meek-investor

Now is turbulent time in the stock market and the risk averse persons should stay by the sideline during this uncertain time, with the coming QE tapering, Syria conflict, etc. For example, China Minzhong unexpectedly plunged more than 50% in just a couple hours and afterwhich trading of the stock was halted.  I have mentioned in my earlier post that the money invested into stocks should be the  extra cash that you can afford to hold aside or to lose.  And preferably on those blue chips that are able to ride through these turbulent "waves".  Even in the event that the whole stock portfolio is badly hit, there is no immediate impact on you or your family's livelihood and commitments. My stock portfolio is still staying afloat at the moment.  However, it is supported mainly by SGX and Starhub, which I have gotten at a relatively low cost. When there is danger, there is also opportunity...

After the lesson of the CLOB shares, I did not stop from investing into the stock markets.  Because regular dividends payment from stocks are one of the passive income streams that I wish to set up. However, I want to invest into stocks only on my extra cash, and on those blue chips in the Singapore stock market.  I want to make sure that even in the event that my whole stock portfolio is badly hit, there is no immediate impact on mine and my family's livelihood and commitments. My holdings include companies that pay regular dividends, such as Starhub, SPH, SGX, Capitaland, CapitaMall Trust, SingTel, SP Ausnet, Suntec Reit and a few others. That was just the case during the sub-prime crisis, I did not lose any sleep when my stock portfolio contracted by 50% and I was also holding a structured deposit (principal not protected) that was dangerously teetering on the brink of collapse. I used some of my extra cash to invest into more stocks....

Although I am Singaporean, the first shares that I had were Malaysian shares. In the old days, we could purchase Malaysian shares in Singapore through over-the-counter trade, the so-called Central Limit Order Book, or CLOB, as the market was known. When I ventured out from the safe harbour of Fixed Deposit, I brought into CLOB shares, as they were very "hot", "affordable" and "have huge growth potential" at that time.  I brought into several counters and if I remember correctly, one of the counters was UEM.  I can't remember the other two counters now as the companies are probably no longer in existence. Unluckily, a couple of months after I brought into CLOB shares, Malaysia unexpectedly introduced capital controls on Sept 1, 1998 (Asian Financial Crisis) and declared the trading of Malaysian shares on Singapore's Clob International to be illegal.  This caused the value of Malaysian shares traded on CLOB to freeze and we watch...