Portfolio update

With markets in such a big mess due to Greece, I made some switches to my portfolio around two weeks ago. For one thing, I don't foresee that the Greece crisis will be resolved so soon, so this time I switched some of my equities to bonds and took profits on some funds as well. And it's a good thing I did; markets continued to fall over this period. 

CPFIS-OA

Fund	Sector/Region	Asset Class	% of portfolio
Aberdeen Global Emerging Markets	Global Emerging Markets	Equity	16.07%
Eastspring Inv UT Pan European	Europe	Equity	14.63%
Fidelity America USD	US	Equity	23.67%
First State Dividend Advantage	Asia Pacific ex Japan	Equity	13.83%
First State Regional China	Greater China	Equity	10.60%
Henderson Global Technology	Global Technology	Equity	7.70%
LionGlobal Japan Growth Fund	Japan	Equity	7.08%
Nikko AM Shenton Short Term Bond (S$)	Short Duration	Fixed income	6.43%

Asset allocation: 94% equities, 6% fixed income

Changes:

Sold First State Global Resources
Bought Nikko AM Shenton Short Term Bond (S$)

First State Global Resources has plummeted by 30%, and I have decided to switch it to a short duration fund and wait for an opportunity to enter the market again. Thinking of going into Europe because of its cheap valuations, but Europe already takes up quite a substantial portion of my CPF-OA portfolio. Hmm.

CPFIS-SA

Fund	Sector/Region	Asset Class	% of portfolio
DWS Premier Select Trust	Global	Balanced	27.17%
First State Bridge	Asia Pacific ex Japan	Balanced	72.83%

Asset allocation: 100% balanced

No changes. Still looking for a good chance to put the money back into my CPF-SA account. DWS Premier Select Trust is down by 3.06% while First State Bridge is down by 1.44%.

Cash

Fund	Sector/Region	Asset Class	% of portfolio
Aberdeen Pacific Equity	Asia Pacific ex Japan	Equity	19.56%
Aviva Inv Glb HY Bd Axh SGD	High Yield	Fixed income	12.50%
FTIF-Templeton Glb Total Ret A(mdis) SGD-H1	Global	Fixed income	7.91%
Fidelity America USD	US	Equity	4.63%
First State Regional China	Greater China	Equity	7.02%
LionGlobal Spore Fixed	Singapore	Fixed income	8.64%
Nikko AM Shenton Short Term Bond (S$)	Short Duration	Fixed income	25.75%
United Asian Bond Fund	Asia ex Japan	Fixed income	9.54%
United Emerging Markets Bond Fund	Emerging Markets	Fixed income	4.44%

Asset allocation: 31% equities, 69% fixed income

Changes:
Sold Aberdeen European Opportunities
Sold (partial) Aberdeen Pacific Equity
Sold BNPPL1 Eq Russia EUR
Sold DWS SGP small/midCap A SGD
Sold Fidelity Glb Fin Serv EUR
Topped up into Aviva Inv Glb HY Bd Axh SGD
Topped up into United Asian Bond Fund
Topped up into LionGlobal Spore Fixed Inc-A
Bought Nikko AM Shenton Short Term Bond (S$)


As shown, my cash portfolio's asset allocation (equities - bonds) has changed from 70-30 to 31-69. Aberdeen Pacific Equity was still making money, so I sold off some to take profits. BNPPL1 Eq Russia EUR, Aberdeen European Opportunities and Fidelity Glb Fin Svc EUR were also sold off as I think markets will still go down further. As for DWS SGP small/midCap A SGD, I have decided to invest directly in the Singapore stock market instead of going through a unit trust.

The high allocation to Nikko AM Shenton Short Term Bond (S$) signifies that I am just waiting for a good opportunity to enter the market again. Markets are unbelievably cheap now, but I think there is still room for it to fall further. Will probably enter it in staggered intervals and in small amounts.

"I should have..."

