Quick update - May 19

-
  • I have stopped pair trading completely and embarked on swing trading before the trade war started. Again. Picked up my Jedi stick to train my psychology and temperament with a "never say die" attitude this time round. (So let me take back my previous conclusion in one of my posts...)


    What have I achieved YTD?

    To sum it up, it is not easy at all to beat the market as a trader. Despite missing the early rally in the first quarter of 2019, I count myself lucky to have caught some late rallies before they fade away like the rainbow. My "heroes" were Walt Disney and Monster Beverages. Pocketed some neat profits riding their uptrend and later got whipped out by the trailing stop during the price rally's pull-back. Setting Stop Loss is an art more than science. Trail too close and you would risk getting stopped out unwittingly, trail too far away and you would risk not locking in as much profits as you could have.

    This time, trading with a different psychology and approach, I ditched my "sure win" conviction when initiating positions and "played safe" by analyzing the risk-reward, set trailing stop losses (when you take care of the downside, the upside will take care of itself), and minimizing the use of CFD (as leverage can make one take on a bigger position than one's risk appetite allows).

    I find that trading is an activity that allows self-discovery. Alot of inner demons (greed, fear, anxiety...) will get reviewed and if you spend enough time reflecting you might find the way to deal with them.

    Despite all that work, I might have been better off just buying the S&P500 ETF or any big cap stocks since January and hold them all the way (less effort!).

The illustration below is my return bench-marked against US500.
Cumulative P/L (USD) YTD

Return % still fall short of S&P500


  • Hoping to catch the tailwind of a market down-turn, I am putting up some short positions. If they are profitable, it means I am getting some effective hedge against all my long positions (which would likely see red). I just hope I don't get whacked upside down by the volatility like last Nov's.

    In the meantime, let's get ready the war chest to take advantage of the trade war onslaught on the stock market.


  • I planned to see how I can milk more interest from the boosted DBS multiplier account. I shall visit a DBS branch to find out more about their qualifying insurances (in order to try max the 3 additional criteria).

    The first two hoops to jump through which are Credit card spending and Investment are no sweat (see the hack using SSB).


  • There's a few REITs that I am currently watching. One of them is First Reit which I already have a position in, another is OUE hospitality trust. There's news of proposed merger with OUE commercial trust. The deal doesn't look bad for now upon calculating (unless OUE C-Reit suffers a further plunge in price). We shall see...


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Success in life

-
Image
Different levels of our life and career Level 1 - Aimless You have no earthly idea what you're doing or where you're going. You have no direction. Level 2 - Stuck You can envision yourself doing better but can't seem to get out of a rut. You might work hard but experience very little progress. Level 3 - Coasting You are going through the motions. Your life is on cruise control. You do what you have to do to survive. Level 4 - Developing You are steadily growing. You've had incremental improvements over the past few years, and your relationships and career have excelled. Level 5 - Thriving You are operating in your sweet spot. You don't have to do anything. You get to do everything. Level 6 - Mastery You are doing so well that you're in a place to help others do the same. from  "Leveling up" by Ryan Leak I came across the above while browsing IG and it made me reflect on how success in life and career is defined. Which level am I at now? In my early 30s
Read more

Caring for beloved with dementia

-
Image
It can be stressful to care for dementia patient, especially when you don't know what to expect of their disease progression and how to tackle the problems that their change in behavior brings.  Dementia is a disease of regression of the whole being - from declining cognitive function, memory losses to declining mobility and difficulty eating. Therefore, dementia-proofing can be a gradual process and what need modifications in the house very much depend on the stage of dementia. I was quite lost on what to do when I first heard that my mom was diagnosed with dementia, but slowly I learnt to cope with it. Managing dementia In the initial stage, memory loss and forgetfulness is the main sign with no behavioral issue. So putting  up reminder / guide signages in the house, using whiteboard to cue To-dos, preparing medications in pill boxes (AM and PM separately) and setting reminder alarms are useful. Switch socket covers and childproof outlet plugs can be installed if the elderly like
Read more

T-bills and CPF Time Deposit

-
I saw this in the news today -  OCBC offers new option to customers to earn higher interest from CPF funds . For the first time in history I see " CPF Time Deposit " offered by a bank. (Technically speaking, CPF is like time deposit with the government. This is like time deposit outsourced, albeit for a very short period? ) Previously those who were eyeing "higher interest" (via external returns) on their OA accounts can only invest through CPFIS into T-bills and it may be a hassle to do so, except for DBS digibank customers who can do it via online. I wonder if other banks will soon follow suit to offer "CPF Time Deposit ". (Since people may be starting to run out of liquid funds for parking.)  DBS bank has an  article  about investing in T-bills and I think it rightly pointed this out:  "It is not as straightforward as you will need to work out the “breakeven” yields of T-bills for using CPF savings to ensure that you will not be in a worse off posi
Read more

Reflections for year 2022

-
Image
2022 was a year of which my life followed Murphy's Law - I have experienced crypto bank runs (CeFi bankruptcies ensued), portfolio plunge, Covid infection and calling the ambulance to the house.  It's a really bad year, and I almost thought I am not done listing the Murphy's Law events. At least these are the major ones, and I don't want to bored people with more day-to-day shit that happened. Despite all these, I believe there's still some silver lining behind the gloomy clouds. Here are some reflections to share. Change is the only constant in life We all know that. If we cannot change the environment, change ourselves. There's Chinese saying "适者生存",  adaptability is the most powerful skill of humankind.  After changing what we can in the environment to make ourselves feel as comfortable as possible, we need to learn to live with the discomfort that cannot be changed or is hard to be changed. This means "accepting what is" by changing the w
Read more

Year end reflections 2020

-
Image
This year has not been kind to many. Who would have predicted that the impact of the Wuhan virus can be more fatal and widespread than SARS? I can only say that we are really fortunate to be living in Singapore, where our government really took good measures against community virus spread and also took good financial care of its citizens hit by this economy seismic. View from the MBS Skypark I was half-joking with my friend, at the beginning of the year when discussing FIRE, that I will be forced into FIRE soon.  As I am drafting my plans, I know very well that I am not ready for full retirement (RE) despite scrapping a financial independence (FI) enough for lean FIRE. Things just happened and I do not have much choice (or motivation) to be working full-time. From 'The Personal MBS' - What's sufficiency? I am confident that with less going out with friends, eating out and no overseas holidays, my expenses would be much reduced this year. I don't do budget down to the c
Read more

Disclaimer:

The contents of this blog are author's personal opinions and do not constitute advice to hold, buy or sell any securities, commodities or assets mentioned. I do not guarantee the accuracy and reliability of any information provided, and shall not be liable for any losses incurred from reading my posts or using the materials herein. This blog may contain affiliate links to external sites.