Wikinvest

These days everyone goes to Wikipedia for a wide range of info.... and now there's Wikinvest! By investors, for investors, the Wikinvest has information on individual companies, wikicharts, and other interesting stuff that I do not yet have time to check it out.

Here.... check it out yourself : Wikinvest

Quote of the day

"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what
they do."

- Andrew Carnegie

Chartered Market Technician (CMT)

I was going through Book 1 (yeah... I'm EXTREMELY slow...) of CFA Level 1 and came across this new term - Chartered Market Technician (CMT)!

I've heard of CPA, CFA (duh), ACCA, PMP, amongst others, but CMT is certainly new! So what is a CMT? Extracting from the website:

The Chartered Market Technician (CMT) designation is the culmination of a
certification process in which candidates are required to demonstrate
proficiency in a broad range of technical analysis of the financial markets.

Sounds very much like a CFA equivalent for technical analysts! And what's interesting is that they have this affiliate membership where you can join them as a member and get some interesting newsletters and stuff. But it comes at a price tag of 300USD per year.

Interesting stuff... but I think there's no demand for such qualifications here....

World Wide Telescope

I just came across this amazing new project by Microsoft (ok... I'm not exactly a microsoft supporter, but this is cool). Actually, I came across it from TEDTalks which I spoke about last time, and this time, the project is a seamless integration of astronomy data that allows one to peer into the universe.

The images are captivating to say the least.... I think I'll download it and check it out when its out.

Here's the link:
http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

Here's the link to TEDTalks on the project: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/224

Rules of Life by Bill Gates

Mr Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talked about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it.

Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Parents at Genting

My parents are now enjoying themselves at Genting and I'm now Lord of the house... muahahahha..... That means making sure windows are closed, lights are off, culinary are washed......

Quote of the day

"One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth
must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again."
- Abraham Maslow

Career 2008 & Education 2008 (28 Feb - 2 Mar)

The next Career 2008 & Education 2008 will be held at Suntec Exhibition Hall 601-603 from 28 Feb to 2 Mar 08. I couldn't get a sense of what type of jobs are available, nor what kind of educational programes will be promoted at the event. However, I think it may be good to go down and take a look to see what's available there.

They also have several seminar sessions available, some of which appear quite interesting. Do let me know if anyone is interested to pop by, perhaps we could go down together.

See where you fit-in in the finance industry

I was looking around the website and came across Goldman Sachs' website which provides a short quiz to help identify which role might be suitable for you in the finance industry. If you are considering joining the industry, this would be interesting to try : Goldman Sachs Quiz

Results for me are:
1. FICC and Equity Strategies
2. Goldman Sachs Asset Management
3. Technology

Aren't you curious to find out what yours are?

How to maximise your cash when buying petrol

I found this post on one of the facebook walls, and thought its quite interesting. Try it out and let me know if it saves you some cash buying petrol. hahahaha!

----------------------------

No one should drive but if you must here is some very good information that originated from someone who is in the petroleum business.

I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline....Here in California we are also paying higher, upwards of $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon.

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose, CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening ... your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapours that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapour return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapour. Those vapours are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder is if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up as most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Hope this will help you get the most value for your money. Anyone cares to figure out how much we can save?

Recession? Where to put your money now?

I came across a rather interesting article by CNN Money which advises how one can profit (in the long-term I assume) from all the nose-diving stock prices we see these days. I've extracted the summary of the market survival guide below for a quick glance in-case you do not have the time to read the full article.

There's another statement in that article that I thought was particularly good and hits the proverbial nail on the head for investing (of course, trading is similar but also has many other different rules) :

"As an investor, you face two challenges in today's tumultuous market: First, you
have to choose bargain stocks while recognizing that the overall averages are
still extremely pricey and have plenty of room to fall. Second, you must
assemble a portfolio that will protect you from the claws of inflation, while
keeping plenty of funds in cash so you can grab the beaten-down buys when they
appear."

Basically, it means choose good stocks to buy, but also always becareful to keep your captial liquid, otherwise, you'll not have the resourses to that advantage of opportunities when they appear.

Well, do read the article if you have the time, I think its pretty good. :)

----------------------------------------------------
Market Survival Guide

1. Keep costs down
In the new era of low returns, it's important to keep fees down to build a winning portfolio. Buy index funds and ETFs, and don't pay for Wall Street's often unreliable advice.

2. Go for dividends
A big gift of today's rocky market is a surge in dividend yields. If you want income for life, grab solid but beaten-down names right now. Two good bets: pharma and utilities.

3. Take a chance on battered stocks
Sure, it takes courage, but the best investors pounce when sectors are bloodied and expectations in the cellar. Two reviled sectors: banks and homebuilders.

4. Look abroad
Diversification is the foundation of a strong portfolio. One way to get there is with a big allocation in international stocks. But true diversification is tricky. We'll tell you how to do it right.

5. Be smart about bonds
You need fixed-income investments for ballast, but the trick is staying ahead of inflation. The three picks for an inflation-racked world: munis, TIPs, and CDs.

Don't Judge Too Quickly

Market Updates

I'd been looking at various forms of investing for awhile. Now with the possibility of a US recession becoming more real, what kind of markets would be the most viable?

Personally, I still think trading is the most viable, and especially so for trading Forex. Now, that is not to say that I had been profiting on my FX trades. Quite the contrary, I'm actually losing or have lost quite abit. Its part of the learning process I guess. So why do I think FX is the most viable? There's good volatility, and there's always a trade no matter which market is rallying or dropping.

