Portfolio Updates

Portfolio Update November 2023 – Slowing Inflation Powered the Portfolio Higher

Calvin Lo

Another month, another wild ride. After such a downer in October, we got a shot in the arm in November all thanks to slowing inflation in the US. The markets cheered the Fed holding rates steady and falling bond yields that followed by buying stocks. S&P 500 started the first day of December by breaking the 52-week high. Fortunately, our portfolio went along for the ride up.

Tech stocks were one of the biggest beneficiaries of lower bond yields, although most of the market performed just as well except for energy which lagged.

Source: Finviz

Corporate earnings season was pretty mixed, starting off pretty badly for our portfolio holdings but got much better as the month went on. Palantir (PLTR) was the highlight and Sea Ltd (SE) the disappointment this season.

With US inflation cooling off slightly, some Fed members even came out to talk about possibly cutting rates. This really got the market excited and ignited a nice rally. Hopefully, this early Santa rally continues on to Christmas.

On the fixed income front, the very attractive December SSB offering 3.4% average 10Y yields in high demand and was oversubscribed by 1.8x. However, January 2024 SSB average 10Y yield has dropped off to just 3.07%. The last 6-month T-bill auction on 23 Nov 2023 closed with a cut-off yield of 3.8%, which is nothing to be excited about. Robo-advisors StashAway and Syfe are still maintaining the 3.8% for their respectively Guaranteed products (take note the different tenures).

Check out my Fixed Income Tracker for the latest selection of fixed income products and their yields.

Read: StashAway Simple Guaranteed Update: More Tenure Options, Highest Yield 3.8% For 1-Month Tenure

Read: Syfe Cash+ Guaranteed Review: New Option For Short-Term Cash at 3.7% Yield (latest yield 3.8%, post to be updated)

See also my SSB tracker.

On a personal note, our family spent the first half of November overseas in New Zealand. Thus, I wasn’t monitoring the markets or our portfolios much last month. Usually I pay less attention when the markets are doing well anyway. In addition, I’m a net buyer so with the current lack of funds, I don’t have much room to capture opportunities anyway. I’ll have to be even more selective now in picking up shares outside of the scheduled DCA.

See my Portfolio page for more details on my portfolio value, holdings, and strategy.

Combined Portfolio (Family + Personal)

  • Value as at end Nov: S$297K
  • Nov performance: +10.3% vs SPX +8.4% vs NDX +9.1%
  • YTD performance: +22.4% vs SPX +20.2% vs NDX +47.3%
  • All-time performance (since Aug 2016): +4.9%

See breakdown in the following sections.

Family Portfolio

  • Value as at end Nov: S$239K
  • Nov performance: +7.6%
  • YTD performance: +22.9%
  • All-time performance (since Aug 2016): +4.9% (+6.9% including dividends)
  • Nov dividends: S$65 (+54% yoy)
  • Bought: VT, QQQ, ARKK, SGX:HST
  • Sold: None
Family Portfolio as at 4 Dec 2023

No purchases besides the usual RSP into ETFs with FSMOne. Still building back up our cash pile. ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), Tesla (TSLA) and Palantir (PLTR) all performed well last month, contributing to the positive performance. That said, this portfolio still lagged S&P 500 by -0.8% pts likely dragged down by DBS (down -3.4% in Nov).

Read also: Automating Your Investments With FSMOne

No additional lump sum added to Syfe portfolios last month, just the usual DCA. Syfe managed portfolios is currently valued at $16.4, up from $14.7k in Oct, mainly due to sharp recovery in REIT+.

No change to regular monthly contributions of $200 into each of the Core Equity100 and REIT+ portfolios. Around $3.6k more to go to qualify for Black Tier ($20k) which comes with a lower 0.5% annual management fee vs the current Blue Tier rate of 0.65% before GST.

Read my reviews of Syfe Income+, Syfe REIT+, and Syfe Core Equity100.

Syfe managed portfolios as at 4 Dec 2023

Personal Portfolio

  • Value as at end Nov: S$58K
  • Nov performance: +17.4%
  • YTD performance: +54.1%
  • All-time performance (since July 2020): +5.8%
  • Bought: None
  • Sold: TSLA, PLTR
Personal Portfolio as at 4 Dec 2023

Tesla (TSLA) pulled the portfolio up massively, after rising +16% for the month. Overall though, the portfolio was up a little bit more thanks to Palantir (PLTR) which rocketed up post-earnings and ended the month up a massive +36%. Disney (DIS) wasn’t left behind either, rising +14% in Nov.

Sold a bunch of PLTR stock after rocketing up post-earnings. I’m long-term bullish on PLTR but not so much at these prices in the short-term. Also sold a bit of TSLA when it hit $250. I’m currently neutral on TSLA and slightly negative on PLTR purely on valuation basis.

Read my investment thesis on TSLA here.

How did your portfolio perform in November and what are your plans for December?

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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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