Interesting Read - "The Most Important Thing" by Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital

Recently, I had the pleasure of reading an insightful book, "The Most Important Thing" by Howard Marks, co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management. 

I had several learning points after reading this book.

1) Investment is not like playing baseball. You don't get struck out if you don't swing. 
This is about the itch to invest with money on the sideline. Many investors feel the need to deploy their capital into good use only to invest in sub-optimal instruments. (Yours truly is also guilty of this). It is always prudent to pass an opportunity along and protect the portfolio, instead of investing in less than optimal companies that cannot deliver.

2) Where to look for investment bargains?
a) Little known or not fully understood businesses
b) fundamentally questionable on surface
c) controversial and scary sectors
d) not appropriate for certain type of portfolios ( investment grade bonds only. Price not considered)
e) record of poor returns
f) recent subject of disinvestments

3) Investing is a "Loser's Game" - Charles Ellis
a) There are two kinds of tennis players. Winners who hit professional shots and are always on targets. Losers who are average and they win by avoiding bad shots and conceding points through errors
b) Investing is like a losers in tennis, you should avoid bad investments. 

I realised that over the past two years, i have been making mistakes in Point 1). Investing in counters that is less than optimal. For 2017, I will need to revise my investing strategies and avoid making the same mistakes by "swinging" too many shots.

Portfolio - 06 Nov 16

Commentary

This is a bad month for Singapore Equities. STI has retreated to below 2,800. Singapore is going through a crisis at the moment and a lot more headwind is expected to come.

Positions Added/Reduced

Added positions in SIA and Keppel DC REIT.

Cash is ~5 % of my portfolio. 

Counter (Singapore) 
1. RafflesMG

2. CDL HTrust 

3. Capitaland 

4. City Dev

5. Far East HTrust

6. CapitalR China Tr 

7. Capitaland Commercial Trust

8. Keppel Corp 

9. DBS 

10. OCBC 

11. UOB 

12. AIMS AMP REIT

13. Manulife REIT USD

14. SIA

15. Keppel DC REIT

Counter (USA)
1. VNGRD ENERGY 


Realised Gains (Since 2009) 
SGX Counters - S$135,234.93
US Counters - US$1,479.71

Dividends (Since 2009) 
S$56,087.05

Dividends (2016)

S$13,384.38