The Nvidia Affair Headline Is Misleading. The $2.5 Trillion Crash Is the Real Story.

 

The Nvidia Affair Headline Is Misleading. The $2.5 Trillion Crash Is the Real Story.

Nov 9, 2026 · @Qiongster

The viral Jensen Huang affair is a spy-surveillance story, not a romance, and it is a sideshow next to the $2.5 trillion Nasdaq wipeout of 5 November.

The day the AI trade blinked

Thursday, 5 November 2026 goes into the scoreboard as the day Wall Street's favourite story finally flinched. The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.52% to 24,315, its worst session in 19 months (IBTimes), and roughly $2.5 trillion of Nasdaq 100 market value vanished on screen (YourStory).

Intraday, the Philadelphia semiconductor index fell as much as 11%, its worst showing since March 2020 (Reuters via The Star). Nvidia dropped about 9% in a single session. Micron dropped 17%.

Friday brought a bounce: the Nasdaq rose 1.09%, but it still ended more than 11% below its 6 October record. That is a correction, not a bear market, and the difference matters for what you do next.

The Jensen Huang story is about spies, not romance

What actually broke on 29 October is a New York Times report, as summarised by Tom's Guide: US intelligence reportedly concluded that Alice Huang (also called Huang Le), an executive at Singapore-based data-centre firm Megaspeed, was passing information to Beijing. She is no relation to Jensen Huang, and surveillance reportedly showed a close relationship with him, including appearances together in Taiwan in 2024 and 2025.

Nvidia says his dealings with her are not unusual, because a CEO meets thousands of customer executives a year. Officials reportedly do not believe he knew of her alleged activities, and Tom's Guide stresses that no public evidence shows he passed information on or broke export rules. Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs also put out a clarification on 31 October, per EE News Europe.

Why investors care: Megaspeed has been under investigation over whether it helped Chinese buyers reach restricted Nvidia chips, which Nvidia says was investigated and debunked last year. That makes this an export-control and headline risk, not a revenue event. And the selloff coverage I read blamed money, politics and positioning, not this story.

Why the chips cracked: four forces, one crowded trade

The semiconductor rout had no single trigger. Reuters' round-up of strategists (via The Star) points to four overlapping forces.

• Financing: selling in stocks and bonds has cut access to money for data-centre builders, and hyperscaler free cash flow is falling while they issue more equity and bonds.
• Politics: after the 3 November elections, dozens of ballot initiatives stand to limit data-centre construction, and investors fear newly elected officials will slow the AI build-out. Not everyone agrees: one fund manager called the selloff unwarranted and expects workarounds, such as building elsewhere.
• Earnings: weak results from Qualcomm and Arm reminded the market that fundamentals still matter.
• Positioning: one strategist blamed aggressive institutional selling and hedge-fund de-leveraging, calling it an emotional sell-off.

The macro backdrop did not help. October payrolls rose 165,000 against 59,000 expected, and unemployment fell to 4.1% (IBTimes). Strong jobs data is good news for the economy and awkward news for anyone hoping for quick rate cuts to rescue expensive growth stocks.

The scoreboard: Thursday's crash and Friday's bounce

Friday's bounce recovered only a sliver of Thursday's damage.

Index or stock	Thu 5 Nov	Fri 6 Nov
Nasdaq Composite	-5.52% (to 24,315)	+1.09%
S&P 500	-4.36% (to 7,353.73)	+0.32%
Dow Jones	-3.44% (to 51,523.06)	-0.46%
Nvidia	about -9%	almost +3%
Micron	about -17%	about +5%

Sources: IBTimes for Friday and for the Nvidia and Micron moves; Beinsure for Thursday's index levels. Figures are US closing moves.

What a long-term investor does with a correction?

A correction is a price drop, not a verdict on the AI story, and history is calmer than the headlines. A CNBC analysis of 10 Nasdaq corrections over the past decade, reported by IBTimes, found average gains of 9.41% three months after the bottom and 17.03% after six. It also found that several episodes (2025, 2022, 2020, 2018) saw more selling in the month that followed, and 2022 had not recovered after six months.

So the question is not whether to panic or pounce. It is how to use the war chest without betting the house on one day.

