Newbie Portfolio - End 2020 11 (1 year since Inception)

What a year it has been, having started this mini portfolio just before the Coronavirus. The month of November 2020 had seen a strong market rally, especially after Biden won the US Presidency. I took the chance to take profit on BNP. Performance for the portfolio year (End Nov to End Nov) is at -6.71% p.a. It was disappointing that my new mini portfolio lost money in its first year, but it is already a big relief it fought back from the terrible lows during the dark Coronavirus periods of February to May 2020.

Strategy for the portfolio will continue using Fixed Income to earn stable returns behind the scenes, and I will selectively trade Equities where suitable.

Current portfolio only has Shell remaining as Equity and I will probably wait until Shell turns a decent profit (like BNP) before I trade another Equity for this mini portfolio.

Lesson learnt from the Keppel Corp saga is: Don't take too big a proportion of an Equity position even if you think you know the stock very well and it seems 'very safe'. Who would have expected the Coronavirus to hit, and for Temasek to trigger the Material Adverse Clause and cancel the $7.35 Partial Offer. Albeit I cut loss on Keppel Corp before Temasek announced the cancellation.

After taking profit on BNP and reducing some loans, this mini portfolio is at a very comfortable Margin Ratio of 66.53%. I would ideally target a Margin Ratio of 80-85% to optimally use Leverage on Stable Investments (which means I should be buying more for this mini portfolio). But I am having some second thoughts now on whether the current Market Environment is suitable or stable enough to ramp up to a Margin Ratio of 80-85% again, especially after experiencing the wild volatility caused by the Coronavirus.

Regards, Newbie

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