BTC $100K

 One of my brightest investments.

It is currently hovering around $99K, probably will hit the $100K mark next week.

Let’s see.

But this is pretty cool if I keep it for longer right?

Singapore Fintech Festival 2024

  Another year, another power booth by Saxo.

This year wasn’t as crowded as last year, but still a very large event for everyone.

Fifth Berserker Rage Of 2024

 Dammit

I thought I was over with these rage gambles.

Got caught out by some wild swings on USDJPY last two days.

Today Putin said something about the right to use nuclear arms and then USDJPY swung a whole big figure down, stopping my long position out from waaaaaaaaay below.

Lost $18K in total.

Dammit man.

Hopefully will see better days in gambling/investing as the year comes to an end.

Trump Has Won

  And Donald Trump has won the 2024 US Elections.

By quite a landslide somemore!

In fact the Republicans have won the Presidency, the Senate, and the House of Representatives!

Not really looking forward to the circus to come in the next four years, but in warped way, we could all see this coming from quite a mile away. The world has been getting too woke and it is time to straighten up again.

Good luck to Europe that’s what I’ll say!

Trump Might Be Winning

 As much as the mainstream media hates to admit this, it seems like Trump winning the coming US Elections is a very real outcome.

Bookmakers are pricing him to win.

Many Financial Institutions appear to factor the chances of him winning is higher than that of Kamala Harris.

All this while most mainstream polls show them neck and neck.

In my mind if the bookmakers are giving him shorter odds to win at almost all swing states, then I think he’s got this in the bag, short of a monumental fuckup by Trump’s team.

The problem is that this guy is so shocking that there’s not much else that can shock the markets.

Much as I hate to say it, we should position ourselves accordingly where we can control things.

Short Europe

Short China

Short Allies

Short EVs except TSLA

Short Tech

Long Authoritarian 

Long Gold

Long Crypto

Long TSLA

Long Energy

Who knows markets might take a short plunge but rally heavily again like his first term.

This is going to be a REALLY long four year for the rest of the free world if he wins the US Elections come Nov 5th.

God bless us all.

Is It Worth It To Pay ABSD?

 Here’s an interesting case study.

I’ve always wondered if it is really worth paying ABSD to own another property.

The issue here is that we have our current forever home in joint name.

Decoupling sounds mafan, but probably will save us some money since any Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) is surely more expensive than the decoupling share purchase.

Then recently I chanced upon this unit at Siglap V, a tiny freehold condo which just got me thinking for fun.

The 500+sqft unit is trying to sell for $920K but is also asking for $3.2K monthly rent. A check on URA’s website shows me that last transaction of the same size was only $800K.

This means if I can get the unit for $800K and then subsequently rent it out at $3.2K, I actually earn a yield of 4.8%!

However if I factor in having to pay ABSD, which is currently 20%, that means I have to pay $960K for the unit. This translates to a rental yield of 4.0%.

Somehow it sounds not bad and it makes me a multiple property owner never again. This means paying the ABSD over the mafaness of decoupling might not be as sever?

Sure maybe I will end up having to pay more than $800K for the unit? Maybe I cannot get a rental of $3.2K and have to settle for less. I still have to pay maintenance and any charges for large expenses incurred by the unit, which will eat into my yield. 

But still.

Is my math not mathing here?

Maybe go viewing for fun :)

Saxo Unfiltered 2024

  Last week Saxo Singapore held our fantastic annual macro event, Saxo Unfiltered 2024, for our VIP clients and partners featuring the famous US investor, Jim Rogers! His insights into the markets ahead were really interesting and enlightening, peppered with his signature cheeky humour. Also great to hear the different speakers’ views and takes of the upcoming US Elections. A huge kudos to all our staff helping to make this monumental event in Singapore 🇸🇬 possible and special mention to our partners at CME Group for their strong and constant support.

#saxo #beinvested Saxo Bank 

18 Years In One Company

  Been working in one single organization for the last 18 years. 

I thanks my lucky stars I’ve got this champion with me.

Mr Eugene Wong.

Saxo Coffee

  We had an event recently where we had a coffee cart.

It was so very well received!

Check out our Saxo branded cold brews and cups!

Polestar 4 Has Arrived

  Did an event with Polestar recently.

Polestar is distributed by Wearnes here in Singapore.

Previously only the Polestar 2 was available but now both the 3 and 4 are launched and the Polestar 4 is first to be made available here.

It is such a beautiful car and as a PSNY shareholder, I wholeheartedly approve.

On to greater heights for PSNY please!

