The Margin Investing Series Part 2: Beware of the Margin Ratio and the Dreaded Margin Call.

 

Hi folks, this is the Margin Investing Series Part 2- Continuation from my previous Part 1 Video.

DigiCore DC REIT Not As Stable As It Seemed-Beware 3rd Crisis Since IPO.

Let me be clear on this, the announcement of Linton Hall going to be finally leased out end of 2026 on January 5th, 2026 announcement does not absolve the inherent challenges faced by unit-holders holding on to DigiCore DC REIT ("DCREIT"). I thought that DCREIT management has been rather misleading in their previous December 2025 results presentation. The occupancy rate as per above shows a 98% occupancy giving most stakeholders am extremely false impression of the true status of occupancy. There is a very tiny footnote at the bottom of this powerpoint that states that the actual occupancy rate of DCREIT is only 81% instead of 98%. They have excluded Linton Hall during the last presentation, that is undergoing refurbishment post the exit of a major tenant around mid-2025 that contributed around 10%-11% of rental income. I thought that DCREIT management ought to be more transparent in its dealing with unit-holders given that it had already underwent a few crisis post IPO such as the Sungard and Cyxtera bankruptcy/restructuring cases that led to a significant plunge in distribution to unit-holders.

Linton Hall Will Only Be Backfilled from December 1, 2026- (1.5 years vacant)

Back in 2023, I had taken up a position in DCREIT when its price plunged to below US$0.50 as I had taken a more optimistic view of its business. I had then bought and exited half of it with about +22% realised capital gain but keeping the other half was a mistake as its traded price remained in doldrum for the next few years and now, there a 3rd incident of another operational issue with a major tenant exiting in mid-2025 and DCREIT's team is only able to backfill the space from December 1, 2026  (as per the latest SGX announcement). Wow, this is almost a 1.5 years of vacancy! 

From DCREIT track record over the past 3 years, this REIT has proven that it is not stable at all. It has problem building up sufficient size for adequate diversification of key tenant exit risk as well as credit risk. 

Parting Thoughts

Over time, DCREIT’s market price has fallen significantly below its IPO level of US$0.88 per unit to the recent US$0.545 as at January 6, 2025 (Monday). This represents a whopping decline of around <-38%> relative to its IPO price. I have thus exited all my investment holdings in DCREIT back in December 2025 due to persistent under performance and bad management based on my personal view. Additionally, the AI craze maybe a bubble that will eventually pop and I am not sure whether DCREIT with its really bad track record can survive such crisis.

Crazy Donald Trump Kidnapped President of Venezuela- Will Global Stock Markets Tanked This Week?

The million dollar question today is how much will the stock market crash? Donald Trump has once again screwed up the already declining world order by attacking Venezuela and then kidnapping its president. US Delta force executed a dramatic "man grabbing" operations from the Venezuela presidential residency and then spirited him back to US to face drug trafficking charges. 

The irony is not lost when Russia condemned US for its aggressive action against Venezuela. The statement from Russia foreign affairs: “This morning, the United States carried out an act of armed aggression against Venezuela. This causes deep concern and condemnation,” Russia said in a statement from its Foreign Ministry. The pretexts cited to justify such actions are unfounded. Ideologized hostility has prevailed over practical pragmatism and over a willingness to build relations based on trust and predictability.”. It is strange that Russia made the aforesaid comments five years into the nation’s own war in Ukraine. Saying that, the ironic double standard also falls back on Donald Trump who has been against the war in Ukraine started by Russia. It's a bloody mess and is not at all good for the global stock markets. 

Parting Thoughts:

Looks like whoever has the military muscle can now dictate and do what they want with other countries and subject others to their will. Even folks in China has commented on forum that perhaps China should take a leaf out of Donald Trump's playbook and kidnap the President of Taiwan by using the same military operations. 

Central Provident Fund Personal Updates 2026- Moving Towards Enhanced Retirement Sum Using Special Account.

 

It is again the time of the year to document my CPF retirement goal update. My special account has grown from previous year balances of S$266K to S$286K as of Jan 1, 2026. Note that I will only be sharing my CPF Special Account here as I find the balances in the CPF Ordinary Account ("OA") and Medisave account wholly irrelevant for my retirement income planning. Reason being that for CPF OA, amount here will eventually be fully utilised to pay down my housing mortgage as I do not plan to work till age 65 years old and targeting an early retirement. As for Medisave, my parents do not have much medical insurance coverage and I think that I will most likely exhaust all the balances here into their future healthcare. I have seen my cousins' Medisave being drawn down to zero for medical expenses for medical payment on behalf of their parents in similar circumstances.

Interest Income

For 2025, I received an interest income of S$11,428 from the CPF Board for my Special Account which was credited on Jan 1, 2026.

Parting Thoughts

If I do not get retrenched by my boss this year, then most likely, my CPF Special Account will hit the milestone of S$300K and a passive annual interest income of S$12K from the year of 2027. 

Last but not least, do take note that CPF Life payout only commenced at age 65. For those who intend to early retire at age 55, one would need to think of how to generate other sources of passive income to sustain the decade between age 55 years old to 64 years old before the CPF Life payout kicks in. 

Investment Portfolios Updates (31 Dec 2025) - Net Investment of S$930K and Projected Annualised Passive Income of S$49K.

Wishing all a Happy New Year and good health always! I guess it is not too bad that my net investment increased slightly to S$930K despite the decline in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange over the last 2 months. I am gearing up to hopefully cross the S$1Mil net investment mark by the end of 2026. This will be my 2026 new year resolution. Gross investments have so far crossed the S$1.2Mil milestone and I will be gradually paying down my margin loan using the passive income generated from the Margin Portfolio. 

