To The Moon

Record STI, Record Buybacks. One Of These Numbers Should Make You Suspicious 🦖 🔍 The Angle Singapore companies bought back S$1.9 billion of their own shares in the first seven months of this year. That's up from S$1.3 billion last year, and nearly double the S$772 million from two years ago. The tension: the Straits Times Index is sitting at record highs while buyback activity accelerates, when textbook logic says rising prices should make repurchases less attractive, not more. 💰 What It Means For You If you're relying on dividend income from CPF or SRS holdings, the buyback headline alone doesn't tell you whether your distribution is safe. Singtel alone accounts for almost half of that S$1.9 billion figure, yet its core yield sits below the 4.7% hurdle I use for income-focused positions.

Iggy's Journal: Record STI, Record Buybacks. One Of These Numbers Should Make You Suspicious. 22 August 2026, AM News: SGX-listed companies spent S$1.9 billion buying back their own shares over the first seven months of 2026, up from S$1.3 billion over the same period last year. Singtel alone accounted for S$893 million of that, the largest buyer on the exchange by a wide margin, cancelling the shares under its ongoing Value Realisation programme rather than holding them in treasury. This is happening the same year the STI has been setting fresh all-time highs. My Personal Take: One of those two numbers is the market doing what markets do. The other is a decision someone made on purpose, at this price, with this cash. That's the distinction I keep coming back to. A buyback at a low pr

I tested September’s SGX dividends vs CPF 4.0% - Only one passed my 4.7% test 🦖 🔍 The Angle Five SGX dividend names hit the September calendar. Only one clears my 4.7% yield hurdle when stacked against CPF SA's guaranteed 4.0%. The other four ask you to accept less income than the safest instrument in the system, while carrying full equity risk on top. 💰 What It Means For You If you're drawing down CPF or SRS now, that gap matters. Sasseur REIT's 10.2% DPU growth and 25.4% gearing clear both the yield test and the balance sheet gate. Asian Pay Television Trust's 11% trailing yield vanishes once you apply management's 2026 guidance cut to 0.80 cents. Iggy's Forensic Zone: Zone 5, Selective. 📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/DjZpoblDtz0 📩 Substack: https://investingiguana.com/p/september-dividends

I tested September’s SGX dividends vs CPF 4.0% - Only one passed my 4.7% test 🦖 🔍 The Angle Five SGX dividend names hit the September calendar. Only one clears my 4.7% yield hurdle when stacked against CPF SA's guaranteed 4.0%. The other four ask you to accept less income than the safest instrument in the system, while carrying full equity risk on top. 💰 What It Means For You If you're drawing down CPF or SRS now, that gap matters. Sasseur REIT's 10.2% DPU growth and 25.4% gearing clear both the yield test and the balance sheet gate. Asian Pay Television Trust's 11% trailing yield vanishes once you apply management's 2026 guidance cut to 0.80 cents. Iggy's Forensic Zone: Zone 5, Selective. 📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/DjZpoblDtz0 📩 Substack: https://investingiguana.com/p/september-dividends

The SGX Dividend Stocks Closest to Passing My Forensic Floor (And Why None Have Cleared It Yet) 🦖 🔍 The Angle I ran every SGX dividend name I track against the 4.7% yield hurdle. None cleared it. The closest miss sits 49 basis points away, the widest 167 basis points out. That gap is not a rounding error, it decides whether your income actually clears the floor. 💰 What It Means For You A 49-basis-point miss like DBS can close through calendar mechanics alone, SingTel's 167-basis-point gap needs a real move. Your CPF and SRS income depend on understanding which gap you are holding. Iggy's Forensic Zone: Zone 4, Caution. 📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/-ZDEryRvFhw 📩 Substack: https://investingiguana.com/p/the-sgx-dividend-stocks-closest-to

Beansprout Says Wait For The Next SSB. My Question: Wait For What, Exactly? 🦖 🔍 The Angle Everyone is asking whether to apply for this month's SSB or wait for next month's rate. The real question is whether this money should be earning SSB rates at all. My forensic floor sits at 3.2%, and neither 2.25% nor the projected 2.33% clears it. 💰 What It Means For You If your CPF Special Account is yielding 4% guaranteed, it already beats every SSB rate on the table. SSBs earn their keep for liquidity, not retirement income, so know which job your cash is actually doing. If you are treating the same pool as both safety buffer and retirement drawdown, it usually does both badly.

How to Spot a Dividend Cut Coming, 5 Signs I Check on Every SGX Stock 🦖 🔍 The Angle I keep seeing SGX dividend stocks that look safe on yield until the balance sheet tells a different story. The five signs I check all show up before the cut, not after. Revenue or profit declining for two straight periods is the single most common precursor, and it's hiding in plain sight inside filings you already have access to. 💰 What It Means For You If your CPF or SRS income depends on distributions that look fine on paper, check whether the payout is actually earned from recurring core earnings or propped up by one-off monetisation gains. A stock showing one of these signs isn't automatically a sell, but it buys you time to notice pressure months before the announcement. Iggy's Forensic Zone: Zone 4,

Hong Kong Is Poaching Singapore's Fund Managers. DBS And UOB's Results Prove It.🦖 🔍 The Angle OCBC's latest results show non-interest income at 43.9% of total, up 8.2 percentage points. That is not a side business anymore, it is nearly half the bank's earnings. MAS just announced tax breaks to stop fund managers from walking to Hong Kong, and that fight lands directly in this income line. 💰 What It Means For You Fee income growth supports future dividends, but it does not fix today's yield gap. DBS sits at Zone 4+, UOB at Zone 4-, OCBC at Zone 5, all three still failing the 4.7% yield hurdle. Watch non-interest income across the next quarters, not the policy headline. Iggy's Forensic Zone: Zone 4, Caution.

Indonesia Just Raised Rates to Defend Its Currency. Singapore Can't Do That, And That's the Point 🦖 🔍 The Angle Indonesia just hiked rates to 5.75% to defend the rupiah. Singapore did not raise a rate at all, because MAS does not set one. That is not inaction, it is a different lever entirely. MAS manages the exchange rate band, and that choice is why your CPF SA return does not need to chase foreign capital. 💰 What It Means For You Your CPF Special Account pays 4.0% per annum, guaranteed, without competing for footloose foreign money. Indonesia's higher yield exists to compensate for capital flight risk. Singapore's framework, CPF chief among its domestic buffers, was built to avoid that exposure. Sometimes the quieter number is doing more work. 📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/SuZqOe0IKpk 📩 S

My Sister Asked If A Bond Issuance Is Good News Or Bad. It Is Not That Simple 🦖 🔍 The Angle When a company issues a bond, are you looking at fresh growth, or a balance-sheet hole being quietly patched? I do not judge the headline. I check whether the new debt changes gearing, interest cover, Net Debt to EBITDA, and the reason for borrowing. UOB’s £1 billion covered bond shows why context matters: bank funding can be routine, not a stress signal. 💰 What It Means For You For a CPF, SRS, or dividend investor, the key question is what happens after the borrowing. Gearing can rise immediately, interest cover can fall below my 4 times floor, and Net Debt to EBITDA becomes a yellow flag at 5 times. UOB remains a Zone 4, Caution forensic signal in my Ledger, but this bond itself does not change th