• Count the dry powder first. Know exactly how much cash you can deploy without touching money earmarked for living expenses.
• Stage your entries. If the Nasdaq can fall again next week, split any buying into tranches across weeks, not one heroic click.
• Check your real concentration. Index funds, tech ETFs and a few compounders can all be the same AI bet in different wrappers. A 5% Nasdaq day tests that.
• Respect the volatility premium. The VIX eased to 23.88 on Friday after its biggest one-day jump in about 19 months (Reuters via GV Wire). Richer option premiums are tempting, but a cash-secured put only makes sense at a strike you would happily own after a 9% one-day drop, with the full cash set aside.
• Ask what the business earns. Hyperscaler cash flow, permitting and financing are the things to watch, not the daily headline.

I nibbled some tech shares into the weakness, a small bite and not a full meal. The rest of the war chest stays as dry powder while I watch for the next support level and see how things pan out. I would rather let the market show its hand than try to call the exact bottom.

This is education, not advice. I am a blogger, not a licensed financial adviser, so size every move to your own plan.

Sources

• Tech-stock rout accelerates retreat from the AI trade (Reuters via The Star, 5 Nov 2026)
• Stocks See Slight Rebound After Thursday's Rout But Remain Well Below Highs (IBTimes, 6 Nov 2026)
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reportedly targeted by suspected Chinese spy (Tom's Guide, 29 Oct 2026)
• AI stocks crash wipes $2.5 trillion off Wall Street (YourStory)
• US stock market: Nasdaq rebounds as Dow falls (Beinsure)
• Alleged Jensen Huang spy plot highlights Nvidia export concerns (EE News Europe)
• Nasdaq rebounds as chips stocks recover from steep losses (Reuters via GV Wire, 6 Nov 2026)

Thanks for reading.

With love and peace, 

Qiongster

Portfolio Update October 2026

Here is a portfolio update for Oct 26.

My SGX Income Portfolio value decreases to $443k from $456k as S-REITs tank due to surging bond yields, with the US 10-year Treasury yield at a near three-year high and rate-hike fears resurfacing after the Fed’s September rate hike move.

My US Growth Portfolio falls to US$92.7k from US$101.3k, a choppy month for US tech markets as the Fed's rate hike forced a rethink of the AI-driven rally, leaving investors skeptical on whether the AI spending boom will pay off.

My SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio value drops to $327k from $346k mainly due to the tanking of DBS and OCBC, as Singapore bank stocks gave back their strong run after Citi’s downgrade of OCBC to Sell triggered a broader sell-off.

Portfolio Actions

1. Nibbled Alphabet and SK Hynix shares in LongBridge Account. Use my referral link to sign up for a LongBridge Account for up to $1.3k of free rewards: 

https://sg.longbridge.com/K69oSGTuwkuxILazbTjJ

Portfolio Dividends

1. Received $303 from SSB on 1 Oct.

2. Received $147.50 from SSB in SRS on 1 Oct.

October 2026 was the month Big Tech sent the bill.

After September’s rate-hike shock, markets had barely caught their breath before the latest round of big tech earnings put one number in front of everyone: hyperscaler AI spending is now heading past US$700 billion a year, and investors are asking harder questions about the returns.

The market’s answer wasn’t uniform. Meta sold off around 9% after narrowing its capex guidance to a still-enormous range with free cash flow turning negative. Names that could show cloud growth keeping pace with spending were treated far more kindly. The market is no longer rewarding spending announcements. It wants results.

For a portfolio built around the same mega-caps writing those cheques, this is the tension I hold. NVIDIA is the biggest beneficiary of all this capex, while Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet are the ones spending it. I own both sides of the trade, so a nervous market on one side tends to cancel out against the other.

The short put book earned its keep again. Choppy markets mean fatter premiums, and the strikes I chose still leave a comfortable cushion. I’m happy to be assigned on quality names at lower prices, and in the meantime time decay keeps working in my favour.

Back home, local banks gave back two months of gains in three days, a reminder that no part of the portfolio is immune to a sudden mood swing. My approach hasn’t changed. I don’t try to guess which week the sentiment turns. I let premiums decay, keep the barbell balanced, and wait for the market to reward patience, as it usually does eventually.

