2015 Review

As we approach the end of the year, I'll take this post to take a look back at some of the highlights of this year for me (and the market) as well as some of the lessons learnt from them.

Fed rate hike

It seems like this has been in the news for some time with people looking at the possibility of it happening and the potential results. But now it's happened as the Fed increased its federal funds target rate to 0.25%-0.50%, ending the period of near-zero interest rates. So, what does this mean for us?

Understanding Financial Statements (Part 5) - Notes to the Financial Statements

Adding this to the Understanding Financial Statements series as I've started to realise that this is another area where we can gather more insight into the companies that we are investing into and help us make a more informed decision before investing.

Opportunity Loss

What is an opportunity loss? For this post, I'll take it as the loss in opportunity to make more money by investing our money rather than keeping it as cash in the bank, or in other words, the returns that we have given up by not investing our money. 

Sembcorp Industries: A Short Update

I'm writing this to update my previous post on Sembcorp Industries, after the recent fall in the share price of Sembcorp Industries and Sembcorp Marine.

On Dec 1, Sembcorp Marine issued a profit guidance saying that it expects a net loss for the last quarter of this year and a significant decline in the profits. After the news, the price of Sembcorp Marine and Sembcorp Industries has dropped and they are currently at $1.88 and $3.10 respectively. 

Previously I was already thinking of buying into Sembcorp as it seemed quite good (wasn't too sure at the time) but with the recent drop in the price I decided to pick up a few lots. I guess it was sort of expected that Sembcorp Marine will not be doing very well but with the utilities making up the majority of the net profit for Sembcorp Industries, I think it should be able to tide over this rougher period.

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REITs

I realised that I hardly touch on REITs in my blog posts, so thought I should share some quick thoughts on them as well as acting as an update on an earlier post that I did on REITs. I still don't think that REITs make good investments at their current prices, but I may reconsider this in the near future as market conditions changes.