NiGHtMaRe

My tank's new look

2010-12-09T22:23:00.004+08:00

Due to the growing of black moss on my dry wood, I have decided to change my tank's outlook and shown as below:

My Fish Tank

2010-10-28T08:58:00.006+08:00

2 months

First week

New hobby - Planted Aquarium

2010-10-26T12:46:00.002+08:00

Since I have my own house, its more convenience for me to start a hobby - playing with fish tanks, more precisely, fish tank with plants.

I have learnt alot from a blog of a taiwanese, a hobbyist too.

Check it out at http://pcm999.pixnet.net/blog

Here also shows one of the photo of his tank:

Also I will post some of the photos of my tanks later.

Second chance for Yong Vui Kong?

2010-07-22T14:39:00.000+08:00

Recently, I read alot of related reporting regarding this guy, Yong Vui Kong from Malaysia's press but not in Singapore. And due to my curiosity, I have done some web search, and read thru all the reporting, I felt sympathy on him, shall we give him another chance?

吉隆坡21日讯）隆雪华堂民权委员会与马来西亚人民之声成立了“杨伟光后援会”，为这名因贩毒而将在新加坡面对死刑的22岁沙巴州青年收集10万个签名，恳求新加坡总统纳丹特赦。
人民公正党籍上议员赛胡先阿里、民主行动党籍上议员东姑阿兹、民权委员会主席廖国华、副主席饶兆颖等今天在国会上议院走廊一项记者会上推展这项“救救杨伟光”运动，呼吁公众积极通过多项管道，协助杨伟光获得新加坡总统纳丹特赦。
饶兆颖说，该委员会在两天前开始收集公众签名，迄今已收集了2千人的签名，该委员会将在8月26日之前，即杨伟光求赦期限前呈交给新加坡总统。
她说，委员会也将发送附有回邮的签名卡予给222名国会议员、69名上议员及60名沙巴州议员，希望他们在7月31日之前签名并回复。
她说，虽然贩毒有罪，不过杨伟光在狱中接触佛法后不但写信给家人和朋友提醒他们不要贩毒，甚至可以辅导其他囚犯，该委员会是基于他已经改过自新，应该获得第二个重生机会而发动签名运动，并非为他求情。
“我们希望杨伟光的例子，可以为新加坡甚至全世界传达反毒的讯息。”
公众可以通过以下管道签名和参与“救救杨伟光”活动：
*网上签名：http://www.petitiononline.com/ SaveVK/petition.html
*上网下载签名表格，向亲友收集签名:
http://www.box.net/shared/ dp806m60xv（英文版）
http://www.box.net/shared/
sqhkbqj6cj（中文版）
http://www.box.net/shared/
rh7azp73qr（马来文版）
传真至03-22724089或邮寄到"Save Vui Kong" Campaign, Kuala Lumpur & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, 1, Jalan Maharajalela, 50150 Kuala Lumpur
*向社区宣传这项活动：将姓名、地址和联络电话电邮至2ndchance4yong@gmail，以获得传单、签名表格等向社区传达活动讯息
*志愿工作：将资料电邮至上述电子邮箱，以协助翻译、协调活动、管理网站或面子书、写文告、设计等。
*捐款至“救救杨伟光”基金和购买宣传产品：较后时宣布详情
欲知详情，可浏览http://2ndchance4yong.wordpress.com。
新闻背景
杨伟光于2007年6月13日在新加坡被控运送47.27克海洛因，触犯滥用毒品法令第5（1）条文，当时年仅19岁。
他于2009年1月7日被判死刑，虽然提出上诉，但是较后时撤销上诉，并提呈请愿书要求新加坡总统宽恕。
在问吊前4天，杨伟光代表律师拉维再次提出上诉，并要求暂缓执行令，上诉庭在聆审后驳回上诉，杨伟光因此有权再次要求总统宽恕。
总统可在宪法第22（p）条文下，在内阁的建议下减轻杨伟光的刑罚，可是新加坡法律部长山姆甘于2010年5月9日公开反对减轻杨伟光的刑罚。
杨伟光在三岁时父母离异，母亲因此患忧郁症，没有念完六年级就辍学打工赚钱。

Happy 2010

2010-01-04T10:27:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year to everyone...
Hope the stock market in 2010 bullish all the way!!!

Exchange link

2009-12-02T10:40:00.000+08:00

WOULD YOU LIKE TO EXCHANGE LINK WITH ME?

