I've only started investing recently and I already kanna 2 rights issue.
From $0.01 to $100,000: The Incredible Journey of Bitcoin
39 minutes ago
Since I was on leave on Jumbo IPO day, I decided to contra for the fun of it. Before opening, I actually put the bid around 20% above IPO, thinking there was a margin of safety and I could pay even if it dropped 10%. But alas it rose much more and so I bidded at a higher price. But DBSV didn't accept the order, saying the bid was too far away from last price. I was trying to input order and as the bid and ask soared I put in higher prices without realising it had gone significantly above my margin of safety. It got filled at 0.39! Then prices settled at around 0.365 and I knew I was screwed. I had made a big mistake because I was in an emotional state and fortunately I decided to cut loss quickly, resulting in about 1.4k loss.
On SCB side my lower bid got through and I got around $70 profit, enough to offset one of the commission from DBSV.
Well it could have been worse and I guess this is one of the mistakes that you must experience before you really learn. It was pretty painful as the leveraged position was quite big for me. Even after reading about how much people got burned by leverage, you don't fully feel it until you are on the receiving end...
On SCB side my lower bid got through and I got around $70 profit, enough to offset one of the commission from DBSV.
Well it could have been worse and I guess this is one of the mistakes that you must experience before you really learn. It was pretty painful as the leveraged position was quite big for me. Even after reading about how much people got burned by leverage, you don't fully feel it until you are on the receiving end...
It's been about a year or so since I started punting the stock market. I've heard horror stories about the great financial crisis. Bear markets. Corrections. This is my first test and I'm glad to say that I've passed it. I took the chance to rebalance my portfolio and sell some stocks to see whether I can hit the sell button in a market that's going down. I finally sold the STI ETF, which is a big chunk of my portfolio and one of my maiden acquisitions, to buy UOB which took a big hit and is now almost book value.
I think reading many books about value investing helped. As the stocks fell, the stocks just became so much attractive that it was hard not to buy them. Dividend yields rocketed. The margin of safety became wider. And I wished I had more cash to buy stuff.
There were people on the forums calling a bear market and expecting the fall to continue, extrapolating the down trend. People were asking if they should sell now and buy lower. I was not unaffected, for I decided to sell my Keppel Corp. In the end, it became an anxious game to try to sell it lower that I ended up buying it back at a big of a higher price.
Still, I think I survived. I don't know how I will feel if the market goes down even further, but I think I'll continue to buy.
I think reading many books about value investing helped. As the stocks fell, the stocks just became so much attractive that it was hard not to buy them. Dividend yields rocketed. The margin of safety became wider. And I wished I had more cash to buy stuff.
There were people on the forums calling a bear market and expecting the fall to continue, extrapolating the down trend. People were asking if they should sell now and buy lower. I was not unaffected, for I decided to sell my Keppel Corp. In the end, it became an anxious game to try to sell it lower that I ended up buying it back at a big of a higher price.
Still, I think I survived. I don't know how I will feel if the market goes down even further, but I think I'll continue to buy.
Recent actions: Silverlake, UOB, Keppel, NeraTel
Tuesday, 1 September 2015
12:39
Been trying to market time lately, selling Keppel, NeraTel, Mapletree GCC, Saizen REIT, STI ETF, before the market tanked further. Failed with Keppel and ended up selling low and buying high. I think it's not worth the trouble... It's so much easier to go long. I think I'll focus more on long term speculation rather than trying to predict short term ups and downs.
Silverlake Axis: Due to the short seller report recently, I managed to get this at half price. Don't know who panic sold right after the counter resumed trading. I was so surprised when my lowball offer got through. Anyway, until I see customers fleeing from this company, I'll keep this counter. It's a small position so I think the risk tradeoff is worth it. Some of the points in the short sellers report are a bit suspect, although they seem to make sense at first glance. For example, I really don't believe that they have no version control. Maybe I'll go for an interview and grill them about it if I ever have to job hop.
Datuk Yvonne Chia seems to be a fan of the shares and has been buying them on dips. Goh Peng Ooi's daughter has also recently became a director. There are many positive signs but the related party transactions could still remain a vulnerability.
UOB: I was planning to buy OCBC but the UOB dip made it very attractive as the price is close to book value. NPL could still be a problem, especially in China region, but the exposure is not that big. This is more of a rebalance from the STI ETF. I bought the STI ETF when I first started because of a lack of capital for diversification, but now I can afford to buy the constituents themselves. There are many companies in the STI that I don't feel comfortable holding or are overvalued. For example, commodities companies which have low profit margins. Or SIA. I don't believe in airlines, because the barriers to entry are low and regulation is very strict.