September Is Ending

 I did mention to wake me up when September ends early at the start of the month right?

Was expecting September to be a poor month.

Little did I realize that all things considered, I’m at the point of my highest networth ever.

No need to go into further detail but I guess that’s a good thing?

Of course still aiming to grow it exponentially much more.

Yet I ought to take a bit of time to appreciate these little things once in a while, especially in the hustle and bustle of corporate rat race where mine has become so chaotic.

Here’s to a better life ahead and even more wealth!

September Musings

 I’m probably gonna jinx it with this post.

This month’s been quite good so far.

Staying away from FX.

NASDAQ swing trading has been doing well.

PSNY is pumping like up >100% in two weeks!

Other stocks are doing well.

STI closing in on all time high!

Recently bought into INTC too.

Hopefully more $$$ to come!

Huat ah!

CasiNO Sojourn

 I’ve not been back to the casino at MBS for more than 2-3 years I think?

Last night was sad and high.

We decided to go in for a punt thinking how bad can the day get right?

Withdrew $1.2K to pay the $150 entry.

End up they don’t accept cash for the entry charge so tapped $150.

Started with $200 on 大 and lost it.

Then pooled $1K with everyone and let the most huat gambler amongst us wipe it all out.

Net loss for a night’s short visit: $1.35K

Now I’m even sadder :(

Fourth Berserker Rage Of 2024

 Today was a very sad day.

And in that sadness, I gambled away a chunk of stupid money.

Both online and offline gambling.

Gosh I am so uncontrollable.

Ended up losing $11K.

All this while PSNY is starting to pump again.

Maybe that can bail me out big time?

Stocks Not Doing Well

 It’s been a rough two weeks for stocks and many investment portfolios.

The markets dropped significantly and even the VIX hit 40!

Just hoping to tide through this rough period with my portfolios.

Holding cash is still great so keep it there and build the war chest!

Yolé Machine

  It was so random that our office decided to bring in a Yolé vendor to dish out all you can eat yoghurt.

I literally ate till I lao sai after three cups.

Great employee welfare! Super good for staff motivation!

Saxo Atlas Award

  I won the Saxo Atlas Award way back in 2016 I think.

The Saxo Atlas Award is given to 5-8 employees globally annually to those who have gone above and beyond for the company.

Somehow found it lying in office and brought it back home.

Still brings me massive pride to have won it.

Quick Update On Personal Investing

PSNY finally recovering. GREAT!

GME undervalued for sure. GREAT!

REITs recovering. GREAT!

YieldMax delivering above and beyond. GREAT!

SATS cheong. GREAT!

Finally got into NVDA. GREAT!

HYSAs delivering nice monthly interests. GREAT!

BOJ intervention. BAD!

Third Berserker Rage Of 2024

 Damn.

Got caught out by USDJPY intervention.

Sudden drop.

Ouch.

Lost 10K just like that.

Sad lah.

Damn.

GME Update

 This baby is ready to fly!

Dilution offering actually helped it shore up $4.2B in cash and no debt while its market cap is still only $12B!

Super hyped up knowing that we have DFV and CEO Ryan Cohen in deep with all of us retailers.

This is the closest I’ve come to community investing and seriously what a joyride it has been so far.

Hopefully it’ll make us all rich on the way too!

This was his latest update BEFORE the dilution completion was announced last night!

Subsequently jumped 22% wahahahahahahahahah let’s gooooooooo!

DFV GME RDDT Update

 Wow.

RoaringKitty aka DeepFuckingValue finally posted his position on Reddit.

This time on the SuperStonk sub.

Not only has he held on to those positions he had three years ago, he’s added to those positions!

So now his positions in GME alone are worth $200m. In fact actually as of last night’s close it was closer to $300m.

What a legend.

If he exercised his options, he’d own almost 5% of GameStop!

Truly diamond hands! 💎🙌🚀🚀🚀

If he can do it, so can I.

GME Pumping

 Hoping my position in GameStop (GME) pumps!

Raised an additional $1B in cash.

No debt.

Results on June 11th.

Let’s gooooooo!

GME & Roaring Kitty

 Roaring Kitty of GameStop fame is back!

He posted this on X and in three days, the price actually ran up from $10+ to $70+!

I actually went in again on the way down and now I’m a bagholder once more haha.

Diamond hands! To the moon!

PSNY Deficiency Notice

 This is bad, really really bad.

In the worst case scenario, this could mean a delisting.

My investment in Polestar might literally go to zero.

60 days to comply, price too low to sell anyways :(

What a really bad investment this has been!

