MECHCalvin Fund Report June, 2014 - The 8th Wonder!

Latest fund price: $1.5527 (-2.09%)

Market Value: $1,434,594.17

No. of Units: 923,919.1289

*the drop is due to dividend pay result in lower cash

Dear Investors,

you should received my individual emails about your dividend to be paid, you will receive notice from me about how to transfer money to your bank account, or if you are my friends or colleagues, i will give you in cash when i see you at office or next gathering within this month.

some of you already reply you want to give your dividend back to me, some suggest i can buy ice-cream, go get some dim sum or sandwich, thanks for that! 

Some of you decide to reinvest back in this fund, not a bad choice! Albert Einstein once said “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it.”

even your interest is as low as $1, we will see how much difference it will become after couple decades, say after 20-25 year :)

nothing much more to add, 

i have made one video last month, check it out when you have time, it is about some feel stock trading is nothing more than gambling, actually it isn't :)

Enjoy the summer around the world! *unless you are in Australia right now :D*

regards,

Calvin

MECHCalvin Fund Report May, 2014 - 5th Anniversary! My Performance, Comments and Vision!

Dear Investors,

Latest Fund Price: $1.5854 (+1.3%)

all the details about what i have been doing, profit & losses, current assets, what i am holding, value, breakdowns are all in the attached PDF, unless you have high interest in money management (highly double it, haha), have a look when you have trouble sleeping, the numbers surely can help! just a quick summary for you what i have achieved in the last 5 years in case you don't have the time

Fund performance: +58.54%

Annualized return: +9.65%

* hang seng index: +24.75%

investors joined: +108

investors left: -5

money subscribed: +$1.31 million

money withdrawn: -$53,451

market value: $1.453 million

units created: 917,047.4222 units

fund price: $1.5854

realized profit and loses:

HKD: +113,281.35

GBP: -165

USD: +14,949.63

CNY: N/A

Comments:

not super great result, there are funds (although very little) can achieved +100% in the last 5 years, however there are about 90% of the mutual funds were unable to outperform the market in the last 5 years, so i think i did alright as an amateur.

My Vision (the value of one dollar):

no doubt i start to run this fund as a retirement fund, first of all i find financial needs for my retired parents, as well as the needs of some of my family members and friends that are the major investors of this fund, also i am not hoping for super quick ultra rich, my desire for money is so little, in the beginning investment was more like a game to me (like play chess or computer games), i want to get high score not because i love the money, but i love the game. But now when i have become maturer, i start to understand the value of money and how it affects people's life.

over the years working in financial industry let me understand how fragile our financial system is, bigger the institution, less trustworthy, low interest rate, high inflation, normal citizen got scared and become extreme sensitive to the current highly volatile world, money is not secure, corruption in company, government money-printing involvement doesn't help but push the greed in wall street even further, in the end we can all foreseen the inevitable conclusion: each dollar worth less and less

Many people do not want to get ultra rich or have the most luxury life, they just want "sufficient amount of money" for the rest of their life, so i have set these goals for my fund, 

1. investment amount can be low enough for normal people ($1)

2. outrun the inflation (assume to be 5% annually)

3. low cost (friction-less finance)

i want to put an extra note on the 3rd point, low cost, in the last 5 years, my total trading cost is about $10,000 (1.08%), although it is quite low but i feel it is not low enough, usually a professional fund charge 5% initial fee, 1-3% commission for the salesman, 1.5%- 2.5% management fee depend on each fund, and extra 15% so called performance fee if the fund manager do well, it ate up at least 7-10% of the investors' profit (IF there is profit), how many fund can have 7% return in the first year just to break even? my approach to my fund will always find way to lower the cost, zero management fee, and more over, i hope some day i can buy a small broker firm, so i can offer completely free trading fee, all the cost except tax must be eliminated!

in these way hopefully i can keep the value of each dollar being invested here unchanged!