One of my clients recently came to me to complain about his portfolio. To make it clear, I did not manage his portfolio; he was transferred to me from another adviser that was moving out of Singapore. So basically, he was unhappy about this adviser. 

"Even though I had invested with him for one year, my portfolio is still down by almost $600! You know, this is really ridiculous. I should have just left everything in cash. Pfft!" (yes, he really made that sound) 

I listened to him rattle on. It is always easy to blame everything on the adviser in such cases, and this is why having a financial adviser is sometimes termed as having a psychological call option. If your portfolio makes money, you let the option remain as it is. But if you incur losses, you can exercise that option and blame your adviser for it.

Before I answered him, I looked at his portfolio. My first thought was, being down by $600 shouldn't really be a big deal, unless his portfolio was only worth a few thousand dollars. As it turned out, his portfolio was worth almost S$70,000 when he invested with the adviser, so the loss of $600 was basically less than 1%. And he had only invested for less than one year - nine months, to be exact. Another look at his trade history showed that he had sold quite a few funds from his portfolio against his adviser's advice. He said that once these funds showed a positive return, he sold them in a hurry. Which was actually a silly thing to do.

My observations are listed below.

1) Investing is not a short-term game

Investing, especially in unit trusts, is at least a medium-term game of three to five years. In the short term, markets can be very volatile, and even very low-risk unit trusts can drop in value. When you invest, you must be committed. You must be prepared to lose a portion of this in the short run. If you are going to flee or make noise once your investment goes down, you are better off not investing. If you are going to need your money in just a few months' time, you are better off investing in money market funds or short duration bond funds. Or simply leaving it in the bank.

Besides, losing 1% of your money is really considered nothing, especially when you take into account my second point below. 

2) Fees are highest in the first year

Advisers need to be remunerated too. You can't expect them to construct a portfolio for you for free. Thus, there is always an upfront fee, or establishment charge, in getting the portfolio started and going. This of course means that all else equal, the first year's performance will be the poorest. Upfront fees have been on a downward trend due to increasing competition. It used to be 5% in the past; now it is usually 2% to 3%, or sometimes even 1%. In this client's case, he was charged 2%, which was still quite reasonable. So despite his investments being down by 1%, he had actually earned back almost half his fees paid.

3) Selling off your investments without discipline

By selling off whatever investments that had a positive return, he had screwed up his portfolio's strategic allocation. For example, he sold off his Asia Pacific ex Japan equities, Asian bonds, global equities, and global emerging market equities. What remained was a portfolio that was not well diversified anymore.

4) Risk profiling

It is typical for the adviser to do a risk profiling for the client to determine suitability. And it is the client's responsibility to answer truthfully. A glance through his risk profile done by the adviser showed that the client had stated that he was all right with taking a bit of risk, and that he understood that his portfolio may drop by up to 10% in the short term. Now, however, how he was behaving was entirely the opposite. 

I explained some of the points above to him, and told him that judging from what he had said, his risk profile was actually conservative - very conservative, as a matter of fact. So I proposed that he invest in some low-risk bonds instead, and due to the ease of monitoring a portfolio of lower-risk bonds, I offered him huge discounts (87%!) in my advisory fee and even waived all upfront fees. However, he replied:

"If I move the money across to the low-risk bonds, I will be worse off as the supposed returns are much less, and I am already down over 4%. To make up the shortfall and to cover the cost of fees will take a long time, perhaps years. 

Sorry for being cynical, but after all the fees are taken into account, it seems that everyone else makes a larger cut (advisers, fund houses) than the person at the end of the chain (the client)."

(To clarify, his current portfolio was around $27,000 after selling off the funds I mentioned earlier. So his current losses as a percentage of his capital invested is less than 1%; but as a percentage of his current portfolio, it is over 4%.)

I must admit that I felt a bit incensed over his reply. It seemed that he wanted high returns and low risk, and to gain back his capital in a very short period of time. This was unreasonable and impossible. And it's not as if his adviser was charging him exorbitant rates.

