Caveat Emptor

  Quantitative measures Beta = 0.86, VaR = 10.81%, Expected Shortfall = 17.34% Overall - Time = 28.89%, Xirr = 6.43% End of year portfolio Beating the STI ETF benchmark is not difficult this year. The STI ETF consist of old economy stocks that are most affected by Covid 19, which are greatly affected by the slowdown in global trade flows,  global tourism as well as lock-downs in Singapore as well as other countries. Although market commentators like to extrapolate from the US market and preach about the <newfound truth> that <the stock market is not the economy>, I noted that this narrative does not really scale well to other stock markets such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and other countries.   As I do not base my portfolio decisions on macroeconomic forecasts, market sentiment, or forward-looking / nearsighted / farsighted market narratives, my best interpretation of the situation is that the US stock market simply voted to be optimistic at this mom...

  **Disclosure : This author currently has no stake in the mentioned companies (Robin Hood, Virtu Financial, UP Fintech Holdings, Interactive Brokers) as of this time. This is merely an analytical piece and the author may or may not initiate stakes in the near future. ** Thoughts about Discount brokers and the market impact Payment for order flow are a recent disrupt-or to the business models of the brokerage space in the United States and Singapore. In the United States, new entrants like Webull and Robin hood led to huge reductions in the trading commissions of traditional broker-dealers such as Charles Schwab, Merrill Lynch, TDA etc. There are also major consolidations and mergers between the retail brokerages as they seek to consolidate operations to achieve economics of scale and cost savings, as they fend against the new entrants .  This leading indicator is a worrying sign on the trading and brokerage industry in Singapore. Despite recording record revenue due to the ...

Thoughts on Tax optimization and Insurance Planning As the end of year approaches, I have been actively searching for ways to improve my income tax efficiency and also min-max my insurance coverage. Below are some personal notes I observed on how to optimise them. As I am not an insurance agent / financial consultant, there might be gaps of knowledge here and there and this post is merely to consolidate my personal findings for future use. Personal Income Tax optimization (subject to regulatory change) 1) Instead of focusing on acquiring physical properties for rental income, focus on acquiring REITS with strong financials and robust Funds from operations. This will greatly reduce the tax burden from rental income and concurrently achieve a reliable stream of dividend payouts. 2) Unlike other countries, Singapore does not incur capital gain tax and dividend tax from stock investments. This makes the Singapore citizenship / residency superior for accumulating wealth through investment i...