regards,

Calvin

p,s. PDF only disclose to investors only through email

5th Anniversary Special Dividend 五週年特別派息

Dear Investors,
4/6/2014 will be the 5th anniversary of mechcalvin fund, in order to celebrate i didn't loss all my friends and family's money, haha, there will be a special dividend, details as follow

Dividend: HK$0.02 (2 cents) per units
Occasion: 5th anniversary
Entitle Investors: total subscription = or > HK$100 (or currencies equivalent of this amount)
Payment method: cash closest to HK$1 (e.g. HK$1.42 will be paid HK$1, HK$101.85 will be paid HK$102)
Payout date: July - Aug, 2014

If i see you in HK, i will give you cash, if you are not living in HK, you can have 3 options
1. bank transfer in HKD
2. bank transfer in the currencies you subscribed with the exchange rate on the agreed payment date.
3. remain in my fund.

you will receive individual email in June regarding to the amount of dividend you will be paid.

regards,
Calvin

p.s. can't believe i have survived this long! 5 years she has grown from 100k to 1.45 million, i hope in the next 5 years i will be able to hit 5 million mark! once again thank you for your support! it has been fun to me!


親愛的投資者，
2014年6月4日將是麥加文基金五週年，為了慶祝我並沒有輸晒親朋好友的錢，哈哈，我安派了特別派股息，詳情如下

股息: 每單位0.02港元（2分）
原因：5週年
合資格的投資者：總認購額等於或大於100港元（或等值外幣）
付款方式：最接近1港元現金（如1.42元將支付1元，101.85元將支付$102）
派息日：2014年7至8月

如果我在香港會見你，會給你的現金，如果你不是生活在香港，你可以有3種選擇
1. 以港元轉帳
2. 以你投資的貨幣轉賬 (匯率以過數的日子為準)
3. 繼續留在我的基金。

您將在六月收到有關股息金額的個人電子郵件。

最好的問候，
Calvin

P.S.真不敢相信我可以生存這樣久！ 5年她已經從10萬增長到1百45萬，我希望在未來的5年中，可以增長到5百萬！再次感謝您的支持！她一直帶給我很多樂趣！

MECHCalvin Fund April, 2014 Report - South Korea Ferry Disaster

Latest fund price: HK$1.5651 (-0.0024, 0.153%)

Total Asset Value: HK$1,313,249.63

Total no. of units: 839,095.9750 units

Dear Investors,

I have couple new subscription with around 100k combine within the last few days of April, they are all from my current investors, quite happy about it with the trust and it boast my new record high to 1.3M in asset just a month before the end of my 5 years journey in June.

i am already getting all the data ready for a details report next months, also a more in depth writing about the stories I have been going through in the last 5 years of my "amateur investment career".

anyway, i would like to spend today talk about the South Korean ferry disaster, the ferry MV Sewol 「世越號」(前譯歲月號) , the numbers of casualties have not yet finalized, but we all know most of the students is not going to survive and at the moment result at least 292 death. the heartbreaking video of the final moment between students have been released when they call their parents to tell them they love them is just too much for the world to handle.

so many criticism, to the Korean government, esp. their implement to handle such disaster, it goes to hurt the security and morale of the nation, but what it really did is to expose the fragile of human nature and unawareness of the nation.

More importantly, the main reason for this massive numbers of casualties is due to the extremely selfish behavior of the captain, he ordered the students to stay in the room, yet he himself and others sailors were headed to the safe boats and left everyone on board sunk with the ship. further more, when the captain is picked up by the coaster guard, he want to conceal his identity to pretend as one of the normal passengers.

the reason why the ferry sunk is still under investigation, however it appear to be the ferry was overloaded with goods and do not have enough safe boats, otherwise even the selfish captain might allow the students get on board first knowing he will have a space in the safe boats. and i am pretty sure breaking the load limit regulation was a consistent acts rather than single time event.

this is one of those moments the ugliness of human nature truly show but many people (even those who judge in anger) might behave just the same as the captain when facing the same situation, in fact a research showing in the last 10 ship related disasters, most captain abandon the ships rather than put their passenger safety first.