He continued his lamentations.

"After hearing the same stories from others who have invested, I think having cash and property is still the safest and most valuable way of investing. So far, it would have been better to have left my money in the bank than to lose money outright. You know, if I had left my money in cash and property (in Australia), I would have earned much more!" 

I explained to him that it wasn't really apt to say that, because in hindsight, everyone is right. In hindsight, I should have invested in Thailand equities in the first quarter of 2012! I would have made around 16% in just one quarter! In hindsight, I should have sold off my Asian equities last month! It would have been at the peak! It is all too easy to say that "I should have..." or "I should not have...". 

Cash also underperforms almost every other asset class on a medium to long term basis, because it only gives the minimum risk-free rate. As for property, the danger is that it comes with huge minimum investments, which tends to distort an investor's portfolio. Property is also not a sure-win investment as he thought it was - property market crashes are very real and have happened before. Real estate is also vulnerable to government interventions; just look at the cooling measures implemented in China and Singapore recently.

I also told him honestly that a drop of 4% is almost nothing compared to many other portfolios out there, especially when you take the short time frame into account.

He still wasn't convinced, but I have done my part. I have also defended his adviser in terms of the fees charged and the portfolio constructed, and corrected his many misconceptions about investing. Ironically, such people that give financial advisers such a headache are exactly the ones that need an adviser the most.

Portfolio update

Markets went down quite a bit last night, especially in Europe, so I took the opportunity to top up into Europe for my cash portfolio. Ever since my last post, I have made quite a few changes to my portfolio, so here's an update.

CPFIS-OA

Fund	Sector/Region	Asset Class	% of portfolio
Aberdeen Global Emerging Markets	Global Emerging Markets	Equity	16.50%
Eastspring Inv UT Pan European	Europe	Equity	14.76%
Fidelity America USD	US	Equity	22.95%
First State Dividend Advantage	Asia Pacific ex Japan	Equity	13.55%
First State Global Resources	Global Resources	Equity	6.70%
First State Regional China	Greater China	Equity	10.43%
Henderson Global Technology	Global Technology	Equity	7.96%
LionGlobal Japan Growth Fund	Japan	Equity	7.15%

Asset allocation: 100% equities

Changes:

PRU Pan European Fund was renamed as Eastspring Investments Unit Trusts Pan European
Sold off a bit of Henderson Global Technology for profit taking

Topped up into Eastspring Investments Unit Trusts Pan European
Topped up into First State Dividend Advantage

CPFIS-SA

Fund	Sector/Region	Asset Class	% of portfolio
DWS Premier Select Trust	Global	Balanced	27.29%
First State Bridge	Asia Pacific ex Japan	Balanced	72.71%

Asset allocation: 100% balanced

No changes were made since, but I am actually contemplating selling all my holdings and putting them back into my CPF-SA account for the guaranteed 4% p.a. This is because 4% p.a. for a risk free rate is pretty good, and it is hard to beat this over the medium term because of the CPFIS-SA investment limitations. 

Cash

Fund	Sector/Region	Asset Class	% of portfolio
Aberdeen European Opportunities	Europe incl UK	Equity	4.29%
Aberdeen Pacific Equity	Asia Pacific ex Japan	Equity	25.26%
Aviva Inv Glb HY Bd Axh SGD	High Yield	Fixed income	8.20%
BNPPL1 Eq Russia EUR	Russia	Equity	2.59%
DWS SGP small/midCap A SGD	Singapore	Equity	21.47%
FTIF-Templeton Glb Total Ret A(mdis) SGD-H1	Global	Fixed income	8.11%
Fidelity America USD	US	Equity	4.70%
Fidelity Glb Fin Serv EUR	Global Finance	Equity	4.22%
First State Regional China	Greater China	Equity	7.23%
LionGlobal Spore Fixed Inc-A	Singapore	Fixed income	4.32%
United Asian Bond Fund	Asia ex Japan	Fixed income	5.20%
United Emerging Markets Bond Fund	Emerging Markets	Fixed income	4.40%

