Recent Buy - Ascott REIT

Bought Ascott REIT 3600 shares @ $1.135

What I like about Ascott REIT:

• It's wide diversification of properties portfolio across 14 countries, covering both developed and developing countries.
• Reasonable gearing at 41%
• P/BV is trading at discount 0.74x
• Decent yield at 6.86%

November 2016 - Low Cost Portfolio Scorecard

Many medias spread fears during the US president election, by injecting a market sell-off expectation should Donald Trump became the elected president of US. What happened eventually was the reverse. Markets rallied strongly, especially US. DJI is just a few points away from 20,000 psychology resistance. Even the lackluster STI breached 2900 as a result.

Will the rally continue in 2700? Only God knows! My part is to stick with the plan and probably be slightly defensive in my portfolio management.

As a result of the rally in equities, low cost portfolio XIRR YTD was 7.4% as of 30 November. XIRR since inception went back above 4% at 4.54%, beating CPF SA return, which I used as a benchmark for my low cost portfolio.

• CapitaRetail China Trust 5800 shares @ $1.3875
• CapitaMall Trust 4200 shares @ 1.9075
• SIA Engineering 1200 shares @ 3.45
• VanEck Vectors Gold Miners UCITS ETF (GDX.L) 140 shares @ USD 21.56
• Heineken Malaysia Bhd (2836.KL) 800 shares @ MYR 15.7275
• Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd (3255.KL) 900 shared @ MYR 13.78

I injected $4,000 fresh fund and received total dividends of $214.00 and GBP 18.09 in November. Dividends received were:

• GBP 18.09 from British Land Co PLC  
• $36.00 from SIA
• $60.00 from Starhub
• $53.00 from First REIT
• $65.00 from Starhill Global REIT

Total portfolio value as of 30 November was about $3,000 shy of the half million mark, with 46.53% in equity and 53.47% in bonds & cash.



Link to Yaruzi's low cost portfolio as of November 2016

Recent Buy - Singtel

Bought Singtel 1100 shares @ 3.65

Telcos have been hammered for various reasons. Some said the drop was because of the arrival of the 4th telco. Others believed the drop was because of their "bond-like" characteristic in the portfolio for their stable dividend. I tended the agree on the later, because it's not only Singapore telcos that got sold-off.

At $3.65, Singtel traded 3.4% higher from my buying price in January 2016. Amongst the telco, I perceived Singtel to be the most resilient due to it's more diverse and regionalized business.

Family Time

Time passes so fast and we're at the end of 2016. Yaruzi will take a break from blogging to spend some quality time with his wife and daughters, try nice food, and explore some cities and their public transports.

Stay tune as I'll be right back :-).

Recent Buy - Carlsberg and Heineken

Bought:
1. Heineken Malaysia Bhd (2836.KL) 800 shares @ MYR 15.7275
2. Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd (3255.KL) 900 shared @ MYR 13.78

Recent Buy - CapitaRetail China Trust, CapitaMall Trust, SIA Engineering, and VanEck Vectors Gold Miners UCITS ETF

Bought:
1. CapitaRetail China Trust 5800 shares @ $1.3875
2. CapitaMall Trust 4200 shares @ 1.9075
3. SIA Engineering 1200 shares @ 3.45
4. VanEck Vectors Gold Miners UCITS ETF (GDX.L) 140 shares @ USD 21.56

October 2016 - Low Cost Portfolio Scorecard

Low cost portfolio XIRR YTD was 6.82% as of 31 October 2016, while XIRR since inception was 3.66%. In October, I injected $4,000 fresh fund and I received:

• 7 DBS shares from DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Plan). 
• HKD 1,417.42 dividend from Vanguard FTSE Asia Pacific High ex Japan Dividend ETF
• HKD 423.79 dividend from CNOOC
• CNY 144.77 distribution from CSOP China Ultra Short Term Bond ETF
• HKD 210.88 dividend from Sinopec Engineering

I also bought a REITS and stocks in Oct to increase my equity allocation:

• Starhill Global REIT 5000 shares @ $0.81
• Starhub 1200 shares @ $3.36
• Telstra (TLS.AX) 760 shares @ AUD 4.97

Link to Yaruzi's low cost portfolio as of October 2016

Recent Buy - Telstra (TLS.AX) and Starhub

Bought:
1. Telstra (TLS.AX) 760 shares @ AUD 4.97
2. Starhub 1200 shares @ $3.36

Portfolio Statistic as of 21 October 2016

Equity allocation 38.54%

Number of stocks / equity ETF = 36

Number of winners = 25

Number of losers = 11

Winning rate = 69.44%
Losing rate = 30.56%

Average winning value = $506.38

Average losing value = -$520.54

Recent Buy - Starhill Global REIT

Bought Starhill Global REIT 5000 shares @ $0.81

Parable of The Monkey Guru

OK, ok I made up this one, so enjoy ...

One of the villager read Parable of The Monkey Business posted by Yaruzi and realized that the whole things were rigged, and that monkey market manipulation occurred all the time.

Based on this fresh revelation, he tried hard to sniff every movement of the monkey boss syndicate. He bought when he sensed hidden buying by the syndicate and sold when they secretly sold. He had some success but at times he got burnt too, as the syndicate was too sophisticated in covering their operations. This particular villager figured out that there was no way he could EVER consistently beat the syndicate in their own game, and made big money out of it. Indeed he ended up with a hole in his account.

