The Ugliness of Human Beings

A pair of news had me thinking recently.

The first would be the sudden passing of Mr. Ravi, a prominent lawyer in the activist circle.

The second was the Toa Payoh Yang Tau Fu (YTF) stall, which already had announced their impending closing next month, but received extremely poor press. The owner (an 80 year old lady) and the lady running the show (her daughter) were upset. The latter cried during an interview.

It had me thinking about how humans behave, and what is left after our lives or our work has concluded.

In other words, our legacy.

For Mr. Ravi, I do not want to question what he said or done while he was still alive, but what impacted me deeply is how some decided to make use of this timing to air their grievances or unhappiness with him. I put forward that this timing is largely opportunistic, to make himself (or herself) heard, without regards to how people who are still greiving after him, feels.

I have certain enemies in life but I think I will never want to act anywhere like that in the future.

***

As for the YTF stall, the issue was about over-charging. As far as I read, the prices seems to be clearly stated upfront. So what was the point of bring this issue up on press? They are already closing shop and I don't think this is how they want things to end. 

Whenever you choose to do something, question your intent honestly.

To shame? Or to correct a wrong? There was no wrong IMO. 

Human being sucks. I longed for a day where I can work for nobody but myself, answer to nobody but myself. That would be a dream.

2025 Year End Review. Ten Years of Investing

Portfolio Returns: 99.3%

STI: 29.2%

Tracker: 25.6%

S&P 500: 13.35%

I believe returns should be correct this time round since Evan of Stock Cafe has taken care of the issue (thank you).  My XIRR over ten years stands at 25.8% as of now, but I doubt this will carry on, long term.

Notable Transactions:

Complete disposal of Aoxin Q&M (again).

I had about 90,000 shares in Aoxin and applied for 300,000 in excess rights. I got 211,000, and sold all my shares at around 0.085. The rights were priced at 0.03. So it was a lot of money earned in a short while, nothing short of fool's gold.

As the prices of silver climb, I am disposing my holdings in Clifford Modern Living in a gentle fashion.

I initiated positions in Crocs and H&R Block. Unfortunately Crocs went up a bit too quickly and I have mixed feelings about buying more at this point of time.

***

2025 marks the tenth year of investing.

I started investing at 36 years old. It didn't start off pretty. I was a natural saver, and I work very hard in my office. I took a lot of pride in my work ethic, and I believe that as a leader, one must lead by example, in every aspect.

In 2016, that belief all but came crashing down as I am denied promotion. I thought I deserved it, but no.I told myself that I need to get some control over my life. My investing journey begin. 

It took another three years after that before I finally got it. I refuse to believe it until a colleague called me and said that the letter was on my table. After that phone call, I walked into the toilet and cried for a good 5 minutes.

It took me 12-13 years to finally get a promotion. I continued to work hard after that, believing that I need to give my best to express my gratitude to this section.

It didn't work out. In exactly 10 years, I am back at the same spot. I watched as someone else way less deserving (and motivated) is given the chance to fight for promotion. It is something that I will never understand. Why do I always have to fight tooth and nail for something I deserved all along, while others are gifted, their ways are paved, even when they expressed reluctance?

I am glad that overall my portfolio has done well... far better than my main work. 

***

2025 has been a bitter sweet year. Despite OKP returning a good 300% this year, I sold most of my shares when my returns from it was at the 200-300% mark (my average price was 0.19$, had I held on, I would gain 600%). I don't just manage money for myself-- I also do it for my parents. I was afraid that the gains would be lost if I don't sell soon. How can I face my parents if I didn't sell them in time?

The years prior were not great. I couldn't believe such good fortune was happening to me.

If I had not sold, I probably could retire in a handful of years, confirm. Again, guilty conscience consumes me.

I also saw gains in stocks that I sold way too early, but I had reasons to do so then. My Central China positions burnt my appetite for holding companies that has too much. My experience with TTJ colored my perception about companies who are known to be OPMI-unfriendly (that was why I sold Centurion)

I always console myself: Hey, life could always be worse.

***

Mum's leg is finally turning for the better after her surgery, and her wounds has mostly heal. For that I am grateful. 

***

Every time someone remarked that value investing is dead, earning multiples doesn't matter, it rang the alarm bells in my head. I looked at cash outflow in my portfolio and they are at the highest ever. Looking back in history, I observe that my cash inflow (i.e. I am buying stocks more than I sold) is highest when markets aren't doing so well. 

Trust me, I am not a macro investor... I have always been bottom up in my approach. 

Value investing ALWAYS works. You just have the wrong expectations. Periods where company valuations that are sky high and kept defying gravity, combined with heavy insider selling, will never last. Only in the stock market would people buy frantically when knowledgeable owners sell. Sanity is not a feature of the market, and I am glad for it. Otherwise, there would never be opportunities to buy cheap.

I find it mentally exhausting to buy those stocks in vogue... community chats revolved around topics defending the valuation, poking holes at bear thesis and bad news. They are on the constant look out for dark clouds in the sky.

