Bought Super Group: Now hoping for the best

I had to check my phone again because it was showing me that shares of Super Group were traded close to SGD 3. This was especially shocking since it was almost close to SGD 5.00 at one point. Scrambling for news, I discovered that Super's profits were hit by the unrest in Thailand, given the company's exposure to the market there. I decided to take the plunge and may be do some contra-ing as I have done before. However, given that I was buying at a period so close to XB, the temptation was there for me to settle. And I did settle. Now, hope is much of the equation. My line of thinking is that once the price goes XB, the lower price would prompt people to buy in. I am painfully aware that while companies that give bonus shares tend to indicate positive outlook within the company, there are companies that did the same and tanked, Etika International being a good example. It has yet cross the SGD 0.50 mark that was its high before it went XB. More to monitor in the coming months.

Noble Group Sold for 5% return after 29 months

I sold my 3,000 Noble Group shares on Tuesday at SGD 1.25  after close to three years holding it.  Including the dividends that I have accumulated, I made 5.3% on this investment, or just SGD 193. Excluding which, my return would have just been a paltry SGD 62. Too much downside, not much upside! 

200% return from Elite KSB after 51 months

I was surprised to see a letter for me from the Depository informing me that Elite KSB has been delisted from the Mainboard. In 2009-10, I acquired 16,000 shares costing me SGD 3,300 or about 20.7 cents per share. The dividends and capital distributions received up to the point of delisting amounted to SGD 9,894. This represents almost 200% return on the money I had put in, but the holding period was a long 51 months. Looking back at my original "explanation" of 26 cents being the target price, Elite KSB has outperformed my expectation. 

That said, the stock reached a high of 60 cents in November 2012. Had I sold then and there, I would have made about SGD 300-400 more and reduced my holding period by 12 months. Nonetheless, after clearing four stocks at a loss, this "win" was a welcome sight. Incidentally, this is the third stock after SPC and C&O Pharmaceutical to be taken out of the Mainboard.

I guess there was always the hope that the company would be an RTO target. However, with the heightened scrutiny of Chinese and Indonesian companies by SGX as well as weak overall sentiment, it seems that an RTO of Elite KSB was always going to be a longshot.

I will be revisiting my market call soon. I had on 18 January anticipated a bear market with volatility. This was initially true but the market has since recovered and gained 2% since the date of my call. 

10 minutes to improve your life and investments

I spent time at night reading his archive of comic strips then realised that he also has a blog on the same site. The slides won't take more than 10 minutes to go through. It tells us what some of you already know that the means matter more than the goals. That if you focus on getting the processes in place, the goals will be "easier" to reach. By the way, the slides uses techniques from a communications guidebook and could be a reference for your future projects. 

Goals are for Losers. Passion is Overrated. from Scott Adams

Catching up on my reading

After my examinations ended on 19 February, I have been indulging myself with computer games, exercise, after work drinking as well as reading. In fact, I borrowed from my girlfriend a book that I had bought for her, Thinking, Fast and Slow, and am almost done reading it the second time. Despite rereading it, I think there are many wonderful points about how our minds work that we can learn and understand as well as exploit. I will perhaps raise a few points in the coming posts, but suffice to say at this point, our minds are the product of many years of evolution and what it is most useful with - surviving the wild - means that sometimes it fails to cope with modern day abstract situations, such as in finance. 

The other book was purchased at least 2-3 years ago when I first signed up for a Kinokuniya membership, The King Never Smiles, actually as a followup to a undergraduate module on Thailand. I picked the book up again to understand the history of Thailand and the role of the monarchy, especially the long ruling king Bhumipol. The crisis in Bangkok is a long recurring one but I am of the view that once the prophecy comes true, it may mean more chaos but a new start to Thailand's democracy.