However he noticed that the other villagers were driven by greed. They could be easy victims once their greed took over their senses. Once greed was in control, most of these naive villagers would be as gullible as "Bei kambing" (a term, my blogger friends: SMOL and CW8888, like to use). He could make greater profit from the "Bei kambing", without taking the risks of getting burnt by going against the syndicate.

So he devised a plan to exploit the greed of his fellow villagers. He promoted himself as the Monkey Guru and conducted the monkey operation course. To get the villagers to take the bait, he shared his version of Cinderella turned princess story in his newly created blog. There, he shared how he was making easy money trading monkeys, before he failed and badly burnt. At one point he was almost a bankrupt with only a few thousand dollars left in his pocket. But at the lowest point of his life, a new divine revelation came to him and he finally found the holy grail of the monkey kingdom. (Do you find similarities on all the Gurus stories that were trying to sell "exclusive" courses??)

The Monkey Guru posted his profits frequently and offer free course previews to draw the villagers to take his baits. Occasionally and selectively he posted small losses, so the villagers wouldn't perceive him as too good to be true. However he never shared his complete account! To be more convincing he claimed he could read the monkey boss' mind and posted himself with a Ferrari. Some villagers were drawn by their greed and paid a few thousand dollars to attend the Monkey Guru courses.

A few of the villagers attending the courses made money, but mostly lost theirs. The Monkey Guru congratulated the few, told them that they had it and made a video of them. He called them his students and use the video to further promote himself. (Have you ever asked why the Gurus have only 1-2 successful students video, though they claimed they have thousands of students??)

To the many who lost big time, he told them that they would be successful one day if they didn't give up easily. To cheer them up, he offered them a limited edition of "advanced" monkey operation course that was more expensive than the first one they attended. He promised to give a big discount if they signed up immediately. Most unsuccessful "Bei kambing" realized they had been taken for a ride, but too ashamed to go publicly to admit how they'd been deceived because of their greed and naivety. However some paid for the "advanced" course and lost even more.

One hedge fund took notice of the Monkey Guru and offer him a potential job. The Monkey Guru was so over the moon and immediately posted the offer in his blog. The hedge fund quietly discard their plan after the Monkey Guru was not able to share his full audited account of real profits and losses. Someone else also found out that the Monkey Guru no longer had his Ferrari. The Monkey Guru dismissed the doubt by saying that he currently lives in town and no longer need the Ferrari ...

If you want to know what happen next, you're welcome to enroll for my next preview course ,.. It's FREE. Please hurry or you'll regret, because this would be my last course for the year before I go on long vacation!! I only have a few seats left and I didn't know when I would start my courses again!!! (begging, begging, tolong, tolong)

Parable of The Monkey Business

The story below was not written by me, and some of you may have come across it. Nevertheless, there is useful lesson in it. Here it goes.

Once upon a time... in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20 for a monkey. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each, and the supply of monkeys became so small that it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35, and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys.

They never saw the man nor his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!

September 2016 - Low Cost Portfolio Scorecard

My low cost portfolio received a significant injection of cash from unit trust portfolio liquidation. A total of $221,000 was added in the month of September alone. Because of the cash injection, equity allocation decreased from 47% to 26%. To re-balance the portfolio, I planned to make a number of purchases with the intention to increase the equity allocation gradually to around 50% in the next few months. The September purchases increased my equity allocation from 26% to 33%:

• Sembcorp Industries 1500 shares @ $2.69
• M1 1600 shares @ $2.53
• PCCW (0008.HK) 5000 shares @ HKD 5.01
• BT Group PLC (BT-A.L) 580 shares @ GBP 3.864
• BP PLC (BP.L) 530 shares @ GBP 4.2475
• Global Logistic Properties (GLP) 2200 shares @ $1.835
• HSBC (0005.HK) 400 shares @ HKD 57.95 (add to existing position)
• Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGAS.JK) 11000 shares @ IDR 2,690.00
• Toyota Motor Corp (7203.JP) 100 shares @ JPY 5,756.00
• Malayan Banking (1155.KL) 1600 shares @ MYR 7.62
• Greggs PLC (GRG.L) 220 shares @ GBP 10.0272
• Hugo Boss AG (BOSS.DE) 55 shares @ EUR 47.685

Aside of equity purchase, I also bought Fullerton Short Term Interest Rate Fund C and United SGD Fund Cl A (Acc) to increase my fix income allocation. In September, I received dividends of GBP 18.40 from BHP Billiton PLC, HKD 303.38 from HSBC, $70 from UOB, and HKD 659.52 from China Mobile. XIRR YTD was at 7.91% and XIRR since inception was at 3.78%.

Link to Yaruzi's low cost portfolio as of September 2016

Recent Buy - Greggs PLC and Hugo Boss AG

Bought:
1. Greggs PLC (GRG.L) 220 shares @ GBP 10.0272
2. Hugo Boss AG (BOSS.DE) 55 shares @ EUR 47.685

Recent Buy - Toyota Motor Corp and Malayan Banking Berhad

Bought:
1. Toyota Motor Corp (7203.JP) 100 shares @ JPY 5,756.00
2. Malayan Banking (1155.KL) 1600 shares @ MYR 7.62

How Does Yaruzi's Low Cost Portfolio Stack Up?