I am not fond of investing this way-- I like downtrodden companies-- simply because of Walter Schloss's 3 strings to a bow idea. 

Something good could happen to me. 

A company that is too cheap could be privatized, or offered to taken private. A company sieged with problems could somehow resolved it (this is where my judgement is needed). Years of withholding  dividends? Management could change policy. General market optimism (this year is a bit like that) could make investors look harder for bargains, and reprice these bargains accordingly.

I don't have to constantly look for good news. There are many good possibilities. I just need to be a realist about it.

In investing, it doesn't help to be a pessimist or an optimist. The realist buys from the pessimists and sells to the optimists..... like what The Intelligent Investor says.

I think the trick to investing is to stay consistent to a certain style, regardless what the flavor of the month (or year) is. As long as the valuation is reasonable, the right process will eventually lead to results, although results might not be immediate, which is the frustrating thing about investing.

Oct 2025 Portfolio Update

That is Gemini's idea of how Mr. Schloss look back then in his small sized office.

It has been a very difficult month personally. 

Her venous ulcer got worse-- she used to have just one 0.5cm open ulcer, but in October, 2-3 additional ulcers appeared. This prompted the doctor to suggest that she retire immediately. The prolonged standing from her job would exacerbate the wound.

Shortly, she developed dermatitis, which we consulted 3-4 GP, including a specialist at Ponggol Clinic. It culminated at National Skin Centre, who affirm the dermatitis diagnosis and given us some medication. It affected her sleep.

My mum have (still has) high glucose level. After a visit to polyclinic (for her venous ulcer), the doctor suggest that she visit A&E for suspected DKA. Basically it means the glucose level became so high that protein in the blood get broken down and organs could failed. She was admitted and warded for 3 days. Doctors could not ascertain what was wrong and attribute it to the oral antihistamines given by one of the clinics.

It was doctors after doctors after doctors.

Another two weeks of Continuous Glucose Monitoring, we are still unable to get her glucose level down....... not too sure what to do from here.

***

YTD returns: 135.9%, XIRR: 24.9%

STI returns: 25%

HK: 30.5%

S&P 500: 12%

Notable transactions:

Purchase a modest amount of crocs and use selling ATM Puts to possible increase position.

Purchase a huge amount of Haidilao for Income Portfolio. Haidilao is now my biggest position, cost price wise. I realize this irony that the amount invested in Haidilao will for all likelihood, surpass my lifetime amount of spending in this restaurant. I live a very frugal life and have no idea why most people like it so much.

A modest amount of Anta Sports was also purchase for Income Portfolio purposes.

Aoxin Q&M Rights Issue

A modest amount of Aoxin Q&M is also vested, and will likely oversubscribe to rights. I think it is still probable that Q&M would take it private sometime in the future. Looking at Aoxin Q&M balance sheet, it doesn't look like it require cash inflows, and it looks like it don't have any grand plans in the near future, which make this cash call puzzling.

The share price of Aoxin had been volatile in recent days.

Assuming that all 511,522,048 shares were subscribed, at 0.030, that would inject 15.34m into its books.

It has, presently:

66.8m (Renminbi)  in cash

42m in receivables.

23m in payables

No debt.

Assuming that 25% of its receivables are bad, it is still about 8m in "net receivables". Add 66.8m (or 12m in SGD) in cash to 15.3m of rights issue into the books. That sums to 27.3m

If every single rights is subscribed, that double the share count to 1023,044096 shares. The eventual cash/share will result to 0.026$ per share. Therefore it would make a ton of sense to subscribe, and to oversubscribe, to as many rights as you could.

While the company's cash inflows has been spotty, there was only 1 year which it sees 30+m in outflows. The last three years has been cashflow positive.

Recent months of share price depression had likely result from China's lethargic economy, the issues with its ex-CEO, and a sizable, and forceful acquisition of shares by its parent Q&M at 0.038 per share from the ex-CEO, which trigger a mandatory offer.

***

After reading Mr. Buffett's last letter, it felt like an era has closed. His exploits in his Buffett Partnership years, where he worked with small sums of money, has a huge influence in the way I look at investing. I made most of my money from very simple items, and find his means required too much access to management. Still, he is a genius of his time.Who is next? Paul Singer? Carl Icahn? Howard Marks?

I prefer the approach of Walter Schloss, which is quantitative, and simple. I like his way of dealing with his shareholders. I would never get to meet Mr. Schloss, and I don't think his son is in the news these days. Looking at the way most people invest (and make money), I think my approach is both geriatric and perhaps ineffective.

Indeed no one was ever victorious against Father Time, and man will always struggle to find the reason of his existence. 

September 2025 Portfolio Update

I have been very quiet because my mother's leg had developed venous ulcers, or ulcers on the skin of her foot. It has not been getting better. This led to very emotional outburst from her which I have to endure daily. The vascular specialist has scheduled an ultrasound to check if the veins are indeed the problem. 