Ironically the only exception was the Titanic event, claim for her "unsinkable" engineer, when the ship sunk, the captains and their crews actually did let the women and children get on board first, and in the movie famously shown a group of Christian band play violins to clam the passengers down end up sacrificing themselves was also true in history, unfortunately this beautiful yet sorrow pictures only happened for the first class rich passengers, for rest of the unseen second and third class poor passengers, 90% of them sunk with the ship and lost their lives.

the reason why i put this down as the tropic for my fund report this month is going back to the fundamental of investment - Risk, whether the most brilliant and honorable crews or the most selfish captain, whether it was created by the highest engineer standards or it is just a normal ferry, the bottom line is it doesn't matter how well you calculate or prepare, you always need to prepare for the worst, in ship case, enough safety boats, in investment case, enough insurance.

most people use ships as a metaphor to funds is because its risky nature, the captains and fund managers are responsible for the safety of the passengers' lives and investors' money, all these events told me, no captain should be arrogant enough to think his ability will overcome any situation, nor he should be coward enough to abandon rest of the people when disaster strikes, and if he is confident enough, he should be prepared for the worst scenario. 

a key concept of investment is known for "margin of safety", or i call it in a more negative way "room for errors" will be introduced in my next fund report, i just felt these life stories should be told and discussed before the journey in the next 5 years begins.

regards,

Calvin

MECHCalvin Fund Mar, 2014 Report - The future of my fund

Fund Price: HK$1.5675 (+0.0111, 0.71%)

Total Assets: HK$1,275,343.28

Total Units: 813,640.6621 units

YTD: 4.8%

since launch: 56.75%

Dear Investors,

The market have dropped more than 5%, while my fund is up 4.8%, crushing the street like this make me feel good once for awhile.

two more months my fund will be 5 years old, and i have some thoughts about the direction i would like to take for this fund. when i started i plan 5 years as a reasonable "time frame" for me to prove whether i am good enough to be a money managers, i didn't expect an amateur like myself can achieve super amazing results, yet i still have some "bottom line" keep to myself for my first 5 years.

1. i should be able to perform better than the market index, otherwise it is just pointless as we can all invest in market index.

2. i should be able to perform better than most of the so-called "professional fund managers" that i need to pay management fee and performance fee.

although running 1 million size fund is nothing like 1 billion size, i do not feel "proud" of able to beat the professional, because hey, it is very hard for an large size elephant to complete with a small size rabbit. however i think most of my asset allocation strategy will also work in large size fund, i am just practicing and testing whether my strategy works.

the result still have to wait, but i think i did alright unless i make some super big mistakes in the next 2 months.

also a shout out to most of my friends and family members that willing to give me part of their wealth (no matter how little) to make this fund what it is today, many of you told me: "when i gave you the money Calvin, i expect to lose it." i would like to take it as a compliment but it isn't, hahaha, yet frankly it really gives me less pressure to risk, and it turns out alright.

in 2014, i will slowly reduced my loan ratio, not there is almost 50% (540k) of this fund is on loan to different parties in order to collect interest, but in the future i would like more liquidity and flexibility, also as my confident is gained in stock market, i will slowly reduce loan for higher return.

there are also thoughts whether the legitimacy of the fund, that might give you guys (investors) a legit partnership and more protection, but i will need time to see how it actually works here in HK, because i will have concern when the fund size increase, you just can't run a real "private" fund when your fund size is up to several millions without having few people lurking at your back.

and ultimately i would like to combine my insurance, and all my side business with this fund.

I just shared my thoughts, let's see how it goes.

regards,

Calvin

MECHCalvin Fund Feb, 2014 Report - Victory Ahead!

