From the beginning...

In July 2009, I opened my first and at present, only brokerage account with DBSVickers. For its Cash Upfront online trading account, it charges a minimum of $18 per trade, as compared to $22 for Citibank and $25 for the rest.

When I started out, I knew minimal FA and zero TA. I was armed only with my personal belief in two things at that time: property and commodities.

From a school project by my brother's gf, I first got to know about REITs and after further research, I decided to focus on REITs for the property part of my stock strategy. As to the commodities portion, I looked at the SGX website and clicked on the AGR and MINQ categories. This led me to the oil palm and coal-mining companies.

REITs

1. Cambridge
   
   • Buy
     High yield
   • Sell
     High gearing of >40%
     Scrip dividend plan (can opt to receive dividends in the form of shares) -> DPU dilution
2. Mapletree
   
   • Buy
     Announced acquisitions of warehouses in Singapore and Japan
     Share price near placement price -> downside probably limited
   • Sell
     ARA and CWT plans to list a new industrial REIT (Cache Logistics Trust)

Commodities

1. Golden Agri
   
   • Buy
     Cheapest STI component stock
     Low PE
     CPO prices near historical low
     Proxy to commodities sector (palm oil)
     
   • Sell
     Took profit
     Kancheong
   • Lessons learnt
     Exercise patience and timing
     
2. Straits Asia
   
   • Buy
     China increasing coal demand
     Global economic recovery
     Proxy to commodities sector (coal)
     
   • Sell
     Loading facility in the coal mine collapsed due to heavy rain
     Share price gapped down the next day
   • Lessons learnt
     Expect the unexpected
     

Currently, I rely on a friend to help me look at the charts occasionally when he is free. Hopefully in future, I will be able to learn more of FA to improve my stock screening and more of TA to time my entry and exit points better. Finally, to all FA investors and TA traders and "Huat ah, shortist/longist die pain pain" speculators out there, I wish everyone good luck and HUAT AH!