Review of Japan & India

This performance review showed that if we followed the initiative back in June 2023 and took actions buying a ETF, we get almost 6.20% return of investment in 6 months, even though it already had be down a bit recently.

Consider our MPF.  The author was probably like most of the HK people, no attention was placed on the money invested even though it is our own money.  According to SCMP, Hong Kong's MPF poised for unprecedented 3rd year of losses after last quarter wipes all 2023 gains.  That's the reason why the author mainly select the interest only option for his MPF in the past.

In our this example of Japan market, if we can turn what we learned into something relevant to ourselves and take actions, 6% for 1/2 year is not a bad result.  The only cost is paying attention, and think in a way how the news we learn everyday can turn into something relevant to ourselves which make sense.

As a matter of fact, the author practised this starting end of May.  Until now almost the same period of time, his return was 7.63% in this 6-7 months, even after making quite some mistakes.  Japan was not the only market he invested, it also involved the US and Europe market.  The only relevant actions the author had made were:

• Read the news as usual but pay special attentions to those news that is relevant to economy especially those related to what we can invest in reality.
• Identify whether the news is trust-worthy, and learn to practice focusing with a scientific mindset.  Focus on what's relevant and how it relates to the economy, where economy is actually an indicator of human activities in the referred market in all aspect.
• Learn to make decisions in a brave manner.  If the news is true and trust-worthy, it is just a matter of logical thinking of the market behavior.  Note that actions should not be merely yes or no.  It can also be a matter of percentage.  Always bear in mind an important principle of security protection instead of being too risky, which is true for most people.
• Track the performance.  The author keeps tracking different indicators and make different decisions as necessary, because the market is always changing.  We can't possibly change immediately, but it's normally OK because we just need to be aware of the trends.  The following are what the author tracks everyday, and it doesn't take too much time.  These tracking data is part of how the author came up with decisions
  • MPF daily and quarterly performance - it normally lacks behind for days but it is the trend we need to pay attention
  • Stock market index - daily accurate data is available.  The author tabulate the data everyday to find out the trends of different markets by geophysical location and by sectors.
  • Market relevant ETF price tracking - In each market, there are normally relevant ETF which is not the market index but are good enough to monitor the market performance in real money terms.  This is actually a good tracking tool.
• Continued learning.  There are just too much to learn and observe.  One important thing is to find out who you can trust, and who you cannot.  The stock market is actually a zero-sum game except that it is very large.  70% or more of the investors for each stock are actually institutional investors.  In a zero-sum game, the money they make is out of the rest of the market, which includes us.  Do not trust everything you read from the news or from the so-called experts.  They have their achievements to meet as a job.

This is not the investment of professionals.  What the author practise is investment for normal people.  We still make mistakes like what the author did.  In the past 6-7 months, he could have done 20-30% better.  It is a matter of learning, a journey everybody will go through.  Over time, your learning will pay you off with higher returns.  Good luck in your journey !