2009 Portfolio Review

The STI started 2009 closing 1829.71 points on 2 Jan and closed 2897.62 on 31 Dec, or 63.1% higher.

My portfolio started with Singapore Petroleum Company and ended with 10 different stocks. To-date, I have injected $12,081 of my salary to my portfolio which has since grown to $21,810 which includes dividends re-invested and gains from the stock sales.

With respect to the "original" portfolio, it has grown to about $19,340 before deducting for transaction costs, or about 93%. Just remember, although I significantly outperformed the STI, it is not the correct benchmark based on the market capitalisation of my portfolio, since there are alot of small caps inside.

Moreover, this does not take into account the timing of the money going in and out. But I am using a static and commonly known benchmark for convenience.

I have about $1,924 of "ammo" left for 2010. This is part of the cash component of my portfolio in case there are cash calls or fantastic buying opportunity. As stated in my earlier posts, I intend to inject $4,000 annually after reaching my first $10,000 lump sum invested.

For 2010, I will concentrate on saving for emergencies, 3-6 month's pay for unemployment and short term expenses. I am now on the wrong side of my 20's so looking for a job that I love and pays well, building my "marriage money" and "father mother retirement" monies are the orders of the day.

My investments are for my retirement which I hope to accumulate to maybe $600,000 so as to supplement the CPF payout and the CPF Life annuity

My stock strategy so far can be describe as a mix of fundamental investing with market timing. I hope to buy great businesses and hold them before the next bear market and re-looking for investment opportunities some time - 16-24 months - after a peak.

I have used the Share Junction "My Stocks" to monitor the performance from 31 Dec 09 onwards as they have a feature which tracks profits. I am using DBS Vickers as my stock screen while using Shares Investment for fundamental data.

Remember, always look at your individual stocks as part of your portfolio strategy and look at your portfolio strategy as part of your retirement plan. Consider all your sources of assets and liabilities to calibrate wealth accumulation method. Think long term as in out trading and switching results in costs.

I will do a review of the individual stocks in the next posts (I need to study stuff for my real life!).