1. Portfolio 1- Stocks Held in SGX Central Depository 

Not much changes to update here except that there is an upcoming rights issue for Keppel REIT. I may subscribe to a few units to try to round-up the units on hand to the nearest hundred for ease of future sales. I do not like the current rights issue which is very anti-loyal shareholders/unit-holders. There are enough write-up on this rights exercise by various finance influencers regarding Keppel REIT so I will not dwell on it-personally, I can only say that the management of Keppel REIT ought to be shot.  

2. Portfolio 2- Margin Purchased Securities
(Note: My margin purchased securities has grown to a sufficient scale to sustain itself and can pay off annual financing charges as well as to gradually pay down the margin loan through the dividends generated.) 

I think I need to stop buying HKEX stocks like JD here. The undervaluation in the China/HK market is too tempting and simply too hard to resist. Saying that, as aforesaid mentioned in the beginning highlights, I hope that I will have the discipline to just let the dividends pay down the debt so as to guard against potential spike in financing cost in the event that inflation went out of control again. I have no doubt that mass money printing by the US Fed is on the table again. 

3. Portfolio 3 (with Tiger Brokers and MooMoo) 

(Venture into higher risk as well as capital growth stocks here)

I have sold off my US stock of United Healthcare Group after realising a small profit. I managed to get 300 shares of BYD at around the HK$94 per share price during the recent correction in HKEX. The price of BYD rebounded around 5% after BYD released a major software updates (God's Eye) to its vehicles which boost the appeal of BYD-made EV cars. After Christmas, the price of BYD went up and I thus decided adding on and instead went into accumulation of Link REIT which has dropped from HKD40 per unit to approximately HKD35 per unit. 

4. Portfolio 4 (Endowus Unit Trusts & Other Investments)

I have injected an additional S$10K-split equally among bonds and equities- into unit trusts in late December 2025. The pricing in this portfolio is at cost and does not reflect the upsides of around S$5K capital appreciation of the various funds. 

The surprise here is that the precious metal fund suddenly shot up by 20% within 2 months.

I currently have no time to do any market price true-up adjustment as Stock-Cafe does not have an auto-update feature covering unit-trusts- so it is simply too tedious to do manual update on all the individual funds. Will just leave it given that most of the funds I am holding onto are fixed income nature. 

Parting Thoughts

I will be adding a new portfolio 5 for Crypto investment if the amount starts to become material and go past S$5K. Currently, I am holding on to a tiny stake in Bitcoins when they drop below US$90K. Ok, that's all for today. Bye Folks and have a great weekend ahead! :)

New Jeans Danielle Gets Sued for S$38Mil In Damages-A Look Into Commercial Contract Law.

Latest news is that Danielle Marsh, 20 years old member of NewJeans, is being sued by her Agency ADOR for 43 billion won (S$38Mil). ADOR had earlier terminated its exclusive agency agreement with Danielle on account of its requests for correction of breaches which were ignored. Within 24 hours, ADOR had went on to file a lawsuit for damages to its reputation and unauthorised activities by Danielle. The bad news is that going by the penalties computation based on 1st 2 years of earnings and uncompleted contract, the financial penalties may go up to over 100 billion won (S$89Mil).

If Danielle loses the lawsuit, the debt could become non-dischargeable, meaning it cannot be eliminated through personal rehabilitation or bankruptcy under Korean law. 

Contract Law Consequences

It is strange that Danielle and her family thought that it is ok to self-proclaim breach of agency contract by ADOR and then self-terminate the original agreement. Even more reckless is the signing of endorsements deals and creation of a new group for performances. ADOR thus fought back with injunction and lawsuit regarding the validity of the original agency agreement. Subsequently, the Korean court ruled in favour of ADOR and this is where the nightmare for Danielle started. 

Negotiation Is Best Way Forward

Everyone has to honour the contract that they entered into. It seems that attempts to reconcile failed with suggestion that Danielle and her family having strong resistance to resolve the current impasse. Generally, if one party dug in and stubbornly refused to budge, then the aggrieved party (ADOR in this case) has no choice but to take a hard stance against Danielle. I thought that given the court ruling, Danielle ought to drop a bit of her ego & expectations and suck her thumb. 

Parting Thoughts

I am actually optimistic that NewJeans will make a comeback together with all 5 members including Danielle. Basically, with the ongoing lawsuit for breach of contract, Danielle will suffer a devastating blow to her integrity and artists value. Her fame and artistic value has plunged and no sane luxury brands will want to take a risk to seek her endorsement as ambassador or appear in advertisements. Similarly demand for her performance appearance will go down as the upcoming bankruptcy will destroy her career. Hence, the only route open to Danielle is to go back to the negotiating table with ADOR. 

Cool with you! 

Beware of Insurance Exclusions For Those Folks in Middle Age Who Still Do Not Have Private H&S Medical Insurance.

Well, this is really shocking. I have 3 colleagues who are in their middle age of 40-50 years old who do not have their own private H&S (Hospitalisation and Surgical) insurance plans. The reason they explained to me is that the Company is already offering Group H&S plans so if they have their own plans, then it will be a waste of money. I guess the problem is that as one goes past 40 years old, probability of numerous medical problems will suddenly shoot up. Consequently, if one tries to get H&S after the retirement age of 65 years old, most likely there will be various exclusions for different medical conditions. Insurability is another problem....I got another friend in his 30s who got a minor stroke and unable to get any insurer to provide H&S coverage. So, do see your financial planner to cover H&S risk while one is still young and free of chronic or major illnesses.

Sometimes, I wish life has a rewind button....but unfortunately, that only happens in drama series.