Keppel Corp trade settled and sold

To settle my Keppel Corp trade, I had so seek help from my friends and fortunately I have some good ones. Some things happened in my family and I was only able to sell the 3 lots today at SGD 8.36, netting me about SGD 611 or 2.5% return on the capital outlay. On hindsight, it was a lot of asking of favours for a paltry return (percentage wise). I guess the best advice I can give at this point is to trade in money you have and can lose. 

Living on the edge with Keppel Corp contra trade

Bought three lots of Keppel Corp late on Tuesday hoping to catch any upside it has, after it releases its results today. Little would I know that on Wednesday, Keppel Corp along with Keppel Land would request for a trading halt. There are rumours that Keppel Corp will take Keppel Land private. Depending on how the acquisition is carried out - cash, shares or hybrid -  the privatisation will benefit the price of Keppel Land and not Keppel Corp's shares. More importantly, tomorrow will be the last day I can hold on to the shares without settling (T+3). I have thus put myself in a gambling position as I have no intention of settling. Hopefully, things go in my favour this time.

Recounting Chiang Mai (no photos)

Went to Chiang Mai in November 2014 with my secondary school buddies to look for our Thai friend based there. Booked my trip through Tiger Airways (again) way ahead in June that same month and it cost me only SGD 300 return but no frills. We were supposed to fly on Thursday and return Sunday afternoon but the airlines had to reschedule the flight (due to lack of passenger load?). This in turn meant that we spent only 2 days and 2 nights in Chiang Mai and that we could not fully enjoy our stay at the luxurious Shangri-la Hotel. We got a corporate rate on our accommodation (sans breakfast) and it set us back only SGD 65 per night.

Highlights of the trip were:

• Dinner at Baanrai Yarnyen a traditional Thai restaurant, where we had nice Thai food and then fried insects (for us tourists). All the insects were deep fried so they tasted basically the same.
• Visit to an elephant sanctuary, where we rode an elephant. It was a scary ride for me especially when going down hill as the seats were not very secured. You are advised to bring alot of THB 20 notes as tip and to buy the elephants food. There were also other miscellaneous rides - bullock cart ride, sampan ride - that were aimed at taking all our small change.
• Dinner at Mix a fushion cuisine restaurant opened by my friend's auntie.
• Drinks at Warm Up Cafe. I was told by my friend that it was the most happening place to be at and when I was there, I felt that it was the equivalent of Timbre in Singapore. Although there were eight of us, six of us finished a bottle of whisky in the hour we were there because the two host had to drive!
•  En route to the hotel, we visited the Anusan Market and played with air pistols.
• On the final day, we made a short trip to the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. It was the only temple we went to and the place was very grandly decorated. The dome of the temple was covered in gold leaf!

Overall it was a great trip because of the company. Got to catch up with a long lost friend who shared great insight. Had we spent one more day there we might have stayed in the hotel to chill, although the pool water was very cold since it was "winter" time

Breakdown of cost

Airfare: SGD 300 return by Tiger
Hotel: SGD 130 for two nights
Guide+Driver+Van: THB3,000 for three days

What to do with $30,000 free cash?

The portfolio value for measuring 2015’s performance is SGD 115, 736 and this includes an assumed SGD 15,000 cash injection. This will be corrected for any dividends I may have missed out for 2014, once the yearly SGX statement arrives in my mail.

At the end of today’s trading day (8 January), the portfolio is valued at SGD 116,158 and it comprises almost SGD 30,000 in cash, and SGD 86,000 in five stocks – Colex, F&N, GMG Global, Petra Foods, Super Group. Only Colex and Petra are in the money. I am sitting on a 30% loss for Super Group as it claims to be affected by the impasse in Thailand. The feeling is not so super. GMG Global and F&N are slightly less in the red (-24.5% and -10.7% respectively). GMG has rallied in the start of the year, against the trend of falling natural rubber prices and this may imply a possible cash call.

I am going to stick my head out and say that 2015 will be a good year to buy stocks. My gut feel tells me that when the price of crude oil reaches almost bottom, about USD 45 per barrel, it is time to load up. I have provided the link for your reference. http://www.nasdaq.com/markets/crude-oil-brent.aspx?timeframe=10y 

Early offloading of long-timers

Sensing weakness closer to Chinese New Year, I have sold off three long time stocks - Auric Pacific, Etika (now Envictus) and UOB-KayHian - on the first trading day of 2015. Will now be observing the market for interesting stocks that I can buy into and maybe reinvest early in March.

Portfolio Review 2014: Portfolio - 4.1% vs STI + 6.3%

It was a roller coaster year for the Straits Times Index. The STI sank below 3,000 points in February but went on a straight climb to almost 3,400 points in August. After which, due to uncertainties caused by Russia and falling oil prices, following world indices, the STI dipped twice in October and December, before staging a strong rebound,

My portfolio lost about SGD 2,200 in value during the 12 month period, or 4.1%. This makes it the third time I underperformed against the benchmark index.

It was very difficult to tell which my best or worst performers were because I had forgotten to track prices from the end of 2013. But a quick glance suggest that the portfolio loss was contributed by overall weakness.

Although I did not actively monitored my portfolio (mainly because it was tumbling most of the time) 2014 was an active year for me in the stock market. Within the portfolio, I made 10 transactions (2 more if I include Super and F&N additions). I also made a few contra trades involving SGX resulting in a net gain.

2014 Action Item versus Deliverables

I forgot to set out action items for 2014, so I will reuse 2013’s.

Blog: I intend to blog lesser but have interesting posts of at least 400 words.

Reality: I blogged even lesser this year (32 vs 39 posts). Aside from that one posts comparing bloggers, my posts this year were less interesting than 2013’s.

Investments: I pumped 16k in capital in 2013.

Reality: I pumped 30 k in capital in 2014. This meant that there is very limited cash sitting on the sides and I am extremely vulnerable to the market gyrations.

Career: I recently shifted internally in my company to a new position and I have to learn a new market segment. I thus intend to dedicate more time on learning about the segment at work.

Reality: I have spent some time learning about the new market segment that I have been handed but it does not look adequate. More will be required in 2015 and this will determine my job prospects in 2015 which at the moment, do not look very good due to the falling oil price.