UT Portfolio as of 31 August 07

After weeks of volatility, this week has been the most calming. Asian market closed positive prior to Uncle Ben comments; it's believed that there will be positive news coming from Ben's speech.

With Uncle Bush promising to help the subprime crisis, there were cheers in the US market which shot the Dow index up more than 170 points from its previous closing. Let's hope the week will end strong and push the global indices to new heights next week.

Here is my scorecard for the week:

Recruitment Drive

I am in the midst of building a Financial Sales team who will be conditioned to market financial services to high net-worth individuals or corporations for my bank (which is a regional bank in Singapore). The paycheck includes: Basic + Commission + Allowance + Bonus.

Any qualified financial advisers (or highly motivated sales executives who are not from the financial industry) who wish to join the banking industry as a Relationship Manager may forward your resumes to me at calgorix23@yahoo.com.sg.

UT Portfolio as of 24 August 07

While many others pulled out of the market, i bite the bullet and stayed invested; shifting portion of AIG Acorns (Balanced Fund) to DWS China (Equity Fund). I consider myself lucky as the change paid off with china market the least whacked among its Asian counterparts.

The volatility is definitely still present in the market. With the subprime issue being pushed aside for most of the week, the global market still reacted in mixed directions. While the Asian market ended slightly red on Friday, much still depends on Dow's performance on the last trading day of the week.

I had dinner with one of the interest rate/currency swaps trader from MS this evening. While on the topic of subprime, he is in the opinion that the worst is still not over. He advised to stay vigilant; if Fed cut interest rates, market should stabilise, else there will be another round of market swings.

UT Portfolio as of 18 August 07

If anyone were to tell you that you should not be sad when have your profit is halved during a market correction, please ask them to seek medical advice; there must be somthing wrong with their mind.

Last week was a terrible week, so terrible that i cannot describe. After deciding to switch some of my funds into china & emerging markets last week (thinking that the correction has hit bottom), I was hit by another week of bloodshed. Just yesterday, HSI made history for being the first index to drop more than 1000 points in a day, before recovering to -285pts at closing.

With Dow finishing more than 150pts postive on friday, let's hope the market has hit its real bottom and re-start its bull run next week. I am staying cautious by sitting out any activities for the whole of next week. Do not want to be hit by another week of volatility. :(

UT Portfolio as of 12 August 07

After more than 4 weeks of nervous trading, all exchanges around the world had reported nothing but bad results. Was this really due to the SUBPRIME issue? or is it just speculators overeacting to an issue that was already a historical topic disscussed many months earlier which resulted in investors running away from the market in panic?


I missed out on the opportunity to effect changes to my portfolio prior to the market downturn, hence i suffered more than 1.5k worth of unrealised profit. Sigh... this is more than 10% down in profit.....


Many central banks have since pumped in more cash to calm the market. Is this a good time to go in to pick up cheap bargains then? I cannot tell for sure, but i have switched a portion of my balanced portfolio back to china and other emerging markets. :)

Article on Home Loan - Home Concept magazine (August Issue)

If you are keen to find out more details on residential property loans, check out the Home Concept magazine (August Issue). I have contributed some ideas for your home loan needs. Should you have need clarification on some of the information, you may forward your queries to calgorix23@yahoo.com.sg

CFP Programme

I passed another module of the CFP certification programme: Module 4 - Investment Planning, on the day my baby was born. Hee...... Double Happiness!

Virtual Portfolio # 2 - as of 1st August 2007

Two months into the bet....

Chin:
33.33% DWS China Equity Fund - SGD 2.412 -> SGD 2.8015
33.33% DWS Asian Small Cap Fund - SGD 1.547 -> SGD 1.5724
33.33% Lion Cap Sing/Malaysia Fund - SGD 2.733 -> SGD 2.802

Net Growth = 5.38 + 0.55 + 0.84 = 6.77 %

Calvin:
40.00% Fidelity China Focused Fund - SGD 1.136 -> SGD 1.312
40.00% Schroders ISF Emerging Markets Opportunity Fund - SGD 11.71 -> SGD 12.14
20.00% Henderson Asian Dividen Income Fund (USD) - USD 13.48 -> USD 13.75

Net Growth = 6.20 + 1.47 + 0.40 = 8.07 % (not inclusive of recent USD fluctuation)

I am now leading by about 130 basis pts. Taking into consideration of current market volatility, both portfolios are pretty resilient to the market noises. Stay tuned to find out the final results...... :)

UT Portfolio as of 4 August 07

The market is in a total mess this past week. With Dow closing -280 points on friday, the following week will be another week of heartache unless miracles happen. As you would see from my portfolio which consisted more than 70% in a balanced fund, the overall downside is still more than 5%:




Though it is a great time to go into equity market to purchase cheaper investments, switching existing funds from your portfolio wil be a bad idea. Bear in mind that you are selling cheap to buy cheap investments during switching (rebalancing).