I was curious on how my low cost portfolio has performed, compared to similar fund managed by professional fund managers. As my portfolio was incepted on 30 March 2015, I used 2 year annualized return of balanced funds for bench-marking. Balanced fund invest in both equities and fix income.

The result is rather encouraging, as my portfolio rank #14 and beat 70% of professionally managed balanced fund (see table below). Balanced funds that was less than 2 years were excluded. On a YTD basis, my low cost portfolio with return of 9.76% will rank #4 and beat 94% of the other 58 balanced fund. On a longer term basis e.g. 10 years, there is only 1 fund that return more than 4%, which is First State Bridge. I guess overall not too bad huh?

Recent Buy - HSBC & Perusahaan Gas Negara

Bought HSBC (0005.HK) to add to my existing position 400 shares @ HKD 57.95
Initiating position on Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGAS.JK) 11000 shares @ IDR 2,690.00

Unit Trust Portfolio - The Finale

I liquidated all my unit trusts in Fundsupermart on 29 Aug 2016. I received sale proceeds of $279,816.26. XIRR YTD was 8.32% and XIRR since inception was 2.52%. Not impressive, but the positive thing was I didn't lose money and I felt liberated from the need to pay platform fee! After about 4 years and 2 months investing in unit trusts, I finally decided to consolidate my investment fund in my very own portfolio.

Dividends and distributions received in August was $268.61. All proceeds will be re-invested in my low cost portfolio. With this significant cash injection, my low cost portfolio equity allocation dropped to a low of 20%. That was the reason I made quite a number of purchase in September.



Link to Yaruzi's unit trust portfolio allocation as of August 2016

Recent Buy - Global Logistic Properties (GLP)

Bought Global Logistic Properties (GLP) 2200 shares @ $1.835

Recent Buy - British Telecom & British Petroleum

Bought:
1. BT Group PLC Ordinary 5p (BT-A.L) 580 shares @ GBP 3.864
2. BP PLC (BP.L) 530 shares @ GBP 4.2475

August 2016 - Low Cost Portfolio Update

Global markets continued their move up in August. XIRR YTD was 9.76% and XIRR since inception was 4.08% by end August. I was glad because this would be the first time my portfolio was able to beat the CPF SA rate. When I first started my investment journey, my aim was to have a long term portfolio return of 4% and above.

I received bumper dividend of $920.56 in August and I injected $4,250 of fresh fund. As I had a significant fresh fund injection in July, my equity allocation of the total portfolio dropped to around 40%. To rebalance the portfolio, I was buying some dividend paying stocks to raise the equity allocation:

• BHP Billiton PLC (BLT.L) 180 shares @ GBP 9.465
• Bayer Motoren WK (BMW.DE) 26 shares @ EUR 74.96
• Royal Dutch Shell PLC-B (RDSB.L) 90 shares @ GBP 19.76
• Sinopec Engineering (2386.HK) 3000 shares @ HKD 6.6
• Daimler AG (DAI.DE) 31 shares @ EUR 61.49
• SIA 400 shares @ $10.57

Link to Yaruzi's low cost portfolio as of August 2016

Recent Buy - Sembcorp Industries, M1, PCCW

Bought:

1. Sembcorp Industries 1500 shares @ $2.69

2. M1 1600 shares @ $2.53

3. PCCW (0008.HK) 5000 shares @ HKD 5.01

The Farewell

After slightly more than 4 years, I finally decided to liquidate my unit trust portfolio completely. I entered sell orders for all remaining portfolio worth $217,000.00 last Monday. The full proceeds will be available by next Thursday and I plan to inject the fund into my low cost portfolio.

Through the unit trust experience, I learnt about diversification, portfolio allocation, sitting tight, and taking long term view when investing. It helped me in formulating the strategy for my low cost portfolio. I enjoyed the investment talk that Fundsupermart organized. Though there were marketing talks, but there was also precious nuggets that I picked up from the fund manager when they shared their thought process while making investment decision.

I also enjoyed the exclusive dinner invitation, which were held in 4-5 star hotels. You'd get to hear the fund manager sharing his/her view and thought process, while enjoying a decent 3 course meals, a nice cup of coffee with a small piece of chocolate. Unfortunately I didn't get the invitation this year, which made the decision to exit easier .... lol. Well, the platform fee which could amount to $800+ per annum was killing me. So it's time to say good bye.

iFAST IPO price was 95 cents. It went up to as high as $1.51. Recently it traded around 93 cents, which was below its IPO price. With many investors awake to the idea that they can build their own low cost portfolio with ETF or dividend stocks, I think iFAST will have challenges and headwinds to continue their business model of collecting ongoing fees. iFAST already felt the heat and has revised down their platform fee. It will be interesting to see if iFAST current business model will last.

Recent Buy - SIA

Bought SIA 400 shares @ $10.57. I've been considering Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines, but decided to go with SIA instead.

Recent Buy - Daimler AG

Bought Daimler AG (DAI.DE) 31 shares @ EUR 61.49

Recent Buy - Sinopec Engineering Group Co

Bought Sinopec Engineering (2386.HK) 3000 shares @ HKD 6.6.

Recent Buy - Royal Dutch Shell PLC-B

Bought Royal Dutch Shell PLC-B (RDSB.L) 90 shares @ GBP 19.76

July 2016 - Unit Trust Portfolio Update

July was a good month. XIRR since inception improved to 2.32% , with XIRR YTD at 7.86% and actual return YTD at 4.45% as of end July. United Gold and General Fund was up by 53.7%. I received dividends of $1,024.09.

