Trading Discussion

[RetireJapan]

I just did a filter by dividend yields and, no joke, there are some big tickers that are paying some pretty hefty dividends. Like Japan Post at 5.87%. JT pays almost 8%. It almost seems too good to be true so I wonder what the catch is. But it is not like JT or JP would go bankrupt as they are practically government entities. need to do more research on this.

I think the catch is that you need Japanese language skills to research them, and a lot of people have written Japan off. But I am hedging my bets by also buying US dividend payers.

[Ax6isB]

Right now I'm about 15% stocks, 78% ETFs/CEFs, and 7% cash.

My stocks are my sandbox, generally bought as dividend payers rather than as 'trades' for gains. But I'm also not married to those, so I'll trade them when I find reason to. As dividend payers, these probably tend toward the 'value' side of things, and a couple REITs are in this group, too.

(I keep repeating to myself that) the majority of the ETFs are long term holds, with a reasonably strong growth/tech bias. Small caps have had a good few months now, and I've noticed that I'm underweight there. One of the longest held is QQQ, peripheral additions last year were OGIG and SMH, and then ARKF just last month. I don't feel comfortable betting on individual stocks, but due to overlap I have quite a lot of the FAANG stocks. The number of stocks a fund holds is something I eyeball when deciding--sometimes I sell myself on breadth, other times I like something narrower (30-50 names).

With the big rally last night, 1yr is up 14%, 2yr is 25%.

IJS is a nice small cap ETF. It’s on a nice run.

Trading ideas - using “end of COVID” as a theme, travel and oil could pop. Airlines, travel agencies, hotels, cruise ships etc. There may even be some long term plays there too. There’s pent up customer demand for sure but which companies will take advantage of it?

[Ax6isB]

I just did a filter by dividend yields and, no joke, there are some big tickers that are paying some pretty hefty dividends. Like Japan Post at 5.87%. JT pays almost 8%. It almost seems too good to be true so I wonder what the catch is. But it is not like JT or JP would go bankrupt as they are practically government entities. need to do more research on this.

I think the catch is that you need Japanese language skills to research them, and a lot of people have written Japan off. But I am hedging my bets by also buying US dividend payers.

Agree regarding the language. I have yet to find a good English language site that provides good details on JP companies. I think the market here is quite positive with the BOJ’s interventions propping things up. Say what you will about the BOJ’s actions, the facts are the facts, and I’m kicking myself for not figuring our how to get money into this market a few years back.

[fools_gold]

Agree regarding the language. I have yet to find a good English language site that provides good details on JP companies. I think the market here is quite positive with the BOJ’s interventions propping things up. Say what you will about the BOJ’s actions, the facts are the facts, and I’m kicking myself for not figuring our how to get money into this market a few years back.

There's not much English language info out there, but here's a blog on Japanese value investing. It's not updated that often, but it has some good ideas on researching companies.

I've lost interest in single stocks a bit recently as I don't have much time. Still, I've got about 10% in single stocks, mostly US value stocks and some Apple.

[Ax6isB]

Agree regarding the language. I have yet to find a good English language site that provides good details on JP companies. I think the market here is quite positive with the BOJ’s interventions propping things up. Say what you will about the BOJ’s actions, the facts are the facts, and I’m kicking myself for not figuring our how to get money into this market a few years back.

There's not much English language info out there, but here's a blog on Japanese value investing. It's not updated that often, but it has some good ideas on researching companies.

I've lost interest in single stocks a bit recently as I don't have much time. Still, I've got about 10% in single stocks, mostly US value stocks and some Apple.

That’s a really interesting site and I think I’ll start following them to see how good their picks are. Great analysis but I wish I could confirm their data. I love that they highlight this about JP companies: “But P/E ratios and return metrics can be misleading. Especially in corporate Japan with its high cash balances, big investment portfolios and low financial gearing. They often do not reveal the attractive valuation of a company!”

Thanks for sharing this resource!

[captainspoke]

...Small caps have had a good few months now, and I've noticed that I'm underweight there. ...

IJS is a nice small cap ETF. It’s on a nice run. ...

Good suggestion. I once held some IJT, but these days, rather than choosing growth or value, I'd probably go blend--VB and SCHA seem to track each other really well, so maybe one of those.

[Yossarian]

I do like dividends though so will keep buying US and Japanese dividend payers as my side portfolio. Hoping to get up to 1m a year to supplement our pensions

That's some nice passive income - I'm going to look in to that in more detail.

[RetireJapan]

That's some nice passive income - I'm going to look in to that in more detail.

It's not rocket science: at a 4% yield, you'd need 25m in dividend payers to generate 1m, more like 30m to generate 1m net of taxes.

But that's not too unrealistic over the 2-3 decades I have before retirement

[Yossarian]

It's not rocket science: at a 4% yield, you'd need 25m in dividend payers to generate 1m, more like 30m to generate 1m net of taxes.

But that's not too unrealistic over the 2-3 decades I have before retirement

What are the tax implications of dividends? I noticed in your blog post you have many of your dividend giving stocks in NISA - does that protect from US tax as well as Japanese tax?

Edit: Never mind, I Googled and found some explanations.
If anyone's interested:
https://moneytimes.jp/investment/detail/id=8467
https://www.americakabu.com/entry/米国株と米国ETFの税金のしくみ

[eyeswideshut]

There's not much English language info out there, but here's a blog on Japanese value investing. It's not updated that often, but it has some good ideas on researching companies.

I've lost interest in single stocks a bit recently as I don't have much time. Still, I've got about 10% in single stocks, mostly US value stocks and some Apple.

Thanks for that link!