Liquidated Ascott REIT, Sabana REIT and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust

Liquidated my entire holdings in Ascott REIT, Sabana REIT and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust since they have all appreciated. Most of them were sold for a profit though I have held on to some for a few years while others were just bought recently.

• Ascott REIT sold 15 lots at $1.415
• Sabana REIT sold 2 lots at $1.18
• Cross TImbers Royalty Trust sold 100 shares at US$30.789 

My sense is that the REIT market in Singapore is already fairly valued and there are perhaps little opportunities for further increase.  I could be wrong but thought it will be better to sit on some cash and await further opportunities.

Added Starhill Global REIT to Portfolio

Have added a small amount of Starhill Global REIT  that is traded on the SGX into my portfolio.  Bought them at 82.5 cents.  This is just part of my diversification strategy as I have found my REITs holdings to be heavily weighted towards one single REIT.

Starhill Global REIT owns various retail/office properties in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, China and Japan.  Its distribution yield is slightly over 5% and various analysts have chosen it as one of their top picks with a target price of around 85 cents.  I am also expecting the REIT to pay out its distributions in Feb or Mar 2013.

For newbie investors, S-REITs have actually risen quite a fair bit over the year and now trade at a premium to book value.  For quite a long time, S-REITs have been trading at a discount to book value.  Most analysts are perhaps NEUTRAL on S-REITs right now given how much they have appreciated over the past one year.

Stock Portfolio Update (July 2012)

It has been a long time since I did an update of my stock holdings and I thought it was timely to do so after I just bought some Sabana REIT today.  This is the list of my current holdings:

1. Ascott Residence Trust
2. Cambridge Industrial
3. Suntec REIT
4. Sabana REIT
5. AIMSAMP REIT
6. Fortune REIT
7. Capitaland
8. Innotek
9. China Aviation Oil
10. Unifood
11. Kingboard
12. Pacific Andes
13. Citigroup (US)
14. Armour Residential REIT (US)
15. Gamco Global Gold & Natural Resources Trust (US)

Bought more Gamco Global Gold, Natural Resources and Income Trust

After reflecting on some of my investment thoughts for 2012, I entered into another position to buy GGN which currently gives a monthly dividend of $0.14 per month.  The fund's investment objective is to provide a high level of current income. Overall, I think I am pretty bullish on commodities and thought that this might make a good investment since it is a close-ended fund which invests primarily in the equity securities of gold and natural resource companies.

My entering into a position in this stock was also partially influenced by Bryan Perry (who wrote the book about 25% Cash Machine) was bullish on this stock. This purchase makes it my first stock purchase for the year 2012 and I thought I better log it down so that I do not lose track of my investments.

Stock Picks for 2011

At the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010, I posted some of the stock picks by analysts/brokerage houses for the year 2010.

To check out the various stock picks by these analysts for the year 2010, you can look at the following links:
1. DBS Vickers Small/Mid Cap Strategy

2. Stock Picks by Terence Wong (co-head of research at DMG)

3. Stock Picks by Janice Chua (head of research at DBS Vickers)

4. Stock Picks by Carmen Lee (head of research at OCBC)

Were there any stock picks that you followed and made a profit from?

For the year 2011, some of the analysts have also begun to publish their stock picks:

1. OCBC's Market Strategy for 2011

2. Phillip Capital Market Strategy for 2011

What are your stock picks for 2011?

First REIT again?

I have been monitoring First REIT for sometime after exiting it for a tidy profit a while back. First REITs had been consistently giving out good dividends. Its yield was relatively high compared to the other REITs and it also had a very low gearing of 15%. During the recession, the price dipped quite a bit but slowly recovered and I decided to lock in some profits and sold my entire stake in it.

The reasons for exiting it are mainly twofold. While it is a healthcare REIT, it does not really have a parent company to back it up. That is unless u consider Lippo to be its parent. The other thing that weighs heavily on my mind is that majority of its assets are based in Indonesia. There are thus country risks involved. And that is perhaps the reason why it is trading at a seemingly more attractive valuation than the other REITs counters. Personally, I did not want to hold something that was overly exposed and narrowly focused. And that was why I decided to exit it. A stock is cheap for certain reasons and the same applies to First REIT. It reminds me a bit of various s-chip shares I had held over the years because it was cheap when compared to its peers. Remember Unifood and Pfood?