He has also cautioned us that she has to stop working. So at a ripe old age of 72, my mum is finally forced to take a temporary retirement.

These ulcers are depressing because you worry day and night that they get infected. It looks like a mess and unnerving to look at. My mum had been expressing suicidal rants from time to time.

I tried to pacify my mum by showing her the portfolio returns. But it did nothing. The day after we left the vascular specialist's room, and went for our coffee break, she didnt want to order a cup of kopi-c. I know why.

My mum and dad are not well educated, and both work blue collar all their lives. They have no idea what investing is, and only know how to save money. When they hit retirement age, the amount was nothing to be proud of. In fact, looking at the amount that FIRE achiever quite openly post (imo, a lot are humble-braggers), our savings paled in comparison.

There are poor people out there, and I know what it means to be poor.

I am by no means FIRE, but I think the returns is good enough to make money less of a worry when the family funds come together. 

But my mum's health has been pushing my mental well being lower each day. I don't know what else to do. Maybe not get sick so that I can support this family.

***

There is likely a problem with how stock.cafe calculate my YTD returns, so please disregard them.

YTD returns: 133%

STI returns: 17.91%

HK: 26.91%

S&P 500: 8.49%

I think many people looked at XIRR%. I think the XIRR I am having is more likely correct. Stock.cafe report that I am on 25%. I think at the end of this long road, 15% is likely what I get at most. I am not some Buffett material. In fact, compared to most, I am only a part timer doing investing.

Notable transactions:

Selling puts on Haidilao and Anta Sports

My wheel on Crocs got called away after a couple of weeks.

Increase in Kimly shares for my parent's portfolio. Kimly is another example of how the stock market priced no growers at prices where the private market will never. COVID, inflation (and even a post-corruption scandal) tells a story, we simple folks need our kopitiams.

Slight increase in Powermatic Data, largely CPF

Purchase in Goldlion Holdings. Modest intial sums.

I have sold a good amount of Alibaba at 125 earlier on due to call options selling. Unfortunately I am god-damn-lousy at selling stocks (it is about 170 HKD now).

I still have 1000 shares of synthetics that were purchased practically at almost no cost-- I sold puts and bought calls, and when the price went to 145 the first time round, I covered my puts. The calls were almost FOC. The ROI on this option was about 150% based on the cost of the calls alone.

I sold my entire Aoxin Q&M position after the surge, which took place merely weeks after I bought them. It was fools' gold as the price went back down handily after I sold.

Looking at the latest Cordlife suspension, I should feel very blessed that I am totally out of it months ago. I guess selling these cheap stocks are always a matter of luck...

Thank you everyone for reading. Please pray for my mum as I don't know what to do. Life is gray.

-end

Mid-August Portfolio Review

I know some of you are reading this because Kyith wrote about XB and I was mentioned. I just want to put this up right away: I don't have a million dollars.

Heck, I don't even have half of it.

If there is anything you could learn from my investing journey, it would be to start early. I started doing this shit call investing because I had problems with work. Some psychologist noted that most humans can't learn much after puberty, unless trauma occured. It happened to me. It wasn't till I was 36 or so that I bought my first stock.

Even though my XIRR looks okay, I don't have 100k to invest right from the get-go. And incase you wonder how much I bring home at 36, it was probably just over 3k or even lesser. I am your typical loser with no car, no girl, and no self esteem.

I like to think that I am a half-decent human being that likes to help people, even though I get nothing but karma in return, and that is why I did all those videos with Boon Tee in the past. I am afraid of dying, not just because of the things I think I would miss out, but how my parents is going to deal with financially when I am gone. 

While my returns are okay, I wish I did better, not for myself, because I always go home and felt like a loser. I thought about the forgone profits (I sold a lot of stuff way too early) that would make my parents less worried in life, and I don't dare to talk to them about that.

I am just a tool in someone's toolbox. I am happy to be a hammer or a crowbar in exchange of some good karma for my parents.

What dreams? I don't have any. I am stuck in Singapore for more than 8 years. Sometimes I wish I could go Taiwan and learn some billiard-related stuff but that was all to it for me.

I do think long and hard about what happens when I am finally alone; it would probably be a small residence with a cat or two, but that is all I thought of.

***

Life and time gone pass like a blur; I can't recall what happened during the last 1.5 months, except that Mum had problems with her leg and had it bandaged-- she has diabetes and the fear of infection on her leg is very real. 

She also have very high blood sugar of >15-20 during the day, and I had a lot of grief trying to get her to wear the CGM (continuous glucose monitor). It fell off after only 1 day, and she refused to wear it again after that.

I am worried sick about my parents everyday, especially my mum. 

This was Feb-26 this year. We were at TTSH and worrying about some possible medical problems. I remember looking at OKP going up 20% intraday and I told my mum to comfort her. Now I wish I have done better....