I decided to liquidate $60,000 from the unit trust portfolio, as I planned to reduce the size of the portfolio and channel it to my low cost portfolio instead. I planned to liquidate another $100K within this year and might completely wind down the unit trust portfolio next year. The reason? I was sick of paying $200+ every quarter for "platform fee" i.e $800+ every year. I also felt more comfortable with my own low cost portfolio performance. I believe I'm not the only one doing this and I wasn't surprised iFAST latest result showed half year profit dropped by 62% compared to a year ago.

Transactions in July 2016:
1. Sold

Blackrock World Energy Fund A2 SGD-H $1,629.01

Fidelity China Focus A SGD $678.28

Fidelity European High Yield A EUR EUR 3,522.24

First State Dividend Advantage $9,436.13

FTIF-Templeton Global Fd A $10,329.85

Fullerton Short Term Int Rt C S$ $10,584.67

HGIF Brazil Eqty SGD Cl AD $1,605.78

HGIF Russia Eqty SGD Cl AD $872.75

United Emerging Markets Bond Fund $2,993.31

United SGD Fund Cl A Acc SGD $16,065.32

Link to Yaruzi's unit trust portfolio allocation as of July 2016

July 2016 - Low Cost Portfolio Update

My low cost portfolio received a big boost in July due to $65,000 fund injection. The source of fund came from unit trust portfolio partial liquidation ($60,000), unit trust dividend ($1,000), and fresh fund ($4,000). I planned to further liquidate half of the remaining unit trust portfolio, which may happen later this year. Aside of fund injection, return was also boosted by the rally in global equity markets, following an earlier BREXIT selloff. Portfolio XIRR improved to 2.42% since inception and 8.26% YTD.

Leveraging on BREXIT selloff, I bought British Land Co PLC. It is the second largest UK REIT after Land Securities Group PLC. I purchased 320 units at GBP 5.41, yielding 5.14% per annum before tax (UK levies 20% tax for REITS dividend). This purchase brought portfolio allocation to 40.77% equity and 59.23% bond/cash. I also bought 160 shares of Deutsche Bank at EUR 12.30 and 200 units of CSOP China Ultra Short Term Bond ETF at HKD 176.3625, which would be included in August portfolio update.

In July, I received dividend of HKD 303.52 from HSBC, HKD 469.44 from Vanguard FTSE Asia Pacific ex Japan High Dividend ETF, and HKD 886.19 from CNOOC.



Link to Yaruzi's low cost portfolio as of July 2016

Recent Buy - Low Cost Portfolio

Bought UOB 200 shares @ $17.94

I recently liquidated around $60K from the unit trust portfolio, which I injected into the low cost portfolio. I will be adding to my equity allocation gradually to restore the allocation back to 50% equity and 50% bond.

Recent Buy - Low Cost Portfolio

Bought BHP Billiton PLC (BLT.L) 180 shares @ GBP 9.465
Bought Bayer Motoren WK (BMW.DE) 26 shares @ EUR 74.96

Blogroll Update

There are a number of personal finance and investment blogs resources that I like, so I'm adding them into my blogroll

1. The Fifth Person
2. BigFatPurse
3. The Motley Fool Singapore
4. Dividend Diplomats
5. Jason Fieber's "Freedom Fund".

The original Dividend Mantra site was sold and the articles from Jason Fieber are no longer published there, so I'll be removing it from my blog roll.

Recent Buy - Low Cost Portfolio

Bought CSOP China Ultra Short Term Bond ETF (3122.HK) 200 units @ HKD 176.3625

Bought Deutsche Bank (DBK.GR) 160 shares @ EUR 12.30

How Was Yaruzi Doing In The First Half Of 2016?

1. Reading Bible - I finally finished reading my bible on 2nd May of this year and I started all over again on 3rd May. I felt super excited as I had not completed reading my bible for a while. The last time I did was probably in my secondary. Reading bible is not like reading ordinary books, where I gain knowledge only. In bible, I learnt about the importance of relationship, with God and also men. Invaluable wisdom equipped me to live this life to the fullest.

2. Exercise - I wasn't tracking as regularly as before, but suffice to say that I wasn't exercising enough. I need discipline and determination to exercise regularly, and I hope both of them in 2nd half.

3. Weight Loss - Aargh ... let's not talk about this. I didn't loss any weight! But on a positive note, my weight has been pretty stable from the point when I started this blog. That ripped abs just getting farther and farther.

4. Financial - My unit trust and low cost portfolio combined, reached $400,000 in April. I think it's a decent achievement, considering I only started building the portfolio in June 2012. Next milestone will be to reach $500,000 by Dec 2016. Average dividend has also grown from $5.22 per month in 2012 to $633.44 per month in 2016.

Only because of God's grace, I can be where I am today. Praise the Lord for He is good and His mercy endureth forever.

June 2016 - Unit Trust Portfolio Update

Despite the volatility seen in June due to BREXIT, my unit trust portfolio seemed to ride the market without much drama. Headline news speculated that the smart money moved to gold and gold miners to hedge and protect their portfolio from the uncertainties.

In my opinion, gold and gold miners had been sold aggressively in the past few years. Many gold miners were trading at all time low until the earlier part of 2016. With the speculative excess removed, eventually price will move according to the long term balance of demand and supply. My United Gold and General Fund was up 41.41% by end June. I have no intention to take immediate profit, as I believe it will be a while before excess bubble starts to build up in gold again.