The decision I took then was to start investing in blue chip companies and avoid stocks that were of a higher risk. And that will remain my strategy at least for the time being. I hope to liquidate my small cap stocks slowly and transfer them to bigger and better blue chips. Of course, we are in the midst of an expansion right now so I will perhaps wait a little longer before I start refocusing my efforts.

Though I was tempted to enter into First REiT recently, I shall resist it for the moment.

Passive Investing - Is It Really So Difficult?

I have always struggled with the thoughts of passive investing versus active management of my portfolio.

Today, I came across a quote by Oscar Wilde:

"To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual."

I am pretty sure he didn't have investing in mind when he came up with this line. Nevertheless, it does seem applicable even when it comes to the field of investing.

Forever Portfolio?

Too often, we find ourselves trying to time the market to buy at the lowest lows and selling at the highest points. We screen through the entire universe of stocks to find a few stocks that meet our criteria, only to sell them a few weeks later when their price has risen by 10 to 20%. We are left with nothing to invest in and end up lowering our criteria to buy stocks that we would not originally buy or end up just sitting on a pile of cash.

Sometimes, we get caught up with all the hysteria that seems to surround us. People are talking about how much money they made within a few trades and we start to look at our own portfolios and wonder : "Is Buffet really right?"

Passive investing (if I can so term it) is really difficult. To buy and hold for the long term without tinkering about too much can be extremely difficult especially when we are constantly bombarded by all the noise and distraction of the crowds.

Sooner or later, we start to find it impossible to resist the urge to make that phone call to the broker or to simply click the button on our online brokerage accounts that reads "Confirm order".

I know many people will not agree with passive investing. Many people out there have claimed to have the ability to time markets to perfection such that they have been able to make spectacular gains that are not possible by a buy and hold strategy. Of course, there must be some selection bias as the losers will never reveal themselves. Only the winners get boasting rights after all.

On the other hand, we should not find excuses if we are simply too lazy to monitor and tweak our portfolio such that we term it as passive investing or the Warren Buffet style. I am sure even Warren Buffet tweaks his portfolio every now and then!

Symptoms of a compulsive investor

Here are a few symptoms that shows you are toeing the line and moving towards a gambler mentality versus an investor mentality. (Deep down inside, human beings all like a little wager)

1. You scan the newspapers, online forums and chatboxes for the latest tips on which stocks to buy. You follow the opinions of experts and get in and out of the market at rapid pace.

2. You buy a stock and only start to do your research on it after you have completed the order.

3. You buy a stock and start to think whether you should contra it off within the next 3 days.

4. You buy a stock and keep checking its stock price every hour, hoping to make a quick buck.

5. You sell a stock and hope that it drops to a certain point so that you can buy it again.

6. You don't know why you bought a stock.

7. You don't know why you sold a stock.

I am sure you have all experienced the "symptoms" once in a while in your lives.

Preventing the onset of the disease

Prevention is better than cure. I would like to suggest a few methods to cure you of this ailment if you do suffer from it. Of course, I do not take responsibility if you lose any money.

1. Don't read the newspapers, forums and chatboxes for your stock purchases or sales.

2. Don't make a trade when you are angry.

3. Don't talk to others about investing.

This 3 strategies ought to keep y0u from making compulsive buys and sells. I realised that when I read less about the stock market, I tend to make fewer trades. When I am angry, I try not to make investment decisions and sometimes, the decisions I make can be rash. When I talk to others about investing, it always gets me excited and I feel like making a trade right away. All these are based on my personal experience.

I am not saying that you should not actively manage your stock portfolio. What I am against is the compulsive urge to tweak your portfolio so often that it is almost akin to gambling. But with all the media influences we get, it is very difficult to sit down and do nothing.

Doing nothing is a very difficult thing indeed.

Portfolio Update

With NOL increasing in price quite a bit over the past few months, I decided to let go of my remaining holdings of NOL at $1.93. With the liquidation, I have one less stock to monitor in my portfolio. Monitoring so many stocks at a go can sometimes be a bit challenging.

As the stock market rises further, I also intend to slowly liquidate my stocks to build up some spare cash so that I can buy when the opportunity presents itself. These include stocks like Pac Andes, Innotek and Kingboard. I seriously hope that the prices will continue to rise so that I can cash out of these stocks and place my money elsewhere.

I bought into Capitaland a few months back. Capitaland has also declared dividends recently. I expect the dividends to come in around May and that should help to boost up my income a bit.

I will continue to focus my purchases on stocks that give good dividends.

