2020 Dividend Accumulator November

One single pathetic dividend payout.

Nothing much to crow about as usual.

04 November $15.00

Total Dividends for October: $15.00

Total Dividends for 2020: $4,242.70
Average per Month: $353.56

My Saxo P&L 2020 November

So just when I thought things were turning around, I get slapped in the face by the market and by my own stupid trading indiscipline.

I ended up trading indices again and almost bursting my employee trade count restriction within the first week.

Plus losing 5.5K to boot.

How shitty is that?

December is looking promising but it is still early days so hopefully I don't do anything stupid now. Already 3.8K up!

If I can carry this on then I'll talk about what I did to turn things around next month.

2020 Dividend Accumulator October

Really haven't been working hard on this. 

It is almost as though since March I've lost sight of this trading strategy.

Still I just try to record it to see where I end up this year.

October was a very bumper month because of two SG counters.

20 October $225.00

23 October $460.00

Total Dividends for October: $685.00

Total Dividends for 2020: $4,227.70
Average per Month: $352.31

My Saxo P&L 2020 October

October was a very slight turnaround.

It is only the 3rd month of the year that I achieved green, sadly. And by a very slight amount somemore.

Not much to crow about considering you can see what came out of November :(

My 5mins Of Fame

6mins+ to be exact.

Appeared on Nasdaq.com for an interview in conjunction with the Singapore Fintech Festival.

Catch the full interview here.

Sixth Berserker Rage Of 2020

 This is depressing.

I was trading indices in the midst of the US Elections.

A likely Biden win would push the market up.

A likely Trump win would push the market down.

I saw the initial vote count and sadly thought Trump might win.

Ended up shorting a hell lot of Index CFDs. 

Final loss was around $8K.

:(

Gonna take a while to come back from this.

Saxo Logo Change

 So Saxo Markets have now changed their logo once more. 

What I really like about it is that this time around, it is more meaningful and more purposeful.

Also all employees were gifted a water bottle, chocolate and personalized letter about the new Saxo Foundation.

My Saxo P&L 2020 September

Yet more losses in September.

At least October is looking green.

Trying to aggressively reduce activity in this account to minimize anymore losses. 

Almost every time I touch this account, I'd wander towards either the NASDAQ100 or the S&P500 and then it is downhill from there. 

Hopefully things look up in Q4.

2020 Dividend Accumulator September

Yet another dry month again.

Things are really improving for me so long may this continue. Haven't really gotten back into dividend plays yet while the shoring of investment capital is still in progress.

10 September $4.30

14 September $13.35

17 September $9.00

28 September $24.17

Total Dividends for September: $50.82

Total Dividends for 2020: $3,542.70
Average per Month: $295.23

Fifth Berserker Rage Of 2020

 Another bad downturn in trading luck.

This time around I didn't even want to blog about this immediately after it happened.

Then it happened again, and again over a few consecutive days.

Be it shorting the NASDAQ, S&P500 or TSLA. All dieded.

It basically cause my August loss to balloon to 4.7K.

Then in a mere few days of early September, something similar happened and I lost another approximately 4K. Thankfully a market recovery came in play a day or two later to recover some of my losses.

Still ended up losing about 1.2K in September so far.

Terrible.

Must. 

Stop.

This.

This wanton waste of money.

My Saxo P&L 2020 August

 Quite sad that things are taking a turn for the worse on the trading front.

I just cannot seem to shore up my loses.

Wasting money every month trying to fight against an irrational market. 

Sigh.

Even the results for September are more or less set in stone.

2020 Dividend Accumulator August

Another dry month again.

This is the theme for now as I get my finances in order and shore up my savings once more after the March setback.

05 August $14.46

28 August $59.85

Total Dividends for August: $74.31

Total Dividends for 2020: $3,491.88
Average per Month: $290.99

My Saxo P&L 2020 July

 Don't look at the August numbers.

July was only the second green month for me.

At that's because I was on a trading hiatus because of all the losses I've suffered this year. 

It is good respite, although I really should make more effort to keep the discipline of not getting itchy-fingered and placing gambling trades in check. 

I have half a month left to recover from the August losses. 

Let's see what happens to Gold miners in the coming two weeks.

2020 Dividend Accumulator July

Another month that has been relatively dry.

Right now the point is to shore up and reposition my portfolio to maximize potential in the coming macro environment while minimizing potential downside. 

So dividends taking a backseat. 

I have loaded up heavily on Gold, Gold miners and defensive stocks.

Hopefully this pays off as I pave the way to get back to a similar portfolio size as pre-COVID19 days. Expected to achieve this by year's end if things do not deviate too drastically.

17 July $22.12

27 July $115.07

Total Dividends for June: $137.19

Total Dividends for 2020: $3,417.57
Average per Month: $284.80

Battle Scars 2020

In more ways than one, I feel very lucky in this unfortunate COVID-19 situation.

