My Investment Portfolio (September 2016)

STI closed this month higher at around 2869 points.It could have been much better if not for the concerns on Deutsche Bank's financial health towards the end of the month. The expectation of only one more interest rate hike in US this year and also prospects of higher oil price due to Opec's consensus on oil production output cut are the positives for this month.

For this month, I have attended the following AGMs/EGMs/briefings - IFS Capital, SGX, Tee International, GMG Global and SMRT.

For my top 30 holdings, United Engineers regained top spot after major shareholders of the company, OCBC and Great Eastern Holdings said that they are currently reviewing strategic options with respect to their combined stake in the company. Keppel T&T also did well after a positive brokerage report being issued on the company. Sarine Technologies did not do well though, as investors took profit on the stock after a good run.

I have bought the following companies from the market this month - Broadway, CEI, Cheung Woh, Elec & Eltek, Excelpoint, Far East Orchard, Federal, GLP, Hiap Hoe, Hiap Seng, Hotel Grand Central, Hwa Hong, iFAST, K1 Ventures, Karin, Keppel Corp, Koh Brothers, LH, Low Keng Huat, Lum Chang, Multi-Chem, Pacific Century, Plato Capital, SembCorp Industries, SingTel, Sunningdale, Tan Chong International, TIH, UIC, United Engineers, UOA, UPP and Wing Tai. No sell trade was done.

I have participated in the following scrip dividend schemes this month - DBS and Vibrant Group. I have also accepted the following voluntary delisting/cash offer this month - Eu Yan Sang. My stake in HTL International was also being acquired via scheme of arrangement.

October will be another busy month for me as companies with financial year ending 30 June 2016 will be holding their AGMs. As usual, I will be attending some of them to get updates on their business performance and outlook.

My S'pore Stock Portfolio - Top Holdings, cash investment only (correct as at 30 September 2016)

Top 30 Holdings (Sing$ Denominated shares)
1. United Engineers
2. Best World  
3. Jardine C&C
4. Keppel T&T
5. Bonvests
6. Haw Par
7. Metro Holdings
8. Sarine Technologies
9. Hotel Royal
10. Hotel Grand Central
11. Hong Fok
12. A-REIT
13. SGX
14. Singapura Finance
15. GK Goh
16. Bukit Sembawang Estates
17. Old Chang Kee
18. UOL
19. Far East Orchard
20. ComfortDelgro
21. The Hour Glass
22. Hong Leong Finance
23. Hotel Properties
24. CapitaMall Trust
25. First REIT
26. Hiap Hoe
27. Colex
28. CapitaLand
29. Sing Investment & Finance
30. Isetan 

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

Top Holdings (HK$ Denominated shares)
1. Fortune REIT
2. Shangri-La Asia

Top Holdings (Aust$ Denominated shares)
1. AV Jennings

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

My Hong Kong Stock Portfolio
1. Peace Mark Holdings - Under Voluntary Liquidation

My Australia Stock Portfolio
1. GPS Alliance Holdings Limited

My Unlisted Company Portfolio
1. Automated Touchstone Machines Ltd
2. Iconic Global Limited
3. Dongshan Group Ltd (formerly known as Greatronic Limited)
4. General Magnetics
5. Fastech Synergy
6. Beauty China- Under Liquidation
7. Memory Devices
8. Jurong Tech - In liquidation - Compulsory winding up (Insolvency)
9. FM Holdings
10. Zhonghui - In liquidation - Compulsory winding up (Insolvency)
11. FerroChina - Under Liquidation
12. FirstLink Investments
13. NEL Group
14. Jets Technics
15. Guangzhao Industrial Forest - In liquidation - Compulsory winding up (Insolvency)
16. Hongwei Technologies Limited (In Provisional Liquidation)
17. FDS Networks Group
18. Aussino Group - In liquidation - Creditors' voluntary winding up
19. China Oilfield Technology
20. China Milk Products Group - Under Liquidation
21. Pacific Healthcare

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

CPFIS - My Personal Investing Experience

Recently, DPM Tharman had said that a review will be done on the CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS). Bascially, what he said is that most investors made losses and earned less than 2.5% investing under the scheme, thus calling the CPFIS “not fit for purpose”. He said that the government will work to “tighten up on it [while moving] towards introducing a simple, aggregated, low-cost investment option".

I must admit that it is difficult to invest successfully under CPFIS in its current form. But it doesn't mean that you cannot be successful under CPFIS. You just need to put in an extra effort to make it happen. I have been investing under CPFIS for more than 10 years and therefore I know its difficulties and pitfalls. Below are some of the tips that I could share for one to be successful under CPFIS:

1. You need to have both stock/ETF and unit trust investing skills. Most people are either stock or unit trust investors. Therefore, their skillset is not enough to be successful under CPFIS. If one only invest in stocks, they could only use 35% of CPF-OA and none in CPF-SA. If they only know unit trust, they will never participate in the benefits of stock investment, especially in the small cap space where the returns could be quite substantial if you pick the right stocks, buy and hold for long term.

2. Think long term, diversify. Most people either fall into the "penny wise, pound foolish" or "trade frequently and incur costs" category. For the former case, they tried to save on CPF agent bank quarterly charges by keeping as little number of stocks as possible in their CPF Investment Account, without diversifying their portfolio. For the latter case, they incur a lot of brokerage charges and CPF agent bank fees by trading often. CPFIS works best by holding onto a list of your unit trusts, ETFs and stocks for long term, while collecting dividends to offset those CPF agent bank quarterly charges. You can never beat the market by trading regularly. Also, it is not a all-or-none portfolio by holding only one stock. Yes, you might strike jackpot but you may also make huge losses. CPF is your retirement fund. You must not take huge bets.

3. Invest regularly. Many investors just do a big one-time lump sum investment once a while (maybe even once a year or once every few years) on their CPF funds and forget about it. This is a big mistake as they might accidentally did a market timing on their investment. When one is working, they should channel their funds regularly into the CPFIS since they have contribution every month into their CPF accounts. Never accumulate a big lump sum and then invest in one go.

4. Select the right stocks and funds and stick with them. This is a difficult one and it comes with experience. I have my fair share of poor choices but the good ones managed to offset the bad ones and therefore the result is overall is still quite ok. Basically, one needs a few years of experience in both unit trust and stock investing in order to build up a decent portfolio for your CPFIS. What I suggest is to invest outside the CPFIS first. After you gained some experience, then you can create a sub-set of your stock portfolio and invest them under CPFIS. For unit trusts, you have to look at various factors like expense ratios, track record etc. Make sure that you stay put once you select those funds. It is difficult to switch around for unit trusts as the top performing fund for this year might be one of the worst next year.

Hope that the above helps in detailing some of the points to be successful under CPFIS. With more changes to come, I guess CPFIS will become a different animal soon and the choices will be much simpler. However, if you did not do well under CPFIS, it is still not too late to reverse the situation. You just need to have a plan, follow through it and don't make big investment mistakes.