Portfolio Update 4Q2019 / The Year-End Review

In the blink of an eye, 2019 4th quarter has come to an end and it's time to usher in the year 2020. Setting new resolutions to meet for the year or years ahead, so as to meet targets ranging anywhere, in varying degree of magnitude. It could be investment goals, academic goals or just some other personal goals to become a better self or to fulfill one's bucket list.

For my blog, you know what each end of the quarter means - It's time for another portfolio update!

Portfolio 4Q2019

Notes
1 - Based on EUR:SGD conversion of 1.5095 to Dec 31st closing price of EUR 0.540
2 - Based on USD:SGD conversion of 1.3446 to Dec 31st closing price of USD 0.965
3 - Alita Resources is previously known as Alliance Minerals Assets Limited. As of 3Q2019, I have decided to write-off Alita Resources due to high likelihood of being a total loss. This may, however remote, change if a miracle happens.

No new transactions has taken place in comparison to the 7th October 2019 update, however there is *a hairline* appreciation in value.

The Year In Review
I have decided to break reviewing the year's events and targets down to "the good, the bad and the ugly". This covers both the portfolio and other goals I had planned for 2019.

You may want to read last year's review as it holds relevance to the rest of this post.

The Good

• Satisfactory performance from the income portfolio. The decision to try my luck for excess rights share and triple my holdings in Cromwell European REIT towards the end of last year was the right call and is the main star to thank here. 
• Managing to add position in shares for Prime REIT and Lendlease GCREIT, albeit tiny positions, as well as channeling any dividends/distributions earned to compound my gains.
• In position to take slight advantage of foreseen rights issue for Prime US REIT and Lendlease GCREIT (By the way, I hope you have already send your Form W-8 BEN and your opting of receiving distributions in USD or SGD).
• The change in employment in June 2019 has afforded me more focus and learning opportunities
• Completing my traditional marriage now allows me to focus on future plannings, beginning with saving $30,000 of emergency funds.
• Finally being able to pay off remaining borrowings for university tuition fees.

The Bad

• Slightly overpaying for Lendlease GCREIT
• Not being able to invest at a desired pace or invest with a larger lump sum - commission fee is a bummer. I am a fan of gauging my dividends based off Yield At Cost instead of just Dividend Yield.
• Not managing to add positions to some shortlisted semiconductor stocks before they rallied. These stocks have not hit my target price to consider recycling my funds into such positions. Oh wells.
• Not having even bigger positions in the REITs to get more rights issues or to make the most of commission fees should I decide to sell.
• The plan to save up emergency funds as a priority goal will means there is little savings to channel towards the investing warchest unless I can substantially increase my savings by other means, be it further squeezing of expenses or side hustles.
• I also got to admit, for the whole year, my contents were not to scratch both in frequency and depth. I was also struggling to find the energy to write. 2019 while eventful, was also a stressful year. With the change in employment and traditional wedding completed, I think my creative energy should start to come back.
• I fell sick the last few days - hit with a fever, cough and sore throat. :( Stay well, guys!

The Ugly 
The only real smear on this year has been the total loss of share values for Alita Resources (short of a miracle). Pretty funny, when I was once sitting on it with 2-bagger paper profit.

Alongside dozens of other shareholders, we are looking into possible actions for both the possible breaches of duties and regulations by the ex-directors, as well as if it is possible to prevent the transference of shares to Liatam for nil consideration.

It is not just about possibly salvaging the situation, but the principle itself: Even if we can't salvage anything, not taking actions as a shareholder for wrongdoings (and I stress, WHEN YOU HAVE THE POWER TO DO SO) just sets a precedent for other crooks to try similar monkey business with shareholders' hard-earned money.

Well, that wraps up 2019.

Going forward into 2020
First, I hope my feeling of energy coming back is genuine and propel me to write better. I still owe myself the promise of doing a huge Alita Resources write-up. I think this will benefit in a lot of ways:

• Understanding investing into the lithium sector
• Understanding early signs of any red flags
• Understanding how the company fell apart
• Updating on possible salvaging actions

Next, I have decided to give making my blog shows the same between mobile and desktop format, as it seemed to look better on one of the financial blogger's site I visited recently. Mobile site, while looking cleaner, I also feel readers also miss out on other areas to explore.  Change of plans - it looks bad. Probs need to be optimised further.

On the investment forefront, I suspect there will be little (if any) adding to positions or recycling of funds. Off the top of my head, the most likely adding of positions will be to existing REIT positions when rights issue comes about. I am also keen to add position to some blue-chips as well. Having said all that, I hold this does not happen too soon - I need more funds! Hahaha.

Alright, with that, I would like to thank you all for reading, and wishing you a Happy New Year - May 2020 be a good or better year!

2018 - The Year In Review

So 2018 is finally coming to an end, and it has been a pretty trying and eventful year filled with ups and downs for Mr. Market as well as myself.

Personal

• Getting (legally) married - Have not done my customary marriage yet
• Attending a couple of workshops to learn more on trading/investing 
• Drew down on half of my portfolio
• Bought my own home, moved in and then renting common rooms out for income
• Recently my wife had been hospitalised on Christmas Eve, and then discharged on Boxing Day. Thank goodness for having a hospitalisation plan and OCBC Cashflo card.
• And of course, the birth of this blog.