Exchange link with me, and I will:
- regularly do entrecard dropping to your blog or personal website if you have it.
- regularly browse thru yourwebsite or leave comments.
- introduce or put linkers to interesting topic from your blog or personal website.
- etc.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT IN THIS TOPIC/PAGE, STATING YOUR NAME AND URL AND I WILL GET BACK TO YOU AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

THANKS.

Depreciation of US dollar (USD or US$)

2009-10-21T10:28:00.000+08:00

As we all realized, is being depreciating since few years ago. If i am not wrong, about 4 years ago, 1USD = 1.70SGD roughly, but look at the figure now, 1USD =1.38SGD; in another words, USD has been depreciating more than 20%.

Worse thing is many analysts and economists are expecting the USD to depreciate further, about 20% more in coming future.

I am a Singapore investor, I do trade US stocks often, eg. OIIM, AMD, C, etc. I used to hold some US stocks more than 2 years. Well, looking at the stock price, it did rise with a beautiful figure, however, after I convert it back to my local currency - SGD. In fact, I did not gain much.

Believing in the analysts and economists comments, I decided to temporarily reduce US stock trading activities or even stop trading US stock in near future. Unless I can forsee the short term gain. Holding US stock for long term is not really a good idea when USD is depreciating.

AMD

2009-09-23T10:35:00.014+08:00

Waves of good news are bringing the AMD stock price towards level two years ago. Although AMD has incurred losses in the past few quarters, however, economy datas is showing that PC market is growing.

This is definitely a stock can be hold long term for some profits.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc., up 27 cents at $6.08

OIIM, Keep it UP!

2009-07-27T08:42:00.000+08:00

O2Micro, (Nasdaq: OIIM) will be announcing hers 2nd quarter earning on this wednesday. Many financial firms expecting a positive results on their earning as well as her share price. Of course, I have been waiting this day as well.

Hopefully, after this annoucement, the share price can get high to US$7.00, so, keep it up! OIIM.
:)

A "tiny" news is so "BIG"

2009-06-16T15:55:00.000+08:00

OIIM - O2Micro International reported a better than expected (forecast) for the second quarter result for 2009, which is expected to have a revenue about 34millions compared to 28millions forecasted before.

The stock price in Nasdaq rose 31 cents or close to 7% yesterday after this annoucement; and the stock price in HKSE, (0457.hk) rose up to 350% day after the US stock market closed. This is a huge movement, well, I hope this big movement in HKSE can push abit towards the OIIM in nasdaq market tonight, another 5%? 10%?

By the way, OIIM has been rated as strong buy by Zack Investment Research.
For more details, please refer to http://finance.yahoo.com/news/O2Micro-Rises-on-Upbeat-zacks-15528199.html?.v=1

Dying off....? Please continue to support....

2009-06-08T16:33:00.000+08:00

Looks like my blogspot's visitor counter is dying off, it has been a long time I, myself did not come up to do any update, this is probably due to most of my spare time were tied onto my studies. Finally I did my CFA level 2 exam yesterday; it was tough to me.

So after that stressful moment, I am well ready to "building up" my blog again. But, how? I have no idea....

Anyway, I need you all to give a support, visit this blog more often, thanks.... hehe.....

Singapore Stock market Rally and Rally! True? or Bubble?

2009-05-06T17:12:00.000+08:00

This three days, SGX has shoot up 400 points. Most of the stocks rally like a big bull is reaching.
Is this a true Bull run? I wonder~
Although I believe that current economy will not be going worse; but a bull should be yet to come.
Reason? look at most of the companies' financial results, look at the jobless, ......

Although I also gain some from these days "bull run"; but.... still, Care and care is important.

I personnaly feeling that tomorrow and day after tomorrow, market will down!
mean reverting, excess gain by speculators, will finally "throw" their stocks and market will revert back to the level it should be!! This always true.

Furthermore, US banks stress test will be another factor too......

