Portfolio Update June 2011

2011 Year to date (YTD) Return Portfolio -0.91% Equities -5.63% Dividend/Interest for 2011    $106,578 Absolute Return Since 11/2007 Portfolio 11.06% Equities 23.39%

Lousy performance by myself. I don't know what to say! :p But to make myself happier, since Nov 2007(when i started the portfolio), I had an equity portfolio XIRR of 8.16% and a total portfolio XIRR of 3.85%. What does this means? It means, I have only tracked the long-term average of 8-10% in equity. The total portfolio XIRR of 3.85% means I have beaten the local deposit rates and I would have done better simply putting all my money into a SGD Corporate Bond like DBS which could yield me more than 4%. But then again, bonds will never give you equity-like return of 8-10% :) and my weightage of bonds/cash makes performance a drag on the total portfolio XIRR.

I've been wondering... how can a bull market end this year or next when it haven't actually felt like a bull since end 2010. Is the herd on the pessimistic side? Does it even feel like a bull. I only felt the bull in the property market for the last 3 yrs. Time for equities to outperform? :)

Portfolio Update May 2011

2011 Year to date (YTD) Return Portfolio 0.51% Equities -3.48% Dividend/Interest for 2011    $78,909 Absolute Return Since 11/2007 Portfolio 12.33% Equities 25.98%

Time to be cautious? The last month, 3 notable fund managers (Howard Marks, Doug Kass, Jeremy Grantham) felt the market is going to experience a significant correction and possibly a crisis soon. Their advice were to lighten up on your portfolio in equities going forward. The scariest piece of news I've seen is when bond manager, Bill Gross, questioned who will be buying Treasuries when the FED stopped buying. *GULP*. QE2 ending 30th June. Watch that space....

Just yesterday, the mood swung and it seems no news was good news. How the mood swings. So, what do we do now? For myself, I would watch the market and if the long-term trend changes bearish, we will have to react accordingly and reduce our weightage to equities (probably 30% or less for me).

Portfolio Update March 2011

2011 Year to date (YTD) Return Portfolio 2.59% Equities 4.03% Dividend/Interest for 2011    $48,605 Absolute Return Since 11/2007 Portfolio 14.10% Equities 35.75%

World markets remain resilient to any negative news such as uprising or natural or man-made disasters. Just back from Taiwan and the investment sentiments there are also very positive with Tai-ex making new highs. What will turn the tide for the market? Probably the tipping point will come from high oil prices, property crashes in Asia or total devastation of a huge region of Japan due to Nuclear leakage? I have no idea.