Two Stories

There are two specific incidents in my life which I stubbornly stick to my principles, of which one of them had a major (ill) effect on my life.

I have a good friend that works in the financial industry for some time. When I explain to him the way I invest, he remark that I am very inflexible, the objective of investing is to make money (true), and there are many ways. 

I have a different opinion. Investing is very hard, and the market is unpredictable. One thing for sure is that from time to time, the market tests you, sometimes in very cruel ways. If you do not have a set of investing principles or framework, the market will expose, hurt and grind you down.

***

The first story took place when I was in national service. I was already ranked a sergeant, and had to perform duties at night. I was based in an auto workshop, and there is a duty driver that I have to take responsibility for.

Social order in my unit reminds me of stereotypical prison films. For those who are not aware, middle management in National Service units tend to be regulars (meaning, they are not conscripts, they 'signed on' contracts). The direct manager of my unit was a regular, and he had an alpha-wolf personality. 

I remember playing a game of basketball in the unit once, and I accidentally bumped into him. My seniors pull me aside and strongly suggest that I apologize to him after the game.

Back to the story... this duty driver was a pretty new addition to the company.. and that duty was probably his first. There is a lot of haunted stories about the park where we perform our duties at...

So this duty driver asked if he could rest up the bunks instead of down here in the park with me, because he was scared. I believe him, even though his reputation established during that short duration was poor (most felt he is a trouble maker, malingerer). But I gave him my word.

The next day, I was confronted by this direct manager if I had given this duty driver special privileges (that I don't have) to sleep in the bunk. The duty driver is supposed to accompany me, he said.

"Look, I know this guy is a Chao Keng Kia (malingerer in local dialect). You just have to say that he did and you won't be punished."

I refused and covered up for that kid. 

For that, I was given extra duties.

Many would probably think of me silly (wait till you read the next story), but a word is a word. If we don't stick by our promises, our reputation means nothing.

***

The second story would probably make no sense to you career climbers out there.

This was more than 12 years ago. I was put up for promotion, but because this school I was working in was way overstaffed, they make it a point to have 4 head of departments, the head of admin and the (acting) dean of the school to interview the prospective. 

The school was then facing a lot of pressure to get local students to enroll. I was one of the technicians who manage a lab, and the students who are doing projects were regularly called up to demonstrate their projects during publicity events, such as open houses, tea sessions, scholar recruitments, and the like.

I witness how these students were stretched for time, having to study for exams, make progress with the projects, and get no remuneration for participating in these events. I understood that some of them were even doing it for fear of reprisals (i.e. get a bad grade if they refuse to participate).

What was disheartening is that these students spent hours to prepare for these events, but were given mere minutes to demonstrate their project before the visitors were hastily usher to the next one.

I felt that the school's publicity effort was feeble, unorganized and the school was running low in time to get the recruitment numbers.

As I was called into the room, I answered a few perfunctory questions ("What are your plans when you are promoted... blah blah blah). I believed I answered them satisfactorily.

At the end of the interview, the dean asked, "what do you think of our publicity efforts so far?"

I told him the truth of how I felt. I believe we should hire PR professionals to get the job done.

The interview ended, and I stepped out. I saw a colleague of mine getting up and approached the room as he is the next interviewee.

I didn't get the promotion. This guy did and is far more senior in rank to me, today. All because I choose the wrong time to be honest. I struggled really hard to get promoted for the decades to come. Do I regret it? Yes.

***

These qualities, although silly, are what I am exactly am. I am a major failure in my career progression and definitely not a people's person.

But these traits, sticking to your guns and being who you are, are exactly why I invest fairly better than most people. I am not swayed by the masses. I am stubbornly and stupidly candid, and true to myself. I always care for the stakeholder, even at the conflict of my interest.

This is me.

Jan 2026 Update

My Portfolio: 3.81%

STI: 6.33%

S&P: 0.54%

Tracker Fund: 2.49%

Notable transactions on my part:

Complete divestment of CityDevelopement. I think I made enough from this idea that I did very little work on, other than the expected shareholder-friendly efforts that are primary reactive (and not proactive) after such bad publicity. I made over 100% in this, and in all honesty, I dont think I deserve this.

Complete divestment of Hong Kong Ferry. Likely no catalyst. It was just a very cheap stock and the price was weak due to the market in general. It was a very small position.

I also bought more Goldlion-- because I can't find any great ideas (on my own). Let's see what happens in June.

