Comments:
This awesome Nov-2020 month started off with a huge spike in all markets after the US elections on 3rd Nov. All markets viewed the Biden win as a huge boost to future US-Global relations, specifically the US-China relations. After that, the indices continued to crawl upwards on news of successful vaccine trials. My overall fund return rate for the month of Nov-2020 is at +5.3%, recovering back from a 2 month downtrend. My Company Stock (Industrials based in Europe) led the rebound at a +10.4% jump, followed by Manulife APAC REIT (8.6%).
Now although I am quite happy with the gains from all the funds this month, upon further inspection, it does seem that my funds didn't do so well against their indices; United Global (+7.8%) vs S&P500 (+10.8%), TA Tech (+7.2%) vs XLK ETF (11.3%), StashAway (+6.5%) / Principal Greater China (+2.0%) vs Hang Seng Index (+9.3%). Only the United ASEAN (+6.5%) exactly matched the KLCI Index (+6.5%).
The biggest clue here is the Principal Greater China (+2.0%) vs Hang Seng Index (+9.3%). All the funds I listed above have quite a lot of holdings in China Big Tech like Alibaba, Tencent & Meituan. Unfortunately, all the shares I have mentioned were in the decline for the month of November 2020 due to sector rotation (big tech to industrials & banks). Because of that, United Global, TA Tech, StashAway & Principal China underperformed their indices.
My AmBond fund is quite an embarrassing one to talk about. I am taking a risk by holding my emergency fund here and it's painful to see it drop by 0.7% in a month. It is very likely due to investors wanting to take advantage of the market rally and hence aggressively moving out of bonds to invest into equities.
My savings this month has been quite dismal at only RM1,436 despite not eating out a lot due the COVID19 control movement. My budget was to save about RM2,000/month during these difficult times. The reason for the poor savings was our decision to take advantage of the 11.11 sale. So we loaded up on diapers, milk powder and some new kitchen utilities.
Forward Strategy:
I will continue to Value Cost Average (VCA) into my funds, keeping them at a fixed weightage as follows; United Global Equity (20.0%), StashAway (20.0%), TA Global Tech (20.0%), Principal Greater China (15.0%), United ASEAN (12.5%) and Manulife REITS (12.5%).