Asset allocation: 70% equities, 30% fixed income

Changes:
Bought Aberdeen European Opportunities
Bought Fidelity Global Financial Services EUR
Bought First State Regional China
Bought Fidelity America USD
Bought FTIF-Templeton Global Total Return A(mdis) SGD-H1
Sold Fidelity Taiwan USD
Sold Aberdeen Global Opportunities
Sold FTIF-Templeton Global Bond A(mdis) SGD-H1
Sold (partial) LionGlobal Spore Fixed Inc-A


I also made some amendments to my RSP. Previously it was in Aberdeen Global Opportunities, Aberdeen Pacific Equity, and DWS SGP small/midCap A SGD. I have since expanded it into five funds, namely:

Aberdeen Pacific Equity
Aberdeen European Opportunities
LionGlobal Spore Fixed Inc-A
Fidelity Latin America USD
United SGD Fund Cl A

It will only take into effect next month.

Portfolio update

It has been a while since I blogged about my portfolios. Recently, markets have rallied quite a bit and my portfolios have finally made money! I am glad I topped up a bit when markets were down. 

Previously, I combined all my unit trusts into one portfolio regardless of whether they were bought using CPF or cash. But now I have decided to separate them as CPF monies could not be used in a cash portfolio and vice versa - this has rather big implications for rebalancing. Also, the list of unit trusts that one can access via CPF is rather limited. 

So here goes. 

CPFIS-OA

My CPFIS-OA portfolio is very heavily skewed towards equity. Okay, it's actually all in equity. This was because I just purchased a property recently, and I liquidated the fixed income funds I had for the downpayment. Also, since I will not be using my CPFIS-OA money in the near future, I can afford to invest all in equities due to the long time horizon.

Fund	Sector/Region	Asset Class	% of portfolio
Aberdeen Global Emerging Markets	Global Emerging Markets	Equity	16.43%
Fidelity America USD	US	Equity	22.55%
First State Dividend Advantage	Asia Pacific ex Japan	Equity	11.76%
First State Global Resources	Global Resources	Equity	7.52%
First State Regional China	Greater China	Equity	10.43%
Henderson Global Technology	Global Technology	Equity	11.07%
LionGlobal Japan Growth Fund	Japan	Equity	7.11%
PRU Pan European Fund	Europe	Equity	13.13%

Asset allocation: 100% equities

The worst performing fund in this portfolio is First State Global Resources, which is currently still down by 16.75%. This was because I bought it at a bad timing - March 2011. Right after that, the Japan earthquake happened, and it dropped. Then came the stock market plunge during August 2011, and it went down even more.


CPFIS-SA

CPFIS-SA portfolios are almost always boring. Because the restrictions under CPFIS-SA is much more stringent than CPFIS-OA, so there are very little choices. In fact, you don't even get to choose any equity funds; the highest risk you can get are balanced funds. And of course, the CPFIS-SA cap is currently S$40,000, which means that you can only invest anything in excess of this amount. Which also means that most people wouldn't have much CPFIS-SA to use to invest.

Fund	Sector/Region	Asset Class	% of portfolio
First State Bridge	Asia Pacific ex Japan	Balanced	72.50%
DWS Premier Select Trust	Global	Balanced	27.50%

Asset allocation: 100% balanced


While DWS Premier Select Trust is categorised as a global balanced fund, the majority of it is invested in Singapore (around 67%) and Luxembourg (around 27%).


Cash

Cash portfolios are obviously more exciting, because you get to invest in any unit trust you want. I chose to diversify more into fixed income as there's no telling when I may need to use the money here, and also to reduce my portfolio volatility.

