In a couple of days time, we will bid farewell to 2021 and welcome a new year of the Tiger in 2022. Looking back, I certainly hope the past 350+ days had been a fulfilling and memorable one for you.

With that, I feel it is timely for me to post my year in review before the current year draws to a close (and this will also my final post in The Singaporean Investor for the year), where you’ll read about a review of my investment journey, followed by my trading journey, and finally, my personal life journey for the year:

My Investment Journey

This year, I’ve added 2 companies to my long-term investment portfolio in Koufu Limited in late-May 2021 (you can read about reasons for my investment decision here), and Keppel DC REIT in late-October 2021 (you can read about why I’ve added the data centre REIT to my long-term investment portfolio here.)

At the same time, I’ve also taken advantage of the share price volatility during the year to bring down my average price of some of the companies I have invested in:

• Mapletree Industrial Trust – From an average price of $3.01 at the start of the year, I’ve averaged down my invested price in the blue-chip REIT twice this year (first to $2.91 in February, and then to $2.85 in September) by buying more units when the unit prices fell to $2.80 and $2.79 respectively. Also, to avoid this one single REIT holding a huge percentage in my overall portfolio, I’ve sold off some units in July.
• CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust – I’ve bought some units at $1.98 on Christmas Eve (where based on technical analysis, there was a major support line at this price point) to bring my average invested price in the blue-chip REIT down to $2.04 (from $2.09 previously.)

On top of that, I’ve also made use of the scrip dividend scheme to bring down my average invested price for Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust (from $1.07 to $1.06), along with subscribing to Mapletree Logistics Trust’s recent preferential offering to bring down my average invested price from $1.90 to $1.89.

In the coming year 2022 ahead, I will continue to adopt the same investment strategy in that, I’ll continue to monitor the “health” of the companies I’ve invested in by keeping abreast of any latest developments through news reports, quarterly and annual reports, and also through attending any meetings (AGMs and EGMs) conducted by the management. At the same time, I will continue to make use of market volatilities to further bring down the average prices of my investments (and in so doing, bringing up the dividend yields) as and when an opportunity to do so becomes available.

Finally, in case you’re wondering whether I’m looking to further add on to my investment portfolio (in terms of company count) in the year ahead, there are 2 I’m looking to add at the right price – Singapore Exchange (as they have a moat in being the only stock exchange in Singapore, along with its stable financial performance and dividend payout to shareholders over the years), and Parkway Life REIT (due to its stable growth in terms of its financials and distribution payout to unitholders, a resilient portfolio occupancy profile, and also a very conservative debt profile.)

My Trading Journey

This year, I spent most of my time trading in the US market (as it is much more liquid compared to the Singapore market) – particularly, I explored more in the world of Options trading.

For those of you who would like to know of my thoughts about it, all I can say is that it is a “high risk high reward” form of trading in that, while the return on investment is higher, but the potential loss (if the share price were to move in the opposite direction after the execution of the trade) is higher as well – for those of you who have been communicating with me on a regularly basis, you’ll know that sometime around late-September, I had to realise a heavy 4-figure loss in Alibaba (through my buying of “call options” on this particular counter) as the company’s share price felt the brunt of the regulations imposed by the Chinese government just as I was on the verge of exiting the trade for a profit (you can call it unlucky, but that’s the way it is, as there’s never a “sure win” as far as trading is concerned.)

Thankfully, its not all bad as far as my Options trading journey is concerned – I have managed to generate some healthy gains through the credit spreads Option strategy, which in my opinion is much easier to execute, as all I need to do is to make sure that the share price does not move below (if I were to execute a “bull put spread” strategy), or above (if I were to execute a “bear call spread” strategy) a certain price. If you like to know more about how to execute such trades, there’s a good video posted by Adam Khoo recently and you can check it out
here. That said, a word of caution here – before you start to get excited about the prospects of getting “free money”, if you want to have a good win rate using this strategy, having a good technical analysis is vital (as such, I will not recommend this strategy for those who do not possess a good technical analysis knowledge, or those who are new to trading, as you may risk suffering from massive losses if you are not careful enough.)

Some of the other takeaways as far as trading is concerned this year include:

• The Word “Change” is the Only Constant in the Stock Market – the only constant in the stock market is the word “change” itself (as in most parts of this year, the market fluctuated based on the severity of the ongoing Covid situation), and as such, its important for one to be nimble enough to quickly adapt to the changing environment (making tweaks to your strategy along the way to fit to the market condition.)
• Always Adopt an Open Mind – As a trader, it is important to always have an open mind to continuously learn new strategies and techniques (as education is key to help us stay relevant.)
• Look Beyond our Local Market – At the time of writing, there are only 700+ companies listed on the Singapore stock market, and if you were to take out the illiquid counters, along with those that are deeply entrenched in a downtrend, there aren’t too many counters left. In contrast, the US stock market has more than 6,000 listed companies to which you can select from to trade – more than 10 times compared to the Singapore market. Enough said.

My Personal Life Journey

For the first half of the year, I was occupied with all the co-ordination work related to house moving – where I shifted out of my 4-room flat (was glad to have engaged a really competent property agent who have a great understanding of the neighbourhood, and she managed to sell my unit at a record price for my block), and into an executive mansionette (many were wondering why my wife and I did not upgrade to a condominium instead – the main reason was because both of us are space lovers, and we cannot imagine ourselves staying in a house where moving from one room to another is just a mere few steps away; apart from that, this new location of mine is a very convenient one – with shopping mall, bus interchange and MRT station within a couple of minutes walk, and there are also lots of coffeeshops surrounding the neighbourhood.) For those of you who would like to know who my property agent, or who my interior designer is (who really did a lot to help us complete all our renovation works under a very tight timeline), just drop me a message and I’ll share their contacts with you.

Its also because of this “house moving exercise” that got me interested in learning about properties – particularly in how to value a home, how not to overpay when buying a new home, and also how to evaluate whether a particular location has “appreciation value.”

Now that everything’s settled down, I am slowly thinking and planning for my next move (some may think that I’m mad to think about it right now, considering that I have to fulfil my 5 year minimum occupancy period for my current place) – but to me, I feel it is timely now to do some studying and understand more about the property market, so that when the time comes, I will know enough to (hopefully) help me make even better selling and buying decisions.

Last but not least, I would like express my deepest gratitude to each and every one of you for your support in all of my shares put up in The Singaporean Investor. In the coming 2022 ahead, I will do my best to come out with even more contents to help fellow Singaporean investors make better investment decisions. Apart from investment- and trading-related topics, if you are interested in the things I do (outside of being a full-time retail investor cum trader), you can follow my Instagram account at the handle @junyuanlim2605 for those of you who like to connect with me on a personal level. Also, in time to come, I will be sharing some investment-related and good trading setups (as and when a good one comes along) there too for my followers there.

With that, I have come to the end of my share today – Here’s wishing all of you a wonderful rest of the year 2021, and a prosperous 2022 year of the Tiger ahead… Huat ah!