***

I am going for a small keyhole surgery (hopefully) for hernia this Friday. I am scared, tbh, not because of the risk of this op (it is opined to be low), but the implications it have on my work (it could affect my promotion, already I could see it slipping away a bit), and what happens if I don't wake up. 

That image of my mum foaming at her mouth and my dad standing over, scolding her instead of calling an ambulance, will always be in my mind. I am frightened of the day where she needs help and I am not around. 

***
Sorry for this personal rant.... lets go back to investing

YTD returns: 69%

STI returns: 15.76%

HK: 20.48% (wow)

S&P 500: ~5%$ (another wow)

It doesn't feel that low with all frightening highs that the usual US stock is bearing.

Major transactions:

Aoxin Q&M- Small amount of investment in this. This could go down very badly as the CEO has already given up. But the situation might not be as dire as it looks: Maybe he was just sick and tired of having to deal with the parent (Q&M). He was unable to fulfill the profit targets, and from how it looks, he is still a long way off. So instead of having forced to sell his shares (at a heavily discounted price of 0.03x) to Q&M, and as a result, work for free, why not just quit?

There is still a good amount of cash in this company and the earnings look like fortunes are reversing.... 

Manulife US Reit: It looks like they could survive, which can bring a huge upside. Very little is invested in this due to risk. It is a high risk, high reward play.

Clifford Modern Living: Trimmed a little: The price is motivated by the silver bullion 'investment' that the company has: it is still not too dear, valuation wise.

On the option portfolio front: Purchase more Haidilao and sold more covered calls. Charts do hint of a lengthy sideways movement. I dont think Haidilao is too expensively priced, but earnings (coming up in a few days) is likely unimpressive, which could bring prices down. Unlike its previous problems years ago, this looks like an economy problem and not management-related.

Bought some ACIC and sold covered calls.

That is it. Sorry for the rant. Quite a few things in my mind.

June 2025 Portfolio Update

 Year to date:

My portfolio: 56%

S&P: 0.5%

Tracker Fund: 13.34%

STI: 8.68%

Besides token amount of buying Powermatic Data, there isn't much to update.

I do have a lot of regrets in life and tend to dwell into times where I wish I done things differently.

I know my portfolio returns is well above average this year, I... actually don't feel great about it. Perhaps it was because I had already sold a good amount of OKP, leaving a small amount in.

The last time I sold OKP, it was about the 50-60 cents region (i fear looking for the exact amount, it makes me sick to my stomach). Today, the stock is 90 over cents.

I used to have over 500,000 shares, so that is over 300k SGD in gains,. I actually make a lot lesser than that.

I held this stock for 6 years, went through thick and thin with it longer than most people hold any stock. So it was more bitter than sweet.

It was as if God had given you a path to wealth and you choose to step out of it halfway. 

I feel less terrible if it was just my money. But it wasn't. I could have make a lot more money for my parents.

Back then during the terrible Chinese property crash years, where i lost like 50k in total, the pain I felt when I lost my parent's money.... I am not sure if I feel worse than that now.

***

I do know people who outright refuse to manage their parent's money. I got a different view. If not you, who? And why do you not do it?

If they were rich to begin with... fine.

If your relationship was poor with them... fine.

But if they don't speak a word of English, can't tell the difference between a bond and stock, and look at you pleadingly when the market was doing badly, telling you to sell to avoid losses....

If not you, who?

I fear for the day that I be gone, and they have no one to rely on in this area.

***

I wish I done better for my parents. I feel very sorry and regretful.

May 2025 Portfolio Update

 Year to date:

My portfolio: 48.36%

S&P: 12.81%

Tracker Fund: -2.99%

STI: 6.42%

Attempts to self medicate... COVID 19 test kit behind that lovely tiger balm

It took my quite some time to write this post because my mum had an fall (thank God nothing serious), and I was down with a virus for the last three days.

Thank God.

Portfolio was boosted largely by realized profits from Cordlife due to a 10% share float offer from Medeze. I outlined why I sold earlier, and on hindsight, the stock went up more than 10% after the sale. My efforts at selling continues to suck big time-- I sold most of my OKP and it went up further more. 

Major transaction involves buying securities that are fairly priced for selling of options. With options, the companies involves mostly deal with large caps, and opportunities are not as wide as buying small cap stocks.

As such, I had been buying quite a bit of Haidilao. Its prices has been falling, and I have even got involved in buying deep, in the money, options, and selling shorter term calls. This is what is known as Poor Man's Covered Call, or PMCC. 

Buying a call that deep in the money has advantages and disadvantages. The pros are:

• with a deep in the money call, you actually paying very little for time value, even if you are buying longer period options. 
• You pay less money up front compared to buying stock.

BUT the cons are:

• with deep in the money calls, you are gaining and losing money exponentially. My delta is very close to 1.00, which means for instance.
  
  The option price for security A is 3.82. Assuming if the delta is 1, and the underlying stock is 100$,. If the stock goes from 100-> 101, the option goes from 3.82 to 4.82. 

