Moomoo: The exciting new kid on the block

The moomoo app is a trading platform offered by moomoo Inc., a subsidiary of Futu Holdings Limited. Futu Holdings Limited is NASDAQ-listed (NASDAQ: FUTU) and strategically backed by Tencent Holdings, a well-known internet behemoth from China.

To welcome new users to its moomoo trading app, it is now offering 1 AAPL stock, 30SGD cash voucher and 90 days commission-free stock trading in the US, HK and SG stock markets! This promotion runs from 8 March 2021 to 30 April 2021. It is really attractive, considering the limited pre-requisites!!

Steps to receive the welcome bundle

Step 1: Download mobile app and create a Moomoo account

There are 2 ways to open a moomoo account, either via MyInfo or a more manual process. If possible, I suggest using MyInfo as it greatly simplifies the process.

Step 2: Deposit USD2000 or SGD2700 into the Moomoo account

Depositing of funds is free and can be done via FAST transfer. If done on a working day, it will be credited on the day itself. However, if it is done on a non-working day, it may take 1-3 working days to process.

Step 3: Do steps 1 and 2 ASAP

Do complete steps 1 and 2 ASAP as the AAPL stock is limited to the first 10k participants only. The conditions are steps 1 and 2 respectively. If you are interested to open an account, here is my referral link: https://j.moomoo.com/004Cn3

source: https://support.futusg.com/en-us/topic128

Sub-strategy: “averaging down”

Before I write a blog post on my main strategy in investing in equities, I shall first talk about a useful and seemingly simple “sub-strategy” which I had adopted: “averaging down”. “Averaging down” involves investing additional amounts in a financial instrument or asset if it declines significantly in price after the original investment is made.

The main advantage of averaging down is that an investor can bring down the average cost of a stock holding quite substantially. Assuming the stock turns around, this ensures a lower break-even price for the stock position and higher gains as compared to the situation in which the price of the stock was not averaged down.

From my own example, I had purchased Singtel at a price of $3.86 in July 2017 which was too high of a price to pay for Singtel. However, the price of Singtel plummeted to $2.96 in March 2019 due to the release of poor financial results. This was a good opportunity for me to purchase Singtel to “average down” the price of Singtel stocks I owned. However, it is important to note that there are some caveats to employing the “averaging down strategy”.

Averaging down should be done on a selective basis for specific stocks, rather than for every stock in a portfolio. This strategy is best restricted to high-quality blue-chip stocks. Such stocks have a positive long-term track record, strong competitive position, very low or no debt, stable business, and sound management

Before averaging down a position, the company’s fundamentals should be thoroughly assessed. The investor should ascertain that a significant decline in a stock is not a symptom of a deep-rooted problem. Minimally, factors that need to be assessed are the company’s competitive position, long-term earnings outlook and business stability. This leads me to my upcoming blog post on my adopted strategy with regard to investing in stocks. Stay tuned for it!

First foray into cryptocurrency

My first foray into cryptocurrency was disastrous to say the least, but it taught me a very valuable lesson: the importance of not jumping on the bandwagon without doing the necessary basic research.

It was October 2017. I was only 20 years old then and serving my NS duties. While having some lull time, I was chatting with my great and trustworthy buddy then about Bitcoin and Ethereum which was all the craze during that period of time. Hearing about the background and vast potential of cryptocurrency, I was eager to cash in on this potential money-making trend. Hence, I decided to “invest” $400 to buy 1 unit of Ether (cryptocurrency on Ethereum platform). While $400 did not seem like a huge sum of money, it was actually almost half of my monthly army allowance. However, I did not hesitate as I thought that it was sure to reap the rewards of this “investment”.

As luck would have it, the price of Ether skyrocketed to a high of $1800 at one point at the beginning of January. However, having read about the potential of Ethereum in news articles and the high prices that it could continue climbing towards, my greed got the better of me and I decided to hold on to it. However, my stubborn persistence proved to be fatal as the price plunged to $100 at the end of 2018.

Lessons Learnt

1.NEVER invest in something you have no knowledge about

Just because everyone is buying a stock or a certain investment product, this does NOT mean that you should follow in their footsteps.

2. Investing in Cryptocurrency is highly speculative and risky

It should not be something for a beginner to start investing in.

3. Do the necessary research before investing

Do NOT purely rely on what analysts say because they may have their own vested interests. They may also make assumptions in their calculations which may not be revealed to you.

4. Have a target price to sell the investment product to stop losses

It is easy to let emotions get the better of you. Have a target price to sell the investment product to minimize one’s losses.

5. Have a proper strategy to invest

It is important to adhere to this strategy to reap the rewards. However, the problem may lie in finding a suitable strategy. It is advisable to read up on different investment books to understand the different strategies and approaches and decide which is the most suitable for oneself. I will talk about my own strategy in my upcoming articles. Stay tuned!

Beginning of my investment journey in stocks

Mindset

In 2017, as my savings increased from a 3-digit sum to a 4-digit sum with the excess from my National Service allowance, I was not contented to let it lay inactive in my POSB Save-As-You-Earn account even though the interest rate was a relatively attractive 2% per annum. Hence, I decided to embark on my investment journey.

With my limited financial knowledge, the beginning of my investment journey was truly challenging. The economy was booming in 2017 and it seemed like it was the best time to start investing. Armed with the savings from my NS allowance, I decided to take the plunge and opened an account with DBS Vickers. Investing in unit trusts or saving bonds or even exchange-traded funds were out of the question for me as I wanted to actively monitor my investments and gain experience from my initial investments. My strategy then was simple but essentially non-existent: all that I intended to do was to purchase blue-chip stocks which were given “buy” recommendations from different sources such as investment analysts as well as investment blogs.

Even though I understood the terms used in the reviews and recommendations from my basic economics knowledge, my limited financial knowledge meant that I did not appreciate the underlying assumptions made in the recommendations. I was unable to conduct my own analysis as well. However, I thought that investing in blue-chip stocks will be almost risk-free and suitable for a beginner like me.

First stock: Raffles Medical

The first stock that I decided to buy in July was Raffles Medical for a few reasons:

It was a blue-chip stock
It was in the healthcare industry which I thought had great potential for growth considering the increasing reliance on healthcare

It turned out to be a really poor investment. I purchased it at $1.38 in June 2017. Its price now is only about $1.03. However, the silver lining in the dark cloud is that the company’s fundamentals are still strong.

Second stock: Singtel

The first stock that I decided to buy in July was Singtel for a few reasons:

It was a blue-chip stock
It paid attractive dividends (~5.4%)
Analysts were confident of its prospects
Everyone of all ages seemed to be holding on to Singtel stocks.

At that time, Singtel’s price was $3.86 and it did not occur to me that it might have been too expensive. Hence, I decided to buy Singtel stocks. It turned out to be an unwise decision as the price plummeted to $2.90 in 2018 before recovering to a current price of about $3.20. Similar to Raffles Medical, the company’s fundamentals are still strong.

Lessons learnt:

1. It is important to invest with a strategy in mind.

Investing without a clear and well-thought out strategy is akin to gambling.

2. Both fundamental and technical analysis of stocks is important.

My mistake was to completely neglect the technical aspect of investing and merely focus on the fundamental analysis. This was not practical, especially given the poor knowledge I had of a company’s financials at that time. Moreover, purely relying on fundamental analysis will not be effective in the short to mid term.