Family life has improved so much.

Health has improved so much.

Work is still going well even though we WFH a lot more now.

Kids are growing up so well. 

Only the investment front is suffering although it will not be long before I get back to pre-COVID levels, which it its own way, is a good thing.

The recent Appendicitis surgery also put things in greater perspective as we dawn upon a tough situation the world currently sees itself in. 

It was a very successful surgery. I am recovering very well. The insurance claims were seamless. 

I was actually working that very Tuesday after the long weekend!

There is really so much to be thankful for and long may this bliss and prosperity in my life continue.

HUAT AH!!!

The world around us is changing. It is not the same as it was before. There is going to be a lot of pain in many industries and many countries as all of humanity grapple with this devastating epidemic. 

The economic front of Singapore is also changing. We cannot rely on our past successes anymore. As Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said recently, Our two ports, Sea Port and Airport are our two lungs. While the Sea Port is still functioning, it is not at its capacity it used to be. The airport is not functioning well. It is decimated. This impacts so many industries inherent downwards from tourism, hospitality, business and gig economy. 

Many people are going to lose their jobs. Seriously.

Our populace has to adapt and reskill and retrain.

We also hope that our leaders can guide us in the right manner, out of this crisis, which could last between 12-24 more months. 

While talk of a vaccine is rife now, it is still clear that things will never go back to normal. 

Singapore cannot rely on domestic tourism to survive. We will have to pursue other strategies to stay ahead of the curve. 

I hope we come out of all this in a position of even greater strength than ever before.

Bless us all. 

My Saxo P&L 2020 June

So just when I thought I had stemmed the red tide, I decide to dabble again.

And again I lose to the market.

I can never seem to win during this period.

Sigh.

I might need to force myself into some form of trading hiatus.

Have lost almost $28K this year already.

What a bummer year it is turning out to be on this front.

2020 Dividend Accumulator June

Another month which I thought was dry, but there was a little something.

Always nice to have surprises like that.

Also got into a monthly dividend-paying BDC, PSEC, once more.

Hope to see some dividends on the board soon.

12 June $152.00

Total Dividends for June: $152.00

Total Dividends for 2020: $3,280.38
Average per Month: $273.37

My Saxo P&L 2020 May

This is truly turning into my worst ever year trading with Saxo.

Another $6.8K down.

Every time I try to time the market and think the stock markets will go down, I get my fingers burned.

And May was seriously bad.

I have to be better at risk management by now no?

2020 Dividend Accumulator May

Notice that I didn't blog in May at all?

Actually it wasn't because there weren't any updates.

I just forgot that's all.

Anyway it is going to be a dry rest of the year on the dividend front.

May was good only because of a few one offs.

19 May $350.00
27 May $45.50

Total Dividends for May: $395.50

Total Dividends for 2020: $3,128.38
Average per Month: $260.70

Fourth Berserker Rage Of 2020

Sigh.

Took awhile to want to blog about this.

I've been gambling on the US Indexes too much.

I simply do not see any reason the US market should keep going up when everything around us is all bad news.

Only the unlimited QE seems to be driving the market up.

It is so kua zhang that the NASDAQ is back to near ATH.

Ridiculous.

I had wanted to stop this already.

Then it began with a loss of 1.2K.

After a week of wallowing, I got complacent again.

This time it got much worse, another 4K loss from in/out waste-time gambling.

Sigh.

I really need to stop this before I lose all my savings.

Lost Too Much This Year Already

I've lost too much money this year already.

The turbulent and volatile markets caused by COVID-19 have decimated my stock portfolio.

At the same time my own speculative bets on the market indexes have all ended up with hefty losses.

I've probably lost about $30K this year already on speculative bets, and another $50K on my stock portfolio.

It really hurts.

But I do feel like things could have been a lot worse for me.

Anyway all this bleeding has to stop.

I've decided to take a trading break for the next full month.

Hopefully I can remain disciplined and not end up funding my trading accounts by credit card again to gamble.

It's time to shore up my finances once more, even if it means I don't invest much any more for the rest of the year.

My Saxo P&L 2020 April

Wow what a terrible month April has been for me in trading.

With this >10K loss, I have surpassed the cumulative total I've lost ever since this tracking was done!

Horrendous!

No idea how to recover from this.

Just hope that the losses won't get worse than they are now.

2020 Dividend Accumulator April

So April is the month I'm hardly earning any dividends.

Will have to start from scratch all over again.

Projectively it doesn't look too difficult to reach the type of AUM I had prior to the big drop and market low of March 23rd, it might take me a year or so.

That said, the dividends have now slowed to a trickle and will likely be so for the months ahead.

There might be months which I'd get zero maybe?

