Portfolio Update for May 2022

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This will be a relatively short post, just to update on the transactions for the month.

For the month of May, violent volatility continues to be the main theme in the US market.  Seems like the saying “Sell in May and Go Away” is working its way through the market for most part of the month.  NASDAQ has dropped more than 30% from the high, and even S&P 500 has fallen into the bear market by falling more than 20%, before rebounding slightly last week.  The last index, Dow Jones Industrial Average, also rebounded, preventing it from falling deeper into the bear market.  For most part of the month, Mega-Cap Tech stocks are falling with no end in sight.  Apple, the only company holding up the indexes in April, has also joined the ranks this month, falling 25% within the month from its high.  Tesla is basically pulled down by gravity, free falling more than 50% from high. However, the mini-rally last week snapped the longest losing streak for DJIA, S&P 500 and NASDAQ to end the week in the green for all three indexes, helping to lift the sentiments for all shares and reducing the losses suffered throughout the month.  Over the month, the indexes are only down between 1.5% to 4.4%.

On the other side, the Singapore market played the catching up game, under-performing DJIA and falling approximately 3.7% for the month of May.  My SGX Dividend Portfolio remains to be my sanctuary for May supported by the Non-REITS, amidst the wild crashes and blood on Wall Street.  REITs on the other hand, especially the Mapletree family, are seeing price retreats to March 2020 levels at the height of Covid.  This has a negative impact on my Dividend Portfolio, which is REITs-heavy.  However, I should not be too focused with the share price of the Dividend generators as I have no intention to sell any of them in the short term, and the fact that the Dividend Portfolio is still holding up in the green thanks to Non-REITs, allows me to sleep peacefully.

For this month, I injected approximately SGD 12K capital buying the following shares:

SGX:    Mapletree Commercial Trust

             Mapletree Logistic Trust

             OCBC

US:       Apple

             Google-C

             JP Morgan

             Microsoft

             Tesla

             VOO ETF

In addition, I have also reinvested dividends on the following shares:

SGX:    Hong Leong Finance

             Mapletree Industrial Trust

             OCBC

             ST Engineering

Total Portfolio Value only increased slightly to approximately SGD 427K, because the massive decline in the share prices of the US Growth Portfolio and the REITs, which outweigh the capital injected.  With no clear change in the declining trend for the US market and the REITs, I am slowing and pacing out my dollar-cost averaging.  As predicted, I may run out of cash next month.  In addition, June marks the beginning of quantitative tightening by the FED.  Hence if the market continue its downtrend, I may just have to go on hibernation mode and ignore my portfolio, stay away from the market, and continue to save up some cash for future battles.

For the SGX Dividend Portfolio, I will slowly reinvest the dividends collected in May and the upcoming dividends to be paid in June to increase the number of shares I hold, continuing to build my passive income.  Continue to hang on!

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