I sold my entire chunk of Haidilao because it got called away. HDL was part of an option strategy which I sold calls on. When the founder (Mr Zhang Yong) decided to return to active management, the market got a bit crazy and the options got in-the-money.

Building up a small position in Kwan Hong, a lightly traded stock in HKEX that is actually based in Singapore, due to its balance sheet play. It has a lot of cash and seemingly good reputation. 

Bought H&R Block in the states. Not the greatest idea but there is a bit of overhang and worries in this stock. It had a bit of an issue with its customers (screwing the ones who used its FOC features). Automated tax services from the G might play a part in market sentiment. I really need to look at the results but based on earnings, even with debt in mind, it is not too dear. The only thing that is missing... is insider purchase.

H&R is a very small cap stock and utilizing options is very clumsy and inefficient. Let's hope its dividend history will make up for it in the long run.

***

Mum had a bit of medical scare after some red eye and a visual mass was detected in the eye of which she had operation on. After a handful of hours at the A&E, the eye specialist cleared her, much to my relief. 

As I was waiting, I saw news and clips of the incident at Buddha Relic temple involving a young Indonesian family who are here as a tourist. I also chanced upon the amazing story of the Australian ice skater who simply won the Olympic gold medal by hanging at the back of the pack while the ones in front jostle and fall.

I guess that is what fate is. Such a cruel and incalculable part of our life that we can only do our best to prepare for.

***

Bitcoin Treasury Stocks

As the week roll, the stock prices of these companies fell way beyond their "NAV"

I tabulated this table with the help of Gemini when the bitcoin prices are below 70000 USD.

Everyone is expecting a house-of-cards situation, where stocks like Strategy would begin unloading their holdings. Unfortunatley (?) its CEO is still quite defiant... and fortunately for him, BTC does come back up as I write (BTC is priced at 69.3K).

So the general idea is that these stocks would do cash calls, either by preference equities that has a accrual dividend policy, or simply using debt, to buy BTC and given BTC's inclination to go up in pricing, it allows them to perpetuate this act.

I think this strategy would stall even if BTC prices recover significantly from present.

Some thoughts I had:

1) As time goes, these dividend and debts need to be paid. Some of these are actually paid MONTHLY.

2) The United States G have about 24B worth of BTC, based on Arkam. I think they might do something to 'stablize' prices.

3) There isn't much actors who are holding that much BTC except Strategy and the G. The market cap of BTC is about 1.38T, which is 1380B. So these two entities hold less than 5% of total supply.

4) Of course I was thinking of ways to make money. Some of it were
a) Utiliziing a volatility strategy by buying calls and puts. This is stupid, because of IV
b) Buying seriously OTM puts and calls given the extreme possibilities (it will crash and burn or recover by huge margins). Because I am too conservative with money, I wouldn't make life-changing bets.
c) Buying tons of puts on Strive, which is weakly capitalized and utilising a lot of preference shares. However, I do see insider buys, which is.... interesting.

While I am sucking my thumb, MSTR recover 20%++ intraday. I checked the demo trade that I execute for (a), and guess what.

I still losing money on that trade. So it was a poor idea.

So long until next week and I wish everyone good health.

-boonsong

Quick commentary on Clifford Modern Living (CML)

CML was sold down as many as 6% today. This was due to an announcement the night before, that they have purchase around 30m HKD of Gold. Their plan, is to allocate 180m to Gold investments. In the wake of such a run up in gold prices, this feels very risky.

They declared that they completely disposed silver investment of 387.9m RMB.  According to the interim report, they have about 206m RMB of cash, and 80m RMB of Term Deposits. Payable outweighs Receivables by 70m. so let just net off the Term Deposits.

That means CML has about 590m RMB in cash prior to this purchase or about 660m in HKD. The market cap, today, 843m. 

Personally, even if 180m of it is squandered, that leaves about 410m of it in cash, about half of the market cap. It does feel like overselling. Hopefully today's selldown give pause to this 180m-going-to-gold plan.

I believe most of the shareholders were expecting some kind of dividend. I have no expectations-- I have already doubled my investment in this holding and sold down some months ago. Ideas in my mind are running thin and I am not sure what to do if I do dispose of my shares.

This is frustrating-- if they decided to do another large dividend, it would definitely mean a big heyday for us current shareholders-- especially when the business they are in is not an exciting one.

There is a voice beside me that says-- when in doubt, sell half.