Investment Portfolio Update-August 2017

Time has passed so quickly and we are now nearing the end of 2017. I realized it is not easy at times being a long-term investor for long due to the existence of temptations such as cryptocurrencies and pennies stocks where people can easily double their returns by gambling or doing chart reading. It takes a much longer period to get the same returns by longing stock while the advantage we have is better risk control since we can easily wait a loss out. I have been contemplating to be a Hybrid investor, which one will long the market and at the same time do some short-term trades. Before doing that, one needs to know how to read the candlesticks and understand TA.

Back to my investment performance, I have recently sold Capitaland Retail China Trust at $1.65 even before its CD period. Much later, Sembcorp Industries and Wilmar were added to my Portfolio. Doubled my Singtel shares recently due to its oversold level. While the market has become expensive since STI has reached its all-time high, there are always gems lying around at any point of time. As of now, I enjoy the diversification in my portfolio. FCOT is doing great and I decided to keep it due to its high dividends and it being under FCL’s umbrella. Yes, I have let go FCL too early and it has passed the $2 mark. It is hard to know when is the peak.
In August, dividends were received from all four holdings: FCOT, Sembcorp, Singtel , Wilmar.

As for personal learning, I greatly recommend reading the book Beating The Street by Peter Lynch. The author himself favors stocks over bonds and it makes you want to read on compared to other financial books. The most interesting part of the book shared so far, is about the stock picking skills of a group of students at St. Agnes who has not only beaten the market but also beaten the performance of most fund managers. During the 1990s, their stock picks included some of the big names such as Walt Disney, Walmart, Nike, Gap, Topps and IBM. These names were not popular as they are now, just like during when Facebook just started. You may love this book as well.