I recommend that you start a Part 3 thread and I will close this thread. You can keep the first post updated. We can probably count on the new thread to naturally stay on the front page.
OK, done! We’re nearly at the 10,000-post mark anyway where vBulletin chokes; Tangent, can you close the old thread?
Is there any limit on how big a post can be? What if the first post grows until it can no longer fit whatever ST wants to add?
Sounds like a challenge.
I don't think you should trade in gold or in any other commodity. However, if you insist, and if you are a non-U.S. person, how about SGLN, domiciled in Ireland and listed/traded on the London Stock Exchange? SGLN's total expense ratio is 0.19%.
Oh, nice find. (IGLN is the USD share class.)
Gold is still a terrible investment, and it’s sort of hilarious that gold had its worst day in years today, right in the middle of the sort of thing that the gold-bugs say should be good for gold. But if you absolutely must fondle the cube (thanks Uncle Wozza for that disturbing image), IGLN seems like the least insane option.
Stock market dropping like crazy! This week DJIA like drop >10%? Should i wait for crash before buying?
What’s a “crash”, by your definition?
Look, stocks are 10% cheaper today than they were at the beginning of the week.
It’s fair to say that the long-term outlook is not as nice as it was a week ago, and anyone who says that nothing has changed is insane. But dropping 10% in a week is silly. This is the Great Singapore Sale.
That said, for anyone who’s already investing, this is a fair question:
Hi experts How to deal with paper loss?
Even though you have done your research and still share/ ETF price still decreases Especially during this virus crisis, but it is temporary and share price will rise provided the company / ETF is sustainable and sound
I am investing for the first time after reading shiny thing’s books
Welcome to my world. I’ve taken some pretty hefty losses in my investing accounts this week as well; anyone who says they haven’t taken losses is either 100% in bonds, or lying.
There are two things you can do, though I wish there were better solutions:
- Remember that you don’t need the money right now, and think of it as a buying opportunity. You’re in your accumulation phase right now (earning money and growing your account balance), not your distribution phase (spending down your money in retirement); so when stocks go down, it’s an opportunity to buy at a lower price!
- This is tough, but: don’t track the markets too closely. If you track every little tick up and down, you’ll let yourself get scared away; the absolute best thing to do is to put down the Straits Times, switch from CNBC, and focus on steadily investing.
This, though… I can’t even:
Is it finally the time to short the S&P 500 index? With an inverse, leveraged S&P 500 ETF?
The time to short the S&P 500 was
before it dropped 12% in a week, not after.
vwra dropping like crazy
going to hit all time low soon at this rate
That’s only because VWRA has such a short history. The last time VWRA’s benchmark index, the MSCI World Total Return Index, was at this level was… August 2019.
Hi guys, its been a pleasure reading all the post from you guys and all the tips (50% SG Equity/50% Global Equity and 110-age) being shared here by ST.
I have a question. Currently I am 28 years old (ratio would be around 20%/80%) and have a pruwealth2 endownment savings plan 500/mth pay till i am 33 years old(pay for 5 years). The XIRR of pruwealth 2 is around 4%. I was thinking of treating the pruwealth 2 as bond
When does it pay out? I don’t like endowment plans (they’re basically like really expensive bond funds), but it may be cheaper to hang onto it then tear it up.
Hello everyone, I'm 23 years old and new to investing. Have around 15-20k to invest for the long term. What are your thoughts on me putting all my savings into IWDA?
You’re young, so you can afford to put more into equities than into bonds - but you should still have
some allocation to bonds (MBH) and to Singapore equities (ES3). Having a diversified portfolio is a good habit to start early, and you’re doing the right thing.
Hi Folks,
@Shiny - I downloaded your book on my kindle yesterday as last act before the doors closed on my SQ flight (second last act was buying IWDA). Unfortunately, I am only 10% the way through - so apologies if the answer to my question is covered later in the book
Lol, no worries! I do miss SQ… that’s one of the many nice things about living in the little red dot. (I live in a United hub city now, and boy oh boy it’s just not the same.)
Looking for advice on changing bond-equity ratio. Up until a few days ago I was 15% bond, 10% cash and 75% equities. The 10% cash was a December windfall and I was waiting for a market drawdown , I got the 10% cash in to IWDA this week. […].
Simple reason why is that in long term the equities should have a greater return. There is also an urge to get in to the market during the drawdown. Anyone have any arguments against this?
Yes, I have a couple of reasons not to do that. Firstly, you don’t know whether this dip is going to get worse (in which case you’ll feel terrible about it, and you might scare yourself back out of the market).
