Remebering Noble...

Noble Group was one of my first few purchases from the open market.  Actually I do not remember now the reason why I bought Noble.  Perhaps some hot tips?  But during the days of the 1,000 shares per lot time, Noble was the first counter that I held more than a single lot size.

When I decided to embark on my dividend investment journey, Noble was the first counter that got the cut because of its low dividend payouts.  I exited Noble with some profits when it was still a low $2+ stock.

Not that I am paying particular attention to the stocks that I have in the past, but Noble was always in the news.  Muddy Waters, Iceberg reports and the non-stop procession of bad news keep Noble in the forefront of financial news.

Now the CEO had left and the Chairman is abandoning ship.  And the issue of 1:1 rights at massive discount to the current share price.  This is a sad story of a commodity giant turning into a penny stock.

Well, you win some and you lose some.  I also cut off Raffles Medical which is turning into a big mistake now..... 

My Stock Portfolio @ end May 2016

No.	STOCK NAME	No.of SHARES	PORTFOLIO%	MARKET $
1	SGX	4,000	14.55	7.75
2	Starhub	6,700	11.10	3.53
3	SPH	5,000	9.06	3.86
4	SATS	3,000	5.86	4.16
5	UOB	600	5.13	18.22
6	OCBC Bank	1,215	4.91	8.62
7	AIMS AMPI Reit	6,800	4.37	1.37
8	SingTel	2,190	3.98	3.87
9	Suntec Reit	4,900	3.83	1.665
10	CapitaMall Trust	4,000	3.81	2.03
11	FCT	3,800	3.60	2.02
12	Keppel Corp	1,400	3.53	5.38
13	SPH Reit	6,700	2.96	0.94
14	Starhill Global	8,000	2.91	0.775
15	CapitaLand	2,000	2.81	2.99
16	Sembcorp Ind	1,800	2.36	2.79
17	Keppel DC Reit	4,500	2.28	1.08
18	ParkwayLife Reit	1,800	2.08	2.46
19	CDL HTrust	3,000	1.96	1.39
20	SIA Engg	1,000	1.78	3.79
21	FCOT	2,800	1.69	1.285
22	Keppel InfraTr	6,000	1.44	0.51
23	ST Engg	800	1.21	3.23
24	MapletreeCom	1,800	1.21	1.435
25	FE HTrust	2,800	0.80	0.61
26	Cache Log Tr	1,800	0.73	0.865
27	Saizen Reit	1,800	0.08	0.091

Movement in my portfolio in May:-
Sold:- Nil
Bought:- UOB, OCBC, SPH Reit, MapletreeCom, Keppel DC Reit.

Dividends collected in May: $2,795.10
2016 avg dividends/month: $1,274.67 [78.3% up at this stage cf. 2015]

Boring process of building up my passive income portfolio brick-by-brick (bit-by-bit).

Comments:
1. Sell in May and go away?  No, not for me.  May is the most important month in the year for me.

2. Bumper month in May.  New high record dividend fruits harvested. 

3. Current worst performing counter: Keppel Corp (23.8% unrealised loss).  I tried to add more, but queued too low......

Manulife US Reit - Feeling before and after

What a different feeling.

Yesterday I felt sad and frustrated that I got zero allocation for the Manulife US Reit IPO units.

Today I feel relief that I got zero allocation for the Manulife US Reit IPO units.

It was surprising to me that Manulife US Reit opened trading at USD 0.82, even below its IPO price of USD 0.83.  It ends the day at USD 0.79, 4.8% lower than its IPO price.  Well, I think the market has spoken that the Reit was priced too high.

Surprising on Manulife US Reit's performance as today is a green day for the STI index.  Also, not too bad on my Reit counters too as only Fraser Comm Trust declined today.

I may pick up some Manulife US Reit if it falls to a more appetizing level.  No hurry as I think the first dividend distribution from Manulife US Reit comes only in March 2017. 

No luck on Manulife US Reit IPO

Received full refund back to my bank account.  So I did not get any allocation for this Manulife US Reit.

It seems like I have no luck with these "M" counters.  I did not get the previous Mapletree groups and now also missed out on this Manulife.  Haha.

I can only comfort myself that perhaps headwinds are likely blowing on the Reits now.  All my Reit holdings (except Cache Log Trust) declined today.  Perhaps I can switch my fund to accumulate some other counters.

Interesting day tomorrow.  Good luck to all who got this Manulife US Reit. 

The Bear Empire Strikes Back - Week 18

The May jinx.

Just when you think the 2016 Bear is vanquished for good, the tide is turning again.  After 10 successive days of losing battles, the previously defeated Bear Army is here again. 

My portfolio's lost narrow to 2.9% at the end of the 5th week (not counting dividends collected).

My total portfolio value jumped more than $10K just this one week and its value crossed 200K for the first time. 