As such, given the risk, only a small amount of money is involved, but PMCC are such high-yielding devices. The premiums from the calls I sold was 0.405, and the PMCC-options cost 5.32. That is a one month yield of 7.6%!

Comically, I just received the annual report of Cordlife-- after I sold their shares.

Not much to update this month. 

Complete liquidation of shares in Cordlife

I have sold out of all my Cordlife shareholdings at 0.24 per share. This is a pretty good annualized return of 85% from about a year of holding.

Maybe a short recap is in order, if nothing else but for entertainment sake.

Like most of the stocks in my portfolio, I was attracted to... problems. And Cordlife have a major problem (notice I use present tense, it is not out of it yet!). It has two groups of users which cordblood units (CBU) are damaged. One is high risk, which are pretty much no longer 'useful', and low risk, which expert opined that given the temperature or duration of which the incident last, it should still be viable. 

They are still looking at the test results of the low risk group. The report, as the group announced in sgx, should be out in the latter half of this year. That timeline isn't very useful since there isn't much of this year left... 

In terms of value, I do believe that if the low risk CBU is not damaged, Cordlife is worth way more than 0.127, which was my holding price.

Genesis
It started with a private placement (which was thwarted) and most of the directors were then removed during the AGM after which TransGlobal (my opinion, it is anyone's guess if the incumbents are TransGlobal allies), lost the ability to control the company, and as expected, the CEO (TransGlobal's non-exec director's younger brother) quit recently. It looks like the company has passed on from the power struggle stage and could rebuild. 

I think they are still in the early stages of rebuilding, and this could be a lengthy process. At least they regained the license from MOH to continue business as it is.

Sometime during this incident, I joined one particular telegram group, which primarily consist of parents of affected CBU. Obviously I would like to know if they could legally challenge the company. They were forming various group representation to sue. I do read their concerns and felt that, for the high risk group, they were undercompensated by the company.

I am not too sure what to think of the low risk group's parents. Basically, if the CBUs are not damaged, there should be no basis to sue. Unless you have evidence that they have been negligent for a long time, then yes, you have some basis to sue.

Sometime during the conversation some parents told me certain disturbing issues about Cordlife which was on the back of my mind. I told her that I would talk to Cordlife's management when I have the chance. Unfortunately, I missed the EGM due to work. With this liquidation, I guess there won't be.

Don't f**k with parents
Something negative happened during this course of research as well. I was out openly in the telegram group and accused of being a spy. My opinion stays that these parents are better served by buying stocks than engaging these lawyers. Firstly, by buying shares, you are having some kind of psuedo-ownership over the company you hate. You could question them during the AGM. Secondly, you are not provided additional capital to the company-- only stock ownership was transferred. You are not providing additional funds or gunpowder to the very company you hated. "Investing" in Cordlife had a very misleading naunce to it. 

Of course none of them were having it and I was asked to leave.

I am not sure how much did they paid the lawyers, and the odds that they going to get anything back eventually

But I was certainly not getting a single cent from offering that investing advice, and my opinions and intent were pretty clear. I was very willing to explain to these parents the investing thesis of it all, and if anyone had listen, they would be slightly happier today. 

About Journalists:
The only person that actually listened was a Straits Time reporter. The Business Times reporters were pretty snobby (LOL) and only Ben Paul replied. None of his underlings/colleagues bothered; neither were they willing to write from an angle that there is potentially a lot of value in this company. They were only keen about the board power struggle (which I actually spent a damn long time to understand the players involved, and tried to reach out to them), the parents-MOH angle (understandable). But hey, you guys are Business Times. Nobody wants to stick their neck out and look at it from a distressed angle?

The End
The offer price of 0.25 from Thailand's Medeze is a fair deal, considering the following factors:

a) it is possible that the low risk group is affected.

b) The timeframe of which the value of the company that could be revise by the public market might take a long time (not that I wasn't willing to wait)

c) any other possible problems which I might be unaware of, such as financial fraud.

d) quite a few directors resigned, which worried me a fair deal.

What should happen next
The low risk group should be ... still viable, and eventually all the suits involving the low risk group could be thrown out. I afraid that these parents would be doubly disappointed by the outcome.

The company should be able to afford the outcome of the group representation suit from the high risk group, although it would significantly impact its coffers.

Cordlife, after clearing these legal issues, would be privately bought out by NJXJK or a consortium consisting of it. I suspect the company is worth at least over 30 cents if the low risk group isn't a liability. It could be a long wait, but it wasn't the waiting that is an issue, it is the uncertainty of things. A return of a few hundred percent over a lengthy course of 5-6 years is not a big deal.

What if the low risk group is an issue? Thing would be very bad indeed.

Apr 2025 Portfolio Update

Year to date:

My portfolio: 38.74%

S&P: -6.45%

Tracker Fund: 9.11%

STI: 3.47%

There were no major transactions this month, as much of the equities I wrote put options on recovered, and covered calls options wrote were exercised by my counterparties. This resulted in a large amount of free cash in my option selling portfolio. Because of market volatility, the implied volatility is high as well, resulting in large premiums collected. Because the market recovered significantly, I would have bigger profits had I buy and hold certain assets.