Read about it here.

High Dividends

 For some reason, April and early May have brought in bumper dividends and other passive income!

This makes me super happy.

I am wondering where to park them.

Should I reinvest the dividends back into the high yielding stocks? Or should I use this opportunity to buy new stocks that I can pride over the fact that the entire purchase was ‘free’?

Recently also looking at higher yielding UCITS ETFs to help balance things out, such as SHYU, VHYD, VHYL. They are listed on the London Stock Exchange and are more tax efficient. US stocks we always end up having to pay 30% withholding tax, which erodes whatever yield we achieve.

My dream is to be able to earn $5-10K of regularly dividends every month passively. Also where the dividends do not erode the NAV of the stock/bond.

Without going into the specifics of my current high yielding portfolio, I need to reduce its volatility and make sure I don’t blindly chase yield. This has happened to me in the past and I ended up being burnt. So definitely some lessons learnt and aiming not to let history repeat itself.

Let’s see if we can achieve that sooner rather than later.

NVDA

 Finally jumped on this bandwagon a week back and oh boy is it printing brrrrrrrrr!

NVDA is the hottest of the magnificent 7 right now that’s propping up the whole NASDAQ.

Hoping to see it cross $1,000!

HUAT AH!

Second Berserker Rage Of 2024

 Argh not again.

Last night was NFP and the market shot up.

I took a gamble again on USDJPY and was wrong.

I took a gamble on NASDAQ100 and was wrong.

Ended up losing another SGD 7K.

Gosh I need to stop bleeding financially like that.

Need to cold turkey myself.

Small Windfall

 Just received a small windfall.

Funny how things come along nicely.

Very grateful but it’s come right at the time when I might have one big expense upcoming.

So it is very timely.

I have to really derisk very aggressively.

Thinking of stopping all my margin trading altogether.

Just whack risky stocks at best. Search for more 2, 5, even 10 baggers.

Huat ah!

Mr Market Coming Down

Aaaaaand the market is coming down.

The NASDAQ has reached 17,000 while flirting with ATH of 18,500 just a week ago.

NVDA was done 10% to $760 last night.

TSLA is at $147 last night too.

And this night just be the start.

Even after the war in the Middle East was deescalated.

War in Ukraine still ongoing. Hope Ukraine can find a way to win and soon.

Tensions in the Taiwan Straits rising. Hope nothing happens there.

But the real reason is this.

Markets are worried inflation is too sticky (I really told you so!).

That means we might NOT even have an interest rate cut this year, when stupid market was pricing in up to six cuts this year! How misaligned is that?!

USD Treasury debt is growing uncontrollably.

At this rate all industries relying on loans will struggle. The leveraged banks. Tech. IT. Property. REITs. BDCs.

Crypto is a conundrum. No one really knows what’s gonna happen after the halving. And that is happening tonight.

Gold is flying through the roof, hitting past $2,400 yesterday.

All I can say is to keep some powder dry and have some cash in hand to seize any good opportunities. It feels like volatility is coming back in quite a big way.

Good luck and stay safe!

First Berserker Rage Of 2024

 Argh.

I feel so stupid.

Knew this would happen but I let it play out the way it did anyway.

Bet too heavy of ultra-leveraged USDJPY.

Kept feeling like the BOJ would intervene at some point.

Also kept pushing my stop too close so it was really easy to get stop-hunted.

And it happened.

Ended up losing $6K.

Ouch so painful :(

Global Worries

 Feeling a little worried lately about global developments recently.

Ukraine seems to be losing the war against Russia the aggressor. In the war of attrition, it is already quite a miracle that they’ve held strong on for three years now, but they are beginning to lose ground quickly as more supporting countries turn more right winged.

Israel’s invasion of Gaza over Hamas’ Oct 7th atrocities has turn global moral opinion against them and now seems to be escalating wider with Iran and the US possibly drawn in.

Myanmar civil war where the resistance appears to be gaining ground is a positive thing considering the repressive junta. The junta’s recent law to draft conscripts is so worrying.

Philippines’ South China sea confrontations with China over their nine-dotted line claims appears to be escalating. 

Trump looking more and more likely to win the coming US elections and then he’s going to cause a lot of havoc in global affairs such as stopping support for NATO, escalating trade wars with China and totally neglecting SEA. So worrying.

These current affairs make me think about how and what I need to do to position myself financially, mentally, emotionally and maybe even physically!

UOBOne Account Nerfed

 Boooooooo…

The best high yield savings account (HYSA) has been nerfed, but still quite good among the rest.