Fund	Sector/Region	Asset Class	% of portfolio
Aberdeen Global Opportunities	Global	Equity	1.00%
Aberdeen Pacific Equity	Asia Pacific ex Japan	Equity	27.38%
Aviva Inv Glb HY Bd Axh SGD	High Yield	Fixed income	9.50%
BNPPL1 Eq Russia EUR	Russia	Equity	2.98%
DWS SGP small/midCap A SGD	Singapore	Equity	23.03%
FTIF-Templeton Glb bond A(mdis) SGD-H1	Global	Fixed income	5.24%
Fidelity Taiwan USD	Taiwan	Equity	8.66%
LionGlobal Spore Fixed Inc-A	Singapore	Fixed income	11.39%
United Asian Bond Fund	Asia ex Japan	Fixed income	5.89%
United Emerging Markets Bond Fund	Emerging Markets	Fixed income	4.92%

Asset allocation: 63% equities, 37% fixed income


Fidelity Taiwan USD was the biggest culprit for my losses here, as I bought it on March 2008 - just before the Global Financial Crisis. It has been almost 4 years and I am still nowhere near breakeven, at -29.63%. Another bad move was BNPPL1 Eq Russia EUR - right after I bought it on May 2011, oil prices fell and Russia was badly hit. Currently it is still down by 13.40%, but fortunately I only bought a small amount of it.

Having fingered the culprit for my losses, I should mention that the biggest contributors to my gains are Aberdeen Pacific Equity and DWS SGP small/midCap A SGD, which are up by 20.88% and 20.44% respectively. The returns could actually be higher, but I just rebalanced my portfolio recently when markets went up by selling a portion of these two funds and buying into fixed income.

Interestingly, both are RSP (regular savings plan) contributions which I have been adhering to religiously since 2007, and in hindsight, it was a good move. To put things into perspective, my first RSP contribution into Aberdeen Pacific Equity was at a purchase price of S$4.3388 on 9th Nov 2007. Now, after the crisis and the recent rally, the price is at S$4.3143. Which means that if I had invested lump sum then, I would still be sitting on a paper loss right now.

The same goes for DWS SGP small/midCap A SGD - I entered at a price of S$1.7534 on 9th Nov 2007 too, and the price now is S$1.4503. This difference is even more stark compared to Aberdeen Pacific Equity.

FTIF-Templeton Glb Bond A(mdis) SGD-H1 was another good investment choice. After it was hammered in August 2011, dropping by 8.6% in around 2 months (which was a huge drop considering that is a global bond fund), I went in at December 2011. Now, in barely two months, it has gone up by 6.48%.

Aberdeen Global Opportunities only makes up 1% of my cash portfolio currently, because it was a RSP which I only started in January this year. 

Keep your investments simple

Having a lot of funds in your portfolio doesn't necessarily mean that your portfolio is more diversified. And it certainly doesn't mean that it will perform better either. Sometimes, keeping your portfolio simple is the best way to invest. And monitoring it will be less of a hassle too.

1) Get exposure to the key regions

The key regions are Asia ex Japan, Japan, Europe, US, and emerging markets. These regions should form the core of your portfolio. There is actually no need for thematic funds like climate change, agribusiness etc unless your portfolio is big enough, or if you are a more experienced investor. 

To a certain extent, even single country funds can be excluded from a portfolio, especially if your portfolio size is small. For very small portfolios, investing into a global equity or global balanced fund is the fastest and easiest way to diversify your portfolio and gain exposure globally.

2) Diversify

Many investors think that fixed income funds are boring and leave them out of their portfolios. While their lower returns are nowhere as exciting as equity funds, they actually help to reduce the overall volatility of your portfolio. Fixed income funds are liquid and offer returns that are higher than bank savings deposits or fixed deposits, but with an acceptable increase in risk. If you have short term goals approaching, invest more into fixed income funds.

3) Invest regularly

Committing a fixed amount into your portfolio every month via a RSP (Regular Savings Plan) is a good way of maintaining discipline. The benefits of Dollar Cost Averaging have already been stated time and time again, so I won't repeat them here. 

