Q3 Portfolio Review | Reaching $150,000 but not there yet

I feel like time is passing really fast, I thought 2024 just started like a few weeks ago haha but now I am writing the portfolio review for the 3rd quarter of 2024. Crazy crazy how fast time pass.

News is also updated at a quick pace, Huawei with the tri-fold phone, then OpenAI raises $6.6 billion, Dyson and Samsung layoffs, Iran and Israel tensions and automation taking over the port and workers striking just to name a few of the bigger news these past few weeks.

Every Tesla shareholder is looking forward to 10.10 as Tesla plans to unveil their robotaxi. There is a lot of excitement building up so we shall see what really comes up on 10.10. Elon is known to build up quite a hype but sometimes disappoint when the product is revealed.

My portfolio has been on a roller coaster ride in Q3, I did pump some extra capital in besides my monthly DCA so the value increased substantially. At the end of September, we were so close to hitting $150,000 but the tensions between Israel and Iran brought the portfolio down. I hold a substantial amount in crypto so the portfolio suffered. I did record the value of the portfolio at the end of September so it has dropped quite a bit since then.

Stocks

Added a few Palantir shares before the escalation of the Iran and Israel, so far, it proved to be a good decision. Total position of Palantir is not huge in comparison to other holdings. Continuously adding CSPX monthly, not huge since only a few hundred is set to buy and CSPX is currently USD604.87 per share.

Stocks have been steadily growing since Tesla has seen a slight recovery, looking ahead at the interest rate cuts, it has since recovered a little but compared to the other Mag 7, the year has been disappointing. Holding onto my existing position and not adding. Stocks portfolio is slowly inching towards $100,000.

Crypto

Added quite an amount of crypto with spare cash that I have. Mostly added Bitcoin and Solana, not at the bottom but just accumulating. I do have a strategy to let go a portion if there is a burst and target prices are hit.

I think crypto is like the true rollercoaster ride, it can fall or go up within seconds of something happening. It is so reactive and yet many younger individuals love it including me as it provides returns that is outsized and gives that David And Goliath story with TradiFi. So far, not having huge rewards from it but I have been adding positions to BTC, ETH and SOL. Just these 3, with ETH being my biggest followed by BTC.

Syfe REITs

This is a portfolio that I am accumulating slowly for my later years. Just a couple of hundreds per month but I am thinking of stopping this year end and instead diversify in to REITs in the later years once my portfolio grows.

Total Portfolio

Hoping to end the year with an ATH but it all depends, not expecting anything. Sticking to my DCA-ing and continuing to Q4. I think the tough thing now is to see how long I can last in my job. I do see some instability and automation work being done for my role. Will have to check and maybe upskill in order to stay relevant, not too sure so I will need to research. Planning for travels in 2025 and feeling excited for them. How has your portfolio been looking? In Q4, will it be a bull or bear market?

Affiliate links/Codes:

► Where I store my Cryptocurrencies:
► Ledger: https://shop.ledger.com/?referral_code=980EF358BYAQM (Earn $10 in BTC)
► Where I buy my stocks:
FSMone Referral: P0364886
Tiger Brokers
Interactive Brokers (Open an account today and start earning up to $1000 of IBKR Stock for free!*Terms and Conditions apply)
►Syfe Trade Referral Code: SRPSL8MGX
►Syfe Wealth Referral Link: SRPSL8MGXE   

Escaping from Reality and spending so much in the process

I went overseas a few times this year, mostly short period lasting 1 week to a little more than a week. After every trip, I felt refreshed and enjoyed the trip and break from work. With this, I do see myself going overseas once in a while to have a good break from the environment in Singapore.

Singaporeans tend to travel pretty frequently because domestic travel is not really possible although I am sure we do have staycations or going over to JB but we love winter and experiencing the different seasons in other countries that Singapore does not have. Also, our surrounding countries can provide their different cuisines at such a competitive price that it kinda make sense for us to travel once in awhile to reap the benefits.

I realised that going for a trip, inclusive of air tickets, expenditures, travel insurances and lodging, it can add up to a substantial bill just for a break from reality. There are definitely more affordable options but air tickets and accommodations are already a substantial cost due to inflation.

I have also been exposed to slow travel recently and want to do it at least once where I stay in a country for at least a month or longer.