Probably in anticipation of interest rate cuts in the US, UOB has gone ahead to nerf their power HYSA, what a pity.

From earning 5% pa with a monthly average balance of $100K, now it has been reduced to earning 4% pa with a monthly average balance of $150K.

Sadly we can’t complain too much as there are not many better alternatives out there.

So I’ll still to it and pump some more savings that way.

The next best is still OCBC360 but it might be a matter of time before that one is nerfed too.

I know some have mentioned Maribank, but right now I use Trust as the third option. Maybe I’ll open an account with Maribank and try too.

IREIT Global Update

 This REIT I have followed closely since the popular finance blogger ASSI took a big position in it.

Unfortunately the price keeps dropping because of the uncertainty in global interest rates and uncertainty in Europe (its properties are entirely in Europe).

Yet, when it is dividends time, this REIT continues to pay really well, yet without overtaxing itself. It is prudent and management makes very good decisions aimed to benefit shareholders.

What a bumper dividend this time round! I will use the proceeds to either reinvest or to buy something else undervalued in Europe (I like that its dividends I’ve chosen to pay out in EUR), as I’ve done with the last few years of its dividends.

But the market keeps devaluing it.

I do question myself what’s wrong but I can find as much issues as another big holding of mine, PSNY.

So I do feel quite convicted to not only keep holding but to find some opportunities to average down.

Hopefully they are as undervalued as I see them.

HUAT AH!!!

A Taste Of Retirement

 In any case wanted to mention my taste of retirement.

This week is the school holidays so I took a whole week off.

We travelled to Ipoh which I’ll blog about later but came back on a Wednesday.

Then yesterday I took to exercising the whole morning to burn off that 2-3kg of awesome Ipoh food. By noon the kids had come home and I just nuahed around and napped from 3-5pm.

By evening we had a dinner and then I binged on Netflix this new Korean drama called Dr Slump.

Could this be my early taste of retirement?

March Investment Updates

 PSNY continues to bleed and taking a toll on my overall portfolio.

Market feels toppish so I’ve actually reverted to a little more cash. Took profits where I could.

I have this bad habit of letting my losers run for years and that’s what I’m still doing. 

Crypto is on a tear and basically more than 2x for me already. Think I’ll need to take some profits before April’s halving.

Cash is king now and UOBOne and OCBC360 combo is super awesome. Up and coming is Trust which could be my third liquid cash pillar once I max the earlier two out.

No berserker rages yet this year! This is a really big achievement for me and hope to keep that going. All my little punts are smaller and more rational, resulting in a higher win rate even if at small amounts.

Also shorted XAUUSD to earn really good and sticky carry.

Huat ah!

PSNY Update

 One of my worst investments ever!

In a good year for me financially, this has continued to turn in a fail report card as it just keeps sliding down to oblivion.

Mind you, this was once my largest single investment for a good while. Today it is but a mid table investment that I might have to write off.

Pui!

Feb Early Signs

 Feb early signs point to spending more money.

PSNY’s drop is unrelenting. Not sure what to make of it.

Everything else is going good.

The NASDAQ is just powering up and up and up.

All else being equal, basically not taking more risks than necessary this month and let everything cruise.

Crypto is powering up and up and up too! It’s definitely printing :)

Bullish 2024 Ahead

 2024’s tilt is towards a bullish stance.

Bar some type of major war on a global scale (I know there are worrying pockets all over the world right now), it looks like the global economy can chug along nicely.

Interest rates in the US are sufficiently high, with no increases in the horizon, means we are either going to see expected rate cuts or a surprise of zero cuts. In between the expected three cuts vs zero cuts, my personal stance is one cut this year and maximum two cuts.

Main reason for this is that inflation is going to be sticky. And we’re seeing exactly why the stock markets are heading up. Inflation also causes the stock market to go up.

So here’s my own hypothesis below and I am ONLY TALKING TO MYSELF SO THIS IS NOT ADVICE IN ANY SORT OF WAY.

This is bad of course because at some point, people will not be able to afford (people are cutting back heavily on spending since start of the year, layoffs in tech and finance is crazy high) >> consumer purchases will come down drastically >> companies cannot keep up with their overly inflated sales numbers >> flushed institutional liquidity has to invest to keep up with inflation and expectations >> PE will skyrocket >> bubble territory and ATHs.

We are in ATH territory already but is this a bubble yet? My opinion is that we are not even close yet. PE multiples are still not at euphoric zones and you have stocks like the magnificent seven (GOOG, META, AAPL, MSFT, NVDA, TSLA, AMZN) that’s powering into this year with overwhelming strength. 

