Cory Diary : Funan Mall "Expedition"

Have been a long time since I took the MRT here. This is for the trip to the newly built Funan Mall by CMT. As I know there is some concept into the mall designs which I am eager to explore. Ideally I would like it to be connected to the MRT without walking under the hot-sun to get there and back. Fortunately, I have a little distance shaded by the capitol way, underground. Funan Mall main entrance doesn't seems grand or obvious. Maybe is just me as I am quite new to the revamp.

The most interesting will be rock climbing. I like it. Is good to see young folks trying them and get to have fun. There is a crowd on this.

This certainly fits the theme of trees ....

The central ground floor area has a cafe. Some open spaces which I suppose can be provided for future ad-hoc activities.

Behind the cam on the right has a broad stairway where we can see a numbers of people rest on it. Interesting though I do not think it was meant to design for that but I did not explore further. Not in picture.

Other than the escalators on the edge, there are inter-connection stairways at a distance off the edge between the floors where they  have additional stores.

However I do not think it drives much revenue from it.  The clothing store doesn't fit there as well.

The ceiling has glass right through illuminating the mall other than the purplish neon lighting. This are unique. 

There are B1 and B2 mainly food stores. Level 1, 2 and 3 are too. Not surprising in order to sustain the mall operations. I would think they also help to bring the crowds from surrounding to support the IT stores thereby feeding on each other attractions.

There are a number of establish IT stores. A cool bicycle shop. The modelling shop seems not ready. I find it out-of-place to find a furniture store. We can do well with a few pet shops, climbing/camping gears shops, boxing/gym, banking services and telcos. WeWork is kind of good fit. There is a cinema on the top floor but I think it can do well to have laser/combat/maze types of team building activities as well.

The metal stair case lead to the roof garden where you find some modern tech farming. There are some height, zig-zag and distance to cover so not that cool for a 49 year old man with a 7 kg load ... to travel up there. For those who still want to attempt, there is actually a lift .... darn.

I heard there is tennis court and barbecue pit but not in this section than I have climbed. It will be nice to have infinity swimming pool though. 

Not everything is in-place yet and I think there will be further fine-tuning. 

Overall, is a unique concept. However, there are room for improvements.

On my return journey in the MRT, all the seats are occupied. I could see those seats marked for the needy filled by the deserving. However I could not understand why no one please a baby-carrying dad for the normal seat. Ok, lazy me. Maybe I look muscular. haha. I do hope to receive some social grace out from the heart and not due to social pressure or laws. On the later part of the journey, a student alight and a young Indian man standing besides signal me to have the seat right in-front of him. And there's this 50s loving couple sitting beside me, the lady smiled at my baby ....

Vested though much smaller than previous.

Cory

2019-0721

Cory Diary : Cumulative Returns

In stock investment, one can "strike lottery" once in a while but to truly and really make sustainable returns, the logical way is to track it through Cumulative XIRR to reflect long term returns.

What this mean is to annualized all your years of investment returns and have them compounded into a return figure. Only then we can truly understand where we stand on our ego memory or actual returns. This will also give us a view on sustainability or a "2008 GFC" can wipes out all our "career gains".

The tracker started on 2007 of sizable portfolio therefore STI Index of that year. For STI Index, the condition is no fresh injection and no re-investment for simplification. At the end of 12.5 years, STI Index returns is 0.5% annualized excluding dividends. Cory Portfolio hits 7.4% annualized and same period across 12.5 years.


Cory

2019-0708

Cory Diary : Investing Style - Truly Singapore

Recently I do a survey on investing communities in Singapore in IN. Thought it will be fun to share out to the blog community as well.

Is only a 3 days period that captured moments of month long rise where market heads north for Reits investors.

Glad to see so many retail investors benefited for the past few years that dabble less in speculation or day trading. Maybe is a new emerging class of DIY investors and profitable ones too.



Cheers

Cory

2019-0706

Cory Diary : Returns Rationalization

Since last blogged, the market continues to surge for yield stocks which portfolio benefited from Reits/Trusts exposure with low growth of the world. This is despite being peppered with bonds, preference, blue chips and SMEs. In the ever lowering yield quest which I have doing for past years, people like me will chase for whatever they feel safe hence lowering yield of stable instruments. Of-course unstable ones tag along as well to help build up the next crisis as and when it rolls. On and off we may have "Hyflux" or "Swiber" moments. Sorry folks. Not my intention to gloat over such but to constant remind that I could fall as well and is important not to be too carried away.

Currently achieved Xirr hits 37.2% if annualized for the year.

Xirr using year end date hits 18%. ( Roughly Profit Yield )

It has been a long time since we hit this higher level of returns. Those were the days !  In the past my portfolio was much smaller though. However at this moment this year profits in % term has been quite stunting considering portfolio has grown considerably. The absolute profit size is easily 4 years of my typical saving rate from my salary income.

Naturally my plan will be more and more conservative as the market goes higher to protect my gains. Dividend investors are more towards unrealised gains " to milk the cows"as dividends are as ... Music Lyrics "Always on my mind .... "

Using target of 50k annual dividends, profits for the 6 months+ is well over 3 years of dividends. Can it get better ? Sure just smaller increment as we compress the yield. Will the risk go higher ? Likely if the barrier to entry becomes so low that businesses starts to undercut each other.

