“It is the core argument of this book that these simultaneous accelerations in the Market, Mother Nature, and Moore’s law together constitute the “age of accelerations,” in which we now find ourselves. These are the central gears driving the Machine today. These three accelerations are impacting one another—more Moore’s law is driving more globalization and more globalization is driving more climate change, and more Moore’s law is also driving more potential solutions to climate change and a host of other challenges—and at the same time transforming almost every aspect of modern life.”
― Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations
I started reading the above book last December and found it intriguing as it shares how the world has changed due to incredible advancement of technology. And indeed the recent pandemic has shown how interconnected our world is and how fear and optimism are amplified so quickly.
Performance
That seems to be true for the market too with the quick drop in March and amazing recovery in May. A tiny boat in the vast ocean, my portfolio also fell and rose with the tide over the past half a year. At the peak of the carnage in March, portfolio was down by 28% and for a brief moment in June, I broke even. Now it stands at -3.5% which I am satisfied with, considering the impact of the pandemic.
Breaking down into SG and US segments, I am glad that I am ahead of the benchmark at half time. The slight difference in my computed portfolio return with StockCafe’s is probably due to cash holding in my own tracking which I did not include for StockCafe. Also, StockCafe included the dividend in the computation on XD, while I only compute it when I see the money in my bank account. Nonetheless, I am not too bother by the variation.
Top and Bottom 6 Performers
Looking at the individual counters that contributed to the above performance, these are my top and bottom 20% performers at half time.
My mini SaaS and micro-cap US funds continue to have a field day during this crisis. IFAST has benefitted from the recent news on being shortlisted for digital banking, while Keppel DC REIT’s performance has been resilient. On the other end, the price reflects the struggle of the retail counters and REITs.
Opportunity Fund Performance
From late February to April, I have activated the fund three times (Opportunity Fund Deployed, 2nd shot fired, Attraction (fatal?) and have made some switches of my holdings. I have also used CPF-OA and bought more ES3 and made my return to Unit Trusts and bought Greater China, Japan, and European Funds.
Most buys are now in the positive region. The thought of taking profit and wait for a second wave to re-enter did appear in my mind. But I reminded myself that the original intent was to obtain a much larger gain from these buys in 2 to 3 years time. So I will just hold on to them for the moment.
Taking Advantage of Rapid Changes?
Given that the pace of change has increased, it seems that one who is nimble in the market would benefit the most. However knowing that I am a slow coach, I decided this approach does not suit me currently.
So I would just continue my plan to invest in a portfolio of good companies and just ride through fast changes with the underlying belief that this portfolio would provide me an above average return in the long term. The other key strategy is to continue to hold about 25% to 30% cash at any one time regardless of bull or bear markets. This will allow me to ride on the high tide and take advantage of any correction.
Coming Up
Another round of dividend to be declared from July to September and another round of quarterly update by the various companies. This quarter’s results will bear the brunt of the lock-down but hopefully some optimism would arise for the rest of the year.
YNWA.
Towards Financial Independence 