Save to spend? Never ending cycles

I find myself saving but then spend it all when it is time to travel and then begin the process of saving again. I invest and do separate my savings from spending amount but I do think that it is easy to spend everything out if you do not have a plan or if you are not financially savvy.

I kinda really let loose from about a year ago when I saw my investments grow and realise that I should be spending some to have experience and more so to enjoy especially after working hard. The pandemic of course, helped me save as I was able to keep my job and even moved on during that period for a better paying job. I saved more during that period as I ate home cooked meals and wasn’t even spending much.

But now that I have loosen up, online shopping, buying good food and travelling have been adding up. I don’t mind it but I also don’t want to lose control over it so I have been trying to improve it by creating some rules.

Making sure a bucket of wants is being accumulated

Having a separate budget for it is also one way I cope with the extra spending. Of course, some times, it is not as easy if you have a tight income, I would even say that it is not easy to set it aside and not touch it.

I used to save in one bank account and when I had big expenses, I would dip into that, it proved not too good as my saving and spending were together and would get mixed up. Spending some of your hard earned money is nice and I think it is good to loosen up especially if you have adhere to your savings/investments.

Travel is an amazing experience and best to do it when you are young to maximise it

I think travelling can be a tiring and a grueling experience depending on where you travel to and how you plan, you also want to make sure that you are maximising your time overseas and so often than not, you pack your days with activities and places to visit. Just based on that, being young is an advantage because you would have more energy.

I do also realise that being spontaneous can make a trip more exciting, of course, age is not a factor in that but being young means you can do much more activities without being weigh down, especially when you are not travelling with kids.

However, on the other end, travelling is not a cheap expense and some times, you don’t even know the limit because once you are overseas, there might be experiences that will be outside of your budget or if unforeseen circumstances occur eg, faults of systems or breakdown of certain infrastructures or getting ill. So making sure you have sufficient cash before having that trip is equally important. With that, I will be travelling soon for a week long and been looking forward to it.

As to my plan for a slow travel experience, I will need to plan it or be able to work on something as it is not easy to be doing that with a 9-5 job. I am definitely very privileged and grateful to be able to travel frequently. 

Affiliate links/Codes:

► Where I store my Cryptocurrencies:
► Ledger: https://shop.ledger.com/?referral_code=980EF358BYAQM (Earn $10 in BTC)
► Where I buy my stocks:
FSMone Referral: P0364886
Tiger Brokers
Interactive Brokers (Open an account today and start earning up to $1000 of IBKR Stock for free!*Terms and Conditions apply)
►Syfe Trade Referral Code: SRPSL8MGX
►Syfe Wealth Referral Link: SRPSL8MGXE  

Looking forward to the ETH ETF release on 23rd July 2024

 Twitter has been having lots of discussion on how Ethereum (ETH) will react to the release of ETFs after Bitcoin’s (BTC) successful release which propel BTC to it’s high of almost US$74,000 in March.

Some have mentioned that ETH might reach another all time high while some say that there will be a selloff and ETH will lose power from here as it is a much more difficult product to sell than Bitcoin etc.

What I think

I am not too pessimistic and with Ethereum being the largest portion of my crypto portfolio, I definitely would like it to be performing well. I do see the ETH ETF as a positive in flow for Ethereum but not too sure how retail tradfi investors will react to it as it is not as simple as Bitcoin.

Today is 20 July 2024, we can see an overall positive trend for cryptocurrency as they go green. Overall, it is a great achievement if we just think back on the journey.

My Journey in crypto

I started crypto investing in November 2020 when Bitcoin was $18,000

Read more: Cryptocurrency | Why I am getting into it and is it too late? 

At that time, I was thinking that I got in too late, buying it at $18,000 (of course, I wasn’t able to afford one), I bought it in decimal points hahaha but from that time on, I started on my journey to reading up and opening up to this other world of investment products that would propel my portfolio to another level.

End 2020 and 2021 were amazing years for crypto, money was piling in, Youtubers were talking about it, NFTs were the craze. My portfolio was about $30,000 at that time and we also saw GameStop mooning in early 2021, getting my ledger nano S set up.

I got into Ethereum soon after and then the crash happened, my whole portfolio was devastated but I was happy it happened when my portfolio was $30,000 because it taught me not to sell in fear and that HODL-ing was vital and if possible add more position at a cheap price.