The plan for November is the same: stay invested, keep harvesting premium, and keep an eye on the Fed’s next move.

SGX Income Portfolio

Stock	Qty	Price	Value	Weight
DBS	1,001	S$73.130	S$73,203	16.5%
Aims Apac Reit	36,139	S$1.370	S$49,509	11.2%
CICT	20,506	S$2.280	S$46,754	10.5%
Mapletree Industrial	26,000	S$1.730	S$44,980	10.1%
UOB	1,000	S$41.370	S$41,370	9.3%
Frasers Centrepoint Trust	16,000	S$2.100	S$33,600	7.6%
Frasers L&C Trust	30,000	S$0.895	S$26,850	6.1%
Capitaland Ascendas Reit	11,900	S$2.210	S$26,299	5.9%
Mapletree Logistics	21,879	S$1.100	S$24,067	5.4%
MPACT	20,000	S$1.150	S$23,000	5.2%
Guocoland	4,500	S$2.160	S$9,720	2.2%
Capitaland Ascott Trust	10,000	S$0.825	S$8,250	1.9%
Suntec Reit	5,000	S$1.360	S$6,800	1.5%
Far East Orchard	6,758	S$0.960	S$6,488	1.5%
Capitaland China Trust	10,687	S$0.595	S$6,359	1.4%
Netlink NBN Trust	5,000	S$0.935	S$4,675	1.1%
UI Boustead Reit	5,000	S$0.795	S$3,975	0.9%
OUE	4,200	S$0.910	S$3,822	0.9%
IREIT Global	22,000	S$0.164	S$3,608	0.8%

Total value

S$443k

US Growth Portfolio

Moomoo

Equity positions

Stock	Qty	Price	Avg cost	Mkt value	Unr. P/L	%
NVDA NVIDIA	170.05	$204.64	$200.07	$34,798	+$777	+2.3%
AMZN Amazon	140	$240.35	$221.94	$33,649	+$2,578	+8.3%
MSFT Microsoft	10	$521.91	$407.83	$5,219	+$1,141	+28.0%
AAPL Apple	11.1	$344.63	$127.61	$3,825	+$2,409	+170.1%
PANW Palo Alto	10	$365.87	$165.00	$3,659	+$2,009	+121.7%
TSM TSMC	5	$406.13	$117.20	$2,031	+$1,445	+246.5%
GOOG Alphabet	0.29	$278.22	$293.32	$80	-$4	-5.2%
BB BlackBerry	2	$8.42	$9.87	$17	-$3	-14.7%
NOK Nokia	1	$8.56	$5.88	$9	+$3	+45.6%

Options positions

Contract	Type	Strike	Expiry	Unr. P/L	Portfolio %
GOOG 280P Short (CSP)	Put	$280	19 Mar 27	-$1,072	-2.06%
AMZN 250P Short (CSP)	Put	$250	18 Dec 26	+$494	-1.53%
SKHY 160P Short (CSP)	Put	$160	6 Nov 26	-$646	-1.26%
NKE 50P Short (CSP)	Put	$50	18 Dec 26	-$207	-1.12%
AMZN 235P Short (CSP)	Put	$235	18 Dec 26	-$133	-0.80%
AKAM 92P Short (CSP)	Put	$92	6 Nov 26	+$108	-0.57%

Tiger Broker

Syfe Trader

Total value

US$92.7k

SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. It's crucial to conduct your own research or consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

Thanks for reading.

With love and peace, 

Qiongster

Portfolio Update September 2026

Here is a portfolio update for Sep 26.

My SGX Income Portfolio value decreases to $456k from $470k as S-REITs tank due to the Fed's surprise 25bp rate hike, the first since 2023, as stubborn inflation forced a reversal from the rate-cut path markets had been pricing in, sending yields higher and REIT valuations lower.

My US Growth Portfolio remains stagnant at US$101.3k, a choppy month for US tech markets as the Fed's rate hike forced a rethink of the AI-driven rally, leaving gains and losses across the portfolio roughly cancelling out.

My SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio value climbs to $346k from $340k mainly due to collection of dividends and resilience of DBS and OCBC.