Secondly, even leaving aside this little dip: equities do have a higher expected return over the long-term. The “equity risk premium” is a well-documented thing. But just going limit long equities means your portfolio’s going to have much larger swings up and down in value, and that will make it harder for you to get comfortable with steadily investing.
Got a question, if u have less than 100k, and plan to go long, other than interactive brokerage, what online trading brokerage is best for sg investor?
So, just to be clear, you’re not looking for a “trading” brokerage - you’ll be best off starting with an investing platform, where you can buy and hold.
I used to recommend POSB InvestSaver for small investors, and I still like it a lot. FSMOne’s RSP program works out notably cheaper, though, and it’s also excellent.
I have seen the YTM terms being bandied about. Do you mind giving a high level overview on what that means for bonds please?
Sure. The “yield to maturity” of a bond is its annual yield over its remaining life, including a) the coupon; and b) the change in price as it increases or decreases to its face value at expiry. For a bond ETF, the YTM is (verrrrryyyy roughly, please don’t ask me to do the math, it’s Friday afternoon and I’m already two glasses of wine deep) the weighted-average YTM of the individual bonds in the portfolio
Hi all, how does a Stop Limit work when buying in a declining market?
For example, with IWDA at $57 now, if I set a buy order with Limit Price $53 and Stop Price $54, does it mean the order will only become active when the price falls below $54, and turns into a market order when it crosses $53?
Um. This doesn’t make sense.
A stop-limit buy order is “if the price rises to Stop Price, enter a limit buy order at the Limit Price”. You only enter a stop-limit buy if the stock is below the stop price.
For example, let’s say you’re short TSLA and you want to close your position if the stock goes up. The stock is currently trading at 600 (or whatever); so you might enter a stop-limit order with a stop price at 700 and a limit price at 800.
If the stock subsequently trades at 700, the stop-limit order will become a limit buy order at 800, and probably get filled immediately. It won’t get filled only if the stock gaps from below 700 to above 800.
In your example, the stock is already above 54 (the Stop Price), so as soon as you entered that buy order, the stop would fire, and it’d turn into a limit bid at 53. It would be the same as if you’d entered a limit bid at 53.
Most investors won’t want to goof around with stop-limits, or even with limit orders below the market. Just buy the darn stock, and pay whatever the current price is. But if you actually want to buy stock below where the market is trading, just enter a limit bid.
Hi Shiny Things,
I chanced upon your name when i was checking out some details on my axa pulsar policy today. YES, the one that people strongly are against. I bought it since 2015 and i dont see much growth from it and not sure how much i can take out on the 10th year. I''m contemplating to just surrender the policy and get back less than 12k and see what other investments would be more sound for me. (fyi i was on the lowest tier 3k/yr plan for pulsar)
Oh yeah, I remember ranting about that one a few years back. Wow, is it trash.
The best move is to surrender at this point, yeah.
Hi Shiny Things,
Which ETF do you recommend to purchase if I want to purchase S&P 500?
I am a Singaporean working in Singapore, hence prefer Ireland domiciled ETF.
I don’t think you need a dedicated S&P 500 slot in your portfolio; IWDA and VWRD are both 50%-ish in the S&P 500 already.
That said, if you absolutely must, CSPX is fine. (VUSD and VUSA are fine too.)
Which ETF would you recommend if I want to take short term? How about long term?
Doesn’t make a difference. I’d add to the people who are saying “you don’t need both VWRD and IWDA”, though.
the bid ask spread for cspx is the widest ive seen. what does it mean ? is the market maker increasing the spread because theres lot of trade activity for this counter ?
No. A spread that wide is “the market’s closed or something”.
Problem is bond dividend keep dropping while inflation stays high.
Singapore’s inflation is very low. It was negative in 2015 and 2016; and since then it’s never been above 1% annualized. That is an extremely low inflation rate.
Someone has been giving you bad information about inflation.
I have 90% invested in stocks, have profits over past years but the sharp drop is quickly eroding all profits, thinking of bailing out to preserve capital, should I? Will stock index drop another 20% in next few months? This will turn my whole portfolio into loses! >10 years of profits all go into drain! Also considering job uncertainty, recession comes & may become jobless.
This is the sort of thinking you want to
avoid.
You can’t know whether your stocks will go up 20% or down 20% in the future. That said, you can be pretty confident that stocks (and bonds!) will make you money over the long term, if you’re sensible enough to hold on to them and not bail out at the first sign of panic.
Stocks go up and stocks go down. But a 10% drop is not the end of the world. In fact, a 10% peak-to-trough drop happens at least once in most years. This - what we’re seeing now - is a lot of unexpected uncertainty, but if you don’t need the money immediately, you can step back and not make any sudden moves, and wait for it to blow over.