Know of a stock that gives a good dividend? Share it with me and the readers here.

Easy Money Already Been Made for 2009

Since we all are aware that the easy money has already been made in the stock market, perhaps it is time to think of divesting whatever gains we have.

Yes, the stock market looks poised to soar even further but one question still remains in my mind: "How much higher can the stocks that I am holding go?"

Coming into the new year, I have already divested my First REIT and a portion of Neptune Orient Lines. I will sure invest in them if the price comes down a bit more. In the mean time, I am just content to sit on all my cash.

Another stock that I have been thinking of liquidating is Ascott Residence Trust. DBS afterall had a price target of $1.32 and since it is currently trading at $1.34, I am thinking that it might make a good sell price. The only thing I fear is that the stock will rise further after I have sold it.

Ascott REIT afterall is trading at 5.6% yield, has a NAV of $1.32 and has a gearing of 40++%

Good time to sell out now and collect back later?

2010 will be a difficult year to make money in my opinion. I would like to think that the small caps will be playing catch up and this will likely include some S-shares. However, as we all know, small caps tend to be very volatile and you might end up stuck with some lousy shares if you liquidate your more stable blue chips & should any crisis hit us again.

Portfolio Update

I sold 5 lots of NOL at $1.83 a piece. That was a few days back.

Was that a wise decision?

Only time will tell as the price has rocketed up past $1.90 recently.

I am now on the look out for stocks that have the opportunity to zoom up further in this current bullish market. However, I do not want to hold "risky" stocks that might go bust or have dubious prospects (remember China Print and Dye?)

I want to have a stock that I can hold and sleep with (even if the price drops).

So far, I can only think of 1 stock that is not too high in its current price. SingTel...

Updated Stock Portfolio

Here is my updated stock portfolio after selling away 17 lots of First REIT.

1. 12,000 x Ascott REIT
2. 7000 x China Aviation Oil
3. 15,000 x Innotek
4. 35,000 x Kingboard
5. 6,000 x NOL
6, 37,000 x Pac Andes
7. 1,000 x Suntec REIT
8. 11,000 x Unifood
9. 1,500 x Citigroup

Happy & Sad - My First REIT encounter

Yesterday, I made a huge decision and sold off my entire holdings of First REIT at a price of $0.86 (17,000 shares) giving me $14,569.55 in proceeds to deploy elsewhere.

My foray into First REIT first began on 05 Jan 2007.

05 Jan 07 - Buy 2 lots @ $0.765
15 Jan 07 - Buy 5 lots @$0.765
05 Mar 08 - Buy 3 lots @ $0.725
02 Apr 08 - Buy 5 lots @ $0.70
02 Sep 08 - Buy 1 lot @$0.70
14 Oct 08 - Buy 1 lot @$0.425

I sold all on 07 Jan 2010 @$0.86.

Any feelings?

I have been happy about getting the dividends that are given every quarter. I will miss those dividends badly. Everytime, I get the dividends, it brings a smile to my face. Now those days are gone.

When I clicked on the SELL button yesterday, the feeling of earning a nice ROC of 18% also brightened my day for a while. Today, I have no more special feelings about this stock.

Through the 2 over years that I have held on to this stock, it has given me more heartache than joy. The price has always been depressed and hovered below my average buying price. Everytime I looked at the stock market, my heart sank when I noticed that First REIT kept getting cheaper and cheaper.

All in all, I would like to think that First REIT has caused my heart alot more pain than joy.

That is even after I exit this REIT with a return on capital of 18% and not to mention the 2 years of dividends that I have enjoyed.

The reason I sold was because I felt that it was trading quite close to its NAV and even though its fair value should be around $1.00, I still did not see First REIT living up to its expansion plans be it in China or the rest of asia. It has been two long years and they have only expanded into Singapore. I guess any future expansion will increase their gearing and even though that would bring their yield up, their price will be depressed because of the high gearing.

At such a time like this, I felt that it would be good to lock in some gains now.

I do not deny the possibility of re-entering this stock since it is one of my favorites.

First REIT Insider Trades & Valuation

Looking at First REIT insider trades, here are my observations:

1. Director Tan Key Poo has been selling in 2009. He has been buying First REIT over the years but in September 2009, his holdings dropped from 947,000 shares to 462,000 shares. Of course, nothing can be determined from this as he could be merely selling to buy himself a new house or car. His average sell price is around $0.68 to $0.69

Now looking at valuation, there are a few ways REITs can be valued.