Read more: Reactions to a market dip | Having some panic to being calm and buying the dip

I was scared as it was my first crash and BTC in 2022 fell to US$14,000 while ETH fell to a low of about US$966. I did not add much as I was afraid but I was proud of myself for holding on and not selling off, as they slowly recovered in 2023, I started adding positions and now hold a substantial position relative to my portfolio. It wouldn’t make me a millionaire but I am comfortable with the current amount unless it goes up so high that I would have wished I bought more.

Read more: I got liquidated and lost my whole LUNA position | Anchor Borrow

What I am doing

In the previous bull market, I did not take profit and instead held through the highs and lows. For this time, if it soars up above US$4500, I might take profit, what I have done is to have a ladder way to take profit. I set multiple price targets and with each target hopefully, I will sell some and eventually hold onto the remaining.

I am excited that it is happening within my lifetime haha and it’s just so cool and fun to be part of it. Sitting tight for the ETH ETF and hoping for rockets to blast off but crypto is unpredictable so we shall see if it will be upwards or a sell off towards the downside.

Affiliate links/Codes:

► Where I store my Cryptocurrencies:
► Ledger: https://shop.ledger.com/?referral_code=980EF358BYAQM (Earn $10 in BTC)
► Where I buy my stocks:
FSMone Referral: P0364886
Tiger Brokers
Interactive Brokers (Open an account today and start earning up to $1000 of IBKR Stock for free!*Terms and Conditions apply)
►Syfe Trade Referral Code: SRPSL8MGX
►Syfe Wealth Referral Link: SRPSL8MGXE  

Q2 Portfolio | Hitting all time highs, portfolio reaches almost $150,000, should I be realigning proportions?

Q2 has been exciting, with ETH ETFs more than halfway through, Tesla AGM, Nvidia stock split and the AI narrative still going strong, the markets has been looking good although stocks and crypto holdings in my portfolio has been very volatile.

When the markets hit ATH and gets more and more expensive, I do think if it is time to continue to DCA in as there might be a sudden black swan event or downturn where it will be more worth to dump my funds in. Or should I be realigning some positions, taking profits and putting it somewhere else?

Stocks

Stocks have rebounded quite a bit for my portfolio. The portfolio was trailing behind due due to the poor performance of Tesla but it recently rebounded due to Tesla beating the estimates of car delivery and also on news of Germany Gigafactory approval for expansion and of course, it’s involvement in AI which many have upgraded it for as Tesla dabbles into many aspects of AI example, full self driving, Optimus, Dojo just to name a few. Overall, stocks have been gaining in value in the 2nd quarter. I am continuing to DCA-ing into CSPX and doing just that.

Crypto

Crypto has been on a rollercoaster, we found ourselves looking to go up and up but we saw a decline as well. We are looking forward to the ETH ETF and that has provided a good support for Ethereum although Ethereum has not seen any huge propel in prices although it almost reached USD4000 and some are also predicting that there will not be an upside price action for it after the Ethereum ETF. This is because Ethereum is not easy to sell as Bitcoin to the institutions and looking at the data of Ethereum, it doesn’t look to be a good investment. We are hoping at an Ethereum ETF launch in early to mid July.

Also, crypto in early July met with a series of events like Mt Gox repayments and the German government selling Bitcoin, Bitcoin dropped to a low of 53,000 which is crazy as we were just celebrating huge wins in the crypto space. Well, that's how volatile the crypto market is.

Happened in July which is not Q2 but I recorded my portfolio value late so writing about it now. I did buy some Ethereum at below 3000 USD and at about 56,000USD for BTC. Wanted to just take the chance to accumulate at lower price, was not a large buy and not at the exact bottom but I am okay with that. For now, I am not looking to load on crypto and am just holding on to existing positions.

Syfe REIT+

REITs haven’t been performing great lately and it did drop further as well. Nothing much with the price action in Syfe REIT+ as a few REITs also experience some pullback. Nothing much here but just a small DCA-ing amount is being put in. I am planning to contribute till the end of the year and will stop it. This is the current plan but no concrete plans in place as things could still change along the way.