If you have a longer time horizon, it is better to invest your RSP into an equity fund. If you have a shorter time horizon or if you are unsure about which equity funds to go into, there is no harm committing to a bond fund for your RSP too.

Buy emerging markets!

Markets are still extremely volatile, but they actually present some very excellent buying opportunities. Today, I topped up into emerging markets, because huge outflows from emerging market equities since 2008 have pointed to a possible indication to buy emerging market equities at their lowest valuations in 2.5 years. Valuations are now 30% below the 20 year average, as shown by data compiled by Morgan Stanley and Bloomberg.

In the past decade, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index went up by an average of 17% in six months after outflows of this magnitude. Out of 12 occasions, 11 gained, according to EPFR Global and Bloomberg.

The current market problems actually stem from the developed countries. Emerging markets do not share the same problems. Growth is still quite strong, and demographics, a very important point for investing in emerging markets, will continue to be a significant driver of growth.

Market bloodbath - time to go in?

After the market crashed yesterday, I went to take a look at my portfolio again. As expected, my US fund has plummeted; it is now down by 16%. My Europe fund was not much better at 13% in the red. China is down by around 11%, while Taiwan (which was already the worst performing in my portfolio) is now down 25%! Ouch. Thank goodness for my fixed income funds, which provided some measure of defence in my portfolio.

Core portfolio - 75.68%

Asia ex Japan Equity - 11.12%

Asia ex Japan Balanced - 5.10%

Emerging Markets - 9.20%

Europe Equity - 7.05%

Global Bonds - 7.19%

High Yield - 3.96%

Japan - 2.01%

Singapore Equity - 11.98%

Short Duration - 11.22%

US Equity - 6.85%

Supplementary portfolio - 24.32%

Global Resources - 4.51%

Taiwan Equity- 3.77%

Global Technology - 5.69%

China Equity - 9.01%

Russia Equity - 1.34%

By asset class, this would be 72.54% equity, 5.10% balanced, and 22.37% fixed income.

I have been doing some thinking these two months and have decided to move towards a smaller supplementary portfolio. Previously I categorised High Yield under my supplementary portfolio, but now I have moved it into my core portfolio. Will be trying to use new monies to rebalance my portfolio.

After US stocks crashed and S&P downgraded US debt from AAA to AA+, I decided to top up my US fund slightly. Why? I think markets have over-reacted. US companies are still making profits, with 71% of US companies outperforming expectations in Q2. Valuations are now extremely attractive, and markets have priced in the significant amount of bad news out there. 

I must admit that I was a bit nervous about topping up in US when everyone is fleeing from it. But I took one step back and asked myself - if a client came to me today and asked me for my opinions, what would I recommend? I would recommend topping up into US now, or start a RSP to take advantage of the market's volatility. Even if US drops further, it is undeniable that you would be getting a good deal in the medium term. After this, I felt more reassured and put in the trade. 

I also topped up into Japan slightly (more to increase my portfolio allocation in Japan than to exploit opportunities) and more into Short Duration funds for safety. 

Portfolio repriced

My unit trust buys and switches have been priced, after my recent top-up (in red fonts).

Core portfolio - 69.43%

Asia ex Japan Equity - 11.10%

Asia ex Japan Balanced - 5.12%

Emerging Markets - 9.79%

Europe Equity - 8.24%

Global Bonds - 6.18%

Singapore Equity - 11.77%

Singapore Fixed Income - 9.26%

US Equity - 7.97%

Supplementary portfolio - 30.57%

Commodities - 4.80%

High Yield - 4.07%

Taiwan Equity- 4.44%

Technology - 6.02%

China Equity - 9.81%

Russia Equity - 1.43%

By asset class, this would be 75.36% equity, 5.12% balanced, and 19.51% fixed income.