Firstly is looking at their Net Asset Value. First REIT has a NAV of $0.9255. It is currently trading at $0.86 representing a price/NAV of 0.929. This is still a discount to its NAV but I do not believe that First REIT has ever been valued above it NAV. This could be likely due to its operations which are mainly located in Indonesia.

Secondly, is their dividend yield which is currently 8.802%. Compared to Parkway life REIT which is in a similar industry whose yield is only 5.84%

Thirdly, is based on FFO or Funds From Operation which I guess is their net property income since there does not seem to be any depreciation costs factored in. Looking at their total comprehensive income after tax and their Distributable amount, I cannot understand how their distributable amount to unitholders can be higher than their comprehensive income after tax. Someone care to enlighten me?

Debts and Projects

Based on gearing, it has a relatively low gearing of 15.6% compared to PLife REIT of 23.2%. First REIT has also no refinancing obligations till 2012.

Based on its project pipelines, it is seeking to do improvements to the Adam Road Hospital and Lentor Residences. Its Tech-link healthcare logistics and distribution centre project is also in the pipeline.

This is totally mind boggling. First REIT based on my initial analysis seems to be undervalued based on NAV, pays out a high yield, and has an extremely low gearing. Why is it trading at such a low price? Is there something that I do not understand?

Can the main reason why it is valued as such be due to the fact that a large portion of its asset is located in Indonesia?


Read Related Articles:
1. Dumping One REIT for Another

Dumping One REIT for Another

I have been thinking of liquidating my First REIT to another REIT.

First REIT has served me well over the years but as its price has gone up quite a fair bit, I feel compelled to ditch the passive income it has been giving me over the past 2 years and to lock in some gains.

This is especially so because First REIT's share price is quickly riching its Net Asset Value.

I am not expecting First REIT share price to exceed its NAV as that has not happened before (correct me if I am wrong).

What I like about First REIT:
1. Good stable dividends that are slowly growing
2. Super Defensive as it is in the hospitality sector
3. Good gearing

What I don't like about First REIT:
1. Highly focused on Indonesia
2. No big "sponsor"
3. Trading close to NAV

The decision whether to cash out or not will ultimately depend on whether I can find another REIT or high dividend yielding stock to purchase. I have been thinking about Cambridge Industrial Trust but it seems that after the takeover debacle, their price might still trade at significant discount to NAV for some time..

Decisions, decisions, decisions

I Need Advice

I need some advice from all the masters and gurus out there.

The first is regarding a potential US dollar crisis. How do you buffer yourself against such a crisis? Or how can you potentially profit from it if you do know that the US dollar is going into decline in the next few years?

The second is regarding my own stock portfolio:
My wife and I have cash of close to $100,000.

I have the following stocks amounting to $85,000 ++
1. Ascott REIT
2. First REIT
3. Suntec REIT
4. NOL
5. Kingboard
6. Pac Andes
7. Innotek
8. Unifood
9. China Aviation Oil
10. Citigroup

Other than my REITs, all the rest are still in the RED. I don't wish to sell them at a loss.

But Gohsip (a fellow blogger) suggested that my focus should be on building my capital (going for capital growth) instead of increasing my so-called "passive income" through dividend yielding assets like REITs.

Can anyone give any suggestions on what I should do especially with the stock market soaring currently?

Should I liquidate all my positions and start afresh with some good stock picks for 2010?

Or should I liquidate some of my positions and then get into new positions?

I know many of you are unwilling to share in detail because you might think that I would blame you or stuff if I lose money. Don't worry..I won't =)

I just need to hear from you: What would you do if you were me? Which stocks would you sell? Which stocks would you keep? And Which stocks would you buy?

Stock Portfolio Review for 2009

With the year 2009 coming to an end, I am doing a review of my existing stock portfolio. This will serve as an online record for me too.

These are the following stocks in my current portfolio.

1. 12,000 x Ascott REIT
2. 7000 x China Aviation Oil
3. 17,000 x First REIT
4. 15,000 x Innotek
5. 35,000 x Kingboard
6. 6,000 x NOL
7, 37,000 x Pac Andes
8. 1,000 x Suntec REIT
9. 11,000 x Unifood
10. 1,500 x Citigroup



Innotek was bought sometime in year 2008 for dividends. The stock price fell terribly and I am still sitting on a paper loss.


Kingboard was bought because I thought there was some potential in it. Still holding on to it.


