My Investment Portfolio (January 2010)

The month started on a good note but ended on weakness. Markets exhibit volatility and fear is again in play. Reasons had been given for the market weakness, but having such a good run since last year, certainly the markets are ripe for a correction.

For my top 30 stock holdings, Low Keng Huat and PSL Holdings had a good run, which explains why they had moved up quite a lot in the list. My new entry PSL Holdings had been amazing, and having added to it since their rights issue last year, it had been performing pretty well. Keppel Corp also done well after announcing that they will be giving out new shares in yet to be listed K-Green Trust to shareholders.

Main cash inflow for my portfolio this month had been the proceeds from accepting the offer for my Furama Ltd shares. They had been re-invested back into the market defensively. They include Afor, CM Pacific, Colex, Craft Print, Engro Corp, Hotel Grand Central, PM Data, Spindex, Tuan Sing and United Overseas Australia. These are mostly stocks that are not widely followed and can be classified as value stocks. I have also participated in two rights issues - Samko Timber and Novena. Also, I started to use my CPF-OA funds to add onto my existing unit trusts this month.

Next month, there will be a few small rights issues to participate. I will still position my portfolio defensively, which means selective buying into value stocks while holding my portfolio tightly to ride out the expected market volatility.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 January 2010)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. Noble Group
2. SGX
3. A-REIT
4. Jardine C&C
5. F&N
6. CapitaMall Trust
7. Raffles Education Corp
8. SembCorp Marine
9. Bukit Sembawang Estates
10. KepLand
11. Parkway Holdings
12. CapitaLand
13. Low Keng Huat
14. CitySpring Infrastructure Trust
15. ComfortDelgro
16. K-REIT Asia
17. Pacific Andes
18. Hong Leong Finance
19. CDL H-Trust
20. Ascendas India Trust
21. Wheelock Properties
22. Transpac Industrial Holdings
23. Cosco Corp
24. PSL Holdings
25. CapitaCommercial Trust
26. OCBC Bank
27. WBL Corp
28. Keppel Corp
29. Ho Bee Investment
30. Rotary Engineering

Top 5 Holdings (US$ Denominated shares)
1. Jardine Strategic
2. Dairy Farm
3. Hong Kong Land
4. Jardine Matheson
5. Mandarin Oriental

Top Holdings (HK$ Denominated shares)
1. Fortune REIT
2. Tan Chong International

Top Holding (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings
2. AustLand PG

Top 5 Holdings (CPF OA investment)
1. Keppel Corp
2. Streettracks STI ETF
3. CapitaMall Trust
4. A-REIT
5. SingTel

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio (listed on SEHK)
1. Peace Mark Holdings

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Greatronic Limited

My Unit Trust Portfolio:
http://www.fundsupermart.com/main/community/Portfolio_View.svdo?id=P199

An Engineer's Mind For Investing

A lot of people asked me why I am investing in the stock market. After all, I am an Engineer by training and my day job had nothing whatsoever to do with finance and investing, let alone the stock market. Furthermore, I do not have any academic qualifications related to business, economics, finance, accounting or investment. They said that without any background in finance, economics or accounting, I will not be successful in my investment. They claimed that it is better for me to outsource my investment to finance industry experts out there.

Well, I do not agree with most people out there. There are many things in Engineering that can be applied in investment and finance. In fact, many theories in finance actually came out from Science and Engineering. There is not much difference in analyzing companies, Electric Circuits and Computer programs, just that you need some basic Accounting knowledge as a base. After that, most of the stuff is really based on how you can understand and make your own personal judgement. All these logical analysis skills are actually taught in schools. It is a matter of whether you can apply it in practical case studies or not and one's field of study is actually training for your working life. But there is no rule to say that you cannot apply it in other areas as well.

There is no one golden rule to follow in investments. Similarly, there is no one rule to analyze a circuit or debug a computer program. Yes, you need to know the available options, but you do not need to understand each and every one in detail. You just need to know when and how to apply those rules in each circumstances given one's limitations like time, experience etc. Unless one is writing a thesis on the subject, there is no need to go into great details in these rules.

I have embarked on this investment journey. And I am glad to say that it is my Engineer's mind that actually contribute much to my investment portfolio, rather than my limited finance, economics and accounting knowledge.

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!