In terms of profit, my core portfolio has made a 9.92% profit, but my supplementary portfolio is down by 4.96%. The biggest culprit is my Taiwan Equity, which I bought in 2008. It fell significantly even before the crisis, and has never recovered till now. 

Portfolio top up

With the recent market correction, I took the opportunity to top up my unit trust portfolio again. Due to the commodities crash in the past 2 weeks, my unit trust in commodities was down by around 9%, so I topped it up by a small amount.

One of my emerging markets unit trusts was also down by quite a bit, so I took the chance to top it up at a cheaper price.

Invested into Russia for the first time, as the Russia market is now extremely cheap (PB ratio 1.02x as at 26 May 2011), and also topped up into High Yield. My supplementary portfolio is getting bigger!

Portfolio rebalanced

My unit trust buys and switches have been priced. This is my current allocation, which is much nearer to my original strategic allocation.

Core portfolio - 71.88%

Asia ex Japan Equity - 11.58%

Asia ex Japan Balanced - 5.35%

Emerging Markets - 9.41%

Europe Equity - 8.83%

Global Bonds - 6.45%

Singapore Equity - 11.94%

Singapore Fixed Income - 9.66%

US Equity - 8.66%

Supplementary portfolio - 28.12%

Commodities - 4.28%

High Yield - 2.16%

Taiwan Equity- 4.68%

Technology - 6.57%

China Equity - 10.43%

This would be around 76.38% equity, 5.35% balanced, and 18.26% fixed income. It is obviously skewed towards the aggressive side.

I have a RSP into Asia ex Japan Equity and Singapore Equity, so I shall leave them as it is. But I am still considering topping up into high yield, but none of the high yield funds my company carries are included under CPFIS-OA or CPFIS-SA (I am feeling a bit cash poor currently). Also, while I am confident that China will still grow in the long term, I wonder if I am over allocating to China, since my Asia ex Japan Equity already includes China (21.3% in China/Hong Kong). But as China increasingly becomes a global market leader, perhaps we should consider China as part of our core portfolio in the sense that, everyone should have at least a bit of China holdings?

Time to rebalance my unit trust portfolio

Despite having attained my CFA charter last year, today is the first time I sat down and took a long, hard look at my unit trust portfolio. True enough, it required quite a lot of tweaking.

Before I looked at my portfolio, I thought about what my strategic allocation should be so that I would not be influenced by what I have now, and whether each investment had made profits or not. It took me a while, but this was what I came up with.

Core portfolio - 70%

Asia ex Japan Equity - 12%

Asia ex Japan Balanced - 5%

Emerging Markets - 9%

Europe Equity - 9%

Global Bonds - 7%

Singapore Equity - 10%

Singapore Fixed Income - 9%

US Equity - 9%

Supplementary portfolio - 30%

Commodities - 5%

High Yield - 3%

Taiwan - 5%

Technology - 7%

China - 10%

But my actual allocation was:

Core portfolio - 70.09%

Asia ex Japan Equity - 19.63%

Asia ex Japan Balanced - 12.86%

Emerging Markets - 5.52%

Europe Equity - 0%

Global Bonds - 0%

Singapore Equity - 12.77%

Singapore Fixed Income - 19.31%

US Equity - 0%

Supplementary portfolio - 29.91%

China - 11.32%

Commodities - 4.55%

High Yield - 2.31%

Taiwan - 4.87%

Technology - 6.87%

Well, well. Surprisingly, it seems that my supplementary portfolio is pretty much in line, but my core portfolio required some major rebalancing.

So I switched a portion of Asia ex Japan Equity/Balanced and Singapore Fixed Income into Emerging Markets, Europe Equity, and US Equity. I also topped up into Global Bonds. After my switches and purchases get priced, I will update it on another entry.

The recommended core portfolio should be around 80%, but I have a longer time horizon and can take more risk, so I allocated an extra 10% to my supplementary portfolio to 'play around'.