This morning I decided to sell my Capitaland shares that I bought using CPF.
And the reason why I wanted to even write this down was that there are a few learning points that I can takeaway from my maiden journey in investing in this stock and also to note down my rationale for selling today. It was really a love-hate relationship for me.
I first bought this stock about two years back. At the time, it was a very emotional buy. Why do I say so?
Personally I have always liked Capitaland as a company for their corporate governance having worked with them before as my client. So two years back when I saw that their stock price went down, I happily bought in. Just like that, just that simple.
Unfortunately, that was a wrong move, for the price continued on downwards. Yes, despite all the courses I have attended and having the ability to seek advice from other people, I just ignored everything I’ve learnt and bought.
If only I had taken a moment to do some basic technical analysis (which I only did after I bought the stock and the price keep going down), it would have told me that the stock price was actually on a downtrend.
So I started hating this stock. The price just kept going down. News of the property cooling measures that came in obviously killing it further and further south. Even though I am only a small retail investor, I dare not continue to monitor its price.
Then the price started stabilising and went up a bit. *Happy*
For a while back, I have decided that I’ll let go when it reached a breakeven point. I’m getting fed up of holding on to it.
But the upward momentum lost its steam. In the end, I still let go part of my holdings at a loss. To me, I was cutting loss at that time.
It continued down some more. And after doing some calculations, I told myself, let’s buy back again now that it’s cheaper. The price went down some more, but I was no longer as frustrated as in the beginning. After it was kind of stagnant for some time, I started forgetting about it, just checking in on the price once in a longer while.
The price slowly went back up again. I didn’t have a lot of high hopes this time as the momentum stalled in the last round and also, at that current price, I would have more or less recouped my previous loss.
Then the next thing I know, Capitaland was more or less on a uptrend. I didn’t get greedy and buy more though because I think my portfolio don’t need anymore Capitaland. But it was reassuring to know the prices went steadily up. It also helped that I started out putting this stock with a long term view than intended for it to be a short term one.
But exciting things always happen. Just on last friday night, the government mentioned the 7th round of property cooling measure that if successful, would likely cause property prices to drop somewhat. I wasn’t sure of the impact this would have on property stocks like Capitaland until this morning, when the stock price started reflecting the general feel – a ~20 cents or ~5% drop. In quantitative terms, if you have sold on last friday versus today, for every 1000 shares, it’s a ~$200 difference.
I do not know if this is just a knee jerk reaction and whether the price would continue its upward climb. But I do remember that the price was previously badly hit by the government cooling measures and China’s news. And having gone through so much owning this stock, I decided to be contented and protect my really hard-earned profits – which is one of my rule about not being too greedy when it comes to my profits. If the trend carries on up, I can always decide to buy back again anyway and manage it actively. I’ve just sold it and the price went up a bit but it doesn’t matter, for I’m still happy with my decision and profits.
As I looked back, I realised this might just be the usual feelings some of us experience when it comes to stock investments. I may be stupid enough to experience it again but there’s also a chance that I’ll improve from here. And for all that I went through emotionally, the capital returns I got from investing in it for two years was an average of 5% p.a. after taking away my first loss.
