Portfolio Updates

Portfolio Update July 2021 – Loading Up On Chinese Stocks

Calvin Lo

July was a somewhat flattish month, though we did get a nice little dip mid-month. Added more to index funds on the dip but sadly the dip didn’t last long.

Growth stocks were struggling to gain momentum, but Big Tech shined. That helped US indexes return to all-time highs but seems to be stalling in the latter half of the month.

Although the 10-year Treasury rate has been steadily declining, falling below 1.2%, that hasn’t really given the market much confidence to resume pushing the bull run higher. I suspect investors are still very much worried that lower interest rates might actually help to sustain rising inflation. The Fed still believes high inflation is transitory and are so far sitting on their hands. There’s a risk that inflation might overshoot the Fed’s target if it proves to be sustained.

Besides accumulating index funds on the dip, I’ve also started to average into China index funds more aggressively this month, specifically the Hang Seng Tech ETF (SGX:HST). Chinese stocks have been on the decline due to concerns about the hard and fast regulatory crackdown by Chinese authorities. However, I see this as a buying opportunity but with prudent risk management. I’m definitely not going to load the boat with Chinese stocks.

Since the dip in Chinese stocks kept dipping, portfolio performance has suffered. Hopefully things turn around soon and we get past this regulatory overhang.

If you’re also thinking of buying Chinese stocks, I’ve reviewed some of the best China ETFs in this video:

Family Portfolio

  • July performance: -0.7%
  • YTD performance: flat vs SPX +19.3% vs NDX +16.3%
  • All-time performance (since Aug 2016): +10.8% (+13.5% including dividends)
  • July dividends: S$22 (-73% yoy)
  • Bought: VT, QQQ, PLTR, SGX:HST
  • Sold: None

After trimming Palantir (PLTR) in June, the stock corrected so I took the chance to buy back in. Averaged into VT and QQQ slightly more this month during the mid-month dip, since I’m still under-allocated to core index funds. As a result, cash position has decreased a comfortable 20%.

Dividends have fallen off a cliff since I’ve sold off almost all my dividend stocks that pay in July, i.e. Cisco (CSCO), General Electric (GE) and Genting (SGX:G13).

Personal Portfolio

  • July performance: -2.6%
  • YTD performance: -8.4%
  • All-time performance (since July 2020): +15.3%
  • July dividends: None
  • Bought: None
  • Sold: None

Didn’t pull the trigger to take profits on Tesla (TSLA) or Palantir (PLTR). Fortunately, TSLA has recently shown some signs of life though offset by declines in PLTR. That said, I’ll still be looking to trim those positions if they run up and redeploy them into more speculative stocks.

Social Portfolio

Hypergrowth were hit again in July, resulting in many of my stop losses triggering. Lost quite a bit on Unity (U), Lemonade (LMND), Airbnb (ABNB), Fiverr (FVRR), Zillow (Z), Tencent (0700.HK) and Meituan (3690.HK). I did manage to offset some of those losses with gains from Tesla (TSLA), AMD (AMD), Alphabet (GOOG), Twitter (TWTR) and Square (SQ).

Haven’t had much time to watch the market and improve my TA this month due to commitments at home.

What have you been buying or selling in July? Would love to hear from you.

Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. I am not professional financial advisor nor do I work in the finance industry. Anything I write here is purely my personal opinion. Please do your own research and due diligence before investing into anything. All investments come with associated risks. Best to consult a financial advisor if you’re still unsure.

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