Allocation ratio as of end June was 40% equity, 10% high yield, 50% bonds. I received cash dividend of $190.31 in June. Since April, I had stopped re-investing dividend from unit trust back into this portfolio. Instead I accumulated the dividend to be re-invested into my low cost portfolio. For the 1st half of 2016, my unit trust portfolio was up 2.65%. XIRR since inception stood at 1.75%.

Link to Yaruzi's unit trust portfolio allocation as of June 2016

Recent Buy - Low Cost Portfolio

Bought British Land Co PLC (BLND.L) 320 shares @ GBP 5.41

British Land Co is second largest publicly traded UK REITS after Land Securities Group PLC.

At current price, the dividend yield (TTM) is 5.14% and PBV 0.61. With GBP at all time low against SGD, I just can't resist myself to buy some.

June 2016 - Low Cost Portfolio Update

I was waiting for buying opportunity in June. So when BREXIT presented such opportunity, I jumped with excitement. I bought China Mobile and Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa, which I had observed for some time. I also bought Prada in late May.

I contributed $23,000 fresh fund into the low cost portfolio in June. I also received dividends from DBS. I opted for scrip dividends and I received 7 DBS shares. Return YTD was 2.13% as of end June. XIRR since inception turned positive for the first time. Equity allocation was 51%, with bond and cash at 49%. The allocation would give me ample room to purchase more equities should there be significant correction in the near future. Overall, I'm rather happy with the performance of the low cost portfolio so far this year.

I'll stick with the strategy of acquiring good reputable companies that pay dividends regularly and increase them over time, aside of low cost ETF. At the same time, I'll pace my equity purchase to maintain a pre-defined allocation of equities and bonds, depending on market level.

Link to Yaruzi's low cost portfolio as of June 2016

May 2016 - Unit Trust Portfolio Update

I was travelling and busy with work, so the update on my unit trust portfolio was delayed. YTD as of 2nd June was 2.35%. I received cash dividends of $187.04 in May, which were reinvested into my low cost portfolio.

I only did 1 transactions in May. Nothing exciting and a rather boring month. But hey, some say the "successful" investing is boring. And I figured I might just be in the right track.

Transactions in May 2016:

1. Bought

Fullerton Short Term Int Rt C S$ $4,860.65

Link to Yaruzi's unit trust portfolio allocation as of May 2016

Recent Buy - Low Cost Portfolio

Bought Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa (INTP.JK) 1900 shares @ IDR 15,625.00
Bought China Mobile (0941.HK) 500 shares @ HKD 83.65

Thanks BREXIT!

Chow Tai Fook - Buy, Hold, or Sell

Chow Tai Fook News Today

Financial Times - Chow Tai Fook loses its sparkle amid China slowdown & Chow Tai Fook FY profit slumps 46%
Bloomberg - Chow Tai Fook Profit Drops 46% as China Slowdown Hits Sales
Reuters HK jeweller Chow Tai Fook profit plummets, sees tough year ahead

Chow Tai Fook Chart Today



Chow Tai Fook Chart Past 5 Days

Technical Analyst or Chartists will say it's bullish price action. Which one will you follow? The news or the chart? Buy, Hold, or Sell?

May 2016 - Low Cost Portfolio Update

The low cost portfolio ended May with a positive result. YTD profit was 1.57% as of end of May. A fresh fund of $4,000 was injected to the portfolio. I received a total dividend of $550.75 from Keppel Corp ($198), Venture ($300), and First REIT ($52.75).

Portfolio allocation was 49.01% equity vs 50.99% in bonds and cash, before I bought my first ever Prada on 30th May. The Prada purchase will be reflected in the June portfolio update.

Link to Yaruzi's low cost portfolio as of May 2016

Yaruzi Bought His First Ever Prada!

I'll probably never know why people, especially ladies, are willing to spend thousand of dollars for a "bag". But I figured out that the company selling them would make a nice profit. It's not a surprised that Prada's gross margin is at 72.37%! Yes you read it right. For every $10,000 you spend on Prada's bag, the actual cost to produce the bag is $2,730.

So instead of buying the bag, I decided to buy 1000 shares of Prada at HKD 25.35 per share today.

April 2016 - Unit Trust Portfolio Update

Finally my unit trust portfolio turned positive, after staying under water since January. YTD return was 1.51% by end April 2016. I received cash dividends of $952.20. Moving forward, I've decided to re-invest the cash dividends into my low cost portfolio, instead of the unit trust portfolio.

United Gold and General fund, which invested in gold miners around the globe, surged unexpectedly. It was the significant contributor to the portfolio out-performance, as it rised from -18.64% in January to 34.86%, a total of 53.5% jump over 4 months. If we looked at the fund top holdings such as Newmont Mining Corp, Barrick Gold Corp, Goldcorp Inc, etc, we'd find out that their share price are trading at 52 week high. I might consider buying them direct for my low cost portfolio.

Do watch up gold and gold miners very closely, because I believe their bottoming process is real this time round. I sold some to lock-in some profit, but I was still holding most of it. I think this was just the beginning of their turnaround from multi-years down trend.

I also sold some of my United Emerging Markets Bond Fund(SGD) holdings to reduce my exposure in the riskier segment of fix income. This was the continuation after I liquidated 2 high yield bond funds in March.

