Sunday 5 July 2015

Bit-by-bit Strategy - small steps adding up

As a small investor, my strategy is to build up my stock portfolio bit-by-bit every month.  Let's see how does this strategy work out for me?

This is a boring strategy.  It takes patient and perseverance.  Month by month after pay-day, I split my money into 3 pots - Investment, Warchest and Expense.  There is also a very small 4th pot - for the dividends received.  From the Investment and Dividend pots, I will buy into one or two stocks every month. 

In the beginning, it was quite difficult because of the big "1000" lot size and the small amount of capital.  So, in terms of number of shares, Starhill Global Reit becomes my top holding.

The "boring" truth is that my portfolio does increase incrementally, through the steady accretion of stocks by small monthly injection of capital.

Margin of safety is very important in any investment.  I had unintentionally sown the SGX seed many years ago.  I have SGX since its IPO and it is one of the pioneers in my portfolio.  Now, SGX has grown to a big tree and provides shade, shelter and also bearing regular fruits (dividends) for my portfolio.  The safety margin provided by SGX alone is sufficient to cover for all the short term fluctuations of my portfolio.

无心插柳柳成荫。知足常乐。So, be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are.  Relax, and enjoy the ride.

After many months, the process gets easier now.  Firstly, the lot size (100) is smaller.  Secondly, the amount in the 4th pot (dividends) also increases steadily.

Small steps do add up towards the long term dream of achieving financial freedom.  Still a long way to go but I believe I am heading in the right direction.

As reflected in the table below, the current portfolio comparing with April 2013 does agree with these Chinese sayings: 
积少成多, 积水成渊,积土成山, 聚沙成塔, 集腋成裘。


No. STOCK NAME Current No. of Shares No. of Shares, Apr 2013
1
SGX
4,000
2,000
2
Starhub
6,000
5,000
3
SPH
5,000
4,000
4
SATS Ltd
3,000
0
5
Sing Tel
2,190
1,190
6
CapitaMall Trust
4,000
3,000
7
Suntec Reit
4,900
2,000
8
Keppel Corp
1,000
0
9
AIMSAMPI Reit
5,000
1,000
10
Starhill Global
8,000
6,000
11
CapitaLand
2,000
2,000
12
SPH Reit
5,800
0
13
OCBC Bank
504
0
14
CDL HTrust
3,000
3,000
15
FCT
2,000
0
16
Sembcorp Ind
1,000
0
17
SIA Engg
1,000
0
18
Keppel InfraTr
6,000
3,000
19
HPH Trust
3,000
3,000
20
FCOT
1,000
0
21
Boustead
1,000
0
22
Keppel DC Reit
900
0
23
FE HTrust
1,000
1,000
24
Warchest
~30% portfolio $
0

Bye-bye (realised gain/loss):-
CapitaMalls Asia (gain), FE Orchard (gain), SingPost (gain),  SP Ausnet (gain), Yeo Hiap Seng (gain), Hyflux (loss).

8 comments:

  1. Hi there.
    Fully agree with ur strategy. I am also doing something similar.
    Slow n steady wins the race.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Paul,

      Stay patient and keep going.

      Cheers,
      Farmer.

      Delete
  2. Out of envious curiousity, how long has your journey been to build up the stock portfolio to where it is today?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Lizardo,

      I started using this strategy in early 2013. Before that, I have no system, only ad-hoc buying and selling.

      Cheers,
      Farmer.

      Delete
  3. Hi PI Farmer,

    Nice strategy. I have been building my portfolio bit-by-bit for the pass 8 years too. The process will gain momentum and the speed of increment will be higher and higher.

    Incidentally, 17 of your counters are in my portfolio as well. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Sanye,

    Thanks for your encouragement. Does look easier after 2 years...

    Cheers,
    Farmer.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi,

    I am interested to build up a portfolio as well. Just started to save up at age 28, not much, but will want to explore ways to financial freedom.

    May I know what job do you do to let you be able to watch over the investments.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Anon,

      Mine is more of a buy-and-hold, so do not need much time to monitor.

      Cheers,
      Farmer.

      Delete