May 2023 Portfolio Update

STI Index Fund returns +0.55% (was +1.63% in April)

Hong Kong Tracker Fund returns -4.7% (was 0.01%) 
S&P 500 Index Fund returns  +11% (was 8.76%)

My portfolio returns year-to-date is currently was 4.8% (6.98% in April).

Staring into a huge tsunami wave and nowhere to hide-- there is how it feels like.

Just a couple of months ago, I wrote about the colossal sell off by my Central China positions. Unfortunately, the worries and sell down continue, deepening my losses to the region of 70%. Just today, CCRE lost 13% in one day, and Central China Management lost almost 6%.

In a space of one month, CCRE lost 27.37%; CCMGT lost 32.65%

So in the last 3 months, CCRE another lost 63%, CCMGT 52.17%. 

I don't know what to think. I am absolutely shell-shocked into doing anything. 

***

Over dinner with my 70-year-old mother earlier, she was visibly in pain from her aches. She worked in a factory folding clothes, and she worked a maniac 8am-6pm, breaking for 1 hour for lunch. Throughout the day, she stand and work. With nobody to talk to.

She asked if my hand were cleaned. And then asked me to help massage her painful back.

I am crying inside as I did so.

***

In case you are a young chap, just started your working life, and envious (of any remaining returns) some fool-hardy contrarian might have, this is a side of their life that you don't want to experience, and you don't need to. Start indexing today. Investing is really not easy. I am not here to sell courses. I am not writing to feed my ego. This blog is a record of my experiences and a reminder, in the world of seducing returns and mania, that a sobering side of investing exist.

***

There is no transaction in the month of May. OKP (in value, worth 39% of my entire equity portfolio) is still the only thing that is propping my portfolio up. I know some might say that one should look at the performance of the entire portfolio instead of paying attention to a subsection, but a lot of things don't work in theory.

Looking forward, the next three months will be very tough for me in many fronts. The Chinese real estate looks extremely gloomy. My mother have an important medical in August (to review that hopefully benign spot in the pancreas).

Hope the world be less cruel to us.