STE's Stocks Investing Journey

image credit to straitstimes.com 有人欢喜有人愁 If there's one issue dominating the business headlines these days, it's definitely the " Keppel and SPHto buy rest of M1; Keppel to privatise Keppel T&T ". ( from The Business Times) Depending on what was your entry price and average cost, some may make money at this offer price and some may still lose money. I am the one belongs to the second group as my average cost is well above $2.06. This is a typical “Buy High Sell Low “ case as I have decided to sell some at around $1.53- $1.59, 2 weeks ago.   By hindsight, I should have keeping these stocks or buy some more to average down my cost … hahaha .

<image credit: realinvestmentadvice.com> “ An  economic bubble  or  asset bubble  (sometimes also referred to as a  speculative bubble , a  market bubble , a  price bubble , a  financial bubble , a  speculative mania , or a  balloon ) is trade in an  asset  at a price or the price range that strongly exceeds the asset's  intrinsic value .  It could also be described as a situation in which asset prices appear to be based on implausible or inconsistent views about the future.  Asset bubbles date back as far as the 1600s and are now widely regarded as a recurrent feature of modern economic history. Historically, the  Dutch Golden Age 's  Tulipmania  (in the mid-1630s) is often considered the first recorded economic bubble.” From Wikipedia .com

Hi, don’t say STE never give “ kang-tao” or tips, you know what this number meant for right! Hahaha... just kidding. Congratulation ! for those who have invested in the US market, especially those in tech sectors like FANG s . Yes !! IT’S OFFICIAL: The bull market in stocks is now the longest ever. Here are the 4 main reasons it broke the record.  (Link) ·          The equity bull market is now the longest on record, at 3,453 days. ·          The benchmark S&P 500 has surged a whopping 323% over the period. ·          As traders celebrate the feat, they have four main drivers to thank: earnings growth, share buyback s , extended monetary accommodation, and a buy-the-dip mentality.

My last post on “ 3 rd Qtr 2018:Dividend and Portfolio Update ”   draw much attention as to how we would be able to accumulate $1.5 mil of dividend without support from family and purely by ourselves. Some readers sent me an e-mail asking how we did that and some with complement and kind words, which I really appreciate.   My friend LP ( BULLy The BEAR ) suggested that I should write another follow-up post to highlight how much we have sacrificed in order to obtain such amount of dividend we have today.   Another friend of mine B (A Path to Forever Financial Freedom ) even help me to think of the title of this blog post. Hahaha… With this short supplemental notes, I hope to provide a more “balance and holistic” view on how we would be able to achieve what we have today and what was the sacrifice we made or need to be done in order not to give the wrong impression to readers that it is easy to achieve this.

image credit to Izquotes.com YES !! Is time to calculate and tabulate my dividend & interest income for 3 rd Qtr 2018 ( $$$ to be collected in the month of Jul to Sep). I am happy to see some other bloggers have started to show how much dividend they will be collecting, it’s really encouraging to see some had seen their dividend amount increased much on Y.o.Y basis and I’m not sure if this is also kind of “Nudge “   link   as what Uncle CW8888 mentioned that this (by showing our dividend amount from fellow bloggers) could act as “nudge” for others/readers to save and invest in the long run.

Value is a better measure for investors while price matters more to traders We, the so-called “value investors” often find ourselves trying to resolve the differences between a stock's value and its price. If you have spent any time investing in the stock market, you will know that value and price are two different measures arrived at by different means but most of the time we might confuse and mix up “price as value”.

Singapore-based 8i Holdings seems to lack investing nous it espouses   (Link) image credit to businesstimes.com This news headline in The Business Time   dated 31 st Jul 2018 really caught my attention as I wonder if value investing is a result of “nature or nurture “ . Can someone paying a few thousand dollars to attend the so-called “ Value Investing Courses “ be able to practice what they teach and beat the market by getting Alpha or be beaten by Beta eventually. ( Link: Alpha , Beta, Smart Beta )