Photo by Shermeee
August 2010 was indeed an interesting month for me in terms of portfolio changes; as I made the somewhat painful decision to divest of my entire stake in FSL Trust (as I had previously blogged about in this post). The decision was a mixture of relief and regret, as the funds from this investment can finally be freed up to be redeployed into a more promising investment. What I dislike most is “deadweight” in my portfolio, and I will not hesitate to cut loss on a position in order to re-allocate the funds to another position should I objectively conclude that it would be in the best interests of my portfolio.
I had mentioned that I expected August to be a relaxed month; but it was not to be so as I spent quite a bit of time researching and poring over Annual Reports for my latest purchase – SIA Engineering Company Limited (“SIAEC”). In order to do a more comprehensive analysis as compared to my previous one on Kingsmen Creatives, I spent a lot more time dwelling on the Annual Reports, doing deeper analysis on each division, poring through SIAEC’s many associated companies and joint ventures; as well as doing a detailed competitive analysis for three of SIAEC’s competitors. The result is a rather lengthy report to justify my purchase of SIAEC which I will split into five separate sections (in order to keep each section readable). The full report is about 32 pages (along with 14 tables of figures) and it is my intention to post up as much of the analysis as I can in its entirety; as this is the first blue chip company (SIAEC is, incidentally, part of the Straits Times Index’s 30 component stocks) I have seriously researched on and I will need to get some feedback so that I can improve for future research and analysis work. (more…)
Starhill Global REIT invests in retail space at prime location. Based on her 2009 annual report, there are 10 properties in the portfolio. Locally, the REIT has Ngee Ann City (27.33%) and Wisma Atria (74.23%). 7 of the properties are in Tokyo and 1 in Chengdu. They just acquired David Jones Building in Perth and [...]
I had an informal lunch with some academics and fund manager veterans last week to test the waters.
It is timely in that we have Fed Chairman Bernanke Bernanke, in his Aug. 27 speech to central bankers and economists in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, indicating that the US economy is not growing as fast as [...]
Today’s papers reported that measures are rolled out with immediate effect to curb property speculation. In layman terms, they are:
(1) Sellers to pay stamp duty again if they resell the property within 3 years of purchase. (A $1m property attracts $24,600 of stamp duty.)
(2) For buyers who have outstanding loans with banks [...]
On Wall Street, a lot of educated monkeys like to talk about valuation expansion. Basically valuation expansion simply means that some stock trading at 15x PE should be trading at 25x PE bcos its industry is sexy, or the company has undergone transformation of its business to become the new growth [...]
Some of my friends painfully resisted buying a flat for the past few years, hoping that the property bubble will pop when the global recession erupted. But to their disbelief, the prices and cash over value (COV) continue to defy gravity and broke new highs. This prompted [...]
GRP released their FY 2010 results on August 20, 2010 (the company has a June 30 year-end). Suffice to say that there were no major surprises; either negative or positive, but the prevailing sentiment from me is that the Company can do more to either increase their dividend or to reinvest the [...]
Saizen REIT reported full year results this morning and declared a DPU of 0.26c, payable on 29 September 2010. This is better than expected as the REIT did not have a full quarter to accumulate cash for distribution. They also refinanced GK Choan and had to pay some fees as well [...]
I again have to emphasize that I’m not comparing a “Buy Term Invest the Difference” Vs “Buy Whole Life Plan” argument. Getting into such arguments will waste me a lot of time where I rather spend to serve my clients and expand my business. Writing this blog is to feed my interest [...]
It’s been a while since I’ve talked about aspects of personal finance, as I was kept busy the whole of May to July 2010 with analyzing the financial results of the companies in which I hold shares, as well as writing about Sun Tzu’s War On Business episodes. I’d realized the last [...]
Forex trading involves dealing in international currencies. Here, one can sell currency of one country to buy that of another. The trader deals in Foreign Exchange [Forex] at the most appropriate time to profit from the transaction. Good ability to forecast plays a vital role [...]
329 pips profit was generated for the 1ST half of August 2010. 13 trades were executed: 8 trades won and 5 trades lost.
If you are trading 1 full contract (100,000) per trade, your profit for 329 pips will be around US$3290.
Here are the details of my trades:
1. USDCAD: 34 Pips Loss
Not looking [...]
strong>CityIndex
I just closed my Forex CFD trading account with them. What I like about them is the withdrawal procedure. Unlike the other brokers, you do not need to fill in a withdrawal form (hardcopy) and mail/fax it back for processing. I just dropped an email and supplied some details for verification [...]
I had an informal lunch with some academics and fund manager veterans last week to test the waters.
It is timely in that we have Fed Chairman Bernanke Bernanke, in his Aug. 27 speech to central bankers and economists in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, indicating that the US economy is not growing as fast as [...]
Some of my friends painfully resisted buying a flat for the past few years, hoping that the property bubble will pop when the global recession erupted. But to their disbelief, the prices and cash over value (COV) continue to defy gravity and broke new highs. This prompted [...]
InvestFair 2010 was held at Marina Bay Sands……the YOG made getting their last Saturday a bit difficult for me because the roads were closed and only opend at 1pm. Finding parking at the Convention Centre wasnt difficult especially when your daily rate could be as high as S$30.00. The building [...]
August 2010 was indeed an interesting month for me in terms of portfolio changes; as I made the somewhat painful decision to divest of my entire stake in FSL Trust (as I had previously blogged about in this post). The decision was a mixture of relief and regret, as the funds [...]
Starhill Global REIT invests in retail space at prime location. Based on her 2009 annual report, there are 10 properties in the portfolio. Locally, the REIT has Ngee Ann City (27.33%) and Wisma Atria (74.23%). 7 of the properties are in Tokyo and 1 in Chengdu. They just acquired David Jones Building in Perth and [...]
GRP released their FY 2010 results on August 20, 2010 (the company has a June 30 year-end). Suffice to say that there were no major surprises; either negative or positive, but the prevailing sentiment from me is that the Company can do more to either increase their dividend or to reinvest the [...]
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