The Year Ahead - Review/Reflections for 2009 and Investment Strategy for 2010
I remember I wrote this same reflections and strategy piece at around the same time during last year with a heavy heart. During that time, many critics appeared in the "comments" section of this blog, questioning my investment strategy and approach. However, I stand firm on my investment approach and I can say that I had came out of this recent financial crisis in one piece. You might not be able to see it, but having gone through various crisis since I started my investment journey, I can certainly relate back and learn from every lesson.
2009 had been a great year for equity investors. There is no doubt about it. Staying almost 100% invested throughout the year meant that my portfolio had participated in full the market upside since March 2009. I have not made a single sell trade in my portfolio throughout 2009 except for some rights entitlements. Basically, I hold my portfolio dear to ride out 2009 and also added more funds into it via subscription of rights issues, scrip dividend scheme, warrant conversions and direct purchases from the market using dividend payouts, proceeds from M&A activities and of course income from my corporate life.
What will be my strategy for 2010? No change, I am afraid. I am not one person who likes to change often. This also relates back to my personal life as well. I am not comfortable making big changes and I normally like to stick around with a plan if it continues to work. 2010 will still be a year whereby I continue with my diversification and Buy/Hold strategy. However, there will be some minor changes with respect to the stocks that I will bring in or add into my portfolio. I will be using more value investing approach in 2010 as I suspect this year will be a stock picking market. Not all stocks will perform well in 2010 and it might be a year whereby stock picking skill counts. With that in mind, I will try to overweight those stocks which I think are undervalued and has potential to do well in 2010.
I shall end this post by wishing all readers a Happy, Healthy and Wealthy 2010!