Simply put, the past month has been quite a bloodbath for my portfolio. It really appears that the sky is falling, at least for the oil counters.
The price of Sembcorp, a stock that I owns, probably dropped around 25% in the past 3 weeks alone. KepCorp, a favourite among some dividend investors, fared worse. With 3,000 Sembcorp shares bought at an average price of around $4.75, I am probably staring at a 40% loss just from this counter. I didn’t cut losses early enough, but I can console myself for not having averaged down blindly over the last few quarters.
If you survive to tell the tale…
Although I am not immune to “greed and fear”, the good news is that I am REALLY not losing sleep over my investment losses. Among my stocks, the exposure to oil and even commodities related companies is reasonable and the cash and bond components in my portfolio are helping me to weather this storm quite smoothly. In fact, I used some cash to purchase 2,800 shares of STI ETF @$2.76 last week.
As we enter bear market territory, this will also be my LAST portfolio update in this form. You will not be surprised at this if you have noticed that instead of buying individual stocks, I have only been buying the local STI ETF in recent months. I have talked about a change in my investment strategy for some time and I will be explaining it over three articles within the next month, before the next update.
Stay tuned, and just in case you are curious, the portfolio declined by $10,000 over the past month alone, more than the dividends I received over the past one year. If this is your first bear market like me, welcome to the stock market, folks.
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Dividends received in November 2015: $255.60
PLife Reit: $134.40
MCT: $121.20
Dividends received YTD: $7,227
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Stocks (As at 18th January 2016)
| Stock | Amount | Price | Valuation | Dividend | Est. Income |
| STI ETF | 9,800 | $2.660 | $26,068 | $0.1000 | $980.00 |
| ST Engg | 4,000 | $2.860 | $11,440 | $0.1500 | $600.00 |
| Kingsmen | 17,000 | $0.650 | $11,050 | $0.0400 | $680.00 |
| Wilmar | 4,000 | $2.670 | $10,680 | $0.0750 | $300.00 |
| OCBC | 1,200 | $7.800 | $9,360 | $0.3600 | $432.00 |
| PLife Reit | 4,000 | $2.180 | $8,720 | $0.1152 | $460.80 |
| Dairy Farm | 900 | $8.800 | $7,920 | $0.3200 | $288.00 |
| MCT | 6,000 | $1.280 | $7,680 | $0.0800 | $480.00 |
| Boustead | 9,000 | $0.805 | $7,245 | $0.0400 | $360.00 |
| Semb Corp | 3,000 | $2.360 | $7,080 | $0.1600 | $480.00 |
| Jard C&C | 200 | $33.400 | $6,680 | $1.1093 | $221.86 |
| LKH | 10,000 | $0.560 | $5,600 | $0.0300 | $300.00 |
| Genting | 8,000 | $0.680 | $5,440 | $0.0100 | $80.00 |
| M1 | 2,000 | $2.600 | $5,200 | $0.1890 | $378.00 |
| MTQ | 10,000 | $0.455 | $4,550 | $0.0400 | $400.00 |
| Super Grp | 4,000 | $0.685 | $2,740 | $0.0310 | $124.00 |
| Bou Proj | 2,700 | $0.655 | $1,769 | $0.0000 | $0.00 |
| Total | $139,222 | $6,564.66 |
Others (As at 18th January 2016)
| Asset | Valuation | Est. Income |
| OCBC 360 Account | $60,000 | $1,320 |
| FCL 3.65% Bonds | $20,580 | $767 |
| SSB (Oct 2015) | $15,000 | $166 |
| Total | $95,580 | $2,253 |
Total Valuation = $234,802
Total Est. Annual Income = $8,817.66
All the best! Enjoy reading about your thoughts, especially as I start 2016 being on hospitalisation leave and have more time to think about life. Very much appreciated!
Hi MT,
Thanks for your kind words! Sometimes, I am just blabbering to myself…
Hope it’s nothing too serious for you and that you are recovering well!
hi
i keep averaging keppel corp and semb corp, which i have 5% and 20% in my portfolio.
🙁
my average price slightly lower than you. 6.5 and 3.8 respectively.
even if i buy , i also try to avoid O&G now. too much exposure:(
Hi yeh,
I think one of the most fundamental principles is to ensure one does not average down too much until one loses sleep over that investment.
Honestly, 20% could still be manageable and if it’s not, the lesson learnt would stand you in good stead down the road.
I am also learning in this bear market and all the best in your investment journey!
I can’t wait for your new strategy write up. I suppose you are going to talk about index investing aka passive approach?
I am keen to know if such method is indeed feasible in local climate considering the fact that STI has not rise past 2007-2009 level as compared to say S&P500 which has rose fast and furious since then.
The passive investing approach was based on the American indices and so far no study has been done for Asian markets. It would be interesting to note that if one were to use the passive approach for Nikkei for the past decades, they would be staring at a long, dark and deep financial black hole.
Hi PI,
I think even though we are Singaporeans, there is no need to limit ourselves to investing within Singapore. Unless one has very strong convictions in the performance of a specific country’s stock market performance, diversification could make more sense.
Hi My15HWW,
I have been reading your blog since my return to Singapore and find your approach to personal finance and investments practical and achievable as long as one puts in the effort.
Looking forward to the write up on index investing as I am currently using this approach with various index ETFs in addition to shares investing!
Cheers,
TFS