Rainbow on FI

We are often overwhelmed by many emotions when navigating through our investment decisions. Thus, I have made it a habit to document and reflect upon those emotions together with investment mistakes that I've made. I know otherwise I would have the tendency to keep repeating my old mistakes. So I have created an Inside-Out table in an excel sheet format. (Yes, the boring excel sheet is a wonderful tool for all sorts of recording!) The table has got three columns which runs down chronologically. One column is the date, one is the emotions or 'how I was feeling at that point' and the third is a description of the mistakes made. 'How I am feeling' column is filled according to my emotion that triggered the mistake at that point when I made the decision. I find this chart very useful in helping me to identify and keep track of which emotions hindered my investment decisions. This is an example of my "Inside-Out" table:

I seldom put up speculative posts, but can't resist one here. Maybe signs of oversold have been long overdue but now is SUPER oversold. BN4 All time high this year: $9.54 All time low this year: $4.82 RSI is at extreme low of 30.67 . Volumes are higher than usual last week plus consecutive price falls are indicative of big sell-down. Are investors capitulating or what? (And I also wonder if brokerages have enough shares to lend those short traders.) Date Open High Low Close Volume Adj Close* Jan 15, 2016 4.95 4.98 4.82 4.84 10,188,000 4.84 Jan 14, 2016 4.97 5.00 4.86 4.86 17,776,100 4.86 Jan 13, 2016 5.21 5.28 5.10 5.19 14,299,300 5.19 Jan 12, 2016 5.50 5.53 5.15 5.15 18,285,700 5.15 Jan 11, 2016 5.70 5.71 5.50 5.54 11,156,500 5.54 Jan 8, 2016 5.68 5.91 5.62 5.80 13,107,600 5.80 Jan 7, 2016 6.15 6.15 5.81 5.82 19,195,800 5.82 Jan 6, 2016 6.42 6.43 6.21 6.23 9,350,400 6.23 Bollinger band is no where near narrowing, guess the price would fall further but should

Have you read the story of ' blind men and an elephant '? With so many information about the market and investment opportunities available to us - from news, charts, books, blogs, company websites, forecasts to advices from gurus, how many of us are NOT just 'seeing' the things we want to 'see' and noises we want to 'hear'? We not born investors or traders in the market. Most of us started off like blind men feeling the elephant. Don't despair, it's not end of the story yet.

About one month ago, I created a mock basket of S-REIT portfolio . Let's see how these 'kembings' (every week I learn new terms from SMOL) have fared through Nov and Dec... Market $ Entry $ * div yield% Shares Amount Reits Ascendas Hosp Trust 0.73 6.90 4800 $3,504 First Reit - health 1.17 7.00 2600 $3,029 CDL hosp 1.30 7.30 2300 $2,979 Ascott hosp 1.13 7.50 2500 $2,813 Mapletree logistics 0.98 7.60 2800 $2,744 Lippomall 0.30 10.70 10000 $2,950 Starhill global 0.74 7.10 3000 $2,205 Frasers Centrepoint 1.86 6.20 1600 $2,976 Ireit 0.66 9.69 4000 $2,640 CapitaRetailChina 1.40 1.335 7.50 3000 $4,005 0.982778 7.75 $29,844 *16/01/16 - Edited dividend yield according to market$. P/B

When we buy stocks, we are actually buying into those businesses. So when you own the shares of example company A, you are actually buying into a small portion of company A's business. That is stocks in a nutshell. Of course you would want to make sure that company A is doing very well with your money running its businesses and wish it has the potential to grow stronger - such that it's earning will increase and demands for its stock will go up, in turn leading to increase in its share price. Stock market is a weighing machine in the long run. Here are some very useful notes sourced from http://wiki.masterlifefaster.com/Home/inve sting which is modified from Buffettology:

Read:  The  Prologue  -  STI breaking support? Lessons learnt from Mr Stock Market: What looked like 'pretty good' deals then (in a bull or not-yet bear market), do not look good now (bearish market).  Perspectives change together with market outlook and current stock prices. Although it would be good opportunity for some value fishing. Dividends in good times should be put into my pocket When a stock's share price is high, it's dividend option for reinvestment would be pegged to a lower price then the current share price. This makes getting scrap dividend shares look like premium. This would not be the case when the stock price plumage, as I could have used the dividend payout money to buy the shares at a cheaper price now when the market drops. Conversely, it would be a good idea to get dividend shares when the market price is low.

