Rounding up top reads from around the web, including articles shared by fellow investors in the Financial Horse Facebook Group.
Saxo is holding a free invesment seminar for Financial Horse readers on 24 July (Wednesday)! Scroll to the end of the post to find out more!
10 Investing Tips From Phil Fisher That You Shouldn’t Ignore (Motley Fool)
“The only true test of whether a stock is “cheap” or “high” is not its current price in relation to some former price, no matter how accustomed we may have become to that former price, but whether the company’s fundamentals are significantly more or less favorable than the current financial-community appraisal of that stock.”
“More money has probably been lost by investors holding a stock they really did not want until they could ‘at least come out even’ than from any other single reason. If to these actual losses are added the profits that might have been made through the proper reinvestment of these funds if such reinvestment had been made when the mistake was first realized, the cost of self-indulgence becomes truly tremendous.”
“Investors have been so oversold on diversification that fear of having too many eggs in one basket has caused them to put far too little into companies they thoroughly know and far too much in others which they know nothing about.”
Gold Prices Gain on Global Trade Worries (Investing.com)
Gold prices gained on Wednesday in Asia amid global trade worries.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to resume trade talks this week, but traders are worried a deal will not happen in the near future after White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said trade talks are heading in the right direction but it will take time to make the right deal.
GIC boosts cash, bond holdings in defensive stance amid trade war (The Business Times)
GIC has raised its defensive position by a slight notch amid a slowing rate of globalisation on trade tensions, as well as lofty valuations, as it reported a 3.4 per cent annualised rolling 20-year real rate of return. Its asset allocation as at end-March this year further showed that its cash and bonds allocation of 39 per cent was its highest since it adopted its latest investment framework in 2013. From a year ago, this allocation to cash and bonds was up from 37 per cent.
MAS mulls raising leverage limit for Singapore Reits (The Business Times)
To help S-Reits better compete against private capital and foreign Reits when making real estate acquisitions, MAS published a consultation paper proposing changes to their current leverage limit of 45 per cent.
MAS said it is proposing these amendments to the CCIS to “provide S-Reits with more flexibility tomanage their capital structure and to streamline the fundraising process for Reits”.
Ascott Residence Trust and Ascendas Hospitality Trust combining to form $7.6 bil behemoth (The Edge)
Ascott Residence Trust (ART) and Ascendas Hospitality Trust (AHT), both members of the CapitaLand group after its acquisition of Ascendas-Singbridge, are proposing a deal which will result in the combination of both entities into one. The combined entity will become the largest hospitality trust in Asia Pacific and the 8th largest globally, with an asset value of $7.6 billion. It will also become the seventh largest trust listed on the Singapore Exchange by asset value.
The total consideration of the deal is $1.235 billion, comprising $61.8 million in cash and the issue of 902.8 million new Ascott Hospitality Business Trust (ART-BT) stapled units.
2 Low P/E Ratio Stocks To Look At: Hongkong Land Holdings and Centurion Corporation
I was looking through the STI component stocks and I stumbled upon a stock that has a P/E ratio of only 6.4, it piqued my interest and I went to read on more about the stock in question: Hongkong Land Holdings Limited (SGX: H78). To take it even further, I decided to compare it with another company with a low P/E ratio in the property development sector to see how they are faring. That company would be Centurion Corporation Limited (SGX: OU8).
How to Save and Budget for a Baby (LionParents)
Be careful not to fall into the trap of Googling “things to buy” and buying lots of items that you end up not using! A lot of pre-bought items end up going to waste.
Simply because a lot of things depends on what your baby likes (which you cannot predict) and your parenting style (which is hard to predict).
I just Quit my Job (Four Pillar Freedom)
Even with a high savings rate I would likely need to stick it out for about a decade before I had enough money to never need to work again. Fortunately, I realized that I could gain personal and financial freedom much quicker if I instead developed my own enjoyable income streams.
By quitting my job and working full-time on growing my online income, I can gain the freedom to work for myself and likely grow my online income much faster to a point where I can cover all of my expenses and also have the means to save and invest for the future.
3 Tragic Retirement Investing Mistakes to Avoid (Kiplinger)
Whether investors save for retirement with or without a financial adviser, some of them start to correlate activity with progress. They want to see trades being made in their portfolios or new stocks being purchased at least every quarter. No matter whether these moves are good ones, they make them feel like they’re doing something to reach their goals. That’s the opposite approach investors should take, since 99 times out of 100 the best action for your portfolio is no action at all.
“Doing nothing is an active choice,” he says, adding that he thinks a lot of people overthink their retirement and investing strategies to their own detriment.
Honey, Have You Seen My Hammer And Chisel? (Zero Hedge)
Twenty-one of the 35 nations that released global manufacturing purchasing managers’ indices (PMIs) posted outright contractions in June. The 60% share of countries coming in below the break-even 50 mark was the highest in seven years. That is significant. It means the current tariff/trade war episode is worse than the 2015-16 industrial recession centered on the energy bust. Industrial recession paints a picture of slower global growth.
How can we gauge if the current experience will evolve into a full-blown case of the R-word? Incorporating the last twenty years, a cresting of the 70-80%-range of country breadth would be consistent with the U.S. recessions of 2001 and 2007-09. A mere push north of 60% would be consistent with the euro crisis and Euro Area recession of 2011-12. How quickly the contagion proliferates also matters.
Saxo Seminar for FH readers (24 July)
Join Kay Van-Petersen, Saxo’s Global Macro Strategist, to discuss the implications and opportunities presented by a dovish Fed, such as lower global yields and a structurally weaker USD. Saxo’s Sales Trader, Lee Hong Wei, will also prepare an in-depth review of the S&P 500 stocks and sectors which have performed best since 2018.
Date: 24 July, Wednesday
Location: Saxo Markets, 3 Church Street, Samsung Hub Level 30, Singapore 049483
Program:
6:30PM – 7:00PM: Registration + Refreshments
7:00PM – 7:35PM: Lee Hong Wei: SG REITS and higher yielders
7:35PM – 8:10PM: Kay Van-Petersen: Forget Geopolitics (Trump & Xi), the next regime is all about US monetary policy easing & the race to the bottom
8:10PM – 8:30PM: Platform introduction for STGO + SI
As seats are limited, it would be good to register early to avoid disappointment. Refreshments will be provided as well. Sign up here!
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