But that is the key to options-- if I have been so convinced that the valuations were too low, I would have bought options instead of selling them. The recovery was unexpected. But if there were no recovery, and the market had gone sideways, I would be happy with those premiums.

Apologies for the short update as there isn't really much to look forward to. 

What I did during market madness

Since 4-April, the STI has fell well over 10%. It lost 7.3% on 7-April.

We saw DBS and UOB suffer over 10% drop in a single day. Scalpers are still bleeding.

Hong Kong fell 13.4%

All these Black Swan days push the false narrative that equities are unsafe and therefore best avoided. Nothing can be further from the truth. In property-crazy Singapore, I think unless we have a good bubble bursting in property prices, they will always prefer properties. How many of your friends are property agents?

I don't see a need to convince anyone that stocks are a better idea. I know what suffering from equities is like, and I don't think stocks is for everyone. My pet peeve with property investing is that all these property "investing" results in sky high prices for people who actually need houses to live in.

I would not be surprised that one day, the department of MSF have to carve a special branch just to deal couples who purposely divorce so as to own multiple HDBs.

Since "Liberation Day," where astounding amount of tariffs were announced by Donald Trump, markets fell off a cliff. 

Particularly for Singapore and Hong Kong indices, they fell as much as 8.3 percent and 12 percent intraday. I was told that it was the worst drop intraday for Singapore, since the fateful day of 2008.

Some of my positions fell very hard. For instance, OKP fell as much as 20% in one day. The only reason why I did not feel so sad was because I had already done a lot of selling. To put things into perspective, I had over 500,000 shares of OKP. On that day of madness, I had 105,000 shares left. 

OKP fell from 64++ cents to 51.5. It recovered to almost 60 cents today.

IMO, OKP liquid assets and properties would amt to some 80m of discount off its market cap (it is almost 200m as I wrote).

It has almost 600m of contracts for the next few years. Assuming a yearly revenue of 200m, and a margin of about 15%, it is about 30m. You paying for about 4 times earnings, under the optimistic assumption that it continues to tender successfully for projects, and maintain its margins.

But this blog post is more about what I did during the market madness. So I went through my stocks.cafe transaction and stared at what I did.

-I bought more City Developments with my CPF. I liquidated quite a lot of my OKP held in CPF, so there are excess cash.

-I bought some Powermatic Data for my mum and dad. The dividend isn't much, and the value isn't exactly screaming vis-a-vis its price. So the accumulation is modest.

Market panics at the very least bring some liquidity to these small cap stocks.

-I bought a modest amount of Best Mart 360 for my parents. They give off a huge amt of dividend and the price to cash flow is very modest.

-Given how high Implied Volatility was for some HKEX and American stocks, I also
1) bought Haidilao and sold covered calls. I sold a good amount of Puts on them as well. Market sell down has make all these puts in-the-money, and I am likely going to be assigned to them at the end of this month.

2) bought Anta Sports and sold covered calls. Also, I have a good amount of puts in them. Likewise, these puts are now in the money

I believe these 2 stocks are fairly priced and have decent ROE, so long term holding is palatable.

-I noted high volatility on certain stocks in America which I have light-weighted opinions on.

1) I sold puts on Southwest, and a 10% cushion off the stock price yield me a decent amount of premium (about 1.3% yield). If Southwest were to be put to me, it would cost me 23$ a share.

2) I sold puts on Paypal as well. It is now well in the money, and I would likely be assigned. I was more aggressive in selling puts on Paypal and the yield was only 1.0% for that one week. I actually rolled my options on this, so I net zero. Yea, Paypal was sold down a lot during these two weeks.

3) I sold puts on Intel and there is a small chance it will be assigned.  Yield is about 1.38% for this one week. I sold strike 18 puts when it was 20, last Friday. Amazing enough, the IV was reasonably correct in guessing that this could happen, and now as I write, we are on-the-money on this. So the market was right.

During the last 5 trading days, I did not sell a single share. Whatever I am holding, I believe they are at least reasonably or bargain priced. 

March 2025 portfolio update

Year to date:
My portfolio: 35.72%

S&P: -6.29%

Tracker Fund: 15.25%

STI: 5.92%

Notable transactions: as the price of OKP revised upwards, 1 took profit on about 1/3 of my entire holdings. The extra liquidity was used to purchase CityDev, prior to senior Kwek's decisio to drop the case. Additional capital from CPF was used to purchase more CityDev after the announcement. I have now around 2000 shares.

Personally, I do not think of this idea as a high conviction one there are no known possible catalyst, other than the need of an extremely powerful and rich family to save face, and demonstrate competence.

 There is of course a lot of value in the stock but the dividend is far from risk free rate. Shedding as much OKP that I have result in way more capital than ideas I have at hand. That perhaps could explain the lack of discipline in deploying my capital. 