Transactions in April 2016
1. Sold
United Gold and General fund $1,041.99
United Emerging Markets Bond Fund(SGD) $1,441.61

Link to Yaruzi's unit trust portfolio allocation as of April 2016

April 2016 - Low Cost Portfolio Update

The low cost portfolio remained in the positive territory in April 2016. YTD return was 1.12% as of 30 April 2016. I injected fresh fund amounting to SGD 43,000.00 in April, which mainly came from my annual bonus and monthly contribution. I received dividend of HKD 69.49 from Vanguard FTSE Asia Pacific ex Japan High Dividend.

I bought 5800 shares of Chow Tai Fook at HKD 4.88 per share. I added Chow Tai Fook in my watchlist, after another company Luk Fook Holdings was shortlisted when I performed stock screening based on quantitative aspect (ROE, NAV, Dividend Yield, Debt, etc).

In term of their business model, I became convinced that there would always demand for jewelry, as long as there were women in this world. That revelation came after I failed to convince my wife that diamonds and jewelry were overrated and overpriced :-). If I couldn't fight them, I might as well join them. What could be better than investing in a company where the business model made people, ladies especially, to throw their (husband's) good hard earned money happily on overpriced piece of "precious art". And hey, these companies paid dividend too! 

I decided on Chow Tai Fook instead of Luk Fook because of it's market leading position against the later. Their share price had been hammered badly because of the major crack down by Chinese government against corruption, resulting in slumping sales for casino and sellers of luxury items. The flow of hot money that usually came into casino and luxury items suddenly evaporated as they hid from the Chinese government intense scrutiny. Would the hot money hide forever? I doubted.

I also bought 400 shares of HSBC at HKD 48.85 per share. Banks & financials globally looked interesting after they get hammered during the sell-off. I wanted to increase exposure in the banking and financial sector, but at the same time diversify from just owning local banks. HSBC, as one of the largest global bank, fit into my criteria.

With the purchase of Chow Tai Fook and HSBC, equity allocation of the portfolio was 50.24% vs bonds 49.76%. For measurement and tracking, I decided to use XIRR, which was a standard and widely used formula to calculate portfolio rate of return.

Link to Yaruzi's low cost portfolio as of April 2016

March 2016 - Unit Trust Portfolio Update

My unit trust portfolio recovered in March but the return was still in red. YTD return was -0.13% as of March 2016. I received $143.45 in cash distributions.

I'd been wanting to reduce my exposure on high yield bonds after listening to Carl Icahn's videos, so I completely liquidated these 2 high yield bond funds during March recovery:
Legg Mason WA Global HY Fd A SGD H (mdis) plus - $6,251.87
Allianz US High Yield AM Dis H2-SGD - $2,911.43

High yield bonds were issued by companies with credit ratings below investment grade, and therefore offered higher interest. In Icahn's view, diversifying by holding high yield bonds from different companies didn't help reduce risks. He drew the parallel between high yield (junk) bonds and subprime mortgage securities. In the search for yield, the price of the junk bonds had been chased to potentially bubble level. I thought the view made sense, and it paid to be cautious.

I reinvested the proceeds into:
United Asian Bond Fund Class SGD - $7,000
First State Dividend Advantage(SGD) - $1,500

Because of the re-balancing, the ratio of my portfolio became: 40% equity, 10% high yield bonds, 50% bonds.



Link to Yaruzi's unit trust portfolio allocation as of Mar 2016

March 2016 - Low Cost Portfolio Update

It was a quiet month in March with market recovering. No dividend and no fresh contribution during this month.

The low cost portfolio finally turned positive for the year.

Link to Yaruzi's low cost portfolio as of Mar 2016

Recent Buy - Low Cost Portfolio

Bonus time and decided to re-invest some into my low cost portfolio ...

Bought HSBC (0005.HK) 400 shares @ HKD 48.85
Bought Chow Tai Fook (1929.HK) 5800 shares @ HKD 4.88

The Long Weekend

My wife suggested that we spent this Friday holiday in Johor. We had not been there for a while, and it might just be a good time to enjoy nice affordable restaurant and visit JPO to buy some new clothing. I thought, why not. So to Johor we went. We left home at 9am.

I wasn't feeling good seeing the long queue for 170X to Johor in Kranji MRT station. I wanted to suggest we change our plan, but wasn't having better ideas either. We asked an uncle wearing an SBS uniform, which queue for 170X. He suggested that we crossed the overhead bridge, and took 168 or 170. I saw the queue on the other side was shorter, so we crossed the overhead bridge and queue.

We finally boarded the bus at around 11 and reached Woodlands checkpoint shortly. We're fortunate the queue for immigration clearance was short. After we cleared immigration, we boarded the bus again towards Johor. Traffic was very heavy and barely moved. It was almost 1pm and we had not reached Johor. Some passengers requested to get off the bus and choose to walk. We did too when the complex was about 10 minutes walk.

We entered the building and it was just super crowded with people queuing to clear immigration. We quickly made our way to the last few counters. It was almost 3pm when we finally managed to pass the immigration. We're hungry and tired. It's almost late evening, so we cancel our plan to go to the JPO.

We went Canton-I in City Square, ordered some food and had our late lunch. When we're hungry, all food taste heavenly and the kids finished the food fast. Then we strolled inside the shopping malls. The kids bought their toys and my wife bought some Malaysian snacks. We spent time until evening before we had our dinner in Bornga before we returned.