Looking at the sea of red now suddenly gives me a lot of inspiration to write. In times of peace I was like in slumberland for blogging. So while I am awake, I wanna shoot at this very hot investment term -  DIVIDEND . Is dividend yield the most important when you make a stock buy decision? Do you frequently look at dividend trackers? Is your investing goal or objectives mostly revolving around dividend yield? If all your answers are YES, then you might have fallen into the 'Dividend trap'.

In the volatile bear market which has the potential to become even more bearish, it is time to dig up and revisit OLD posts (and any of past reflections) of finance bloggers who have been through the Great Bear markets. Those with scar wounds but survived with gut of steel to tell the stories are the best ones to learn from. Just browse through thefinance.sg or some of my favourite blogs at the side bar and you might discover them. Why do that? It is always less painful to learn from others' mistakes . A good read from BigFatPurse From Createwealth8888  -  Harsh lessons from 1997/98 and 2007/08 stock crisis On the contrary, you could argue that one would remember the pain better if learnt from one's own fall. Just don't purposely go and fall down to learn. What are some recommended topics to review?

Read: The Impact of the Likely U.S. Rate Hike on Asian Equity Markets Fed rate hike boosts Asia Pacific markets but oil price continues to fall China selloff sparks gloomy 2016 start for stocks https://www.fool.sg/2015/11/11/is-this-as-good-as-the-singapore-market-will-get/ "Although QE tapering and rate hiking are two separate issues, the implication to the markets is similar, namely rising interest rates, tightening capital funding, capital outflow from emerging economies, and currency instability . All of these will have a much worse impact on economies with large current account deficits, high external borrowing relative to reserves, high inflation, and deterioration in economic fundamentals." "That period of rate hiking had the worst effect on the U.S. bond market compared to the other two, during which the Fed took more measured paces. The impact was more pronounced on Asian equity markets than that of the U.S." Although 2016 market h

From past experiences, 'resolution' and 'wishlist' don't work. So this year I came up with a 'to do' list. 'To do' things are things that are fully within my control and can be done by myself. I realised when I was younger I tend to be more idealistic, now I know expectations are inward-out not outward-in. 1) Enrol in pilate or gym (body building) course, go swimming more regularly. I need to find back my six-pack and stamina. If I don't enrol in any class, I have no discipline to follow through. 2) Reduce my personal store of inventory - donate, give away, sell away. Cannot be bogged down by so many things due to plan of moving out. I am trying to do the math if renting a space for my stuff is worth it.

He waded into muddy water hoping to catch big fish: He entered a stock position of which he is unclear of the company and stock price situation. He stand in the muddy water and hope the big fish swim would swim into his net: He just waited and hope the price would change to his favour. Even when a fish does swim into his net, he doesn't know to pick it up and leave: Even when the stock price does a small rebound he refused to sell his position. He remained stuck in the muddy water. That's the story of a speculator. There could be no fish at all to catch. He could be just wasting his time and effort. Maybe there are big fish but how would he know? Guess work? Maybe when one day enlightenment decides to shine down, the muddy water would clear up and then he would know whether there's fish or no fish to catch. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Any muddy waters have you waded in before? Care to share your catch o

In this new year, I want to share an old Running Man episode with you. For some strange reason, the producer wanted to make the RM team sail across the Hangang and it's the nth time they are building boats from scratch. RM is my favourite variety show - not just for entertainment but sometimes there are valuable lessons to take away as well. I always admire the cast's courage and determination in overcoming all the challenges and obstacles thrown to them. Sit back, relax and enjoy the video  ☕.  http://kshowonline.com/kshow/1827-[engsub]-running-man-ep.187 Takeaways for this episode: Don't be afraid to speak up If you want to be chosen then voice out and show through your actions. Boats that are overly light-weight are often harder to steer (towards the goal). Because they get swept away more easily by the currant. Are we persons of heavy principles or little to no principles in life? Even the seemingly useless materials can have their own WORTH.  Just make t