Keppel: I'm mainly buying this for Keppel Land. I don't really like the O&M sector because of high capex and long dated receivables. But I do think their shipyards have a competitive advantage. They are also going to acquire another shipyard in China from Titan (subject to restructuring finalisation). If you can't beat the China shipyards, join them.
NeraTel: I was considering either SingTel or this but I prefer small caps because the growth rate could be higher.
Silverlake Axis: Due to the short seller report recently, I managed to get this at half price. Don't know who panic sold right after the counter resumed trading. I was so surprised when my lowball offer got through. Anyway, until I see customers fleeing from this company, I'll keep this counter. It's a small position so I think the risk tradeoff is worth it. Some of the points in the short sellers report are a bit suspect, although they seem to make sense at first glance. For example, I really don't believe that they have no version control. Maybe I'll go for an interview and grill them about it if I ever have to job hop.
Datuk Yvonne Chia seems to be a fan of the shares and has been buying them on dips. Goh Peng Ooi's daughter has also recently became a director. There are many positive signs but the related party transactions could still remain a vulnerability.
UOB: I was planning to buy OCBC but the UOB dip made it very attractive as the price is close to book value. NPL could still be a problem, especially in China region, but the exposure is not that big. This is more of a rebalance from the STI ETF. I bought the STI ETF when I first started because of a lack of capital for diversification, but now I can afford to buy the constituents themselves. There are many companies in the STI that I don't feel comfortable holding or are overvalued. For example, commodities companies which have low profit margins. Or SIA. I don't believe in airlines, because the barriers to entry are low and regulation is very strict.
Keppel: I'm mainly buying this for Keppel Land. I don't really like the O&M sector because of high capex and long dated receivables. But I do think their shipyards have a competitive advantage. They are also going to acquire another shipyard in China from Titan (subject to restructuring finalisation). If you can't beat the China shipyards, join them.
NeraTel: I was considering either SingTel or this but I prefer small caps because the growth rate could be higher.
Sometimes stocks go down for no real reason
Saturday, 9 May 2015
17:44
Been trading Sino Grandness and Yuuzoo recently. These stocks went down for no real reason at all. Other than some news. I bought SinoG at 50 cents, and it dropped all the way to 23 cents. Seeing no big change to the fundamentals, I averaged all the way down too. These 2 stocks seem to have a lot of speculators involved. If they are willing to sell down all the way, this means they didn't buy the stock after doing due diligence. Either that, or there's some bad insider info which I don't know about. Well, we'll wait and see. Assuming the fundamentals are sound, there's a good margin of safety in the price I bought.
Look at NeraTel, though. Even after announcing news that seems to be bad on the surface, it didn't drop much. It mainly dropped because of the ex-dividend. Looks like their investors have more confidence. (Or... maybe it didn't drop yet... Hoping it drops so I can buy it.)
Look at NeraTel, though. Even after announcing news that seems to be bad on the surface, it didn't drop much. It mainly dropped because of the ex-dividend. Looks like their investors have more confidence. (Or... maybe it didn't drop yet... Hoping it drops so I can buy it.)
One of the highest yield instruments you can have
Saturday, 7 February 2015
00:35
The bicycle.
Let's consider one of the necessities in my life: transport.
If I took public transport, it would cost me about $50 a month.
My bicycle cost me about $200. Let's assume that the maintenance costs are negligible. Using public transport as a baseline for comparison, the yield will be 25% per month. Don't forget that cycling also keeps you healthy, which is priceless.
The only problem is that it doesn't scale, that is, you can't increase the returns as you put in more money.
Let's consider one of the necessities in my life: transport.
If I took public transport, it would cost me about $50 a month.
My bicycle cost me about $200. Let's assume that the maintenance costs are negligible. Using public transport as a baseline for comparison, the yield will be 25% per month. Don't forget that cycling also keeps you healthy, which is priceless.
The only problem is that it doesn't scale, that is, you can't increase the returns as you put in more money.
Didn't know that SGX has some bonds that can be traded like shares. Market is very small and illiquid though. Bid spreads so high.
http://bullythebear.blogspot.sg/2015/01/how-to-beat-ocbc-360s-return.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/xlKuw+%28BULLy+the+BEAR%29#.VLZM03uYs6R
http://bullythebear.blogspot.sg/2015/01/how-to-beat-ocbc-360s-return.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/xlKuw+%28BULLy+the+BEAR%29#.VLZM03uYs6R
QL3 is a bond fund with dual-currency trading on SGX. It gives its dividends in USD. It was my first time investing in such a fund. I was expecting to receive it in my SGD trading account with some FX charge applied (from what I'd heard), but I received a cashier's order in USD though.
That, is going to be damn troublesome since QL3 makes quarterly payments.
That, is going to be damn troublesome since QL3 makes quarterly payments.
