My purchase of the Transocean Prospex SBDC041

I bought my first Seiko watch on 16 April after much consideration. The desire to buy a watch was driven probably by my need for retail therapy. So many things have not been happening in my life and I guess buying something other than darts helps a bit. It was not helped by the fact I noticed my boss was wearing a Rolex Submariner the day I had a one-on-one session. I previously thought he wore an Omega.

This Seiko is definitely more expensive than the previous two Casios I bought for myself. It was also above the original budget I had set for myself. Nevertheless, the Seiko Prospex SBDC041 Diver Scuba Transocean was still half the price of the Casio Oceanus I was initially looking at. It did help to anchor my mind at the even more expensive watches of Hublot, IWC and Rolex to feel that my purchase was relatively "cheap".

I bought the watch at The Bencoolen's 3D watch shop on my friend's recommendation. The place is well visited by tourist because they sell their Casios at an extremely competitive price. The Bencoolen is near the Guanyin Temple and OG and you will need to go into the building to realise the number of watch shops nestled there. the sales lady was not the most pleasant. She straight away gave me a huge discount off the stick price. I tried my best to bargain but I obviously was not good at it. I go the watch still, paying by credit card instead of the cash I had withdrawn. Will give a review in the coming months, once I wear it more often.

Dmitri van den Bergh almost wins the German Darts Masters

I quite like the young Belgian Dmitri van den Bergh. That he will be pairing with Kim Huybrechts (my other favourite) means that other than Singapore, I will most likely support Belgium.

van den Berg almost lost in the finals of the German Darts Masters 2018. The Dream Maker as he is also known, beat MVG and Gary Anderson en route. That is quite the achievement. Anyway, here is a video of van den Berg closing out a 10 darter on the bull against The Power.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gy9Z0FHmsU

Unable to unloading illiquid stocks

I currently am holding on to Colex, Hong Leong Finance, Delfi and F&N. The latter two are held at a loss. I am pretty much a buy-and-hold kind of investor because trading stocks is too much for me. Given that I am expecting a not so good second half of the year, I am looking to unload my stocks. However, the trading volumes on the above four stocks are so thin. For example, for Delfi, for pretty much the entire trading day, there are only bids for 2,000 shares. This is probably placed by the market maker.

This always bring us to the problem of buying stocks that have "deep value". Often these stocks trade at low PE and PB or any other conventional valuation metrics. They trade at "deep value" in part because no one really is picking them up. Imagine, every quarter, you collect say 5,000 shares. Over time, you build up a sizeable holdings. If for some reason, you need to liquidate your position because you need the money, who can and who do you sell to?

The best case scenario for buying "deep value" stocks has always been their value will be discovered by the market. When this discovery occurs, the interest generated will always bring up the price. Another fantasy outcome of this discovery is, should the stock continue to post growth in earnings, that a stock split or bonus issue occurs. Some examples are Etika International and Breadtalk. They have rewarded their long suffering shareholders handsomely when a small base of shares gets multiplied. There will be more people to sell to.

In my case, except for Colex, the other three companies relatively big and mature companies trading on the stock exchange for sometime. Their shares are illiquid at the moment, because I think that no one really wants to sell, even if the stock's fundamentals are not so positive. Likewise, no one really wants to buy because they know there are difficulties flipping the shares for a quick buck. Well, I just have to be patient and look for that window of opportunity in the coming weeks.

Looking to go into cash

In my post at the start of the year I said:

I expect the market to top in the coming 6 months before we see a correction and a short down trend. While the newspaper headlines suggest that the local economy is doing well, I think these are false indicator. Expect a bumpy ride in the second half of 2018.

Since early 2016, there market has been on a non-stop uptrend and pretty much everyone is a stock market genius. Except me.

As May comes to close to the end, I am currenly holding on to four companies, namely, Colex, F&N, Delfi and Hong Leong Finance. To show my skin in the game, I will be looking to sell at least two of the companies, leaving me mostly in cash. Delfi is the company that has brought me most pain. I have recently bought it at lows, but it has gone below the lows. There is also no market for the stock. F&N is also another stock that is in the red but at a more tolerable level.  Currently, Colex is in the black, more so than Hong Leong Finance. The big but is that the bid-ask spread for Colex is too big. I will take more than a hair cut if I were to clear them.

The odd thing about this bull market is that aside from the Trump factor, no one really knows what is driving it. This is because most of the macro-economic indicators are not so positive, forwards and backwards. Perhaps my fingers are not as close to the pulse of the market as I should be, or maybe I am not reading enough financial news. Nevertheless, I will be switching my investments to mostly cash soon, in line with my predictions. Overall, I am still in the black but given that I am nine years in the market, the performance has been poor. Better a poor performance than suffer massive blowout!

The Darts Watch - Casio Edifice EFR-554SG-2AV

Heaven and earth. I bought this chronograph together with the dress watch. The colours reminded me of Optimus Prime from Transformers. However, almost everyone who has seen me wear this, says it is too loud and tacky. I have been told to stop wearing it if possible. Which is why I wear it on days I have darts league matches at night, my opponents will get distracted and possibly overwhelmed by the fake gold tone. 

Casio Edifice EFB 301JL 7ADR - My first self bought dress watch

 The Casio Edifice EFB 301JL 7ADR is the first dress watch I bought for myself. I bought the quartz watch in September 2016 along with another watch I will review later. I love the sapphire glass, rose gold casing and bezel. Further research informs me that this version does not have an anti-reflective coating, which would probably cost a bit more on top of the fact it is sapphire. The genuine leather straps are also comfortable. However, it being brown means I need to have brown belt and shoes to match. That is another problem for another time.

The elegant Seiko Kinetic Premier SRN039P2

This is probably the most expensive gift to me by my girlfriend so far, the Seiko Kinetic Premier SRN039P2, with a retrograde day indicator. The small white hand will move all the way back up from Saturday, when it is Sunday. This is quite a cool complication which I will avoid for my future watches. More complications will also mean long run servicing issues. Nevertheless, it is a lovely dress watch which I have been wearing to formal occasions since 2013 instead of the Casio sports watch. The leather strap, sapphire glass and a see through back casing are features that also make this Seiko Premier Kinetic worth the money paid for.

Bye bye Casio Edifice

 These are some of my older watches. On the left were two watches gifted to me. The two on the right were ones I bought myself.

 My dad sent this Casio (EF514D 7AVDF EF514D) my girlfriend bought way back in 2007 for servicing. The B button has been stuck inside and I needed to get it out. However, the technician at Casio service centre, which is now at Novena, said it was beyond repair. According to my dad, various technicians suggest that the watch has taken too much of a beating. Rust on the inside was the most probable cause of death. Oh well.

Sale of Halcyon Agri (former GMG Global)

In line with my expectation that the market will start to turn bearish, I have sold my shares in Halcyon Agriculture. This is probably the shares I have held the longest - 108 months. However, despite the promise of a big China auto boom, over the 108 months, I have taken a 40.8% loss on the counter.

I am currently left with 4 counters, F&N, Delfi, Colex and Hong Leong Finance. I will look at slowly disposing them.