Taking Stock for the Year

Since today is the last day of the year, I guess it’s apt that I use this day to summarise my financial highlights for the past year and express my targets for 2017.

Highlights:

1) ARA Asset Management

Raked in 16% profit from this counter. Not bad a return for a 3 months holding.

2) Managed to turn a loss into profit by averaging down.

Invested in CNMC when the price is nearing it’s peak ($0.595). 

Subsequently took the opportunity to average down when the price went down as the fundamentals and macro factors still look good ($0.52). 

In the end sold it for a small profit when the price corrected soon after ($0.57).

3) Monetise a depreciating asset of mine this year. 

As you would have guessed it, it’s my car.

I have been thinking on how to convert my car from a depreciating tool into an income generating source.

Last week I registered as a Grabhitch driver and have completed some trips already.

Income generated at point of writing: S$51.

4) Started to track my incomes and expenses.

Created an extensive excel sheet for this purpose which in turn makes me more discipline in terms of tracking my journey towards financial freedom.

Target:

1) Aim to increase side and passive incomes by 100% in 2017.

Yes 100%. And I feel it's a doable figure. As you can see below, my side and passive incomes for this year aren't that impressive actually.

Side and passive incomes generated for 2016 amounted to: S$2,712.86. 

2) Create one more stream of income in 2017.

I already have some ideas on how to go about achieving this aim. Will update more on this if it comes to fruition.

Last but not least,

Total Yield of Stock Investment for 2016: 4.17%.

Danger of Not Doing Your Homework

One of the counters that I picked up after my break from the market is Ezra.

This time round, I also went in as the volume was high and played on its volatility. In the end before I could let go of the shares, the price went down faster than I could imagine due to the oil price crash.

Other foolish plays of mine are the S chips.

I bought a number of S chip counters at different intervals. At first I managed to turn in small profits each time. However I soon started to incur losses due to the volatility in price.

Subsequently I decided to cut losses as I felt the companies that I held have a real danger of delisting anytime.

At this point of writing I am still facing paper loss from Ezra and realised loss from my S chips punting days. Yes, punting. Because buying stocks, S chips in particular, in 100,000 to 200,000 shares in one go without due checks is equivalent to gambling.

I deserves the losses but also learned a couple of good lessons from it – never touch S chips and importance of cut loss target 😀

Looking Back...

Perhaps it's the year end syndrome.. Perhaps it's the rainy weather..

This is going to be a post with some nostalgia feeling.. Hence the title 'Looking Back'.

I actually started exploring the stock market around 20 years back. At that time I was using my father's account to trade stocks.

Back then the secondary listing is called Sesdaq. Contra period is a good 7 days. Our stock monitoring was done via teletext and trades were done over the phone.

One of my first 'wins' is from Samudera which earned me a grand S$300+. It was a contra trade and the amount is considered big for a student like me back then.

And my reason for picking this counter? The volume was high!

You can say that was a lucky punt for me. I didn't know about FA and TA then. All I knew was to pick stocks with high volume. Haha..

Subsequently I stopped my tradings (puntings) to focus on my studies. I was in the black when I stopped though.

That pause in trading lasted for quite a while before I explored the market again - to disastrous results initially.

Perhaps I will write about my silly doings in another post next time.

Inaugural Post

I have wanted to blog for a long time but somehow couldn't find a good enough reason to do it until I started to read the blogs from our local financial bloggers since last year.

I guess my starting to read these blogs can be considered a minor life changing experience for me.

These blogs not only provided me the inspiration to invest more. I also learned alot from reading their informative posts.

Last but not least I finally found the impetus to create a blog for myself.

Inaugural post, 30th Dec 2016.