blows dust off... hello again

Hello all, after my last post in 2016, somehow something piqued my interest and I decided to write a post.

So much has changed in the markets since 2016

So much has happened in the stock market since. We saw the 2016 stock market route, the 2018 trade war crash, and of course the 2020 pandemic crash which was all regained back.... in the US.

Much of my portfolio has evolved too (I have to... or else...)

I'd like to believe I'm growing as an investor too. Imagine if I stuck with my holdings from 2016, oh golly my returns would be as abysmal as the STI.

Back in Aug 2016, these was my portfolio:

I've evolved my portfolio throughout the years. My portfolio now lost many of the "old economy", and gained more "new economy". 

What is now gone? Hmmm, let's see what old holdings are left in my portfolio instead.

1. Parkway Life REIT
2. Sheng Siong
3. DBS
4. CMT

Used to focus "only" on dividend

Because cash is king right? Kinda, but also not. If I'm young and have a long road ahead, the goal should also include growing the capital base. 

I've branched out to the US markets for capital growth to complement my SG dividend stocks.

See how my dividend kind of stagnated? That's because part of my portfolio is now having little or no dividend. 

I'm glad I made the pivot

The main pivoting point was in 2019. SG stocks now takes up about half of my portfolio size now (mainly REITs). 

Every time I look at my total returns vs STI vs S&P... phew.

I cannot imagine how much money will be left on the table if I stuck to what I had and refused to change...

Thoughts around my portfolio

These are the top 10 stocks. 7 of them are leaders in their own space.

• Alphabet is king in Search
• DBS is the financial leader here in SG
• Microsoft, Windows & Office being almost monopolising the office and personal laptop industry
• Sea - Shopee is now first in most of South East Asia
• Amazon is king in USA e-commerce, AWS is number one in market share
• Alibaba - king China
• Netlink - fibre monopoly for residential households. 

Most of them are in healthy unrealised profit positions (no prizes for what are the laggards!)

But all in all, I'm rather alright with my portfolio.

My Port YTD returns +9.70%

STI YTD returns -19.08%

S&P YTD returns +11.24%

*these are total returns (including dividends)

Alright. First post since a long time. Shall leave it at here. My musings stop here for now.

Take care and stay healthy.

The difference between SPH REIT and CMT's response tells a lot

Retail REITS have this huge overhang for years - online shopping. Naturally, REIT managers have to consistently address this "disruption" or risk their business falling behind.

One could simply look at how different REIT managers respond to these questions to tell you if you should be confident about their management skills or not.

SPH REIT recently concluded their AGM and Business Times reported the following:

As for questions on the rise of online shopping and e-commerce, Dr Leong said while this trend is getting more prominent, brick-and-mortar stores are still relevant, given that consumers still prefer to feel and look at the actual product before purchase.

Contrast this with Capitaland Mall Trust's respond back in 2015:

The mall has a two-prong approach: Loyalty program (CAPITASTAR) and testing online delivery platform at Raffles City. 
Also, their redevelopment of Funan is aimed at being a "experiential creative hub in a technology-enabled environment"

Also, the up and coming SingPost Centre by SingPost is not your typical run of the mill mall. 

It will be a mall that combines both online and offline shopping. For instance, a consumer could browse in-store, purchase the product and arrange for delivery of the product directly to their home. The consumer could then continue shopping, watch a movie or have a meal in the mall without having to carry bulky shopping bags. The retailer, on the other hand, could save on storage space in the store as fulfilment would be done at the backend of the warehouse

You could easily tell that which management is still deceptive of the fact that change is real, and which are the ones that accept the challenge, and uses this as an opportunity and not a threat. 

And it's no secret that if I feel that management is not doing as good as a job as they should be, then no matter what moat they might possess is kind of useless.

Good businesses + great management = great businesses to invest and hold.

For example, I blogged about how one company I used to be vested in seems to be in a defensive mode and trying to pacify shareholders instead of owning the issue at hand and tackle it.

Need hints?