The Tide Wash Over

At the end of what is likely the most horrible week in recent history, most portfolios, especially those who have no exposure to US equities, had bled. Mine was no exception.

A list of index returns, as retrieved from https://countryeconomy.com/stock-exchange,
reveals that:
1)
S&P lost a mere 8.7% this week.
Dax lost 20%,
CAC (Paris) 19.86%,
ASE 19.39%,
FTSE 16.97
Nikkei, 16%

2) STI lost "only" 11.04% this week, culminating to a YTD loss of 18.27%

3) Year to Date, ASE lost an astonishing 39%.
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My little portfolio has a YTD loss of -11.84%.

Stocks in the portfolio with >20% losses, inclusive of dividends:
1) TTJ (-32.3%)
2) Colex (-25.57%)
3) Xinghua Port Holdings (-25.51%)
4) OKP (-23.68%)
5) SUTL (-19.99%)

Included in the list should be LHT, which the owner decided to purchase some stock, lifting the price by an insane 24.73% intraday. Without it, LHT should stand at close to -20% as well.

So I have only 10 stocks, and 6 of them are down 20%. I don't think nothing can test one's behavior better than the current climate.

There are no more bonds to buffer the decline as they are fully redeemed. I am pretty sure there are some deals to be had.

Feb 2020 Portfolio Review

I think it is much easier to start this blog off differently...

If you were to have a screener that will email you the list of 52 weeks low stocks, and this list appears:

And if 2 out of the 16 stocks are in your portfolio, you can't be doing so well against the broad market.

So I am a little surprised that I have done one percent better than STI Index. Of course, when compared to the Hong Kong and American indices, I am trash.

Year To Date, for major indices:
STI: -9.34%
HSI: -7.18%
S&P: -7.58%

My portfolio: -6.8%.

It is not a good year and many of my stocks are standing at double digit unrealised losses. Everyone is probably suffering now. The temptation for many is to cut loss, "sell and buy back cheaper later," etc. Some around me are even buying inverse ETF (which doesn't really correlate accurately with the market movement, i.e. goes up or barely moves when the markets is also going up sometimes).

Market Transaction during Feb and part of March:
-Redemption of all Singapore Saving Bonds, which is approximately 20% of the entire portfolio.
-Added OKP Holdings as prices fall.
-TTJ, and SUTL, twice in a month.
-Complete divestment in small holdings Stamford Land and Qingling Motors.

There was a joke made by the author call "Concentrated Investing, ..." (https://www.amazon.com/Concentrated-Investing-Strategies-Greatest-Investors/dp/1119012023) and within it, there was a insurance manager who was asked why his returns were much better than the norm... and the reply was:

"Tennis Shoes!"

The author finally figured that he meant "10 issues" instead. Coincidentally, that is the same number of holdings in my portfolio.

***
Incidentally, writing this post makes me feel a little better, although it felt like my portfolio was actually underperforming daily. I felt this way because I have lost track of the number of times I see a 6-9% plunge day on a least a stock every other day. With the port barely threading above water for the time being, my expectations for this year would be that I would underperform the market.

This is largely because none of the earnings reports in the companies I hold have anything optimistic to report about.

When I started getting serious into value investing, my primary motivation is that I would remain unshaken in market movements as bad as 2008. Value investing seems to suggest that value portfolio does OK during bear markets (now), poorly during bulls (last year), and remarkably well during recoveries (when will this come? I know not...). Interesting times.