02 April $41.84
03 April $22.03
08 April $190.57
20 April $3.39

Total Dividends for April: $257.83

Total Dividends for 2020: $2,732.88
Average per Month: $227,74

The Weirdness Of Coronavirus Markets

So in the midst of this COVID-19 situation, we can see clearly how bad this virus situation is doing to the economy, jobs and livelihoods.

The US reported their latest jobless claims numbers and there are 16 million jobless people in the US now.

Yes the stock markets continue to surge up from their 23rd March lows.

It is dumbfounding and doesn't make sense.

Is there so much helicopter money poured in by the US government that all reality is ignored?

I don't know.

But this is the clearest example of the rich only getting richer and the poor only getting poorer.

People who cannot dabble in the stock market are basically dead.

Those who have the money will still lose if you've sold off the bulk of your portfolios and don't dare to go into this market for fear that it is a ultra optimistic dead cat bounce. Like me.

Only those who have had the guts to pour it all in at the timeliest (maybe about a week ago) have been able to prosper.

Even those who have done nothing are still seeing about 20% down from their portfolio values.

Oh well.

HUAT AH!

My Saxo P&L 2020 March

Green in March!

Not too bad, albeit unable to recoup the loses in Jan and Feb.

Was hoping to continue this trend into April, but in the first 10 days of April I am already down almost 7K.

So much for continuation.

March has tons of volatility to play with.

It was also very easy to get carried away.

I had a few near berserker rages again.

Ah well.

Hope to huat and make up for all these loses over time.

2020 Dividend Accumulator March

March was the worst month ever in the history of my dividend portfolio.

And with that, I liquidated a very big portion of my portfolio while things were on the way down.

Along the way, four of my biggest dividend machines (MRRL, MORL, REML, SMHB) basically died (ETNs that got called or delisted)

So much for earning dividends anymore.

What's left to come will be dribs and drabs.

I'm not sure how long it will take for me to get back to that same level of dividend payouts.

Not even sure if 12 months is sufficient but let's see.

That said, in March I still received a little bit of leftovers of dividends declared in Feb.

So only in April will the poor payouts be reflected.

02 March $92.53
04 March $22.06
12 March $20.18
13 March $12.03
24 March $36.92
24 March $40.73
24 March $34.99
24 March $27.81
27 March $150.00

Total Dividends for March: $437.25

Total Dividends for 2020: $2,475.05
Average per Month: $206.25

COVID-19 Has Taken Over Our Lives

Haven't blogged for a while.

I'm not too sure why, but I definitely have been spending more time at home.

On the home front, all is well. More time at home = more time with kids and family. Becoming more of a homebody, preferring to stay at home and do a bit of house chores here and there. Or work till late hours just because we all can now.

On the work front, things are super busy. Good busy. More people staying at home + volatile markets means more people want opening new accounts and more people trading. Company is on a 50-50 split, one week Work From Home, one week work in the office. If things get worse then we might end up in a 100% WFH situation.

On the investment front, this is where things get super ugly. The markets are in total turmoil. Daily 1-2% up or down is nothing, several days of limit ups and downs (5%). My personal portfolio is terrible. I've lost about 40% of my whole portfolio from this sudden drop. I see the situation getting worse and have cut my losses when I see the chance to. Money can be earned back, I try not to be too hard on myself.

COVID-19 has changed the way we live our lives.

Singapore is currently on partial lockdown already with many businesses closed, we've barred entry to foreigners, everyone has to social distance themselves or stay at home to keep safe.

This is probably the worst global crisis we will ever face in our lives, and this is just the beginning.

I wonder how this will end?

My Saxo P&L 2020 February

The red ink just continues.

Not sure how to stem it, especially with markets so volatile now.

Trying to get green in March.

February was just abysmal.

2020 Dividend Accumulator February

As COVID-19 ravages the markets, and indices all go into freefall, I am expecting my monthly dividend returns to go down.

Feb has been a very dry month for dividends. Here's to a better March.

That said, I'm still hoping that monthly dividends are decent!

HUAT AH!!!

05 February $21.29
13 February $19.47
18 February $68.57
24 February $9.78
25 February $19.69
25 February $22.92
25 February $30.66
26 February $19.87
28 February $108.85

Total Dividends for February: $321.10

Total Dividends for 2020: $2,037.8
Average per Month: $169.82

COVID-19 And The Markets

The markets are in freefall mode with the COVID-19 coronavirus spreading throughout the world.

Things are really quite bad.

Hopefully they improve soon.

Third Berserker Rage Of 2020

Sigh.

Really don't have the destiny to be rich.

I just keep losing money fast and furious.

So yesterday was in such similar fashion.

If I had chosen to busy myself with other things and done absolutely NOTHING, I wouldn't have lost all this money and I might even have made a tidy sum.

