Dividend Report: Jan-Jul 2016

No S$ dividends collected in July, resulting in the average dividends per month plummeting to under S$3,000.

Vanguard's quarterly distribution came in this month (Jan/Apr/Jul/Oct) which increased the amount of US$ and £ collected. Some ADRs also paid dividends this month including Westpac Bank which also answered the question how much dividend withholding tax is applied to an Australian ADR. The answer is 15%, the most favourable rate possible (as opposed to 30%). 


I have also sold all my SCB foreign ETFs that declare dividend and replaced them with ETFs that reinvest dividend. This is due to the $10 minimum commission that makes it very expensive to reinvest the dividend.



Average dividends per month: Jan-Jul 2016:
S$2,736.93 -
US$187.31  +
£169.30 +


Average dividend = Total dividend collected ÷ number of months in the year so far
Different from DK style of total dividend ÷ 12 months


Previous monthly average
S$3193.08 +
US$129.10 -
£110.74 -

Last Trade for July?: LYG

I said I was in holding pattern,then suddenly on Thursday Lloyds' share price crashed. Could be linked to its announcement that its closing branches. One would have thought that cutting costs by closing unprofitable branches (you don't close profitable branches to cut costs) would have been factored into the share price. So much for the EMH (efficient market hypothesis), at least for the very short term.

Anyway, bought more LYG on Thursday at $2.81 (lower than the previous selling prices of $2.83/$2.87/$3.02 [I sold too early since it peaked at $3.10])  and today its back up to $2.87. The day is not over - it could crash again so I may need to update this post. But may I need to hold LYG longer and say $3 no sell.

But anyway, here's to the end of July and the beginning of SCB minimum $10 commissions. I failed to sell my Soilbuild REIT so its stuck in SCB. I'll just have to collect dividends from the holding until I decide to go for priority banking (no minimum commission for priority banking).

July Strategy: Holding Pattern till August

A couple of days more till the end of no minimum Commission and the start of $10 minimum for SCB. I still have not sold my tiny 2,000 soilbuild REIT shares. Probably someday after the lawsuits are settles, I will buy $5k to top-up the existing holdings. Still cheaper than regular brokers.

At the moment, I am not buying anything. Actually I wanted to pick up some Fraser's Retail bonds which I had added at $0.99 but even retail bonds have increased in price along with share prices.

Part of learning to be a good investor is to know when to pause all stock trading activity. I worry about all those investors who are boarding the "GLP boat" when it is almost touching $2.00. People already said this is a "FIFO stock", have to be very careful, but people seem to be happily loading up at $1.9x. In the long-run, they will probably be ok (but if they are only interested in long-run then STI ETF is even more ok).

After a rally, I would rather buy safe defensive stocks rather than "FIFO stocks" because the defensives usually lag the rally. Hence my interest in BT and VOD. 

I also need time to rebuild the warchest that I used during BREXIT. So I am taking a break till August unless there is major crash. I should also be able to update the dividends collected in July once the month is over.

Market might be swinging too far in one direction and pricing a higher probability of  no rate hike than is warranted.

Mid-July: Strategy Report

STI has rallied and so have other markets. In fact, UK has rallied impressively with gains in both the stock market and the GBP.

I sold some LYG as it went up to lock in some profit. At the same time, I used that money to accumulate more Vodafone to go together with my recent purchases of British Telecomms.

As  mentioned in the earlier post, when the market is bad, no point going defensive since defensive stocks won't benefit that much from a strong rally. But once the rally is underway, buying defensive stocks may be better than trying to chase the top gainers.

A strong rally is actually a good opportunity to stop buying equities and to rebalance by purchasing some bonds or simply rebuilding your reserves.

STI, not that cheap now?

But currently, STI ETF has shot up to $2.90 and above. The current fundamentals do not seem to justify this.

The explanation may be "hot money" flowing into Singapore.  Headline from Bloomberg via the Straits Times:

SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - Haven buying of the Singapore dollar amid global market turmoil has pushed a gauge of its strength to unprecedented levels, putting pressure on the city's central bank to do more to support the economy.

Just because S$ is high now doesn't mean it will continue to be high in the future. In fact, the likely scenario is MAS will intervene and/or the single Fed rate hike this year (yes, some think zero rate hike) will move US$/S$ to a more normal level of around 1.4.


Like many shoppers, I take the strong S$ as an opportunity to go shopping for foreign stocks and will also put some S$ into US$ bond funds.

LYG -oops didn't close my position.

Investing Idea: Lloyds

I bought and held a chunk of LYG overnight. It was only 2 cents above my average buy price so decided to hold instead of closing the position.  The next day, LYG was one of two banks identified by analysts as "most exposure to commercial estate loans" and promptly crashed 9%.  Oops. 

Recall that property funds have suspended redemptions pending sale of assets OR have marked down the fund NAV to take into account falls in asset prices. The median cut seems to be about 10%.

I did one average down and so buy average buying price not so far away from current price.

I still feel the 'worst case' is being assumed, as is usually the case. LYG is still a buy for me but I am not all-in LYG and am still purchasing other FTSE100 dividend yielders. If it rallies, I will close my position and look to rebuy at lower price. Otherwise, I will continue accumulating.


Investing Idea: British Telecoms
Something other than Vodafone?

BT has one advantage, its not Vodafone. After Brexit, panicked investors and UK focused funds sold UK-exposed stocks and bought stocks that were not so UK focused like Vodafone. In other words, in times of panic, defensive stocks are overvalued.

• I bought a large chunk of Comfort Delgro during the last GFC, I think $1.80 all the way down to $1.30, average buying price $1.50.  During the stock market rally, CDG price hardly moved so it ended up as my worst-performing stock. Probably because during the rally, investors were selling defensive stocks and loading up on higher beta stocks. At least it gave (and still gives) a decent dividend.

Back to BT, it has definitely been sold down compared to Vodafone. Justifiably or unjustifiably, you have to do your own analysis.

I am holding VOD but I am not buying anymore at this point - its a good company, but too many investors have rushed into it as a 'defensive' move.

Brexit Day 2 onwards: Trades

Day 2 of Brexit and onwards

I continued to day-trade LYG to learn more about day-trading and closed each day's position within 24 hours. 

More important to the long-term health of my portfolio, I purchased Aviva, Prudential, and Legal & General at pretty good prices. This helped to lower the average purchase prices of these counters.

I also found out that for cash accounts, IBKR will only allow let you trade with settled cash. Meaning if you have $2k and buy and sell $2k on the same day, the amount you have to trade is $0 until the trades settle. The cautiousness of IBKR is actually a good thing.

Dividend Report: Jan-Jun 2016

Average Dividends Collected Per Month

Reaching the half year point, average dividends would have dropped excepted that CPF credited my May FCT dividend on 1 Jun instead of May.

I will no longer track dividends in Euro as I have sold all ETFs that declare Euro dividends as part of my consolidation of SCB holdings into ETFs that do not declare dividends.

However, it was a very interesting time for trading....

Edit in July: received my FCT dividends for CPF on 1 June while CDP credited in May. Will reflect FCT (CPF) dividend as paid in June instead of May.


Average dividends per month: Jan-Jun 2016:
S$3193.08 +
US$129.10 -
£110.74 -
Average dividend = Total dividend collected ÷ number of months in the year so far
Different from DK style of total dividend ÷ 12 months


Previous monthly average
S$3144.35  +
US$140.82  -
£102.944    -

€4.26