Market
On the broader market, stocks all around the world has been getting trashed and volatility is still high. The drops recently presented once again another opportunity to pick up stocks at a bargain and I hope our fellow investing community has picked up some.

Portfolio
As with many out there, my portfolio value overall was not spared either, although I am still in the green based on the price of the position I have taken up.

(1) I added 10,000 units in Alliance Mineral Assets Limited in 1Q2018, which unfortunately was not bought at a better price.

(2) I drew down on my portfolio, selling Cache Logistics, CapitaMall Trust, Fraser Logistics and Industrial Trust in 1H2018 mainly to fund my home, which also helped me to lock in a small amount of realised profit from capital gain. (I also briefly bought and then sold APTT in 1Q2018 after having second thoughts about its prospect - thank goodness).

(3) I then ended the year by subscribing to Cromwell European REIT's rights issue, managing to snatch up 2000 units to treble my position. I am expecting to earn between $190 - $210 in distribution for the full year of 2019 depending on the performance of the REIT and the exchange rate.

If I include this drawdown towards my home, my portfolio has dropped ~58% in value from  4Q2017 to 4Q2018. Take the drawdown out of the picture, IMO I have weathered the storm to my expectation (-15% YOY) - it could have easily been much worse (see APTT for instance). This does not include the dividends collected.

Oh, and by the way, I recently registered myself on StocksCafe so you can reach out to me over there too. Pretty useful portfolio management tool.

Moving forward
I have reasons to believe Year 2019 will be a better year ahead for investors - Corrections are healthy to keep valuations more in checks you know. At the very least, I believe 2019 will be a better year for myself, mainly due to optimism towards Alliance Mineral Assets Limited, especially now that the merger with Tawana is completed and the new management team has taken over (in ASX, the merged entity is trading with stock ticket A40).

A useful source to follow up on news or sentiments by other retail investors of Alliance Minerals is here.

Additionally, one of the sector I am keeping a close eye on is the Semiconductor Sector, which is known to be a cyclical sector. I believe they will probably continue to face headwind and bottom out in 2019 and already I have some stocks on my target board.

Other than that, I foresee difficulty in entering the market (save the rare moments like rights issuance) as 2019 will probably weigh heavily again on my finance as my wife and I will continue to return borrowings and trying to plan the customary marriage towards start of 4Q2019.

Plans for Self-improvement
I have been reading up on technical analysis during this year. Not much progress has been made as I am still trying to catch balls at how to use it. The biggest reason for me to pick TA up would be to compliment my ability to adding positions of stocks at better price.

I also hope and plan to earn some extra money from trading and some side gigs as the income

And last but not least, I hope to contribute more useful reads to the community when I am not just documenting my progress as an investor.

Here's to wishing everyone a Happy New Year and fruitful 2019 in advance!

Reflections - My performance investing in Fraser Logistics and Industrial Trust

Recently, I sold away my (tiny) position in Fraser's Logistics and Industrial Trust to free up more cash for my new home. I had bought 1000 units at IPO in June 2016 as a way to compound my gains from dividends and distributions earned from CMT and Cache. Subsequently I sold at $1.09, earning $258.5 in capital gain and dividends after subtracting commission, for a total return of 29.22%. 

Annualised, this is a solid 16.70% per annum.

Due to the size of my purchase, commission fee has a more substantial effort on the overall gains. To show diluted effect of commission fees on the performance, I will run a simulation of the gains and comparisons against SPDR STI ETF based on if I had 10,000 units instead of just 1000. I will subsequently do similar simulation whenever I do reflections for cashing out on purchases under $4500.

Units purchased	Purchase price per unit (include comm)	Period held (years)	Yield on cost	Overall gain from distributions	Annualised Capital Gain on cost	Overall Gain from Capital Gain	Annualised Overall Gain	Total Gain
1000	0.892*	1.75	5.67%	9.92%	11.03%	19.30%	16.70%	29.22%
10000	0.894**	1.75	5.66%	9.90%	12.37%	21.64%	18.03%	31.55%

If i scale this up to a level where the effect of commission is watered down (in this case - I'll simulate having bought 10,000 units), I would have had an overall gain of 31.55%.

*The commission here only takes into account the commission charge for IPO 

**The simulation takes it that I purchased from brokerage hence nominal commission fees apply.

Comparison to STI ETF

Units purchased	Purchase price per unit (include comm)	Period held (years)	Yield on cost	Overall gain from distributions	Annualised Capital Gain on cost	Overall Gain from Capital Gain	Annualised Overall Gain	Total Gain
300	2.980	1.75	4.56%	7.99%	2.91%	5.10%	7.48%	13.09%
3000	2.892	1.75	4.70%	8.23%	10.07%	17.62%	14.77%	25.85%

In comparison to SPDR STI ETF, this is a solid win as I had outdone STI ETF in the period, even when scaled up accordingly. The Capital Gain at 300 unit is greatly reduced due to the commission fees on purchase (and there's no way I could have bought an IPO of it, can I? Haha.).

What could have been done better
I'm pretty proud of this achievement actually. There are only 2 things that can be done better:
- Buying more of it while it sits in the range of < $1 early on

- Developing stronger purchasing and holding power overall so that the position can be held and then subscribe to the non-renouncable rights even after flat purchase. :P

Challenging the market?

Altogether that makes 1 out-performance, and 2 under-performance.

Enjoyed reading my reflections? You can read the rest here!