COVID-19

What a start to 2020. With the impact of COVID-19 on the world, almost no country is spared. The economy is tanking for sure, although data is not published as fast as how the virus is spreading, so the picture is not clear to all. Nonetheless, the confirmation of a global recession is just a matter of time.

The stock market volatility reached levels last seem during the GFC a decade ago. At the first few weeks of the plunge, it scared me to be frank. I'm about 80% invested and my portfolio hit a draw down of 33% at the trough around 23rd Mar. It has recovered to -23% YTD as of end of this week, but the loses are still painful to bear.

It's quite a strange feeling over the past weeks of the market's fall. My emotions went from being feeling opportunistic of the initial drop, to fear, to relieve and now feeling slight immunity to further market actions. It somehow numbs the mind to see the portfolio values dropping everyday. I'm sure precious lessons will be learnt from this turbulent period and it will serve us well in the future.

Since then, the situation of the COVID-19 is getting clearer each day. Now we know better what we are dealing with. And the corresponding government responses are put into action. I feel that this is calming the market now.

The months ahead are still uncertain. Whether the virus will be beaten or will it continue to ravage the world is unclear. While we hunker down during this "circuit breaker" period in SG, do do your part and stay at home as much as you can.

Stay safe everyone.

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