Noticed EPF, KWAP and AmanahRaya buying especially EPF.

This post has been edited by abcn1n: Apr 18 2020, 11:58 AM

What do you all think of Ascendas-india trust?

What S Reit you planning to get into?

Yeah, never expect oil price to go to below $0. It just shows anything can happen.

Thanks for summary. No need to go and individually dig the info. now. BTW, do you think Singapore REITS (non shopping mall reits) will do better/worse than S&P and QQQ indices?

This post has been edited by abcn1n: Apr 24 2020, 12:59 AM

Thanks. Was wondering whether to do any averaging down for the Sg reits as worried whether it will go bust and/or the price currently will be the new normal. After reading your view, I guess I will do at least 1 averaging down if price drop to a desirable level.

Thanks. My choice of reits are quite ok I think. The one that is more worrying is Mapletree NAC. I was thinking that it may rise near Olympics and when HK more settled (due to riots), that's why still holding on to it.

This post has been edited by abcn1n: Apr 26 2020, 03:59 PM

Eh, if you sold your shares in late 2018, that means for about 1.5 years, you have not been in the stock market?

Thanks. You must be very patient to be out of the overseas market for so long.

I hope that USD will remain the global currency for many years--not because I like USA but because if there's no other good alternative currency, then the world would be in a much worse place. For all of USA faults, having China as a main or 2nd main currency would be even worse knowing how China operates. Euro is just too weak with countries like Italy in the fold. Germany is strong but then no more deutschemark. Swiss franc used to be a safe haven also until it had no choice but to devalue its currency (when euro plunged years ago ) to save its economy. Japanese yen is another safe haven currency but not the main and cannot be the main with its aging population.

Oil--who knows what will happen in the long future. I remembered before shale oil was discovered, everybody was saying oil is so limited and how price will shoot through the roof. Even when it was just starting out, how expensive it would be for it to extract it. Even when shale was operating profitably, nobody expected $0 much less negative oil prices. Seems that there's a first in everything.

Yeah, agree that don't simply follow everyone blindly. DD is needed

For me, some countries will always want to dominate/flex their muscles more unfairly than others. Just look at China now wanting to own many parts of the South China Sea. If not for USA and some western countries, they would have bulldozed even further with their intentions. Without a strong presence in both military, currency and economy to counter countries like that, the world becomes more dangerous. When power is much more spread out like having a few currencies as global benchmark or require too much compromise/negotiations between different countries, then it would be harder to counter more dangerous countries/powers. That's why while its always good to have powers like NATO etc, we still also need a more dominant country that can stop these unwanted moves by others without every step having to negotiate with other countries.

USA do abuse its power too but at least less dangerous than some other countries and at least do provide some checks to some countries (not saying that USA does everything right because obviously they don't and they have done their fair share of harm). By having USD as the main currency, it helps to give strength to the USA while at the same time bring stability to the rest of the world.

Take for eg the stock market. While very few if any countries can claim that their stock market is safe to invest, USA is the exception here. If one were to continously invest in the broad USA market (and not individual stocks) through its ups and downs, one still can make $ despite all the money printing--for the main reason that the USD is the main currency and USA is still one of the biggest superpower left with some very good companies. This gives the man on the street a chance to make some $ especially with interest rate worldwide going down. Only the rich can invest in properties but the stock market requires much less $ and thus more accessible to the common man. Japan with its extremely low to non existence interest rate for example have caused its citizens to continue working into their old age (also due to their aging population). Thus, stock market remains one of the very few options left to earn a return higher than inflation rate.

This post has been edited by abcn1n: May 3 2020, 04:17 AM

China has been expanding/building islands/ports to be military/guardposts etc including in South China Sea and its own country. They are also doing the Belt and Road Initiative. Look also what they are doing to countries in Africa continent--for example taking over ports etc by offering loans. While China has become more liberal (in a way they have to as they want the world to accept them and their currency), their really ultimate aim nobody knows for sure. But they have no problem to be more 'brutal/drastic' than the West.

USA has caused harm for sure. I've never thought that USA is the knight in shining armor as it has its own faults. But between countries such as China, Russia and some other countries that I will not name, I still prefer USA dominance as they are 'kinder' and because of their liberty and laws, their citizens are more daring to stand up to injustice. Choose between the lesser of 2 evils.

My friend bought several houses a few years back and I think the price has almost doubled--don't think it was rented out. The thing is with stocks and houses, there are several ways to get $--dividends/rents and capital appreciation. So if don't want to have the headache of bad tenants, then just buy for capital appreciation.

A lawyer friend revealed before that companies do buy commercial lots and just leave it vacant even if it takes years until they can sell it for a good profit. People think that these commercial lots are not bought as they have for rent/sale (some for years) but actually the developers have already sold them. It was an eye opener for me.

This post has been edited by abcn1n: May 3 2020, 04:47 PM

Some activitists like the lawyer guy still missing after exposing covid19 in China. Scary.

Anyway, not sure when the properties were purchased. Yeah, property price are less transparent.

The world is moving to lower and lower interest rate. This was the main impetus on why I went back to the stock market as FD rates kept dropping.

Thinking of buying some gold too but too late as price already too high. So thanks for the analysis. Hopefully will fall to a nice level to buy some

When price goes down, yes economy is getting better. For gold, if we don't know when to enter, have to hold for years. Otherwise, next time when there is fear in the market like during covid19, quickly grab gold before it rises.

QE was still ongoing (a third round of quantitative easing, "QE3", was announced on 13 September 2012--wikipedia) but gold price started dropping from October 12. In this instance the continous QE did not cause gold price to rise but stock market continue to rise. How do you explain that?

Basing on this in my view, it would seem that QE although initially would cause gold price to rise but after a certain level/time, gold price will stop rising as its a non-producing income asset unlike stocks which can still grow as the companies produce earnings. Thus, it would be more attractive to hold stocks compared to gold. Now if this is true, then there will come a time, that gold price will stop rising and drop despite the humongous QE as the economy improves from covid19 and companies start recovering

This post has been edited by abcn1n: May 9 2020, 06:27 PM

QE generally will cause gold price to rise but QE is not the only factor for gold price to rise. Wow, you have really done well in your gold investment. So in your view, is now the right time to buy gold and how far higher do you think gold price will rise? How often do you buy gold and do you sell it. What's your gold strategy like?

This post has been edited by abcn1n: May 10 2020, 03:39 PM

Thanks

Thanks. Its like you got perfect foresight looking back. You bought at the lows and sold at the highs.

This post has been edited by abcn1n: May 11 2020, 06:16 PM

Are you opening the multi currency accounts in banks in Singapore? Wouldn't the exchange rate kill you and I think they don't pay interest on the foreign currency