2018 Best Trades

I broke the promise made to myself by trading/shifting positions unnecessarily during the first couple of months investing, despite wanting to become a value + growth investor. I originally wanted to buy and hold long-term, preferably forever.

Yeah, until I saw the news (read: financial porn), and the tickers. All the buy-and-hold-long-term-Buffet-philosophy goes out of the window.

From my trades, I lost more money than actually made money so far. Thankfully, I also prevented more loss from some of my exits, which is not something to be really proud of when I look at the reason I made the entry in the first place.

Yet, I actually did make some profitable trades, as I did several trades: it's just like the recession prediction – if you predict there'll be a recession every year, one year you'll get it right.

Here are my best 2018 trades. Bear in mind, I just started investing directly in stocks in 2018. I didn't know half of what I was doing, fundamental-wise and execution-wise, and was too jittery and too affected by seeing the daily prices.

No wonder Warren Buffet says do not look at the price.


Paramount Corporation

I entered Paramount Corporation for several reasons.

First, to get dividends since they're rather a regular dividend payer. Secondly, the company financials was not bad, for a property sector at that time, given property was one of a few sectors that I can understand easily.

Thirdly (here I've managed to allow myself to be duped by the news and the politicians), I read in the news that the new Government was planning to announce a "national affordable housing policy" in October 2018. This was notable, since affordable housing was and still is a major pain point among regular Malaysians. And yes, I read more than once in the news that Paramount was one of the counters "recommended for investors" to take advantage of the upcoming national policy.

I was so convinced from what I read, that I bought some property stocks in anticipation of October.

Come October, there was no "national affordable housing policy". Heck there was even no real clear policy even after the Budget 2018 in November.

I was such a sucker.

Yet, I still made money from the counter due to luck: I acquired the stock at RM1.89, and not long after Paramount posted a nice financial results along with 2.5 sen dividend. The investors reacted and pushed the price upwards, almost to RM2.20 at closing one day.

I finally exited at RM2.11 and raked in a profit of 12.2% including dividends from this counter.

One of best trade that I've entered and exited in 2018, though I didn't know half of what I was doing at that time. I do not advocate this impulsive trading to anyone. Do you due diligence before putting any money in the market.

Revenue Group

I purchased Revenue Group stocks through IPO: applied 2,000 units and allowed to purchase 1,000 at RM0.37 apiece. The counter traded really well from the start, shooting skywards on the IPO day and continued to do so for a couple of days.

Then, it dipped a little but and for about two weeks was trading sideways.

At that time I reviewed my story on why I subscribed the IPO in the first place: I was of the opinion that they made decent business pre-IPO.  Not outstandingly good, but OK. Also the business model makes sense to me – not too hard to understand.

Yet, I found three things unfavorable: 1) they kept writing an "A-company" in their financial report (why the secrecy?), 2) they use too much of the IPO proceeds to pay debts, and 3) it's a family company (I didn't know for sure, but at least 3 of the board members had the same last name).

I decided to make an exit at RM0.765. After all, you never go broke taking a profit, right? As you can see, the stock continued its climb afterwards, reaching even RM1.55, almost 420%(!)  appreciation at one point.

In total, I profit a nice 103.2% from the stock minus the trading fees, though of course the rookie in me would berate myself that I could've hold on to it a bit longer.

Ah well...



Sime Darby

Sime Darby had been one of the counters I had my eyes on before started trading it. It's a sturdy and solid company with consistent dividends, though lack the opportunity for growth due to its stage.

On the last trading day of August, the company announced (after the trading hour) a very nice financial results and a dividend of 6 sen.

I pondered the whole weekend about whether to enter the counter, and decided to take the plunge. The Monday after, I acquired the stock at RM2.53 first thing in the morning.

Indeed, Sime Darby traded heavily upwards that day and continued to do so the few following days, reaching even RM2.70 at closing on one day.

I sold off some of my positions early October. This was after the ex-dividend date.

Overall, for the piece of my positions that I've exited, I made a profit of 5.75% including the dividends and minus trading fees. This left me with some more positions, originally acquired at RM2.53.

Surprisingly, the second half of October saw the price plummeted like crazy. The counter even dipped to as low as RM2.10 at closing.

As there was no known change in fundamental, I didn't change my position. Plus, I had no insider information and completely dependent on free financial porn out there.

Oh God, I feel so wrong and so good writing "financial porn". LOL.

I saw the huge dip as another entry point, place and order RM2.05 and I was surprised that it matched. I wrote about my recognition of the crazy dip, and my subsequent entry.


In another post I'll also write about my worst trades in 2018, just to be fair ;p

Just like many other investment websites, I have to add this warning statement:
Do your own due diligence before investing. Invest in only what you understand.