SGX Bull challenge Final Result: Key takeaways

So, the SGX Bull Charge Stock Challenge has finally concluded and I am positioned 80th out of 146 participants. That leaves me in the 55th percentile region and I ended the challenge with a loss of $8,673 with an initial $50,000 capital. I cannot imagine how much losses the others behind me must be taking because I'm quite a conservative investor and for this particular challenge, I already have made more aggressive and risky moves. There are a few takeaway lessons for me from this challenge but first of all let us take a look at how I compared to the top crop.

It started relatively okay for me but October was a bad month for most investors (myself included). Still, the top 2 participants managed to register winnings of up to 30%+. That's almost $15k in profit from 3 months. An average of $5k a month. Pretty impressive stuff. (by the way, 3F's is Brian from the blog Forever Financial Freedom)

Key Lessons/Takeaway:

1. Less is more:

I tried to trade too many positions that I thought would potentially do well. As it turns out, I incurred more costs from entering/exiting positions and that diluted some returns. Instead of trading every single potential opportunity, one may want to focus on what has a much more solid risk-reward ratio. Too many positions also make it difficult to keep track especially when you are at work and half-distracted from this challenge.

2. There are some who do well are also well-versed in structured warrant and DLC trading (Leverage is a double-edged sword):

I am really not well-versed in these instruments and when I did try, it resulted in losses. Either way, this challenge really exposed a tool that is a double-edged sword that I could add to my arsenal of weapons. With leveraging, your winnings are multiplied but so are your losses. And these are meant for mostly intra-day trading. The main constraint that I encounter is not being able to physically sit in front of the computer to make the trades nor did I have the ability to predict the direction they would go.

3. One needs discipline and emotional stability to follow through decisions and not chase positions/opportunities that are already gone:
I followed the Big Boys (with some due diligence) for AEM early on and reaped a profit. However as time gone on, I became very undisciplined and tried to chase positions that were already lost. This meant picking up stocks at unattractive prices and also the margin of safety was not there. When I do my due diligence and decide a fair price to enter for a stock, I should follow through it to enter at that particular price decided. If that price is gone, I shouldn't buy at a higher price to chase it.

4. Develop your own style and not blindly copying others:

Since everyone's portfolio was available for all to see, the craving was on to see what others are doing and following suit. However, we have not done the homework ourselves and neither do we know what they person's rationale is. Their investing strategy/mentality may also differ from us. Ultimately, it is also difficult to figure out their exit positions and neither would we be buying stocks at the prices they did.

5. Never be overconfident and stop learning:

There is still much to learn in everything we do in life. There is a Chinese saying that goes: "满招损谦受益“ which means that if we are too over-confident or even arrogant, we bring disaster upon ourselves. On the contrary, if we remain humble we stand to benefit. This is no different here because nobody will be right 100% of the time. On Investing Note over the past 3 months, I certainly did make many mistakes but also made many new friends and gained new perspectives that I can learn from.

Overall, this bull stock challenge has made me realise where my current gaps are in my investing journey. Luckily I was only doing paper trades. There is much more learning to be done. I'm thankful that through this challenge I have found more tools online that are pretty useful to me and made a few more friends on this investing journey.

Until Next Time,
K.C.

If you like this post, you might like our facebook page as well.

Related topics:
1. About K.C. What is my story?
2. My 3Cs to money/investing
3. Why you need to set aside money for savings first

SHARES

Share

Tweet

Share

Share

Buffer