STE's Stocks Investing Journey

A Shrinking “ Panadol ”! I think this is the predicament for all of us as “income or dividend “ investors, seeing our dividend received have a big " cut" or totally disappear like the case of “ HSBC ”. We have noticed that most  REITs start to be more prudent in their latest distribution and conserving more cash during this Covid-19 pandemic. So far, banks like DBS still trying to maintain their quarterly dividend but I guess at some point, they also would have to cut their dividend if this crisis prolongs. As investors, we will also need to be more “realistic “ in our expectation, a 6-7% yield of stocks might become a thing of the past, especially if we look at the “ultra-low “ interest rate environment. Look at the interest rate for the latest SSB ( Singapore Saving Bond ) , for 10 years AAA bond is merely around 1%. Just guess how much you will get from the bank’s FD rate? Suddenly, I felt more than happy and contented with my money i...

My experience with HKG/CHN market just started a few months back and I am considered as “newbie” as far as investing in HKEX is concerned. As we know, the HKG market is much bigger than Singapore as HKEX is the 3 rd  largest stock market in Asia in terms of market capitalisation. HKEX has more than 2000+ stocks listed there as compared to SGX which have around 700+ stocks. With so many stocks listed in HKEX, I am sure one will be able to select more fundamentally strong stocks from the pool, especially if you are an income investor looking for dividend stocks with a clean balance sheet. Of course, Hong Kong was in the limelight recently for a wrong reason not because of it being the freest economy and world-leading financial centres, with low taxation, free-port trade and free capital in & outflow. As a financial blogger, I shall not touch on political issues that causing the current social turmoil and riots which has been the headlines for world intern...

Yes, not by -8 % or -38% but -81.5% !! This is what happened when APPT (Asian Pay TV Trust) announced their result and dividend payout for next quarter this morning. I think most of the so-called " income investors " (including me)  were stunned by this sudden news and of course, the share price dropped by -49.2% and closed at $0.16 today. I still have a small position of this stock in my portfolio ( 0.4% ) and expected it (dividend) to be cut by 50% to around 3 cts which is a more sustainable level and close it's FCF and may still give us an approx 10% yield at the price of 30+ cts . Although it just a small position, but sitting with such huge "paper loss "now is no joke and a really painful lesson learned, I am sure those vested will have the same feeling.

Market has been in a much more volatile situation in 2018 as compare to 2017 and the latest political & economic issues face by Italy is making the market looks riskier. Italy has been a problematic state among EU countries for many years. It ranks among the countries with the largest debt—around 2.3 trillion euros—and has been facing a double-digit unemployment rate since 2012. Italy could be the next Greece — only much worse from CNBC.com Growing tension in the Korean Peninsula and the potential trade war between US-China and US – Europe, no doubt has contributed to recent market volatility.

Interest rates increase was really a hot topic in the last two weeks since US 10 Years Treasury Note hits above 3% for the first time since 2014. The market also reacts negatively with full of comments on interest risk due to this increase. 10-year Treasury yield hits 3% for the first time since 2014 from CNN Money.com Why everyone is stressing about the 10-year Treasury yield from CNN Money.com “Auto loans, home mortgages, and other loans are tied to the benchmark 10-year yield. Investors fear that higher interest rates could start to eat into corporate profits and also signal that more inflation is coming.” This is why everyone is paying so much attention to the 10 years Treasury Note. Some even talk about “ Inverted Yield Curve “ ….

As investors, when we think about Risk-Reward analysis, the first thing pops up in our mind automatically will be the word “ diversification”.   This is what been mentioned in Investopedia about the importance of Diversification : "Diversification is a technique that reduces  risk  by allocating investments among various financial instruments, industries and other categories. It aims to maximize  return  by investing in different areas that would each react differently to the same event.

In my previous blog post, I have shared my experience of diversification into Telcos and O&G industries which is still sitting on paper loss of more than - $12 K ( here ) . In today’s part 2, I am going to further elaborate my story of diversification into banking secto r since 2016. Some may still vividly remember that banking stocks have been beaten-down in end 2015 and early 2016 due to the market’s projection on slow-down in China’s economy as well as other emerging market ( BRICs ).

As you may notice from my portfolio ( here ) which is very much skewed toward high yield counters like REITs and Business Trust. I would recognize and think that this is not good  in the long run as asset concentration in just one or two sectors in my portfolio, as such, I try to diversify and accumulate some non-REIT or Business Trust counters when the situation allows. I have picked up some stocks like Telcos, Banks and Conglomerate since 2014 and of course every industry has its cycle and challenges, some of my investment turned out be in lost and some in profit. Always remembers that in any investment,” sometimes we win, sometimes we lose “, and business profitability is really unpredictable as the market move in cycles.

Image credit to Nianticlabs.com You might have noticed that the frequency of me updating my blog post has reduced recently.  Yah .. I have been busy catching “Pokemon” and running around many parks which I never or have no time to explore before during full time working.   Places like “ MacRitchie Reservoir “,” Woodland Water Front Park”, “ West Coats Park”, Fort Canning Park “, Changi Village “, “ Bishan-Ang Moh Kio Park “ and of course the usual “ Garden By the Bay and East Coast Park ”..etc. Believe me, money or even after achieving financial freedom has nothing to do with    “ Happiness"   Happiness is not about how much money you have, it is  " not a state of being or having but it is a state of mind and mentality". There is no guide, no rules, no manual that will teach you how to live a “happy” life and of course there are advice or books that can teach you how to approach certain situations to gain the be...