Overall

Portfolio has been hit ATH, feels like I am not investing as much as I want to be but does feel like the market is very optimistic and excited towards the 2nd half of the year, where there are expected rate cuts and it being an election year, stock market has usually performed well in an US election year so I do feel the FOMO feeling whenever I am not maximising my investments in but currently, I am taking a step back and enjoying a little by increasing my spending to enjoy.

The total portfolio hit near $150,000 this quarter and I can really see the effects of compounding after hitting the $100,000 back in the end of December, it could also be due to me holding more risk on assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tesla, even the majority holdings of my index funds are in QQQ.

Read more: End of Year Portfolio Review | Total Investments hits $100,000, marching towards $150,000 by end of 2024

I am investing more in CSPX to balance out the overall risk appetite of the portfolio although I don’t think it does much as the Magnificant 7 still has a large proportion but it does include more broader industries so just adding that at the moment . Not taking profits yet nor diverting funds anywhere although I did have the thought for it.

Affiliate links/Codes:

► Where I store my Cryptocurrencies:
► Ledger: https://shop.ledger.com/?referral_code=980EF358BYAQM (Earn $10 in BTC)
► Where I buy my stocks:
FSMone Referral: P0364886
Tiger Brokers
Interactive Brokers (Open an account today and start earning up to $1000 of IBKR Stock for free!*Terms and Conditions apply)
►Syfe Trade Referral Code: SRPSL8MGX
►Syfe Wealth Referral Link: SRPSL8MGXE  

FOMO on Nvidia | Should I still get in right now?

FOMO hits hard and especially today as news and friends around talk about Nvidia. Opening my instagram and twitter today, I saw all of this and much much more:

 

Huge news but at the same time, it feels like I missed out on all the gains. I have a friend who is rather into the semiconductor industry hence he was invested in various semiconductor stocks early on, he did mentioned it to me at that time but I brushed it as it was not an industry I was interested in. Too technical and it feels like it was a really niche area.

Fast forward a few months to Covid, it seems like the supply chain was reliant on semiconductors for every electrical applicances. Still, I was not paying any attention to it as every other area like crypto, Tesla seem so much more exciting. Moving forward, the AI wave together with ChatGPT came like a tsunami and companies with hardware for AI is taking the lead in their earnings and growth as technology companies and every other companies are trying to purchase the hardware for AI compute.

Should I go in now?

Nvidia is still going to do well I think in the short term as we can see orders coming in still for it’s GPU. I don’t really know the technical things for semiconductors, CPU and GPU, design of chips and manufacturers, I think that’s about all I know.

It does feel upsetting to be missing out on all of the growth, there might be more growth incoming but I think I am not going to go in at the moment because I do feel that I have missed out the large proportion of it’s growth and I am saving up cash for some leisure travel so not going to initiate a position as I would only be able to have a small position.

 I have friends who invested in it and have their portfolio rocket 🚀. I do feel jealous looking at it, the growth has been massive so I comfort myself by saying that I do holding Nvidia as well via my QQQ positions. Haha, I know it is different but somewhat the same?

Overall, I enjoy the memes and glad that the market overall is hitting ATHs, my portfolio has been steadily growing and my QQQ positions has been growing so happy with that. Happy with how the market is, missed out on this but there will be many opportunities in the years to come, I hope haha. I don’t think the AI growth will stop here rather, it will be growing and might have just started. Looking forward to how the portfolio will look at 2H 2024. Q2 portfolio update coming soon.

Affiliate links/Codes:

► Where I store my Cryptocurrencies:
► Ledger: https://shop.ledger.com/?referral_code=980EF358BYAQM (Earn $10 in BTC)
► Where I buy my stocks:
FSMone Referral: P0364886
Tiger Brokers
Interactive Brokers (Open an account today and start earning up to $1000 of IBKR Stock for free!*Terms and Conditions apply)
►Syfe Trade Referral Code: SRPSL8MGX
►Syfe Wealth Referral Link: SRPSL8MGXE 

An update on my crypto portfolio in 2024

In 2024, I would say that my crypto portfolio is a lot cleaner compared to the highs of crypto in 2022 where I was holding a lot more coins that were like game tokens, I was playing around with so many and have chosen to standardised it to 3-4 positions right now in 2024.

