As expected, we got a sell off in May per the market adage “sell in May and go away”. There’s fear in the market due to rising bond yields and a spike in April inflation numbers.
Fortunately, those fears have somewhat calmed a bit towards the end of May but there still seems to be a hangover in the market from the blistering returns we saw in 2020 all the way up till mid-February 2021.
This month was a busy month of buying for the long term in the Family Portfolio due to the market pullback especially in high growth stocks. I’m not convinced that we’ve seen a bottom yet so I haven’t jumped in with many short term trades yet.
Family Portfolio
- May performance: -2.9%
- All-time performance: +9.0% (+13.2% including dividends)
- May dividends: S$127 (-9% yoy)
- Bought: VT QQQ ARKK TLT PLTR TSLA AGC SQ ZM TDOC
- Sold: ComfortDelGro (SGX:C52), CICT (SGX:C38U), SingTel (SGX:Z74)
With the re-tightening of movement restrictions in Singapore, I think that the risk-reward for Singapore stocks are no longer attractive especially for reopening plays. Singapore stocks have also risen quite a bit benefitting from the growth-to-value rotation.
I took profits on CICT and cut my losses on ComfortDelGro and SingTel.
For CICT, I’m pessimistic on their CBD office assets CMT took over from CCT due to the merger. WFH will continue for longer and there’s risk of structural shift towards remote work. Retail will also be hit hard again, with only F&B and supermarkets probably the only tenants making any money.
For ComfortDelGro (CDG), although I’m optimistic on their public transportation business which makes up 80% of their revenue but pessimistic on their taxi business which is their next biggest revenue drive at 13% of revenue. Although all other segments posted lower operating profit, Taxi actually posted a substantial operating loss even after including government relief. Since I also hold SBS Transit which is 75%-owned by CDG anyway, I decided to let CDG go in favor of SBS Transit.
For SingTel, I’m very pessimistic the huge impairments it took on its investments in digital marketing business Amobee and cyber-security business Trustwave, and their uninspiring ‘strategic reset’ which involves shedding its infrastructure assets including towers, satellites, subsea cables and data centers. SingTel stated that it will focus on 5G technologies. I think that SingTel have tried and failed in entering high growth businesses, highlighting its poor execution. Without stable infrastructure asset business, it is left with its core telecommunications business which is becoming more and more of a commodity especially with MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) eating up its pie.
Besides those sales, I haven’t made any major strategic changes in the long term Family Portfolio. I’ve mostly been adding to my existing positions in beaten down growth tech stocks and to my usual core ETFs.
Cash position has dropped slightly to 18% after slightly heavier than usual buying this month.
Personal Portfolio
- May performance: +4.1%
- All-time performance: +21.8% (+27.9% including dividends)
- May dividends: None
- Bought: None
- Sold: None
No action this month since I’m almost fully invested for my personal funds.
Social Portfolio
- May performance: -4.5%
- YTD performance: -3.9%
- Check out my eToro account for trade activity: https://etoro.tw/3rLL9tX
The tech sell-off hit me hard this month, causing stop losses to hit for Teladoc, Meituan, Tencent, Airbnb, and Rio Tinto. Only profitable trade was on Crowdstrike. Still learning and trying to improve my TA, hope for better trades next month.
What have you been buying or selling in May? 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.