The other tools however, aren't doing too well. My mutual funds are steadily dropping, but at least my Financial Advisor (FA) had the sense to shift half my portfolio into bonds for the time being. This is a good time to see if Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) is effective. Unfortunately, DCA will take awhile to see results, sometimes as long as 7 years.

Stocks are even worse I think. Just look at the US markets. With the Fed making rates cuts of 125 basis points within a span of 8 short days, the markets are not showing signs of recovery. Even though the Dow did rally a short while when the Fed announced the rate cuts (of 50 basis points), the markets eventually gave up its gains before the close. This, I think, shows how negative the market sentiments are. Will this overflow to Singapore and Asian markets? I think it already has to some degree. Stocks all over the globe are experiencing some form of shock due to what's happening in the US. There are talks however, that markets are decoupling from the US economy, and even our Government says that Singapore will see growth this year. Markets are unpredictable.... lets see how it turns out.

P.S. For updates on my forex trading, visit my Forex blog.

Updates

Nothing much going on in my life right now. I'm in my new division, adapting to new work, new bosses, new colleagues and new expectations amongst many other new things. I've only been on the job for 1 month and I'm not really sure how well or how fast I'm adapting.

The learning curve is pretty steep I guess, but definately more gentle than for one who is completely new to the organisation. The people are nice, and my boss has been patient too (dispite some previous fears). But must always buck up because there's always a limit to patience and I pray I don't hit it. ha.

Having some struggle in terms of time management and effort put in. I now want to do several things. Learn about trading, keep up with friends, keep fit and healthy, may be take up CFA, and do my job well. However, my job now requires quite some attention, and I don't know how to manage the expectations of the new division just yet. I want to be able to handle the workload, react promptly, etc, and yet still maintain progress in the other above areas. Thing is, it has been wearing me out alittle this month. Perhaps its like Xun said, I'm new to the job and it takes some time to get settled in and then perhaps I'll be able to better manage my time.

I guess its expected to have some shake-ups in terms of time management because of the change.... its just uncomfortable to be out-of-control somewhat. I mean, I'd like to be able to schedule my time, allocate work, play, learning, study, social etc properly... but I feel as if work is slowly creeping and taking over (because afterall I need to complete my work, and my colleagues are all very hardworking so I have to at least match up!)

I need to focus on my outcome and work towards it..... now.... WHAT... exactly is this outcome I'm working towards? That... is the question.

Underwater Astonishments

Beautiful and amazing videos of marine life. If the video doesn't work, click here and download the video.

Investing : Lump Sum or Dollar Cost Averaging

After reading up on investments for quite awhile, I realised that there are many schools of thought. Amongst this include those who time the market in an attempt to pick highs or lows, and those who put in a fixed amount of money over long periods of time - a practice called dollar cost averaging (DCA).

People who do DCA believes that markets generally moves up. While that might have been true for the past 30 years or so, people like Pretcher from Elliott Wave Institute believe that the markets are heading for a long term bear market. In such an event, DCA would yield terrible results.

I'm predicting if the markets will move up or down for the next decade. I'll leave that to the experts. But below is an extract from a CNN Money article that I actually agree on with regards to Lump Sum v.s. Dollar Cost Averaging:

"...While I disagree with those that use math to show that dollar cost
averaging delivers superior returns to investing all at once, I am a strong
believer that dollar cost averaging has significant psychological advantages.
You don't have to worry about any worst-case-scenario market timing like the one
described above. If you dollar cost average in over a long period of time,
say two or three years, you are actually more likely to stay in the market. If
the market goes down, you'll feel better you didn't sink it all in at once, and
because you're buying more shares at a lower price...."

Getting Back to Nature

It seems I'd been taking a break from many things this period. I took a break from trading, took a break from reading my books, took a (rather long) break from exercising, took a (even longer) break from climbing.

Despite all these breaks however, somehow, I still don't feel quite that energised. Seems something is lacking still. Somewhere hovering at the back of mind is a desire to go climb some mountain again or something. Considering my lack of fitness these days... it will have to be one of relatively low difficulty.

Wonder if I'll still enjoy these treks now... hmmm...

Do some micro-financing

I was talking about being your own banking on a post sometime back. I decided to do a little micro-financing on www.kiva.org and made some small loans out. One of them will take 12 months to repay, the other 4 months. The minimum sum to loan out each time is USD25.

I really think the whole concept of micro-financing is really cool. And in some ways, it could be a better way of helping the poor compared to just dumping supplies to them (most of which get lost along the way if I'm not wrong). By helping these people do their own businesses instead, that's pretty much helping them to learn how to fish rather than giving them a fish.

You can check out my profile here, and do extend a helping hand if you think this is a meaningful way to do it.

Cheers to a great upcoming 2008!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

The old has gone and the new is here. I received an SMS from a friend which I thought was rather nice and here it is below:

... In 2008 remember...Life is an adventure, so, break some rules, forgive, love truly, cherish true friends, laugh uncontrollably, enjoy your family n never regret anything that made you smile... Wishing you a blessful 2008.

Hope everyone has a prosperous and happy new year. Good Career progress for those working, greater patience for those teaching, good grades for those studying, greater profits for those investing/trading!

Ouch... pain....

I'm aching from 3 different locations right now. I've got two (early) abscess - one of my lower left thigh near the knee, and the other on my calf area. (Nope... I'm not uploading photos, don't think you want to see then either!)

What are the chances of getting two at the same time? I've no idea! But I think its pretty slim! And the third location which is aching is my left shoulder where the Doc gave me a jab.... man... I hate jabs.

Zzzzz..... pain....