Double Dip Recession Fear Turns Into Frenzy Buying Spree- Regrets of Investors

What a turbulent one past month of volatility in the worldwide investment scene.  Local SGX receded till another low point during the last week of October 2020 and many feared a repeat of the March 2020 stock market crash. But with the sudden Pifzer announcement on 9th November 2020 of a 90% effective and relatively safe vaccine to be ready by December 2020, stock markets worldwide suddenly rallied and roared back to life upon opening today with more certainty that COVID will be defeated and that the devastating economic lockdowns caused by the deadly virus will be no more in the foreseeable future.

1. Selling off most of investments during October 2020 "to wait" for second stock market crash
One of my friends who invested hundred of thousand of dollars in stocks, told me in late October 2020, that he has sold off all his stocks while waiting for the SGX to crash further in November 2020 in view of the European countries economic lockdowns from 2nd and 3rd waves of COVID which signals that Singapore will also have outbreak of COVID and upcoming lockdown again. Unfortunately, he has changed his tune this morning and is on a wild buying spree today in order to catch the rally of stocks. The old adage of buying low and selling high appears to be easy to say but challenging to practice in real life. Some investors will always end up selling low and then buying back at higher prices.

Moral of the story is that it is very difficult to time the market perfectly. My preference is to remain invested with the bulk of one's portfolio intact and just add monthly investment top up and wait.  

2.  Retail REITs, Commercial REITs and Bank Stocks all rallied strongly but Data Centre REITs dropped in value.

With the macro-environmental risk premium dropping with a confirmed upcoming COVID vaccine, most stocks and REITs rallied in prices with the exception of Data Centre REITs which went the opposite direction. This is a rather interesting observation. Probably will sell off some of the bank stocks to accumulate data centres for stabilizing the volatility of my margin portfolio.

3. Don't waste your time with relatives, friends or colleagues who asked you when to invest

During this past 10 months, I noticed relatives, friends or colleagues who normally do not invest and whose investment risk tolerance maximum is at most fixed deposit accounts with banks will start asking me when is the best time to invest as they want to make a "quick killing" to take advantage of low stock market prices. This is usually a waste of time as such group usually have the mindset that the stock market is for speculation and extremely dangerous. After asking a million questions, they will say thank you and eventually still do not even bother to open a CDP or brokerage trading account.  

The most ultimate request I received was from a colleague who asked me to help him buy SIA shares using my own brokerage account and to hold on his behalf first. Once make money then sell and return him the profits. Basically, asking me to finance him while waiting for price to increase. What a great way not to cough up a single cent for investment. 

(You can read more here: "Buying Singapore Airline Shares on Behalf of Your Colleague? How Strange Can It Get?")

Parting Thoughts:

2020 has been a terrible and depressing year. I do hope that 2021 will be brighter and the global economy gets back on track for further recovery. Most importantly, hope that everyone will be able to get onboard a plane for overseas holiday trips! 

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