Random Thoughts...

Recently and as per every such break, I have been giving extra thought to my life. I am turning 35 next year and am pondering on how my life will or rather should turn out in the near and distant future. Amongst the things that I have been thinking about are of cause lifestyle and cost related. I asked myself, do I really need alot of money to lead a decent and simple lifestyle? Are there things in life that I can give up in order to lead a more stress free and happy life? Too many questions, increasingly more answers. One thing is for sure though, I'm thoroughly glad I started my investment portfolio even though markets have been erratic. Once you have a long term horizon, things like this don't really matter anymore. What matters is peace of mind and letting nature take its course - You really don't need alot to be contented.

As always, stay calm and invest on & look for the pot of happiness at the end of the rainbow.

God Bless

Transitioning Stock Investor

Stock Market and Portfolio Updates

Dear Readers

It's been a couple of months since I last posted. I have been really busy with my CFA exam preparations and just came back from a business trip to Tokyo.

How the stock markets have reacted since Oct. It has been a volatile couple of months but at the same time I see a myriad of opportunities opening up. My position in Sembcorp Industries has fallen a fair bit ever since Sembcorp Marine announced a profit warning a week or so ago. That being said, there are indeed chances to re-enter the market selectively to average down some of my positions. I do not forsee adding any different position at this juncture.

Will provide updates shortly. And rock on folks!

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor

Captive Businesses

Today I had a pretty awful experience with parking that I would like to share. I parked at a carpark overnight and the carpark fee was $26. However, there was an issue with the gantry and I had to insert my cashcard manually. Lo and behold my cashcard got deducted again when I exited the gantry and as a result I got deducted twice. I was naturally not very amused.

I then called Wilson parking which told me to call Nets instead as the deduction of the cashcard was their issue. I then proceeded to call Nets and they told me to print the transactions of the cashcard and to email them the statement and they will investigate. No prizes for guessing that I was already fuming mad at this point in time. Nonetheless and however angry I was, I still had to use Nets and their services whether I like it or not. They appear in our everyday lives. I went on to check which entities own Nets and I was surprised that Nets is actually co-owned by DBS, OCBC and UOB.

This little anecdote taught me a lesson and it was something that ironically was shared with me by a fund manager during a recent meeting we had. It is really good to invest in businesses whereby customers have to stick with them whether they like it or not. This may be due to a near monopolization of the market or having big moats that surround the business. My anger was somewhat placated as I remembered that I have a fair share of OCBC shares. Oh well, the best way to convert this energy is to be invested in the companies that own these captive businesses. Same goes whenever I pay my Singtel bill, have a medical checkup at Raffles Medical or have to rush to a meeting on a Comfort cab. I have no choice but to use these services whether I like it or not. And that makes a pretty good investment proposition.

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor

A Useful Way To Think About Investing

I was at a party last evening with some of my army mates. We have mostly finished our reservist duties and yesterday's gathering was really nice to see some old faces. Amongst the topics we talked about, was about investing, equity investing to be exact. I had a friend who asked me "so you are into stock trading ya". I replied: "no, I'm investing for the long term". Somehow or rather he did not quite get what I meant and I think it was due to an often held mindset that stocks are for the short term, trading in and out is important and when markets tank, the natural response is to panic.

Long Term Mindset
As we all would know, succesful investing entails a long term mindset. It should also entail having your stock portfolio as a part of your overall long term investment and retirement portfolio. I have split my portfolio between what I would term 'Cash' and this includes my stock and cash holdings. I then have another portfolio which I term 'Retirement', in which my SRS, Insurance, CPF monies would be included. Doing this helps me organise my assets more efficiently and more importantly it makes investing much more enjoyable and fruitful at the same time as targets become more tangible and realistic.

Understanding the Business
As Benjamin Graham once quoted, approach buying stocks like how you would buy groceries and not perfume. As I am reading the section on Porter's Five Forces in my CFA Level 2 preparations, I somehow categorically agree again with this mindset. It is important to be discerning when adding a stock position to your portfolio, understanding the various dynamics surrounding the business you are investing in.