Portfolio Actions

1. Funded $12k into LongBridge Account to qualify for rewards. Use my referral link to sign up for a LongBridge Account for up to $1.3k of free rewards: 

https://sg.longbridge.com/K69oSGTuwkuxILazbTjJ

Portfolio Dividends

1. Received $437.55 from SSB on 1 Sep.

2. Received $75 from Wilmar in SRS on 2 Sep.

3. Received $808.60 from Mapletree Industrial Trust on 7 Sep.

4. Received $444.11 from Ascendas Reit on 8 Sep.

5. Received $261.83 from CapitaLand China Trust on 9 Sep.

6. Received $486.79 from Keppel REIT in SRS on 15 Sep.

7. Received $392 from MPACT on 16 Sep.

8. Received $397.32 from Mapletree Logistics Trust on 16 Sep.

9. Received $685.68 from Keppel DC REIT in SRS on 18 Sep.

10. Received $831.99 from Aims Apac Reit as 538 shares under DRP on 23 Sep.

11. Received $418.32 from CICT on 25 Sep.

September 2026 was the month the Fed reminded everyone who's still in charge.

After a quiet August of sideways drift, my US Growth Portfolio closed September essentially unchanged at US$101.3k — but "unchanged" undersells how turbulent the path there was. The Fed's surprise rate hike, the first since 2023, landed mid-month and rattled tech names just as they were finding their footing, forcing a sharp repricing of the "rates are coming down" narrative that had underpinned much of the year's AI rally.

NVIDIA and Palo Alto Networks were the standouts, both pushing further into strong unrealised gains despite the volatility. Apple kept doing what Apple does by quietly grinding to a new high, now sitting on some of the largest gains in the portfolio for a name nobody talks about at parties.

The bigger story this month was strategy, not stock-picking. With NVIDIA's run stretching valuations, I wrote my first covered call against part of the position, trading a sliver of further upside for locked-in premium, a small but deliberate shift from pure conviction-holding toward harvesting some gains along the way. I also added a new position in Alphabet, alongside a short put, extending the barbell into another mega-cap I'm happy to own at a lower strike if assigned.

Not every put resolved kindly this month. Amazon's lower-strike put and the Nike put both widened their losses as those names lagged the broader recovery — a reminder that selling premium means occasionally sitting with paper losses while waiting for the thesis to play out. META, on the other hand, is now sitting on one of the largest unrealised gains in the book, proof that patience on the losing legs is usually rewarded somewhere else in the portfolio.

The plan for October is a small evolution of the one that's worked all year: keep the barbell balanced, keep letting option premiums decay in my favour, and start thinking more deliberately about when to take profits rather than simply letting winners run indefinitely.

SGX Income Portfolio

Stock	Qty	Price	Value	Weight
DBS	1,001	S$77.500	S$77,578	17.0%
Aims Apac Reit	36,139	S$1.430	S$51,679	11.3%
Mapletree Industrial	26,000	S$1.860	S$48,360	10.6%
CICT	20,506	S$2.230	S$45,728	10.0%
UOB	1,000	S$42.840	S$42,840	9.4%
Frasers Centrepoint Trust	16,000	S$2.090	S$33,440	7.3%
Capitaland Ascendas Reit	11,900	S$2.260	S$26,894	5.9%
Frasers L&C Trust	30,000	S$0.880	S$26,400	5.8%
MPACT	20,000	S$1.220	S$24,400	5.3%
Mapletree Logistics	21,879	S$1.090	S$23,848	5.2%
Guocoland	4,500	S$2.310	S$10,395	2.3%
Capitaland Ascott Reit	10,000	S$0.825	S$8,250	1.8%
Far East Orchard	6,758	S$1.030	S$6,961	1.5%
Suntec Reit	5,000	S$1.330	S$6,650	1.5%
Capitaland China Trust	10,687	S$0.620	S$6,626	1.5%
Netlink NBN Trust	5,000	S$0.950	S$4,750	1.0%
UI Boustead Reit	5,000	S$0.810	S$4,050	0.9%
IREIT Global	22,000	S$0.180	S$3,960	0.9%
OUE	4,200	S$0.915	S$3,843	0.8%

Total value

S$456k

US Growth Portfolio

Moomoo

Updated US Growth Portfolio Moomoo positions as of September 30, 2026: equity holdings and options, with market value, unrealized profit and loss, and portfolio percentage.

