End of October 2018 Report: STI ETF didn't go below $3

STI ETF didn't go below $3 in October, therefore, my CPF-OA reserves were untouched. 

Reviewing my October 2018 purchases, I found that I had spent S$27,000 buying a number of different counters. 

Some of the cash came from the refund of my Perennial 4.65% bond. I had applied for the Temasek 2.7% bond but was only allocated 6,000, so I still had spare cash left to reinvest.

Shares purchased in October
VUKE    Vanguard FTSE100 ETF
3085.HK Vanguard Asia High Yield ETF

VDPX     Vanguard Pacific ETF

Aviva
ING
Westpac
Lloyds
OUECT
Capitaland
Sembcorp
Frasers Property

I bought VDPX using SCB in order to increase the amount of US$ dividends collected by my SCB account as I will use those US$ for online purchases.

October 2018: Getting ready for STI ETF under $3.

My rule when it comes to buying STI ETF is to buy only when its under $3. STI ETF is my largest holding and I've only broken the rule once. The last time I bought STI ETF is 2016 (can go back to 2016 in this blog to have a look).

It looks like STI ETF may go under $3 next week. I'll start my buying at $2.99 and hopefully there will be a chance to average down further.

My CPF-OA has been accumulating for some time and I look forward to finally being able to use it.

LionGlobal All Seasons Fund

LionGlobal All Seasons Fund was discussed in the forums. There is a 0.25% management fee and expense ratio is capped at 0.50%. It invests in various funds and the management fee of the LionGlobal funds it buys will be rebated.

It comes in two flavours, Growth with 70%/30% equities/fixed income split, and Standard with a 30%/70% split.

Effectively, this means that this fund has a TER of a little bit more than 0.50% but less than 1.0%.  For example, it buys LionGlobal Asia Pacific Fund. That fund has various expenses like brokerage and trustee fees which add up to about 0.3%. Those fees are obviously not rebated, only the management fee is. Then there are also the Vanguard and DBXtrackers ETFs and their TER which thankfully should be under 0.1%.

You can buy it only via Cash and SRS. According to the factsheet that I have, it still isn't CPF approved. Nowadays to be CPF approved you need to have a 'track record' and this fund just launched.

I still have some more 'balance' in my SRS allowance for this year to be invested. I will add this fund to my SRS holdings. Another advantage is the minimum investment of $100. This means that when I collect dividends from my other SRS stocks, I can immediately reinvest into this fund.

October 2018 Strategy Report part II

Bought VUKE 30.98, AV. 4.23, LLOY 0.5745  on 22-23 Oct. Dividend yield of VUKE has crossed 4% once again.

Received my cash as the Perennial 4.65% 3 year bond matured.

Allocated 6,000 units of Temasek's 5 year 2.7% retail bond. 

Plan to apply for next months' SSB as the estimated interest rate >2.5%

Wondering if STI is in danger of going below $3. I plenty of CPF-OA waiting to invest in STI ETF.

Asia ex-Jpn ETF instead of STI ETF? (3085.HK)

I bought more 3085.HK on Thursday via FSMOne. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, this is a dividend ETF that focuses on 'value' China stocks (i.e. China Banks, Telcos) instead of the 'growth' tech stocks. 

As it is a regional ETF, it also counts DBS (no.6), OCBC (no.11), UOB (no.13), and Singtel (no.24) as part of its top holdings, so you also get 'home country' exposure, but with a focus on the 'big cap' stocks.

Then finally, you get exposure to the big cap ASEAN stocks in Thailand (4.9%), Malaysia (4.2%), Indonesia (1.4%). 

Its expense ratio of 0.35% is identical to the STI ETF. 

I like the composition of this ETF more than Vanguard's LSE listed Asia-Pacific ETF (VDPX, which contains almost 50% Australia) and iShares similar ETF (CPXJ) which I am also vested in. 

The fact that I can buy this with FSMOne (and thus diversify my holdings and not hold all my foreign stocks in Interactive Brokers) is also a bonus.

Downside?
The main downside is that the ETF size is relatively small, only HKD315.5m AUM since its 2014 inception. However the upside is there are always daily trades in this ETF and its not not of those ETFs with zero volume.

Alternatives?
Coincidentally, FSMOne has come up with an article about HKSE listed China banks and highlighted 3143.HK, BMO Hong Kong Banks ETF which holds banks listed on HKSE (HSBC and Stanchart included). The expense ratio is a reasonable 0.45% but the fund was established in 2014 and its AUM is only HKD$131m which is rather low. At least Vanguard's 3085 had grown to  HKD$315m within the same time period.

Strategy Report October 2018: Finally a correction?

There was a correction in the US market with the Dow dropping 800. This is hopefully an opportunity to deploy more cash. In particular, I would like to build up my holdings in Capitaland. Its fundamentals look good and its 4% dividend is well covered.

Also, like your typical longsuffering Sembcorp investor, I am adding a little Sembcorp every month as long is it is comfortably below $3.

________________

Bought Capitaland at $3.12 and $3.11

Bought Sembcorp at $2.88

I will get cash on 23 October as my Perennial 4.65% 3-year bonds are maturing. If STI ETF drops below $3, this will be a good place to park the cash. My rule is to only buy STI ETF when it is below $3.

Dividend Report: September 2018

Less than $1k in S$ dividends this month, but iShares ETF and UK shares and ADRs paid out their dividends.

Total dividend collected in S$ Terms (includes S$ + US$ + GBP + A$ + HKD$): S$59,993.19