Cashflow
The growth and sustainability of Cashflow becomes increasingly important as well as cashflow generation is frequently used as a value of a company. I have increased my focus on companies that are not only able to generate strong cashflow but are also able to deploy their resources in the most efficient manner possible. As we head into an increasingly competitive economy, this trait is becoming increasingly critical to any successful business.

Care to share how you frame your investment mindset? Do drop some comments and I'm keen to hear from you as well!

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor

Follow up on my previous post - Has the bear been smothered?

As shared in my previous post, I posted a question on whether Oct would be a bear killing month. Wow just a week after that post, the equities markets have rallied pretty strongly.

Holding unto the portfolio and selectively adding into positions over the recent market volatility did help sustain and improve overall performance. Am almost back to the black for the overall portfolio.

That being said, I have slight doubts on how long this rally will last for. Nonetheless, having a long term view does help as I go along for the ride. Will write a more detailed post in due course, but for now the bear does look to be in a bit of a slumber and the bull has awaken abit.

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor

October - A Bear Killer? Taking Stock of My Portfolio

I often times do not like to take a short term view to markets. My investment horizon as I'm sure would be the same for many of you is for years to come, even to the point of the retirement age. Nonetheless, it would be interesting to see what Oct has in store for us as traditionally Oct has been a pretty strong calendar month - so called "bear killer" month.

This being the beginning of the month for October I'm taking stock of my portfolio returns, sorted from best performer to the worst:

As can be seen above, both Raffles Medical and ComfortDelgro which are growth oriented stocks still performed in recent months, even returning a decent profit. The REITs portion of the portfolio also held up well, registering moderate drops. Singtel has seen some recent volatility but overall is still holding up quite strongly. OCBC has seem some pressures especially from short sellers, terming this as a service counter and putting heavy selling pressure on it. However, in the LT I expect the price to revert upwards to its longer term mean. Jardine has disappointed and continued to do so. Its exit from the STI Index certainly did not help as well. Sembcorp Industries took a severe beating due to the plunge of oil prices, although I feel that the stock should recover strongly once oil prices head back upwards, a scenario I am more inclined towards especially over the next two years.

Back to the markets!

Signing Off

Transitioning Stock Investor

Magic of Compounding

The power of compounding is an often talked about topic and has been a frequently cited element to investing. This to the extent of it being touted as the 8th Wonder of the World by Albert Einstein.

Although I have heard and known about this 'power' for quite some time and have always applied it religiously to how I dealt with my portfolio, the importance of it did resurface strongly again recently. I recently did a review and asked myself how much I was looking to have at certain ages and at retirement. As I grow older and hopefully more mature, materialistic pleasures start to take more of a backseat and financial freedom is becoming more and more of a priority. This of course is aligned to my main dream which is to be able to transit to a Full Time Investor some day and have passive income support my necessities.

I recently also re-visited the Rule of 72, whereby you are able to calculate approximately when your investment will double by dividing 72 by the rate of return. So for eg. if the rate of return is 6%, 72/6=12, you will take around 12 years to double your investment. This is a very real and powerful effect of compounding, which in all honesty is pure mathematics (a sum grows to a larger sum, which grows to an even larger sum when compounded). Thus, reinvesting your stock dividends is an integral part of adding 'fuel' to the compounding effect.

Therefore, the importance of any succesful investing strategy is to invest in quality companies, stay invested over the long term, dollar cost average when markets are panicky and most importantly reinvest dividends over time. It is a long journey, but one that is full of rewards when applied with discipline and a long term perspective.

*As we speak, the dividends for my OCBC Bank holdings will be reinvested at the end of the month, woohoo! It simply can't get any more enjoyable than this.

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor

Mapletree Commercial Trust - Added REIT Exposure

Hi All,

It's been a week since I last posted. Along the course of the week I add 1,500 shares of Mapletree Commercial Trust. The current dividend yield of this stock is slightly above 6% and this addition brings my total holdings of Mapletree Commercial Trust (MCT) to 3,583 with an average weighted cost of S$1.38. The odd shares in my holdings is due to me participating in the Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP) and this part of the portfolio is used to to enhance the overall yield and allow the compounding effect of reinvested dividends to be fully exploited.