Fortunately it's much faster when returning. I guessed because most people planned to spend their weekend in Johor and would only returned Sunday night. Overall a pleasant journey, and the whole family was having a great time and food! The precious time spent overcame the 6 hour ordeal, though we agreed we would not want to go there again during a long weekend next time.

Happy Pass Over everyone!

How Great Is Thy Love For Me - The Finale

Read previous post: How Great Is Thy Love For Me - Part 3

In 2011, a book titled "Crash of the Titans" was written by Greg Farrell about the company I used to work for. A lot of people think that insiders are the ones getting the news first. That's absolutely not true based on my personal experience. Most of the time, most employees came to know about what happened to their company from the news, instead from their employers. Only a few CxO level will have the privilege to highly confidential and classified information about the company.

I still remembered very clearly, when the news headline appeared on Sunday, 14 September 2008: "Bank of America to Buy Merrill Lynch for $50 Billion". I and my colleagues knew from news on Sunday and there was internal announcement that we're sold to Bank of America the following Monday. There wasn't even a bit of hints, and we thought John Thain, who was the new CEO then, would bring Merrill Lynch back to it's hay day.

Fast forward to early 2015, an ex-colleague contacted me and asked me if my current company was hiring. The company he worked for was reducing their head counts. This was the same person that I used to help in the past, but turned his back on me when I was desperate looking for job (read: Part 1). See, we shouldn't burn the bridge and help whenever we could, but I learnt what went around came around. We reap what we sow! And if not because of God's grace, we'll die in our sin, reaping what we sow.

I was grateful God forbade me from joining "that" company, though I was very disappointed at that time. Now I understand that God sees far into the future. God knows what is best for His beloved. He knows what will happen in 2015 and beyond, though I - due to my short-sightedness - felt very discouraged and disappointed then.

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." - Rome 8:28 NKJV

In January 2016, news about "that" company started to fill the headlines: "ABC Cutting 1,000 Jobs, About 230 Eliminated in Asia", "ABC laying off 100 employees in Singapore" ... All these events happening in my life just mere co-incidents? Randomness?? Really ??? Or there is Someone up there looking after me. I believe the later, but not because I'm deserving good more than anyone else, but because of His grace alone. Amen.

"The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul;

He leads me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil;

For You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."

-Psalm 23:1-4 NKJV

February 2016 - Unit Trust Portfolio Update

My unit trust portfolio was holding up well despite the intensifying sell-off in early February. Indeed it made slight recovery toward the end of months. YTD performance was -2.23% by end Feb vs -2.43% by end January. I received a dividend of $143.82 for February.

United Gold and General Fund was the star performer, recovering from -18.64% in January to 5.47%. Watch out for gold and gold miners as there is a high possibility that they have hit the bottom from a multi year downtrend.

I'm planning to reduce my allocation to junk bonds and re-allocate the proceeds to equity and bonds.



Link to Yaruzi's unit trust portfolio allocation as of Feb 2016

February 2016 - Low Cost Portfolio Update

In the height of panic with the sell-off in stock markets and oil, global bank stocks were hammered badly. Triggered by concerns on Deutsche Bank capability to repay it's debt, news were flashing everywhere as we're going to have GFC all over again.

Seeing the news flashing, I just knew instinctively that I'd need to buy Deutsche Bank or ANY bank stocks. I had to say I hesitated to get Deutsche Bank as it had riskier investment banking business, and decided to go with the "safest" bank in Asia instead. I thought if it's GFC all over again, I wanted to hold onto banks that had the highest probability to survive. So I bought 300 shares of DBS @ 13.19 on 9 Feb 2016.

No fresh fund injected in Feb 2016 and the portfolio received dividends and cash distributions of USD 64.51 and $368.89 from the following:

• ABF Pan Asian Index Fund USD 64.51
• STI ETF SGD 214.20
• Capitaland Commercial Trust SGD 103.44
• First REIT SGD 52.25

Link to Yaruzi's low cost portfolio as of Feb 2016

Life After The Exam

A Little Celebration

My family had been craving on sushi and sashimi ever since our trip to Japan last December. Since I was burning weekends to prepare for my exam, we had not really spend time and enjoy our weekend out as a family.

So the weekends after I passed, we went to Sushi Tei. Then followed by our movie dates, watching Zootopia with a large box of popcorn and large cup of coke for the whole family to share. The dinner and movie cost around $150, but the happy look on the kids' faces and the time we got to enjoy together was just priceless!

And yes, we didn't forget to give thanks to our Lord and pray together as a family before we had our little celebration.

New Blogger Friends

GV from GiraffeValue was very kind to share with me a complete guide on Singapore REITS investing. It consisted of 7 chapters and GV spent more than 100 hours writing them. It's definitely worth your time, especially if you're interested to invest in Singapore REITS. The complete guide can be found on this link.

TFS from The Finance Smith, who are like minded working professionals aiming for financial independence. TFS invest in ETF and dividend stocks.

I'm adding their blog links in my blog roll.

Exercise Again!

I resumed my exercise routine. I added some resistance training as I reduced my cardio duration.

Return of The Bull

Global stock markets sprang back into life with the return of the bull. So much for all the mumbo jumbo that the end of world had arrived. The good thing is my portfolio manage to regain some ground. The bad thing is I'm not sure if I can continue buying cheap, especially when I expect to receive my bonus in March.

