time-high.
They also like to display their winnings and not their losses. They have “never” encounter setbacks because they only have that limited amount of experience in life or in investment, or they simply don’t acknowledge the truth and prefer to be blinded. These people will only come and go and will not be in the game for long.
TO END…
Now that I have some sufficient magazines of bullets, it is likely I will continue to load more of Tesla, Sea, Chargepoint, and some of the travel, space and smart farm stocks appropriately. Most likely will average down on BABA and PDD too!
My best friend reminds me in whatsapp “be careful and good luck”! I said “Thank you”!