Equity positions

Stock	Qty	Price	Avg cost	Mkt value	Unr. P/L	%
NVDA NVIDIA	170.05	$227.69	$200.07	$38,718	+$4,697	+13.8%
AMZN Amazon	140	$246.19	$221.94	$34,466	+$3,395	+10.9%
MSFT Microsoft	10	$508.60	$407.83	$5,086	+$1,008	+24.7%
PANW Palo Alto	10	$387.96	$165.00	$3,880	+$2,230	+135.1%
AAPL Apple	11.1	$329.70	$127.61	$3,660	+$2,243	+158.4%
TSM TSMC	5	$454.69	$117.20	$2,273	+$1,687	+288.0%
GOOG Alphabet	0.27	$340.86	$309.25	$93	+$9	+10.2%
BB BlackBerry	2	$8.70	$9.87	$17	-$2	-11.8%
NOK Nokia	1	$10.48	$5.88	$10	+$5	+78.2%

Options positions

Contract	Type	Strike	Expiry	Unr. P/L	Portfolio %
META 525P Short (CSP)	Put	$525	16 Oct 26	+$2,005	-0.01%
AMZN 250P Short (CSP)	Put	$250	18 Dec 26	+$400	-1.53%
NVDA 230C Short (Covered Call)	Call	$230	2 Oct 26	+$336	-0.15%
GOOG 335P Short (CSP)	Put	$335	2 Oct 26	+$92	-0.24%
AMZN 235P Short (CSP)	Put	$235	18 Dec 26	-$305	-0.91%
NKE 50P Short (CSP)	Put	$50	18 Dec 26	-$478	-1.30%

Tiger Broker

Syfe Trader

Total value

US$101.3k

SRS Ultra Long-Term Portfolio

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. It's crucial to conduct your own research or consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

Thanks for reading.

With love and peace, 

Qiongster

Q3 2027 Passive Income Update

The total amount of dividends collected in Q3 2026 is S$11,866.77, a 1.8% decrease YoY from Q3 2025's S$12,084.30.

Despite the year-on-year decline, I am satisfied with the progress of my passive-income portfolio. Dividend income continues to form an important part of my overall investment strategy, with the majority of my income coming from Singapore-listed dividend stocks, REITs and bonds.

Here is the breakdown of my passive income collected during Q3 2026:

Date	Investment	Amount
1 Jul	SSB	S$244.50
1 Jul	SSB	S$300.00
1 Jul	SSB (SRS)	S$162.50
3 Aug	SSB	S$239.25
3 Aug	SSB	S$139.05
11 Aug	Astrea 9A1 PE Bond	S$185.46
25 Aug	DBS	S$810.81
25 Aug	DBS (SRS)	S$648.00
27 Aug	IREIT	S$119.31
28 Aug	Ascott REIT	S$253.20
28 Aug	Suntec REIT	S$100.00
28 Aug	OCBC (SRS)	S$2,350.00
28 Aug	UOB	S$880.00
31 Aug	ComfortDelGro (SRS)	S$195.50
1 Sep	SSB	S$150.50
1 Sep	SSB	S$149.05
1 Sep	SSB	S$138.00
2 Sep	Wilmar (SRS)	S$75.00
7 Sep 8 Sep	Mapletree Ind Trust             Ascendas REIT	S$808.60 S$444.11
9 Sep	CapitaLand China Trust	S$261.83
15 Sep	Keppel REIT (SRS)	S$486.79
16 Sep	MPACT	S$392.00
16 Sep	Mapletree Logistics Trust	S$397.32
18 Sep	Keppel DC REIT (SRS)	S$685.68
23 Sep	AIMS APAC REIT (DRP)	S$831.99
25 Sep 30 Sep	CICT             OUE	S$418.32 S$42.00
Total		S$11,908.77

Together with the S$21,486.93 passive income collected in the first half of 2026, my passive income in the first 9 months of 2026 is now:

S$33,395.70

This puts me S$3,353.70 above the S$30,000 milestone, and I am on track to achieve my target of S$42,000 passive income for 2026.