Finally I Pass!

It has been a gruelling 2 months for me to prepare for my exam. I failed on my 1st attempt on 1 Feb, but I manage to pass today on my 2nd attempt. My life was in suspended mode during this time. It's a relief that it's finally over before the next one comes.

Why is this exam important? Because in my experience, human capital is (more) important, especially when we're in the midst of building our investment assets. More to write, but until then I'll just be grateful for the Lord's blessing and enjoy a mind celebration with my loved ones.

January 2016 - Unit Trust Portfolio Update

My unit trust portfolio dropped -2.43% YTD as of end January. Not a surprise, considering the sell-off we're seeing since the beginning of the year. I didn't expect that the portfolio would be resilient enough. I received cash dividend of $1,009.84.

No transactions in January.



Link to Yaruzi's unit trust portfolio allocation as of Jan 2016

Recent Buy - Low Cost Portfolio

Bought DBS 300 shares @ $13.19

Target allocation ratio equity vs bonds 60:40 reached. If STI falls to 1500-2500, targeted allocation will be 80:20.

January 2016 - Low Cost Portfolio Update

Happy Chinese New Year All! May God bless you with His abundant love.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." - Matthew 6:33 NKJV

If you read my previous post, you'd know I bought Singtel & Venture in January. 2016 YTD return was -4.37%.  I received dividend of HKD 189.85 from Vanguard FTSE Asia ex Japan High Dividend ETF, and $26.08 distribution from United SGD Fund Class A (Dis), I also injected another $3,000 to the portfolio.

I'm expecting to receive more cash dividend in February. Equity vs fix income allocation ratio was at 56:44. Singapore and Hong Kong stock price looked very attractive to me and I'd be looking to continue buying in the coming months.



Link to Yaruzi's low cost portfolio as of Jan 2016.

Great Chinese New Year Sale!

Have you ever experienced that feeling when you wanted to buy something, but you couldn't afford it? You walked off and you passed the same shop every day, hoping that you could eventually afford it some day. How would you react when the shop put a sign "SALE: 20% OFF SELECTED ITEMS + 4% CASH REBATE"? You started to contemplate, but again you walked off, hoping that the shop will offer greater discount next month. The following week, the shop put another sign "SALE: 40% OFF ALL ITEMS + 6% CASH REBATE". Would you still walk off or jump into the shoppers queue?

I guess if you have been waiting to buy something that you always dream of, you will eventually jump at the opportunity.You will probably be more worried, if the items go out of stock, than getting more discount by waiting another week. 

That's exactly how I felt these recent weeks. I've been wanting to increase my exposure to equity since I started this journey 3 years ago. Back then, I just felt the price was not too attractive with major stock indexes at their all time high and any dip barely touch 10% before the major stock indexes recovered and reached new all time high. Frankly, I've been waiting for the fire sale to happen!! I've been buying into equities if you follow my previous posts, and I really pray that the sale will not end so soon as I will be injecting fresh funds over the coming months.

It's strange how human mind works. Things we do right when we shop, we'll do just the opposite when it comes to investing. Instead of getting excited, we're paralyzed when market is being generous. Penny wise pound foolish, heh?

There are a few posts I want to write, but I'll be pretty occupied in the next few weeks as I'm preparing for exam. So pardon me, if you don't see me too active in updating the blog. Oh ya, I also added a link to the Rolf Suey, another blogger friend. You can find the link at the blog roll section. Do visit his page to pick a cent or two.

December 2015 - Low Cost Portfolio Update

My low cost portfolio that I started in 2015 finished the year with -3.02% return. During the month of December I made a significant contribution of $29,500.00. Bulk of the cash contribution came from exercising the share options of the company where I worked. I channeled the cash proceeds to grow my low cost portfolio.

I bought 4000 shares of CNOOC at HKD 8.26 per share during December, as many companies in energy and commodity sectors were hammered badly due to persistent sell-off in oil and commodities. The purchase and cash injection brought the portfolio asset allocation ratio to 52.39% for equity vs 47.61% for bonds/cash. It's still within the range of my targeted allocation of 60%:40% at the current market level of STI between 2500-3500.

There were many other big energy companies that I was tempted to add into the low cost portfolio. However as the portfolio had about 10-11% exposure to the energy sector, through Keppel Corp & CNOOC, my next purchase would be outside of the sector to allow diversification for better risk management.



Link to Yaruzi's low cost portfolio as of Dec 2015

Recent Buy - Low Cost Portfolio

Bought Venture 600 shares @ $8.15

Recent Buy - Low Cost Portfolio

Bought Singtel 1400 shares @ $3.53 this morning. My maiden purchase for 2016.

December 2015 - Unit Trust Portfolio Update

I was away mostly for vacation in December. As I was enjoying quality time with my family, I was pretty much isolated from what's happening in the market.

Total portfolio was down -0.07% ($191.69) for the year, and 2015 was the first year the portfolio return was negative. Total platform fees paid for 2015 were $772.46 and these hadn't included annual management fees of the funds. When all the fees combined, was it a drag to the portfolio performance? Yes absolutely in my opinion.

Below was the summary of my transactions in Dec 2015:

1. Bought
Aviva Inv Glb HY Bd Am USD(SGD) $1,293.20

Link to Yaruzi's unit trust portfolio allocation as of Dec 2015