My worst performing counter is still Keppel Corp, but its unrealized loss has narrowed to 23.3% its invested value after week 9.  HPHT is second worst performer, with unrealized loss of 21% its invested value.  If the O&G rally continues, Keppel Corp will soon get pass HPHT.  SCI has recovered to unrealized loss of just 10.8%.

Reviewing my strategy over this 2016 Bear Attack, probably I should deploy more of my warchest.  I have used some when my portfolio first went negative.  Then I plan to use a second batch when my portfolio goes down 10%. 

My portfolio had once declined more than 50% during the Lehman Bear Attack. But this 2016 Bear Attack has produced only a minor blip on my portfolio, and the loss never get close to 10%.

Time to lock up the warchest and maybe formulate a better strategy for the next Bear.  Back to the boring business of continuing with my monthly DCA. 

The weekly reviews end now.  Unless there is an episode "The Bear Empire Strikes Back"...... 

My Stock Portfolio @ end April 2016

No.	STOCK NAME	No.of SHARES	PORTFOLIO%	MARKET $
1	SGX	4,000	14.61	7.53
2	Starhub	6,700	10.76	3.31
3	SPH	5,000	9.85	4.06
4	SATS	3,000	5.97	4.10
5	AIMS AMPI Reit	6,800	4.60	1.395
6	UOB	500	4.51	18.60
7	OCBC Bank	1,015	4.32	8.77
8	SingTel	2,190	4.10	3.86
9	CapitaMall Trust	4,000	4.02	2.07
10	Suntec Reit	4,900	4.01	1.685
11	Keppel Corp	1,400	3.67	5.40
12	FCT	3,800	3.59	1.95
13	Starhill Global	8,000	3.03	0.78
14	CapitaLand	2,000	3.02	3.11
15	SPH Reit	5,800	2.69	0.955
16	Sembcorp Ind	1,800	2.52	2.89
17	ParkwayLife Reit	1,800	2.14	2.45
18	CDL HTrust	3,000	2.03	1.395
19	Keppel DC Reit	3,600	1.91	1.095
20	SIA Engg	1,000	1.84	3.79
21	FCOT	2,800	1.76	1.295
22	Keppel InfraTr	6,000	1.43	0.49
23	ST Engg	800	1.25	3.22
24	FE HTrust	2,800	0.90	0.665
25	Cache Log Tr	1,800	0.76	0.865
26	MapletreeCom	900	0.65	1.50
27	Saizen Reit	1,800	0.08	0.09

Movement in my portfolio in April:-
Sold:- HPH Trust (23.7% loss).
Bought:- FE HTrust, FCOT, AIMS AMPI Reit, Keppel Corp.

Dividends collected in April: $0
2016 avg dividends/month: $894.56 [181.9% up at this stage cf. 2015]

Boring process of building up my passive income portfolio brick-by-brick (bit-by-bit).

Comments:
1. Big fat "0" dividend in April.  Well, a good rest in April for the dividend harvesting in May.  Set to be a record dividend fruits harvest for me next month, as 17 of my 27 holdings are paying dividends in May.

2. Finally lost patient and abandoned the leaking submarine HPH Trust.

3. Current worst performing counter: Keppel Corp (26% unrealised loss).  Probably will need to hold long term for this...

4. Made a small donation to a charity organization.

Ascendas Htrust is no Saizen Reit 2.0

After the small bet and profit on Saizen Reit, I was very tempted to have another go for Ascendas Htrust, even utilising portion of the warchest.

As there were rumours of four to five potential buyers, it did look high chance that the acquisition deal would be successful.

However, after some consideration, I decided it is no-go for Ascendas Htrust.

1. There was absolutely no margin of safety on the price for Ascendas Htrust.  When I bought Saizen Reit, it was more than 20 cents away from its NAV and gave approximately 20% margin of safety.  But Ascendas Htrust was already trading above its NAV of 70 cents (more on its NAV later) and hence no margin of safety for me.

2. I am also skeptical of the sudden re-valuation of Ascendas Htrust's NAV to 84 cents after news of the possible sales.  There is no addition to Ascendas Htrust's portfolio and the market conditions also deteriorated rather than improved for the past year.  To me, this is like when I pay for an item at a store, but the store owner tells me that I have to pay more that what is displayed on the price tag, without giving me valid reason.  I think potential buyers would also be evaluating their purchase based on 70 cents, rather than 84 cents.

3. Saizen Reit is unique and one-of-a-kind Reit, but there are other hospitality reits around.  Moreover, apart from Ascendas Htrust, all other hospitality reits are trading below their NAVs.

As such, I think there is no upside but plenty of downside if buying into Ascendas Htrust for the acquisition bet.

The takeaway from this is that one success does not lead to another success, even in more or less similar circumstances.

Really need DYODD.