Memecoins and AI tokens have taken the quite the stage once again this cycle as we see individuals who made it big but definitely there are those who lost money. Some might ask me why not just try out with the alts since there might be a chance that I can make it big? But I have grown tired, lost some money in the previous cycle and so just holding onto the bigger ranking coins are enough for me.

I currently have 4 positions in my crypto portfolio, namely Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Chainlink. If you consider the proportion of the individual positions, you can just consider it as Bitcoin and just Ethereum.

Crypto portfolio as of 24 May 2024:

How has it been in 2024 and going into 2025

ETH has been stuck in the $2000 - $3000 USD region for quite some time. Solana has been the one gaining lots this period as the fun memecoins has been there.

But the recent hype on the approval of the ETH ETF has been helping ETH price action as per the chart below:

The listing of the ETH ETF is not yet confirmed, only approval has been given and so there is no set date yet for the listing. It is great news and the approval of the ETH ETF was really rushed with the SEC giving short notices to the companies on what was the progress and so when more action was needed from the company, it was only a few days before the approval.

2025, the year when everything goes wild?

When we entered 2024, it was predicted that there will be 6 rate cuts but now, we are almost halfway into 2024 and yet 0 rate cuts have happened and most predict for 1 rate cut this year. So most of the cuts are predicted to happen in 2025 and 2026, but of course, nothing is certain and the FED has for now says that they would like to observe the inflation data over a period before deciding.

When the interest rate cuts starts, it is predicted that the markets will rally as money would be more accessible so we can see how it all goes. In the meantime till then, continue accumulating and will update along the way as time goes.

ETH ETF has been approved | Why this is particularly interesting and crazy

 Hi guys! Its cuurently about 5.30am, 24 May 2024 and it was announced by the SEC that ETH ETFs have been approved, there have 8 ETH ETFs from BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Bitwise, VanEck, Ark, Invesco Galaxy and Franklin Templeton approved.

None of my friends are really into cryptocurrency so I do not have anyone to share the news with although it is exciting as ETH is my largest holding in my crypto portfolio. Not life changing amount but a nice amount, comfortable allocation. ETH has been rather "boring" in it's price action recently compared to BTC which had ETF listing and the ETF listing and alts going up and up. Solana stole the show as we saw it soar back up as the ease of using it and cheaper fees attracted huge numbers. 

Holding ETH felt horrible as it was stagnant looking at the rest, even the price action after the approval of the ETH ETF has not propel it upwards and beyond. The ETH ETF will not list immediately as there are still some forms to be completed and approval so it will take some time and anything can still happen. It feels rushed and we can only hope that the listing will go smoothly although it will take some time.

 

 What now? 

As we see ETH ETF being approved, many have said that SOL ETF is coming up or even a DOGECOIN ETF? The banks and major institution has gotten so much interest and definitely money/fees from the BTC ETF so there is no limit to how much they can continue to earn if they can endlessly generate crypto ETF but of course these are all to the SEC and regulation to decide. As well as volume.

Some individuals do not see a huge funds inflow into the ETH ETF as much as BTC ETF after all Bitcoin is definitely much more "sellable" and easier to understand. But a percentage of the inflow of the BTC ETF would already be great. Currently, it does feel like the approval has been priced in but the Asian population is mostly not awake yet so we shall see towards the end of 24 May 2024 on how it is.

Why it feels so surreal? 

Just last week, the consensus was that the ETH ETFs will not get approved as it was a already very close to the deadline and normally, much more preparation and time will be needed so no news meant that the ETFs were most likely not going to be approved. 

It was predicted that the ETFs had a 25% chance of being approved but on Monday or Tuesdays, the ETF issuers was asked to fill up forms and this spiked up the interest back for the ETFs approval, the 25% estimated approval rate was then changed to 75%. With the next 2 or 3 days, it felt like the approval was possible and what made this so crazy was the short timeline where the issuers had to move to fill and provide the necessary information. 

 

So the updates from the SEC to the issuers happened within the week and it was a rollercoaster ride as the initial thoughts were that the ETFs are not going to be approved. Well, I do not have any positions in Nvidia so this news makes it up for the FOMO. I never imagined that BTC and ETH could be in the stock market at such a fast rate. Meanwhile, meme time will entertain us until the official listing of the ETH ETFs! Have a great Friday and weekend ahead!