Investment Strategies 01 (Nov 08 - May 10)

[kennynah]

For example, the AMVIG (2300) stock I have is 220,000 shares or about $770,000 which is about 3.37% of my total portfolio.

this means this person has $22,848, 664 of capital for investment...

i stopped reading the rest after i saw this above proclamation...

[Cheng]

For example, the AMVIG (2300) stock I have is 220,000 shares or about $770,000 which is about 3.37% of my total portfolio.

this means this person has $22,848, 664 of capital for investment...

i stopped reading the rest after i saw this above proclamation...

If he started off with nothing, he is damn good.

His capital allocation is sound and looks into various aspects on how much to allocate his capital. So far so good.

[kennynah]

Hogwash - Portfolio Allocation Theory
27Feb2010 1725h (+8 GMT)
by Kennynah

quite frankly, i do not agree that a 5% allocation to one trading position is a feasible plan, if one has a small investment capital...

for example, if investment capital is S$10K, 5% allocation is a mere $500. even if this becomes a very successful investment and becomes a multibagger, say 5 times. the overall profit for this position adds $2000 to your account. that's 20% of the investment capital. let's face it, how often do you get a 5x return on your investment. if you are lucky, a rare few times in your entire investment career...

but then why do journalists swear on their ancestral graves that it is wise to allocate no more than 5% of total capital on 1 single position? imo, for 2 primary reasons:

a) they are referring to investment capital amount that is astronomically large; say 100s of millions to billions...think WB, Soros, Pimco category....

b) it's their day job to regurgitate articles to meet their publishing quota

but let's step back and think for a moment.... have a sip of kopi-o, teh-o, pu-er, tia guanyin, diet coke, etc...and ponder....

ponder why we get filled with articles day in and out, people proposing 5% portfolio rule.... why 5% or in essence, why a minuscule fraction of total investment capital ?

you guessed it... it's everything to do with managing risks... by allocating a small % of the total investment capital, one is minimizing risks. and as we know, with little risk, comes little potential profits... and if the total investment capital is small, that small potential reward won't ever make you wealthy...

those with less than $50K investment capital and stick to 5% allocation per trade, imo, are plain lazy. lazy because they know that no matter what, they will never lose more than 5% capital if their investment absolutely belly up...eg, the stock they used 5% capital to buy goes to $0.

let's be honest with ourselves here, if you have the knack of picking stocks that constantly nosedive to the abysmal $0, i think you need to re-evaluate your investment skills...

so, while there is always the chance that your choice of stock can become totally worthless, that chance ought to be tiny. if you believe this, you should not have to worry too much about increasing the allocation amount to more than 5% per asset investment.

instead, you should focus on how much you can afford to lose as your primary determinant on how you trade/invest. in other words, if your risk appetite dictates that you are willing to lose 5% of $50K, then your stop loss exit for any position should be $2500, and NOT allocating a mere $2500 for that position. in fact, you could allocate a substantially larger capital than $2500 and still not risk more than losing $2500, if you possess the knowledge and skills to protect your position beyond losing $2500.

of course, i don't advocate allocating 100% of your capital to one single position. however, minute the chances of this investment going to zero, there's still a chance. and if you invest/trade long enough (and here, i mean decades and numerically very large numbers of trades), it might just occur to you.

in a gist, allocating 5% is not advisable if you want to have a chance of making some real money, neither is it wise to constantly bet the ranch. a balance is needed here. what that balance is, depends on your risk appetite and expected returns.

the biggest advantage in adopting this approach is that this larger capital allocation can reap you a more meaningful potential reward....which is what every trader/investor seeks. remember, you invest/trade not for fun, but to make money....

next time, your friend tells you about his great 5% allocation theory, just smile and talk about the weather....either this or better be his closest buddy; he could be that tycoon you didn't know you knew...

[winston]

this means this person has $22,848, 664 of capital for investment...i stopped reading the rest after i saw this above proclamation...

HK$22.8 is about Sin$4m. Maybe he could be telling the truth.

But to bet 220,000 on AMVIG is a bit too much. AMVIG is a "buy & hold" until there's Buyback or when they privatize it. But that's another discussion ..

[lithium]

This guy's investment approach is using

d) if you invest ... the emphasis will be more fundamental in nature; when will FED raise rates, how will earnings be 1 year later, will trade deficit get narrower, will employment pickup successfully, will RMB strengthen, will EU collapse, etc...

His allocation size depends on size of the company. Here he mention he will maximum invest only 5% of his fund in a small cap company. I do agree with him because if you are managing such a huge fund size, trading small cap short term is a high effort, low impact act on your portfolio. Unless you hire a few guys to trade it for you. And if you trade small cap with a huge % of your big fund, small cap becomes illiquid.

[millionairemind]

Hogwash - Portfolio Allocation Theory
27Feb2010 1725h (+8 GMT)
by Kennynah
.

This article should be framed in the Trading Hall of Fame

[lithium]

this means this person has $22,848, 664 of capital for investment...i stopped reading the rest after i saw this above proclamation...

HK$22.8 is about Sin$4m. Maybe he could be telling the truth.

But to bet 220,000 on AMVIG is a bit too much. AMVIG is a "buy & hold" until there's Buyback or when they privatize it. But that's another discussion ..

By the way winston, he thank you for introducing AMVIG.

[winston]

By the way winston, he thank you for introducing AMVIG.

Ha Ha .. then introduce him to this forum.

[winston]

[b]Hogwash - Portfolio Allocation Theory

quite frankly, i do not agree that a 5% allocation to one trading position is a feasible plan, if one has a small investment capital...

If one has only Sin$10,000, then one should not be really speculating with that money. So the 5% rule would not apply to that individual in the first place.

The 5% rule is normally used by futures traders in conjunction with other rules eg.
1) Dont overcommit ie. always have 3x the money in the margin account for the position
2) Mental Independence ie. speculate only with money you can lose
etc.

However, if one still wants to speculate with a small capital base of Sin$10,000 then the 5% should not be applied...

[kennynah]

If one has only Sin$10,000, then one should not be really speculating with that money. So the 5% rule would not apply to that individual in the first place.

i respectfully disagree with the above... anyone with excess cash that is not needed for subsistence or other critical use can invest any amount, however small it is, be it even just S$1K....

a small investment capital simply makes investing/trading more difficult to achieve success.... that small investor/trader needs to get the initial trades correct ...else, with just one or two setbacks, the investment account will dwindle to such a small sum, it just wont make a difference afterall...