NOL was meant to be a short term trading position which ended up as long term position because the price fell and I refused to cut loss. Lesson learnt and my money is stuck in this ship once again. I have profited twice (I think) from previous trades.


Pac Andes was a buy because I thought the fundamentals were good. I am not too sure about it now and I think I would sell once the price is right.


Suntec REIT was bought for the dividends. I used to own 11,000 but then sold the 10 lots to take up a short term position in NOL which I now regret the price of Suntec REIT has risen while NOL has tanked.


Unifood was a stock bought during my university days. Stupid mistake.


I realised that I am not really a long term holder as I thought I was. Apart from Unifood, I think I have held the stocks for all less than 5 years. I sold away all my Hongguo as I had made a decent profit in it already this year during the recovery.


2010 will be focused on stocks that have good potential. As I believe that the stock market might tank again soon, I will liquidate my stocks when I get the chance to.

Portfolio Update

I have sold off 10 lots of Suntec REIT at a price of $1.08 which I bought previously at $1.02. This is a return of almost $550+ in profits not counting the dividends that I have collected from it.

Re-invested that amount of money into NOL at a price of $1.75. The chart above is that of NOL which was plotted using ChartNexus. I believe NOL is a good company facing troubled waters and this could be the reason why its price is so depressed now. It used to trade at the $3 to $4 range. I am prepared to keep NOL for the long term even if the stock price trades lower in the short to mid term. However, I am also willing to take any profits if I can get a 5% ROI in the next few weeks

I am abit disappointed with my selling of Penn West Energy Trust (it's a Canadian Royalty Trust if you haven't heard of it yet). After selling it at $14.63, the price has shot up way past the $15 mark. But guess I will just wait on the sidelines and see if it is worth re-entering into this canroy

Read Related Posts:

1. Portfolio Updates

2. Dividends
3. Income Investing - Canadian Royalty Trust

Portfolio Update

I have sold off Hongguo and PWE (Penn West Energy Trust) for profits of around 30%. Decided that a 30% gain was good enough so decided to exit both stocks. If the opportunity arises, I will enter into both PWE and Hongguo again.

I have also been trying learn more about technical analysis. Just downloaded ChartNexus. It seems like a pretty good software to play around with. Think I will be combining both FA and TA for my purchases of stocks next time round. Still need to learn a great deal about the various indicators and stuff though.

Still no success at the job front. Just bumming around each day with nothing to do. Don't really know what job I am passionate about. I just feel so weary and tired and feel like I could do with a really really really long break.

Just for my records purposes:

Dividends received from PWE = $11.27
Dividends received from ST Eng = $30.00
Cash from selling 24000 shares of Hongguo @0.355=$8488.93
Still waiting for the proceeds from the sale of PWE.

READ RELATED POSTS:
1. Decided to Quit My Job

Raking in the Money

Decided to cash out of some stock positions to realise the gains that I have. They are not alot and are nothing to be proud of since I am still actually sitting on paper loss on my other shares.
Also bought into Ascendas REITs

Below are my trading activities for today:

1. Sold 6000 Hongguo at $0.255 (Remaining left 24,000 Hongguo shares)
2. Sold KepLand @$2.27 (Remarks : Bought @1.96, Sold the rights for $755 plus gains of $270, not bad)

3. Bought Ascendas REITs (3000 shares @$1.37)

As you can see, I am really a small small fish in a big big sea. The quantity that I trade is very little so I really need the stock price to move up a lot before I can make a gain.

Liquidated My Stocks and Rights

I decided to liquidate my stocks in Pengrowth Energy Trust and also my rights for KepLand.

Reasons being this:

1. The amount of shares I own in Pengrowth Energy Trust was only a mere 100. The price had risen to give me a returns of greater than 25%. Also, the dividends that I received were not substantial enough to warrant UOB Kay Hian from deducting $5 for postage and handling fees.

2. KepLand had recently declared dividends of $0.08 per share. To subscribe to the rights, I would have to pay slightly over $1. This would set me back by $1000 which is not too good for my current cash flow. On top of this, Pac Andes has also recently announced that it will issue rights too. This is a scary thought....are all the companies I own starting to issue rights now to gain more money to boost up their books? What happened to all the passive income I am supposed to get from dividends?

Therefore, I liquidated my 100 shares of Pengrowth Energy Trust and my 900 nil paid rights of KepLand.

Total amount I will get from the sale of both should amount to $1800