The balance sheet of MCT remains strong and their liability management remains solid as well, with LT liabilities being managed very efficiently. Their crown jewel asset Vivocity has also just completed its enhancement works and has continued to attract large crowds on a daily basis. Although there are some concerns of potential rising interest rates, the current high yield and efficient capital management of the company help to mitigate those concerns. The share price which is trading at almost its 52 week low does help make the addition more attractive as well.

Moving forward I will be continually looking to enhance the yield component of my overall portfolio and probably focussing on slightly more defensive sectors. Stay tuned!

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor

Thoughts on the Market, Fed has Spoken, Portfolio Positioning

And the Fed has spoken. As what I suspected (and I believe most of us did too) the Fed held unto raising rates. They cited a recovering US economy but also raised concerns on the broader economy especially China and other Emerging Markets. Was there something in the data that the Fed picked up on in which many of us may not have realised? The answer is still unclear but it was spooky enough to have sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 200 plus points yesterday evening.

So now we ask, where do we go from here to the end of the year and to 2016? I feel that the Fed most probably should raise rates a little towards the end of the year, and at 25 basis points for a start. Interest rates need to be normalised to around 2-3% and they cannot stay at zero infinitely.

What does the current scenario look like for stocks then? It does look like a pretty tricky course ahead for equities moving ahead as we approach the end of easy money. The US which was the biggest contributor to easy money is headed to pull money out of the market. China has also still been slowing down. Thus, we increasingly need to be extremely selective about our investments so as to mitigate all the risks that we face in the next couple of years.
Thus, I think it may be useful for some of us to think through our portfolios via the following factors:

1. Quality Portfolio
- Firstly, it is important and I cannot emphasise this enough that we MUST have companies that are of quality in our portfolio. This will give us simple confidence to add unto positions when prices drop due to temporary market movements. It is simply not the time to dabble with companies with a questionable background or potential concerns surrounding them in terms of management or integrity. I have recently seen some companies in the news being involved in concerns regarding their accounting practices, background and now is simply not the time to muck around with such businesses and hoping for a turnaround of some sorts.
- One good example of a company with a solid management team is Singtel. They have continued to demonstrate a willingness to change with the times, diversify their businesses regionally and most importantly having a robust financial management team.

2. Economic Environment
- With interest rates potentially increasing, economies slowing down, oil prices at their current prices, aging populations, it is really important to position your portfolio broadly in line with those themes. For eg. I have REITs in the portfolio but am not looking to add much positions due to potential rising rates and the impact it would have on REITs (due to them needing to refinance their debt heavily and potentially at higher interest costs).
- On the other hand I have added my holdings to OCBC Bank as they would benefit from higher NIMs (Net Interest Margins) with higher interest rates. In the local context we have started to see both SOR and SIBOR rates shoot up recently.

3. Earnings and Cashflow
- Lastly, the companies we own need to be having strong and hopefully growing top-line and bottom-line earnings that then churn out good cashflows over time. The current market price does not really matter that much. What matters more to me is the historical revenue and margin numbers of the business and also what I project them to be like in future. As can be seen, alot of the 'assumptions' rely heavily on both Points 1 & 2 above.
- I don't have a crystal ball and I won't say that I can predict the future. However, businesses like ComfortDelGro and Raffles Medical are two great examples of companies that have grown their numbers well over time. Well, whether their current prices are worth investing from a valuation perspective I can't really comment. In my previous post I did comment though that I am on the sidelines for both companies due to their relatively high valuations and that viewpoint I feel still remains intact. We shall see, but again glad to have build positions in both companies over time.

I would really love to hear from you how your portfolio is currently constructed? Has it stood up to the recent tests? And are you looking to build on it moving forward? Looking forward to your comments!

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor

Portfolio Update - Increased holdings in: OCBC Bank

Ok after monitoring the markets pretty closely, yesterday 400 shares of OCBC Bank were added at a price of $8.95. This brings my overall holdings of OCBC at 3,438 with an average cost of $9.94. This was from my previous position of 3,038 with an average cost of $10.07. Looking forward to the future dividend bounty from this position as my annual expected dividends for next year based on current yields should be around S$1,200.

