THIS investor is just 27 years old, but this week's roller-coaster ride on the stock market almost gave her a heart attack.
Ms J Lee, a manager, saw the value of her portfolio drop spectacularly to $85,100 on Tuesday, then recover to $99,000.
But the upswing was not enough for her - she had bought most of her stocks between July and October last year, when the market was at its peak, at a total cost of almost $132,000.
Which means she is still about $33,000 in the red on paper.
Ms Lee's story is typical for Singapore investors, who have seen a large portion of their share values wiped out from a steady drop from last October's peak prices, and this week's spectacular falls.
Said Ms Lee, whose basic monthly salary is $6,000: 'The market is so volatile and mad now.
'My realised profits from last year, about $20,000, have been liquidated already.'
She started trading soon after she started work three years ago.
She confessed that she put her entire investment portfolio into stocks.
Ms Lee said: 'It's very addictive. When I have the money, I just buy, buy, buy.'
She said that when the market started going south: 'I felt 'heart pain'. Money was very tight, and I kept thinking of how to average out the losses.'
Meaning, to buy when the markets reach bottom, so that when they recover, the gains from the new purchases can offset the losses from the old ones.
She said some of her friends, who are experienced traders, have never before seen such wild price swings within a short time.
'They've never seen this kind of loss, like DBS swinging $2 intra-day,' she said.
'Usually, these blue chips move by 10 cents, 20 cents. Even a normally reliable stock like Keppel Corp.
'It was very kua zhang (Mandarin for exaggerated).'
She said that to keep up her stock buying, and other expenses like the $1,000 monthly instalment for her car, she sometimes had to borrow from her boyfriend or mother before her pay came in.
She e-mailed The New Paper a screen shot of her current stock portfolio.
Among her worst investments is Ban Joo, which came under intense speculation by traders last year.
She bought 25 lots at 24 cents per share around July.
Yesterday, the share closed at 7 cents - a 70 per cent drop or $4,200 paper loss.
Then there's Yongnam, of which she bought 30 lots at 53 cents around the same period.
Yesterday, the stock closed at 23 cents - almost a 60 per cent drop and $9,000 paper loss.
She also owns shares like Genting International, Jade, and Yangzijiang, which are all in the red.
'Just hold, what to do,' she said philosophically.
But on Monday, the gutsy investor went in and bought three lots of Keppel Corp at $11.06, and two lots of SGX at $9.04.
She said: 'The blue chip stocks are relatively cheap now, some 40 per cent cheaper than back then.
'You must always keep some bullets for times like this, to rush in for the cheap lelong (fire sale).'
The counters dropped further on Tuesday - but her move paid off when both went up from Wednesday.
Keppel Corp closed at $11.78 and SGX at $10.88 yesterday.
Meaning, Ms Lee has more than $2,000 in paper profits from Keppel Corp, and almost $3,700 from SGX, to cover her paper losses.
Like all other Singapore investors out there, she hopes the winning streak will continue. She said: 'Now, I'm just waiting to sell.'
This article was first published by The New Paper on Jan 26, 2008.