With low growth in the world, the next cherish commodity is growth after "maturing" yield. In the extension of current stable yield concept, we hope for stronger stable growth iced with good dividends. Searching around maybe left the banks which I do have. Again buffered it up this week. Then we have digi-bank to worry ... life is like that. Don't complain.

One thing for sure, Portfolio has to grow over time. How to do it is the question.


Cheers

Cory
2019-0705

Cory Diary : Record Profit Diversified Portfolio 2019-0630

As I get older, one key realization I have is about money in relation to other assets class. Moving from stock to cash is just from one asset class to another. From one risk to another. Cash has risks of inflation, low returns and country risk. Nevertheless is not easy for many to move past this point even for myself. 

What this mean is that taking profit is meaningless strictly to dividend investors when fundamental remains unchanged if we are looking for safety harbor and out-of-market. Timing the market is tough. Often we miss big time when we realised or gains. I am still learning therefore prefer to do on stages for some counters.

The market has been on bull for some time. Even sell in MAY and GO AWAY is misguided as the market recovered.  At this point of time, trying to inject huge amount of money into stocks seem lack margin of safety as the low point of Index has passed for this period. Hence, when I decided to max my SSB.

With market in exact halfway point this year, and the largest profit I have seen,  I am still well invested in the market. During this period I did some amount of consolidations to reduce the counters I have to manage. One of the key reduction is Reits/Trusts. As we all know, we have one of the best this year so far. In the report, I have them added as a small dot to show their returns previously before I sold them for review purpose ( see chart ).

Those I have sold namely.

Parkway Life Reit, 
Frasers CPT, 
Frasers L&I TR, 
Mapletree Com Tr and 
Netlink NBN Tr

and again as reflected in the chart with small dots. I did not include First Reit as it was few days trade with slight loss in speculation. I think the only regret is Mapletree Com Tr which blew pass my sell price significantly. Netlink NBN Tr is recent sale so time will tell.

As mentioned before I tend to do some trading and CMT is a little smaller today as I recently took some profit off the table at $2.64. I hope to buy back. Really ..... ... ... Even with that, I still have 40% exposure in Reits. Frankly, is very hard to buy back in this rising market to my dismay. Fortunately, I play with a small percentage of my portfolio and most remains intact to enjoy the ride.

With the higher cash level, I have decided to complement it with SIA Bond and Astrea Bond for a more balance portfolio to buffer it up to 22%. 

Namely,

Frasers Bond 3.65%
CMT Bond 3.08%
SIA bond 3%
AstreaIV Bond 4.35%


Equity investments to me needs to be RISK MANAGED to MY LEVEL. At 19 counters, this is quite manageable for me considering bonds/pref do not need much time to monitor so this leaves me with 15 to watch. At Portfolio size of $1.1 M excluding Gov securities I think is good enough for me right now.



Cory
2019-0630

Cory Diary : Securing lead in Performance 2019-0628

Month of June has been incredible. A recovery of Index with continuous upward price swing on selected Reits and Trusts. The final return will be known tonight after the US market ends(updated). This post is about how I ensure the gap continues. Here's links on my goal to ensure the performance is maintained.

https://corylogics.blogspot.com/2019/06/cory-diary-mexico-tariffs-cory.html
https://corylogics.blogspot.com/2019/05/cory-diary-volatile-sti.html

Despite high number of Reits/Trusts in my portfolio, achieved 100% strike for 5 digits gain on each. Having enlarged Banks investment as blogged earlier to help me catch up with the rising Index works well.  Singtel seems bottomed but I do not want to average up yet as I like to reserve my funds for opportunity.

Result: XIRR YTD: 17% (slightly higher due to some realised gains), Profit Yield: 15.4%, Total Profit 1st Half YTD : $147,723 (Realised/unrealised including dividends), Expense Ratio 0.35%, XIRR Non-Fixed YTD: 20.6% (Removing Bond/PS elements). Despite that, I am happy with them as they gives me confidence to map out my investment strategy as my investment needs to be risk managed.

Personally I have a bit of fear on Iran conflict to be worsen other than on-going trade war. This will affect Oil price which will have implications on my equity investment. Therefore, in the last weeks, took some defensive moves after achieving my aims of preserving my performance with rising STI Index. I will blog later on them when I go through the bubble chart.

I do not have fresh injection into the portfolio this year. Instead I have tapped some of my saving fund into SSB to max it out which mean continue with no fresh fund injection probably for rest of year. July will be interesting as my portfolio has been moving towards more defensive postures.


Cheers



Cory

2019-0628

Cory Diary : Ever Lowering Yield ...

As I mentioned early on the logic of ever lower yield, this is spot on and have benefited from it. Check the links on earlier articles. Entering big on Reit/Tr since last year. Is a strong ride for my portfolio within 6 months.

https://corylogics.blogspot.com/2019/06/cory-diary-bitching-my-favorite-again.html
https://corylogics.blogspot.com/2019/05/cory-diary-yield-anchoring.html

So with another shot on Reits to another record level this week ... when is this going to end ? 
That's an interesting question. The answer maybe is to do a spectrum of different instruments (see below charts). Bear with me the rough accuracy as I do this on a quick pace while my baby is still sleeping.







As I can see, the gaps are not very big between them right now. Have we reach a platter ? 
We need growths. Sure there are still some hidden gems out there on Reits. As a rough guide for me, if there is exchange in positions among them we may have Euphoria ? We can price them relatively to aga aga risk consideration.



Cory

2019-0627