2019 Year End Review

 Portfolio returns vs Hong Kong Tracker Fund (HKEX: 2800). Yes, that spike was due to Xinghua Port Holdings, which saved my ass this  year.

Since my last post in https://laymaninvesting.blogspot.com/2019/10/rough-week-colex-lost-jurong-bid.html about Colex losing its bid for Jurong, the stock recover briefly but slumber back to pre-rally prices.

As the stock market rises as a whole, my value-oriented portfolio did not receive any mercy; it lost another good 4 percent since 3 months ago. It was depressing.

3 major stocks are responsible for the loss.
TTJ- down 26%
Colex- down 17%
SUTL- down 10.5%

OKP, LHT, Cosco Shipping International, Qingling, and Mapletree NAC Trust lost 5 percent or less. Some of these were very long term holdings, and dividends were paid. That was how bad a year it was.

As I wrote,

STI ES3 funds returned 8.48%.
Hong Kong Tracker Fund (2800), returned 11.35%.
SPDR SPY delivered a crushing 29.63%

My little portfolio, as a whole, garnered a measly 13.21% (Update: 16.23% as of 31-Dec, Thanks to a surge in a single stock due to a generous dividend policy. This stock, is itself, a dividend play)

While I do not own any stocks listed in America, it is still a humbling result as I think I have failed very badly this year. Who would have thought that REITS, who are priced at book value at the start of this year, will deliver 20-30% capital gains by the end of the year? Tech stocks also rallied in the latter half.

(As usual, I am not part of this blissful ride. I have initiated only 2.42% in Mapletree NAC Trust recently)

Which is shocking since most people invest in REITs for income and not for capital gains. A suitable cycling analogy would be for a road cyclist to be overtaken by a medium-aged man riding a single-speed bike. It doesn't matter if the road cyclist has been pedaling for 8 hours, and the latter, minutes. It is still a sad sight.

Portfolio Composition
23.47% is in Singapore Saving Bonds (here by referred to as bonds)
47.68% is in Singapore-listed equities, and
28.86% is in Hong Kong-listed equities.

There were no brilliant ideas this year, and worse, no profits that were rightly gained from value-investing ideas.
Stock.cafe summary reveals that I have made 26 buys, 12 sells. This is the lowest amount of transactions I ever made since 2016.

What is Next?
The American market is at an all time high. If market movement were to trend higher, I will be looking towards purchasing more bonds and going-private deals. I will not deviate from my investing principles, even though it was lackluster this year. I will not invest in things I cannot understand, or simply popular issues. I certainly ain't a fan of fleecing other people ideas and presenting them like my own.