I also think it is a good time to load up on the magnificent seven but to be very nimble and be ready to sell when we are possibly at the top of the bubble. Of course we will never be able to time where this bubble is so chances are is I will end up buying at the high or selling too early. I am already DCA-ing regularly into a few of the seven, that’s at least my own strategy.

Meanwhile, resist the attempt to short the US markets all through Q1-Q3. Review again in Q4 and see where we are then.

Meanwhile, keep other portfolios separate! 

Dividend portfolio should be kept separate. High interest rate environment has not been kind to it last year but this year it is already recovering and providing some token passive income so I’m glad that I stayed the course. Looking to grow it further as interest rates come down.

Cash portfolio is also growing stronger and this will serve as potential war chest or emergency funds if other portfolios do not perform well. Just save a bit here and there where possible and resist always replying everything into the markets.

Crypto portfolio is STRONG. Just stay for the ride, no expectations but this should 2x or 3x if everyone says BTC and ETH and where it’s supposed to go. Going into the new year up 30% is already a big yay.

Gambling portfolio stopped altogether in 2024 to save money. Lots of money to be saved here if I resist gambling at all and so far so good this year! Just resist losing money to stupid bets.

Hope to huat big big this year!!!

Closing January Out

 Stopping all day trading for the coming three days.

January has been a crazy huat month for me and what a start for the new year it has been on this front! Hopefully we continue in the same vein all year!

Just follow the uptrend and ride the ATH wave!

This year I’ve turned bullish and as much as the geopolitical situation appears worrisome, there is the belief that the US is printing SO MUCH USD that the stock markets can only go one way and that is up.

For January the main profits came from Options, Stocks and the US Indices. Shiok max.

It also means inflation may be coming in strong. So staying invested in the market while keeping an adequate war chest will be key in case the market drops.

Be safe out there.

HUAT AH!!!

Scam Alert

  << SCAM ALERT >> There are scammers out there posing as me trying to scam victims into transferring them money purportedly for attractive investment gains. 

If you have been contacted by someone by phone or social apps you believe to be posing as me and they are asking for funds, please block them and report the numbers or links used to your local police/authorities.

I have attached on my social media, a screenshot of an imposter posing as me circulating on Telegram (neither Saxo nor myself will use Telegram to communicate with you for any official matters). 

Do be wary and stay safe out there.

Weird Trades

 Something really weird happened last night.

For some very strange unknown reason, I woke up at 4.30am.

Instinctively I checked my expiring options positions.

I was holding on to several large short put positions that were expiring, most were ITM, which meant I was prepared for them to be assigned and pay up for the underlying shares.

The moment I logged into my account, it showed my margin unearthly high at 95%! I was almost about to get stopped out!

So I quickly did an additional top up without understanding why, and brought that margin down.

Then I stay up until past 5am until the market closed.

I found out that in the last few minutes of expiry, the price of the underlying stock was moving quite rapidly, hence causing the margin for the options to spike. So very, very luckily I could do a very quick top up so shore up my margin %, else I would have been stopped out of ALL my other margined positions as well!

All in, it was an easy 10K profit which could have been a 5K loss had I breached my margin limits.

Phew!

Furthermore, the underlying stock jumped 6% for a Friday session, which also meant some of my sold puts expiring OTM, meaning I earned the premiums and had more liquidity for the next short put play! Super nice!

Looks like 2024 is not turning out to be so bad afterall!

A Good Jan So Far

 It’s been a pretty good Jan so far.

USDJPY trade finally closed with a really, really, really nice profit!

No unnecessary berserker rages!

BTC breaking out $$$!

Stock markets approaching ATH!

Dividend portfolio recovering from 2023 quite fast!

Hopefully this positivity continues through the year!

Huat ah!

Long USDJPY

 Starting my year with a long position on USDJPY.

USDJPY just turned the new year at around 141 flat.

That’s a 10 big figure move DOWN from its high.

Definitely a lot of room to retrace but it could continue to weaken downwards who knows.

So a small position will do so I don’t get carried away in the new year.

Investment Resolutions Upcoming

 Just like my New Year’s resolutions in my other personal blog, I’d like to commit to some finance-related resolutions too.

Let me have a think and I’ll pen some of my thoughts soon.

Definitely one item is to have ZERO Berserker Rages in FY24!

Also maybe a full year dividend target goal would be nice.

And a significant increase of networth overall.

Hopefully I can be more disciplined and thereby increase my networth and meet other investment goals in this new year.

HUAT AH!