I may be adding another small position later in the month so do watch this space. Markets have rallied slightly today due to the Fed talks over these 2 days. Let's watch closely on the rhetoric from the Fed on where rates are headed and all hands on deck.

Shall take a couple of days break as I have fallen ill due to the haze surrounding Singapore...catch you guys during this weekend. Stay safe and keep your masks on!

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor

Building Passive Income - Layer by Layer

Almost all of us who are in our working years are working in a full-time job or generating income from other sources be it from a business or investment. 

One of the key to financial freedom is to allocate as much as possible your monthly income from an 'active' source whereby work is required to generate the income to a 'passive' source whereby income streams in regardless of whether work has been put in or not. I remember reading a book many years ago at Starbucks in Central Mall. I can't remember the title of the book but what I do remember is that it stated that there effectively are just 3 main passive sources one can derive their income from.

The first is via a business or royalties, the second is through property via rental income and the third is from dividends/coupon payments from investments. I decided some time back that I probably would not be venturing into a business anytime soon. As for property, I have neither the knowhow or appetite for leverage to partake aggresively in that. Investments particular into stocks was a natural choice for me.

Therefore I made up my mind around 1.5 years ago to allocate around 50% of my monthly income to stocks and to consistently build the portfolio over time. Through a slow and steady process, the percentage of 'passive income' versus 'active income' would grow. Using my current progress as a check, I currently have only 2% of my annual income made up of passive sources. There is a long way to go but it is indeed an extremely exciting journey, one which makes me excited to head to work everyday to generate the salary to build further amounts of passive income in future. I'll be 35 next year and I hope to be able to have a better scorecard by the end of next year, let's see!

How has your progress to build passive income been coming along? Do share with me!

Signing off

Transitioning Stock Investor

Post General Elections 2015 + Portfolio Update. Do have a read!

And so, the people of Singapore have spoken. In what was a rather surprising result, the tailwind shifted to the sails of the PAP party's ship. The electoral results were pretty conclusive which resulted in a much better performance of the governing party. The picture below shows the soon-to-be party coverage of Singapore. I won't state too much comments with regards to the electoral result as this would not be the appropriate forum. However what I will say is that I do hope to see a more balanced parliamentary coverage in future elections. This should only benefit a first-world country like Singapore truly is, or is trying to become.

As shared previously, I would be sharing a brief update of my portfolio progress. As can be seen in the Bloomberg screenshot shared below, the portfolio is still deep in red territory. However, what is positive is that we have shifted somewhat from the steepest declines seen in mid-August when overall losses were in the double digit % terms.

Stock Portfolio as of 12 Sept 2015

Moving ahead, I will be holding unto the direction of my portfolio steadily. The course has not changed and in the months ahead, I most probably will be adding unto select positions. It is highly probable that I will be adding positions in either Jardine Matheson (JMH) or Singtel. The main emphasis for me is to identify companies that either have large existing moats (JMH) that are trading at temporary lower prices or those that are able to use technological innovations to improve both the efficiency and diversity of their businesses (Singtel). In other words, businesses that are able to grow and sustain either their top-line growth or profit margins.

There are certain components of the portfolio that I have a keen eye on in terms of looking out for potential headwinds. This would be the REITs segment (with rising rates and increased penetration of online shopping) and Sembcorp Ind. (weak oil prices). I do not expect to be adding unto those positions at the moment given the uncertain macro risks they still face.

Lastly, there are the quality stocks which I own but with still lofty valuations. These would be the likes of Raffles Medical and ComfortDelgro. They remain great businesses but I remain hesitant to build those positions until the prices make more sense from a valuation perspective.

Dividends for the portfolio remain strong and by the end of 2015, a total of $2,500 worth of dividends will have been paid (based on the current positionings). I'm really glad as this presents a small step in my journey to investing full time and building a solid and sustainable passive income stream.

Will look to write some detailed analyses on both Jardine and Singtel in days to come. In the meanwhile have a wonderful Sat. and a good post election day ahead! As usual, back to my books and more reading on financial statement analysis :)

Signing Off

Transitioning Stock Investor

Jardine Matheson - Missed the boat

As I was monitoring the share prices of the stocks in my portfolio, I was cognizant of the fact that the price of Jardine kept on falling. 