Dear Investors,

Fund Price in Jan: $1.2516

Latest fund price: $1.5564 (+0.3048, 24.15%)

Total Asset Value: HK$1,267,314.55

Total Fund Units: 814,255.2027 Units

the massive jump is due to the fund price formula correction, the fund price have been recalculate, if you don't know what is going on, you can search for my last email (disclose to investors only).

nothing too special this month, just couple new things. I have started to invest in both UK and USA stocks, not a huge amount, respectively 1000 GBP and 500 USD, the UK is doing quite well, already 50% gain in a single month, the USA is alright, nothing too much going on.

the point is i want to diversify my portfolio geographically, but not too diversify, i am very new to UK and USA market, they are very different from HK. 

Although HK market is quite mature, it is very small, and HK people's highly speculative behavior make it hard for long term investors like myself, while in foreign countries e.g. US the market capital is massive, there are so many more companies that are outside analyst's "radar", and it is very fun for me who dislike popular picks recommended by large financial firm.

but let's see how it goes!

regards,

Calvin

MECHCalvin Fund Jan, 2014 Fund Report - Seeing is Believing

Dear Investors,

Wish you a fruitful year of horse!

latest fund price $1.2516 (-0.0006, -0.048%)

nothing change much in my fund, but the market drop more than 5% in a single month, again it shows my defensive strategy perform better when the market panic.

there is an investor withdraw part of her profit to pay rent in Jan, so there is a HK$20,000 quota being freed, anyone who is interested can take up her space.

the following is the story of the 114% and 80% gain stock within 3 months, good read if you are interested, if not see you next month!

best regards,

Calvin

"Today i want to talk a little bit about how i invest, from time to time people always ask, what is the best investment now? the answer is i don't know, people always ask how can i gain 5%, 10%, 20% every year have no understanding how investment works, and i will have serious doubt to those who make such promise.

There are a lot of "guru", "teachers", "experts", "analyst", always bullshit as they can predict the future, every morning i see them bullshit in my company meeting, on TV, radio, blog, newspaper.... i am amazed there are so many "sheeps" out there really take their opinion seriously and end up being slaughtered everyday throughout the year.

my first rule of investing is that i have no idea of the timing, i buy something good (real good), and it will become good eventually, it could be tomorrow, next month, next year or even 5 years later, my only job is to make sure they are good, then do nothing but wait.

the second rule of investing is that i only invest what i can see, when people shop for actual item, e.g. clothes, cars, food, we all know it is stupid we pay before we have actually look at the items, yet so many investors when they hear there is some opportunites 10000km away from home, gold being found in sounth africa, or some invention that might change the world, they just rush in, they rather invest in alien technology than the supermarket down the corner at their house they see every day

i have a perfect example for these two rules this month, for my last couple years, i see this boring advertising on MTR train almost everyday, it is from China South City 華南城 (HKG:1668), i don't even know who will look at such boring advertment, there is no attraction at all, sometimes I even think why on earth this company so stupid to put this advertment on every freaking train.

one day in 2013 i suddenly pay attention it is actually a listed company! so i went home to do a little bit research and found out this company is a logistic company that is doing extremely well! its stock price have been rise from around $1.5 to $2.8, and her business is so strong and growing fast, suddenly this advertisment doesn't seem so boring anymore.

i brought at around $2.21 at 11/11/2013, when it goes down, and expect it will take 3-12 months for it rise to around $3, then i will be happy.

however one day (16/01/2014) i woke up, the stock opens with $3.5, thats 58% gain over the night, i thought the computer is making mistake, so i check it again, it turns out a large company is investing 15 billions HKD into South China City, once the news hit the market, this stock have gone way up, to $3.5 on the first day, $.4 on second day, and hit $4.99 highest on the third day, i sold my shares at $4.86 and $4.06 for a massive 114% and 80% gain.

it might be a bit lucky because there is no way i know about their deal, yet fundamentally, i follow the rules of buying what i can see, make sure it is good, and expect a good result, and i got it. not bad huh?"


this is the extremely boring and unattractive advertisment on train i talked about, i took a picture to remember after i sold the stock, i bet there are 1 million HK ppl look at this everyday (including most of you who travel to work by train everyday)

the chart of the stock