Anyway there were big moves in the equity markets the night before. US markets were down 3%. Last night as well it came down 3%. Then greedy me when to punt firstly on DBS.

Immediately shorted at the opening bell expecting a drop in the Singapore market but who would've thought, the market bucked the global trend and went up instead. Ended up closing my position.

Net loss SGD 1,000.

Then I went on the stupid IG Markets platform again to gamble all that I had in there on the S&P. Up down left right play what also lose what. My stops were just to close and I kept getting stopped out.

Net loss SGD 5,000.

I need to ban myself from trading at least till end of April.

Sigh.

My Saxo P&L 2020 January

The red tide is continuing unabated!!!

All because I refuse to believe the market should be on an upward trajectory!

Biggest losses in January have been by TSLA and S&P.

Hit my first 4-digit profit of the year with Qantas though.

And Feb looks really bad too.

Almost 10K lose already this year.

2020 Dividend Accumulator January

A new year and a continuation of this post.

Hopefully the dividends continue to increase steadily.

The world is very volatile now with so much happening, yet the stock market is charging up with new all-time high over new all-time highs. So it is pretty hard to find good dividend value.

But lets see.

January has started out really well with a super bumper dividend month to kick the year off! One single month alone raking in 25% of last year's total dividend numbers?!

HUAT AH!!!

03 January $48.27
06 January $179.23
06 January $21.29
08 January $19.14
13 January $204.00
14 January $19.47
20 January $25.41
20 January $28.80
24 January $55.40
24 January $340.24
24 January $395.91
24 January $84.36
28 January $295.18


Total Dividends for January: $1,716.70

Total Dividends for 2020: $1,716.70
Average per Month: $143.06

IG Markets Guaranteed Stops - BEWARE!

I find that IG Markets' offering of Guaranteed Stops is just so, so dangerous.

So easy to lose money, and really easy to over-leverage.

With a deposit of about SGD4,000, on a normal Stop order, I can only trade about 1 standard lot, whereas with a Guaranteed Stop, I could trade 13! This means that my entire 4K is placed as potential to be lost!

Trade safe people, don't be easily fooled by greed, which IG helps aid you in feeling.

It is far easier to get stopped out when your stop is too close to the market!

See the margin sizes when I toggle between Normal stop and Guaranteed stop!

WOW.

Gamblers unfortunately get easily addicted to these products.

SO BEWARE!

First & Second Berserker Rages of 2020

Another year, another financial blunder.

My first and second berserker rages of 2020 came within a week of each other.

All blamed on the this irrational market.

I feel so stupid and yet knew I could've avoided things had I been a little smarter about it.

The first was due to the airstrike that killed a top Iranian commander. The world knew Iran was going to retaliate and when it did, I think everyone just simply shorted the markets heavily and so did I. However as the bombs fell, the world irrationally decided that the tensions were going to ease soon after and it began to rise. It rose back to pre-tensions level and then continue to break new highs! From there I just basically died and got stopped out.

Lost SGD 6,000.

The second was stupidly because of IG Markets' trading platform. By placing a guaranteed stop, I could engage in much heavier sizes to trade on. And with that I went crazy short on Tesla, on AUDUSD, and S&P. Once again all were correlated and went on irrational rises against markets' expectations. Again got stopped out and lost a ton of bricks. Dammit!

Lost SGD 6,800.

Are things going to get better for me?

I dunno.

By the turn of the lunar new year, my year should be a little better hopefully.

Let's see.

Until then, I have imposed a trading ban on myself till end of the month.

Pui!

Ideas For Businesses I Could Do without Quitting My Dayjob

Found here.

1. Tester or Reviewer
2. Online Seller on Carousell
3. Editorial Services
4. Translator
5. E-commerce Store
6. Survey Taking

Friendly Investment Advice For 2020

After I posted this, look at the amount of negative news that came out.

- Floods in Jakarta
- Fires in Australia
- Assassination of an Iranian top army general by US

Let's see what 2020 brings on the macro front.

Hope I can huat big big!

Financial Resolutions For 2020

Was writing my resolutions for 2020 last night and two of them are financially related.

1) Earn >SGD10K On My Saxo Investment Account
I need to have a better and more systematic strategy in place if I am to achieve this in 2020. No more gambling!

2) Achieve Passive Income Of At Least $700/mth
This can be done as long the world economy and the stock markets do not get too volatile.

Let's see if I can achieve them!

There was even a sixth resolution which I decided to omit in the end since I could only list the top five anyway. It was exactly financially related but it was to Do One Thing Significant With My Life. The more I've been reading up about my feng shui this year, the more I think this is the year I need to take a big step in the business direction to make myself huat to the next level!

But what is this big step that won;t be too risky for me to give up everything?!

It is time to start strategizing! I only have 364 days of huat-ness remaining!