I was monitoring this very closely and was calculating the cost I had to pay in SGD. As we know USD has strengthened a fair bit against SGD and in USD terms it had went up 3.7% since I bought my first lot a few months ago at USD 57.10.

I decided to bite the bullet and placed a queue order at USD 46.50 when the market price was around USD 46.70. The price went back up and closed at around USD 48 today. Oh well, missed the boat on averaging down on this counter but let's see how it pans out next week.

Based on the data I have analysed from Bloomberg for this company and relying heavily on one metric which is purely the relative price of the company vs its historical mean, the price should be around the range of USD 58 instead. I shall not bore you with my further analysis of the other ratios and analysis of the market ecosystem of its related companies (which span across Indonesia, China, HK, SG etc) but I am fairly confident of the future potential of this company to revert to its mean 'value'. Shall therefore keep a close eye next week when markets reopen.

Signing off

Transitioning Stock Investor

Closer look at Singtel

As I hold unto my breath and small cache of investable funds, I am busily planning the next strategic move for my portfolio.

Singtel was not on my immediate radar as the price did not initially drop as much as it did in recent weeks. However, the price has fallen to around S$3.69 which makes it a pretty good level below my average cost of $3.97 for this counter. Additionally, the dividend yield has now picked up to a decent yield of around 3.7%p.a.

I still favour its major share of the Singapore telco market and the fact that most of its financial ratios (especially solvency related ones) remain one of the more robust vs its telco peers in the Singapore market. What I also find encouraging is its diverse spread of businesses and not being over reliant in individual countries like China or India. Most of us still are heavily reliant on their services and I see increased value in adding on positions in this company given the overall challenging environment ahead whereby telcos should still remain relatively unscathed.

Again, nothing overly fanciful. Just adding unto quality positions as and when opportunities arise.

Singtel Holdings Update:
# Current Holdings: 3,000 shares. Looking to add 1,000 more in Sept. To be updated.

What do you feel about Singtel at its current price? Glad to hear more from you!

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor

Interesting Dilemma: Sharing my Thoughts

Good Saturday morning folks!

It's election fever here in Singapore as we are in the midst of our elections to vote for the next party to be in parliament. My vote is still undecided as a myriad of topics emerge for both deliberations and considerations. Usually in the past, there is an 'election effect' that we would see for Singapore stocks. However, with the current overall market volatility this effect has been completely dilluted.

Nonetheless, I remain steadfast in having strong belief in our local companies. More so of the ones that I have invested in. In recent weeks I have been faced with a dilemma.

- Do I average down only on some of my heavily beaten down positions?: OCBC Bank (11% down), Jardine Matheson (11% down) & Sembcorp (17% down).

- Or do I maintain allocation discipline and add evenly across all names?: Currently I have 8 names in the portfolio which has not changed for the last 6 months: OCBC Bank, Sembcorp Industries, Jardine Matheson Holdings, CapitalandMall Trust, Mapletree Commercial Trust, Singtel, ComfortDelgro and Raffles Medical.

- Or do I add positions to the ones that have continued to hold up well?: Comfortdelgro and Raffles Medical, both positions are the top performers in my portfolio.

As I type this and with limited resources at any one point, I'm still pondering on the next step to take. However and I say this with immense pride, I am glad that I rejected the urge to panic sell or to re-consolidate certain positions indiscrimately. With proper planning and selective stock picking, it became apparently clear and more so during the recent market madness that the companies which I have chosen are solid names that I would want to add even more when markets rotate.
So I'm glad my decision moving forward is skewed towards where to ADD rather than where to SELL as there is no impairment I see at all to any of the 8 businesses that I have stakes in. Nonetheless and on the flip-side, in a bullish market if any of the positions have risen to levels that I feel are prime for trimming, the appropriate rebalancing will be done. This was done a couple of times on both the Comfortdelgro and Raffles Medical positions earlier this year (for those of you who have been following my blog you may have read those earlier posts).

So remember, to empower your portfolio you need to have faith in the companies you put your hard earned money in. Not blind faith I have to reiterate, but faith stemming from hard work and research in the companies you own.