The lack a discipline extends towards a short-termed punt on BYD based on trends/charts/news. The end result reminds me that I am at most a mediocre trader. A modest amount of profit was the outcome of this effort.

I watch with interest at the recent earnings release from Nongfu Spring and Anta Sports. NFS faced both political and customer retention weakness. The company shown slowing growth from its bottled water segment, and vey encouraging growth from other products, esp tea. I wagered that negative public sentiments towards the stock should be short-lived. However the price is still a little too high for my taste, even with option selling advantages to potentially bring down the price.

Anta Sports earnings show similar consumer weakness, but more aligned with a more cautious economy than specific sentiments to the company. Long term thinking, as well as above average ability to tolerate downturn in prices, could possibly make this a profitable holding.

My experience with FuShouYuan may dissuade me from this thought. it is far easier to bet on book value plays than compounders. The dividends at FSY is large, and it is possibly a hint to share holders that long term growth is impacted. I like Anta Sports dividend-- though modest, it displayed a steady upward trend.

Speaking of dividends, Clifford ML dividend held strong, possibly buoyed by silver bullion's rally . I disagree with such an investment but even taking a late haircut off the current value of silver, the stock price is not high. Though it is no longer the bargain stock that it was.

The last book value play is Powermatic Data. Some of my mates called it Problematic Data in jest, and I love companies with problems. The current problem is earnings, and its new CEO night be able - to handle that however. The apparent value with this stock is the building which the company is repurposing... with the belief of the board is that it would bring in more dough than just selling the building outright.

With book value play, the game plan is simple - accumulate on weakness. For compounders, concerns about earning power is impacted long term isn't that apparent sometimes..

Feb 2025 Portfolio Update

Portfolio: 30.33% (was 9.35%)

ES3 (Straits Times Index Fund): 3.34% (was 2.34%)

S&P (S&P 500 Index): 0.56% (was 1.77%)

2800 (Tracker Fund Index): 13.26% (was 4.32%)

It was days before the last update and plenty of things happened for my portfolio.

Not only did OKP did very well in the days after earnings release, Alibaba had a revival (again?) that was way more optimistic than the last 2, or 3 times where it rose and faltered.

In fact, the HSI did very well in a matter of days, but Alibaba's rise seems especially prominent as Xi seems to soften his stance on private enterprise and 'common prosperity,' a term that I still struggle to understand.

The market treat me very kindly beside the upmove by Alibaba and OKP. Clifford Modern Living release a special dividend of HKD 0.112 per share. That removes 113.8m (or 104.9m RMB) of cash from its books.

What is the residue value? Clifford has100m RMB of deposites, and 344m of cash before this announcement. It also have 62.8m in silver bullion, which should be lower than market value since silver prices went a little higher since.

It has  payables of 118m - 34m of receivables, which net to 84m. There is about 60m of other liabilities, so total up there is 144m of liabilities.

The liquid assets totaled (100+344+62.8) 506.8m, and taking away 104.9m for dividend means it is 401.9m of net liquid assets. There are 144m of liabilities, so the result is 257.9m RMB.

There are 1015.75m shares, and current stock price is 0.67 HKD. That is a market cap of 680m HKD, or 636.7m RMB. Buying stock now is paying for a enterprise value of 378m.

Free cash flow is about 80-150m in the last five years. Even if we looked back last 10 years, the lowest was 77m. So I think it is perhaps wise to hold on to the shares.

Clifford has been quite a good investment, yielding me 70% returns so far. It is my third biggest position.

Transactions:

Sold out the small position of Wee Hur in CPF portfolio. The language and tone from the directors at the AGM don't sound too shareholder-friendly. Wee Hur, iirc, doesn't have a good track record in being so in the past, but who knows it might do a Centurion (I lost 200-300% returns on this, it was my third biggest position) and bite me.

Took profit on a small amount of OKP. OKP still weighs 40++% of my portfolio.

About 1500 shares of Alibaba, which is 3 call options worth of shares, were called away. I also had purchase 2 call options of Alibaba some time earlier, strike price 125. These option expire at the end of the year.

That is all I guess. Grateful that the market is kind to me, and will be looking out for how Anta Sports do in a few weeks, after earnings. I have quite a bit of synthetic positions, through options, on it.

Thank you OKP.

The agreement to terminate the viaduct contract with LTA. 2018.

Bread and butter projects for OKP-- maintenance.

Some questions wrote in prior to AGM

It took a long time to build up a position in OKP. This was 4-November-2020.

AGM in 2023, where its fortune were starting to turn for the better.

OKP was probably the first company I bought based on the basis that a company is under some sort of duress but is likely to recover. The very first shares were acquired in 2017-8.

The viaduct collapse was followed by mutual cancellation of the project. Shortly after, employees and directors were hauled to court. 

