21/1/17: My investments' performance

In December, most investors were away for holiday and we were mostly cautious waiting till Trump to step up as President this morning. STI has been growing slowly over the 3,000 range while Dow Jones Index flirts with the 20,000 mark. There are still many expectations about USA’s protectionism policies along with China’s plan to dominate the world. However, USA and China needs each other as much as they would need the world trade. By declaring trade wars, it can only inversely impact their own nations’ exports and profits- I believe. Thus, I am not pretty sure about the news being reported these days. Are they speculations or simply just opinions? If they turn out to be accurate forecasts, I do not know what to expect as an investor.

In long-term investments, I learnt that it is not ideal to expect an “all-green” portfolio but it is still possible. Here are two examples. 

1. Jesse enters the market at different intervals throughout the year of 2016. He entered 6 different stocks whenever they hit their lows (different sectors) at different months. In January 2017, he finds that all his 6 stocks are earning a paper gain. 

2. Jeff enters DBS, OCBC and UOB all at once in the month of June. All are in the same financial and banking sector. In January 2017, he finds that all his stocks are earning a paper gain mostly due to the Trump rally.

Despite that the outcome being similar for both scenarios, Jesse did diversify his investments. This means that the 6 shares prices are likely to offset each other in terms of both gains and losses at any time. In other words, risks are better mitigated due to holding a pool of sectors. However, Jeff is likely to get hit with either a great profit or a total great loss since all his holdings are from the same sector. I believed I am the Jesse in the story and this goes the same for many defensive investors. Still, paper gains or losses are just "noises" and one should not exhaust their emotions by being too happy or sad as it is just temporary.

Above is my performance as of this month and I am looking to sell off one of them when the price is right. After which, I may hunt for a high dividends REIT to further increase my dividends capital since my portfolio lacks dividends returns. Meanwhile, FCL is under CD and I am waiting to collect its dividends in February.  Also, SingTel and DBS will be releasing their results in February.