If you are new to investing and would like to construct a portfolio for a start, you may wish to follow my selections and get updated via this blog. However, please do not take this as buy-sell recommendations but they are suggestions on how to construct a proper stock portfolio. This will hopefully set you on the course to a better financial future and less reliance on your active work income.

Ending off with sharing some of my dividend updates for Sept below:

*Dividend Update for Sept
- Scrip reinvestment elected: OCBC Bank $360
- Scrip reinvestment elected: Jardine Matheson US$38

Signing Off and Have a Great Weekend
Transitioning Stock Investor

Milestone - 10,000 pageviews. Thank You

Dear Readers

I woke up this morning and had a pleasant surprise. The pageviews for this blog has crossed the 10,000 mark. I thank you very much for the support and constructive comments and feedback which you have provided.

I continue to want to keep this page ad-free as my sole purpose is to help the cause of improving investing education and sharing also my journey to full-time investing and hoping that it may inspire others to do the same. 

The recent market gyrations has not been an easy one to navigate. However, I strong believe that as long as our paradigm is right, our focus is strong and conviction is thorough, we will be able to emerge even stronger and more robust from not only this market environment but any crisis that we may encounter. This also presents an opportune time to revaluate our portfolios and think deep and hard about whether they are as robust as we would like them to be. It also digs deeper into our investing gut and gives us a chance to enhance our investing maturity.

With this I sign off for today. Thank you once again and do keep those comments coming in, I also hope that you continue to find my future blogposts useful, helpful and most importantly a mindful call to action! Take care my friends.

Signing Off,

Transitioning Stock Investor

Core and Satellite Portfolios - Have you truly figured out your portfolios?

I'm sure many of you would have heard of having a core portfolio whereby you utilise that portfolio for your investments. And probably a satellite portfolio for alpha generation and the like. Having various portfolios help both manage risks and also set priorities.

How I have structured my assets is a little different yet similar all-in-one. I have 3 main asset portfolios: 1. Retirement, 2. Housing and 3. Cash

1. Retirement Portfolio
- This is my bare minimum portfolio and is something that will enable me to lead a fuss-free lifestyle when I retire. You can call it the survival portfolio. I can afford to probably lose my pants off from most of my investments and yet lead a frugal yet viable retirement. This portfolio obviously consists of lower risk investments and it includes both the CPF OA (portion that has been kept aside and not used for housing) & SA, SRS contributions (which are all invested in a IG bond fund) and potential cash values of all my insurance policies.
- The current overall value of this portfolio stands at a healthy five figure amount and I project to have at least $300,000 in this 'pot' when I hit my target retirement age. Of course the fact that CPF monies can only be withdrawn at certain ages, etc have been taken into account.
- So basically this is a portfolio that can't be messed around and all investments per se have to be of quality and of lower risk. It is a survival portfolio and is used both as a hedge and for pure retirement purposes.

2. Housing
- This portion is self-explanatory. However, I will be upgrading my place at the end of the year but buying a property that doesn't stretch my mortgage obligations. I believe in spreading my eggs and I'm not as versed or excited in property as perhaps I should be. So this is purely having a roof over my head and I aim to clear all obligations way before I embark on my full time investing journey.

3. Cash
- This is where I allow myself all the fun and freedom to pursue my true passion and expertise; which is investing in companies. What gives me added assurance and flexibility to invest is due to the fact that both of the above portfolios have been well taken care of. I then am not bound by fears of inadequate retirement planning or not having a roof over my head.
- The above being said, my focus is still mainly on being invested in quality businesses and having growing dividends that are compounded over time. Just staying the course and being disciplined and mature. Thus, I remain fervent fans of Singtel, Jardine, Raffles, Comfortdelgro, Sembcorp, OCBC, companies which to me present excellent opportunities to participate in their ongoing growth and businesses.
- The finishing line is really clear and it is when I have both retirement and housing portfolios pretty secured and the cash portfolio is generating an income that meets my monthly expenditures. This would also mean to me, truly transitioning to being a full-time investor. However, what probably separates the successful and the rest is planning, the stomach to tolerate volatility, lots and lots of discipline and perhaps most important just enjoying the process. I have indeed been enjoying absolutely every minute of it and I obtain loads of joy and satisfaction when writing my blogs and discussing with fellow investors over time.

