Jul 2022 – Portfolio Transactions & Updates

The stock market continues to be volatile throughout the month of Jul so far following the end of the 1H.

The market goes up for one day and then down for another, and then it goes back up again and people are calling it a bear market rally. Truth is, no one really knows about the direction in the market and these people are hesitant to enter back in yet didn’t want to miss the run when it matters.

Psychologically speaking – it’s a lot of emotions being invested out there.

Back to what we do on everyday life – cost of living is rising rapidly as most would have felt it by now. Electricity bills are doubling, materials price are increasing, and even hawker has started to follow increasing price. Even the likes of RedMart for online grocery delivery has started to increase its platform delivery fees as a result of increasing cost pressure.

Mortgage rates have risen through the roof and latest fixed rates offered by banks are in the range of 3%. To be honest, if you have not switched to a fixed rate by now, it is probably too late to take it up right now. You might as well go with SORA and hope for the best that in the next few months inflation will peak and the Fed can start to tamper down a little bit with increasing the interest rate that fast.

While US is on its way to quantitative tightening, China is doing the opposite with its quantitative easing.

Latest news coming out of ground is China is considering passing a $313b stimulus with unprecedented bond purchases, which is effectively quantitative easing and banks are likely to reduce reserve rate very soon.

We might see strength coming in very soon for China stocks, so just be patience like we always do on this channel.

Going back to some of the transactions I have done for this month, I have continued to accumulate existing positions – not by a mile lot but just a little at a time.

The goal here is to do this on a consistent basis and accumulate more units of good companies over time – comes rain or shine.

First up, I accumulated more ISHARES HSTECH at around HKD10 to make my holdings grow from 22,000 to 24,000 units. I continue to remain confident that most of the growth we will see in China next digital economy would come from this sector, so this sector plays a very important role in the economy and to the government itself.

I also added a little bit more of Twilio by accumulating 50 more shares as growth stocks continue to suffer and come out of favor from the market. The company has one of the strongest operating metrics profile in its segment and continue to grow despite these tough challenges to come. I also believe that the product they are offering will remain relevant and be an even more important piece for companies in the years to come.

Last but not least, I continued my accumulation in WBD shares like I did in the previous two months. I believe market is discounting this company too much due to its debt profile but as a strong player in the industry and an attractive risk reward profile, this could be well worth a risk.

Due to some bit of rally in the market when I was writing this post and updating my portfolio, the net equity worth of the portfolio has resumed its upward momentum by closing in close to a high in 2022 at $550,542.

The direction of the market can be uncertain at times and it can go up and down in the next few weeks or months but it shouldn’t change my view and philosophy of investing in the market too drastically.

On a slightly separate topic, we are also moving out of our current place next month due to personal reason and has plan to sell this piece of the property. We plan to move back to our old place as it is near our ideal school of choice for the kids.

We’ll have to see how this plan goes and I will update once it is due.