With one quarter still remaining, I need another S$9,454.91 in passive income to hit my S$42,000 target.

Building Multiple Streams of Passive Income

One thing I appreciate about my portfolio is that the passive income doesn't come from just one source.

This quarter, I collected income from SSBs, bonds, banks, REITs and dividend-paying companies.

The largest individual contributor was OCBC, which paid S$2,350 into my SRS account.

DBS contributed another S$1,458.81 across my regular and SRS holdings, while UOB contributed S$880.

The REIT portfolio also continued to generate meaningful cash flow, with distributions from IREIT, Ascott REIT, Suntec REIT, Ascendas REIT, CapitaLand China Trust, Keppel REIT, MPACT, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Keppel DC REIT, AIMS APAC REIT and CICT.

I also received interest from my Singapore Savings Bonds and Astrea 9A1 PE Bond.

I like having this diversification because different assets generate income at different times of the year.

Rather than relying on a single dividend payer, I am gradually building a portfolio where the cash flow is spread across multiple businesses and asset classes.

My options premiums are excluded from this passive income update as I deemed options trading as a part-time job requiring slight effort.

My tax-free dividends and options premiums easily surpass my active income from taxable and CPF-deductible salary. hence making early retirement an imminent reality rather than a distant goal. The foundation is set, the cash flow is proven, and the journey now is simply about maintaining discipline while enjoying the freedom it provides.

SRS Continues to Play an Important Role

Some of the dividends this quarter were received through my SRS portfolio.

In particular, the S$2,350 OCBC dividend, S$648 DBS dividend, S$195.50 ComfortDelGro dividend, S$486.79 Keppel REIT distribution and S$75 Wilmar dividend were received through SRS.

I continue to see SRS as an important component of my long-term wealth-building strategy.

The objective isn't simply to maximise the amount of money in SRS. Rather, I want the assets inside the account to eventually generate meaningful income while benefiting from the tax advantages of the SRS framework.

Over time, these dividends can be reinvested and compounded into an increasingly larger income-producing portfolio.

Time in the Market Beats Timing the Market

The investment philosophy remains unchanged:

Time in the market beats timing the market.

There will always be market corrections, recessions, geopolitical concerns and headlines predicting the next crash.

Trying to perfectly time every market move is extremely difficult.

In the long term, I am happy to remain primarily invested locally in SGX dividend stocks and REITs for passive income, while maintaining exposure to US technology stocks for capital growth.

The two sides of the portfolio serve different purposes.

My Singapore investments provide recurring cash flow.

My US technology holdings provide exposure to businesses with potentially stronger long-term growth.

I don't expect every investment to perform the same way every year. What matters is that the portfolio as a whole continues moving towards my long-term objectives.

Looking Ahead to Q4

I look forward to collecting more dividends and distributions in the final quarter of 2026.

At the same time, I will remain on the sidelines for great investment opportunities to acquire more income-producing assets and businesses.

There is no need to force an investment simply because I have cash available.

If valuations are attractive, I will deploy capital.

If markets become expensive, I am happy to wait.

Patience is part of investing.

Existentialism

My mission is simple: financial freedom with existentialism.

I direct my money with purpose. I invest to build assets that generate future cash flow or with growth potential, but I no longer view life purely through the lens of strict minimalism or future accumulation.

Life is finite. Remembering memento mori means understanding that time is the one asset I can never buy back. I embrace intentional splurges and small daily luxuries that bring genuine joy today, without guilt and without compromising my broader vision. This isn't about aimless consumerism—it's about living meaningfully in the present while securing the future.

Ultimately, I invest to buy true sovereignty:

• Freedom of Time: Spending my hours on what truly matters.

• Freedom of Money: Living unburdened by financial anxiety.

• Freedom of Location: Achieving complete mobility and flexibility.

I work because I choose to, not because I have to.

I know market noise, volatility, and temporary distractions will always exist. I don't need to react to every cycle. I simply need to remain disciplined, accumulate quality assets, let compounding work over time, and balance future security with rich everyday experiences.

Time in the market beats timing the market.

The journey continues.

Thanks for reading.

With love and peace, 

Qiongster

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions.