Financial Review - March, 2014

March was an awful month for my investments.


Net worth slumped as a decline in equities was only sightly offset by favourable FX movements and rental income. Expenses were moderate.

Here are the details:

1. my Hong Kong equity portfolio slumped. The only dealings this month were purchases of Dynam Japan (HK:6889), Sinolink Holdings (HK:1168) and CCB (HK:939) and the sale of Sinotrans Shipping (HK:368);

2. my AU/NZ equities appreciated slightly - with most shares being up a bit. I have applied for shares in Genesis (NZX: new listing). My position here is slightly understated as several shares are trading ex-dividend but I have not yet received the dividends;

3.my equity ETFs were up (India and Vietnam) or down (Hong Kong and China) in line with the local markets. There were no new purchases;

4. my commodities were lower. Silver is my only position;

5. one property is now vacant. There are several repair bills payable this month and next (either related to buildings which received notices for a mandatory window inspection or remedial work on a change of tenancy);

6. currency movements were positive, with small increases in the NZD and the AUD;

7. my position in bonds remains small. I added some more units in an RMB bond fund to the portfolio;

8. expenses were moderate due to a collection of small unbudgeted expenses (i.e. a purchased a few cases of wine);

9. there were no transfers to Mrs Traineeinvestor this month.

My cash position increased due to net sales of investments. I currently hold 46.5 months of expenses in HKD cash or equivalents. This is now calculated on a different basis from last year - I have included the principal component of the mortgage on our home as an expense and added some additional near cash items to the cash side of the calculation.

For March, my net worth fell by 1.36%. The year to date increase is 0.01%.