All troubles do come to an end. Things start turning for OKP, beginning with Mr Or Toh Wat having his charges withdrawn. Then in 2019, the arbitration between CPG Consultants and OKP came to a close, awarding some 40++m to OKP. At the same time, the valuations of the shophouse properties began appreciating as the world fought COVID. 

When 40++m were finally transferred to OKP, the market was very disappointed when there are no special dividend. Instead, the management was awarded directly by bonuses. Whether the investors believed the explanation given by directors during the AGM then (it was family tradition to withhold all dividends payout to the directors for one year, for financial prudence) or that the market has a short memory, the price did recover a little.

During the last two years, OKP won tenders for various cycling track projects, and they turned out to be extremely capital-efficient (high gross profit margin). The management was quite confident that the margins could be maintained.

Yesterday's result release reflected that confidence. A special dividend was also declared (2.5 cents).

The amount was probably the biggest since the period 2009-2012.

The share price was then between 50-90+ cents a share.

Perhaps today's move signifies some kind of recovery. But I am pragmatic-- I believe that being project-based, earnings are volatile and hence thinking in terms of price-earnings ratio is a little inappropriate.

***

I think I will remember today for some time.

OKP is, by far, my biggest position, ever. I had over 540,000 shares at one point. For years I have been telling my friends to buy OKP when prices was depressed (around 19 cents). I shared what I knew but few are convinced.. and even those who were convinced could not withstand its lack of liquidity.

The lack of liquidity means there will be no exit doors should my friends wish to sell. I had to adsorbed a modest (retrospectively) amount of shares from a friend, using the open market, on the day's bid-sell price, because that friend could no longer endure the liquidity.

I looked stupid for almost seven years.

Today's +20% move elevated my portfolio beyond S&P 500's return (at last). My portfolio was severely impacted by realized losses in Central China Real Estate. That realized loss alone, was 20% of my portfolio size, and it crippled my confidence and XIRR.

Those losing years brought back a little sense of empathy. I began to understand why some of my friends bought crypto, or meme stocks. I probably wouldn't feel so sympathetic if I never have lost money. Success in my earlier years blinded me from pain.

Losing money in investments in 2022 and 2023 wasn't the only

I started having issues at my workplace in 2023. My mum health (and still is) had issues, and I seen the inside of an A&E more than I wished to.

***

Truth to be told, I was looking at my phone with wet eyes as the market opens. I was at TTSH with my mum... and I told my mum we can afford a little luxury today. 

Instead of queueing up with 30 over people for coffee in TTSH's canteen, I went next door and bought us a couple of latte. Instead of just having bread and butter sandwich prepared from home, I bought a pot of hotpan chicken from the Korean food stall.

Thank you very much, OKP. Gratitude is all I have for what I experienced today.

Year-To-Date Update (Feb 2025)

 

That is me, recently. Not sure what happen but I hope it isn't anything huge.

Portfolio: 9.35%

ES3 (Straits Times Index Fund): 2.34%

S&P (S&P 500 Index): 1.77%

2800 (Tracker Fund Index): 4.32%

Major Transactions:

(1) Bought 1000 shares of Anta Sports to sell covered calls on. I am moderately bullish on Anta and Intrinsic Volatility for Anta is making the price of these calls worth it. Buying stock and selling calls of overpriced assets don't make sense to me. Yes, volatile, but highly overpriced stocks, like Nvidia and Tesla in the past, gives a option writer eye watering gains. But attention should be paid to risk-- I don't want to hold these stocks at current prices.

Nvidia, Current price: 129.84 Strike 130. Call option price 8.3. Expires in 19 days.

Tesla, Current Price: 361.62. Strike 365. Call option price 15.6. Expires in 19 days.

Anta Sports, Current Price: 86. Strike 87.5. Call option price: 3. Expire in 17 days (27-Feb)

Alibaba (HK), Current Price: 100. Strike 100. Call option price: 4.47. Expire in 17 days.

The yield respectively:

Nvda: 6.38%

Tesla: 4.27%

Anta: 3.43%

Alibaba (HK): 4.47%

The idea that rewards should commensurate with risk is seldom violated. As of now, I feel that Anta is moderately priced for its financials.

(2) Sold 1000 shares worth of Anta in put options and bought 1000 shares of Anta in call options, expiring one month.

This is what I would call "hand itch" trade. This trade is known as a "synthetic." Very little amount of money was put up for this trade, which would expire in 2 months. Realistically, due to theta decay, I would start selling a month or so before expiry.

Stocks: Since Anta Sports cost 85 HKD, 1000 shares of Anta cost 85000 HKD, or approx 14800 SGD

Options: Selling put (strike 85) gave me 4.62 per contract, and cost 4.95 (call options strike 90) to buy those call options. Each option contract is 200 shares, so I need 5 contracts= 5 * 200 * (4.95-4.62)= 330 HKD, or approx 60++ sgd.

Obviously that would mean Anta has to go close to 95 HKD for my options to start making money. Next month is earnings month, so it is worth a punt.