Hope the small snippets of sharing above has helped paint a picture of how you might want to construct your overall portfolio. Remember; if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Have a great work week ahead! *and back to my books.

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor

Keeping the Focus - Good to Read

With the markets having gone through major gyrations over the last couple of weeks, it is easy to panic and lose the initial focus that we had for our portfolios.

Stepping back from all the noise in the market, I asked myself again what was my initial rationale both for starting this blog and for that matter, having a stock portfolio? The answer came surprisingly easily.

I wanted to transit to being a full-time investor with a high quality and good yielding investment portfolio that could generate income and returns and gradually replace my active income from work. This would mean that my portfolio should only consist of quality and slightly larger cap biased companies that show an ability to be able to generate solid earnings over time and are well governed. It IS as simple as that, really.

I was tempted at certain points to cut some of the positions in my portfolio and especially at the heights of the crisis whereby the loss on my portfolio escalated. And I have to share that the recent rebounds seen may be signs of a bear trap, something that I am increasingly hearing from many fellow industry professionals.

However, something inside of me has changed. Somehow or rather my gut keeps on telling me this: If your investment aint broken, why sell it? I also remember the wise words of Warren Buffet when asked when is a good time to sell a stock and he replied: "Never".

I am now instead increasing my focus on higher dividend yield stocks within my portfolio to add on, in order to increase the yield stability + further solidify my new found investment maturity. Where I used to flight easily, everything feels much more controlled now and I now recall again why I started my portfolio in the first place: To be a full-time investor. And to be that, it takes both a strong mind and solid paradigm, traits which I am determined to reinforce.

And I sincerely hope that this recent market turmoil has similarly helped unveil something positive for you too.

Sharing some of my stock ideas at the moment:

Stock ideas within my portfolio:
Buy: Singtel, Jardine Matheson Hlgs, Sembcorp Ind.
Sell: None.

Nothing too fanciful, but I'm starting to have an increased focus on slightly overall higher dividend yields on the portfolio. The recent rise in oil prices which is something that I have been projecting for quite some time will also help influence some of my stock picking decisions: cue Sembcorp.

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor

How Has Your Portfolio fared in this market?

I just had this interesting thought that crossed my mind. How much have your portfolios fallen during this current market downturn? 5%? 10%? 20%? Or more?

I just checked and mine has fallen 12% since today. Honestly speaking although that kinda sucks I'm pretty glad that my portfolio has held up rather well thus far.

So share with me, how much has your portfolio been hit so far? And are you happy or concerned on how it has stood up so far? I really would like to know.

Brace, Brace and be Brave

Now as the markets tank and I forsee more turmoil to come, it raises many serious questions for all of us investors.

- Is my portfolio as well diversified as it should have been? (Albeit everything is getting hit hard now)
- Does my portfolio contain solid and quality companies that will weather the storm well?
- Have I learnt enough lessons from previous market downturns and applied it well today?
- Does my investment philosophy stand well even in the current market environment? Do I look to buy more when quality positions in my portfolio become more cheap OR do I panic and flee?
- Do I have enough cash reserves right now to take advantage of market opportunities?

You see, when everything goes up and smoothly, everything is hunky dory. Investing is easy. However, it is during times like this that expose those with vulnerable portfolios that may have also been pumped up with margin. It also unveils those investors who are fundamentally strong and have a clear focus on what to do with their portfolio. And the best thing to do now I feel is to:

BRACE, BRACE BUT ALSO STAY BRAVE.

If enough of the right principles have been applied, there is no need to panic nor avoid looking at your portfolio. This is because investing is a long term journey and as long as you have set the fundamentals right, your portfolio should withstand shocks to the system be it big or small. Don't believe me? Then have a read of many other stock blog writers and see how many are either panicking or whining and the few that stand brave. Also, how many supposed smart alecs with fanciful trading strategies or flowery investment themes, were proven wrong again by the market.

As I shared previously, keep calm and invest on. Only difference for now is, you gotta BRACE BRACE and BE BRAVE too.

Signing Off
Transitioning Stock Investor