Rules for Investing in the Next Bull Market

2009-05-06T17:09:00.001+08:00

Good article to share:

How to be smarter when the market comes back – and it will.
Is this a new bull market? Nobody really knows for certain. But one will -- presumably -- come along in due course. Will investors make the same mistakes they made last time, or will they be wiser? Here are 12 rules for the next bull market -- whenever it turns up.
1. Go global.
Most investors prefer to stick to their "home" market. It's a mistake. America accounts for only a fifth of the world economy but a third of its share values. No one knows where the best or worst returns will be, so spread your bets across the board. And you already have an oversized bet on the U.S. economy:, because you likely live, work and own a home here.
2. Avoid big moves.
If you buy or sell heavily in one shot you're taking a needless risk. And waiting for the right moment to make your move is futile. You probably won't catch the bottom or the peak anyway. If a market trend has much further to run, then what's the rush? And if it doesn't … what's the rush?
3. Remember the market is just "us."
No wonder shares rose when everyone was buying, and fell when they were selling. That was the reason. And when everyone is trying to predict "the market," they are effectively chasing themselves through a hall of mirrors.
4. Don't get fooled, don't get tense… and don't get fooled by the wrong tense.
Wall Street is riddled with people who mistake the past perfect ("these shares have risen") with the present ("these shares are rising") or the future ("these shares will rise."). Don't get suckered.
5. Pay no attention to TINA.
Sooner or later someone will urge you to buy shares, even at very high prices, because There Is No Alternative. It is a popular hustle at the peak of the market. There are always alternatives -- like holding more cash until valuations are more attractive.
6. Be truly diversified.
That means investing across a spread of different asset classes and strategies. As investors discovered last year, "large cap value" and "mid cap blend" funds don't offer diversification. They're just marketing gimmicks.
7. Treat forecasts with a grain of salt.
Most economists missed the recession, most strategists missed the crash, and most analysts are bullish just before a stock falls. Even the good experts are prone to group think, office politics, career risk - and hall of mirror syndrome (see point 3, above).
8. Never invest in what you don't understand.
Be happy to underperform a bull market. During the last boom, many investors were advised to go all-in on shares to get the biggest long-term gains. But the stock market has infinite risk tolerance and an infinite time horizon. Real people can't compete with market indices, and shouldn't try.
9. Ignore what everyone else is doing.
It's natural to want to "join the crowd" and avoid being "left behind." Leave those instincts in eighth grade. When it comes to investing, do what's right for you and your family.
10. Be patient.
Investment opportunities are like buses. If you missed one, you don't have to chase it. Relax. If history is any guide, others will be along shortly.
11. Don't sit on the sidelines completely until it's too late.
You'll probably end up splurging at the last moment. If you are afraid to invest, do it early, little, and often.
12. And above all: Price matters.
After all, an investment is just a claim check on future cash flows, whether it be a company's profits, a bond's coupons or an annuity's income stream. By definition, shares in a solvent company are twice as good at half the price… and vice versa. It's amazing how many people get suckered into thinking it's the other way around.
I'd like to hear from readers: If you have any suggested rules of your own, let me know.
Write to Brett Arends at brett.arends@wsj.com
Copyrighted, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Dark Side of "Better-than-Expected" Earnings

2009-04-25T01:02:00.000+08:00

Good article to share:
Found from Yahoo! Finance.

The Dark Side of "Better-than-Expected" EarningsPosted Apr 24, 2009 11:11am EDT by Aaron Task in Investing, Information Technology
Related: AXP, AMZN, MSFT, IBM, ^GSPC, ^DJI, XOM
"Better-than-expected" has been a common theme this earnings season and key driver to Friday's morning advance. Of the 178 S&P 500 companies to have reported earnings thus far, 67% have reported an upside earnings surprise, according to Bloomberg.
But there's a dark-side to the story, according to Diane Garnick, investment strategist at Invesco, which has over $350 billion of assets under management.
While the majority of companies are beating earnings estimates, many are missing on the revenue side, Garnick notes. That suggests the bottom-line "beats" are mainly the result of cost cutting rather than top-line sales growth. Wall Street's focus on short-term results may be satisfied by these "better-than-expected" results, and companies have an incentive to do more layoffs because the savings flow directly to the bottom line. But cutting costs is not the basis for a prolonged period of strong earnings, Garnick says.
It's self-evident, but when companies lay people off, those former employees reduce spending sharply, meaning less economic activity and lower sales for their former employees. Results from Microsoft and American Express, as well as Amazon.com's guidance, provide evidence of these trends -- even as shares of all three firms rally sharply.

Avoiding traps in the Bear market

2009-04-13T15:08:00.000+08:00

Good article to share: From Yahoo!

People's emotions lead them to make bad financial moves in chaotic times. Here's what to look out for.

In a chaotic bear market like this one, it's easy for investors to fall into traps.
They might scramble to make trades based on the latest news reports. They might search for a miracle stock that will pay off big and let them recoup all their losses. Or they might go in the other direction -- and get so scared of the market that they don't make any moves at all.

"I believe that the frequency of irrational investor behavior goes up along with market volatility," says Chris Blum, head of the U.S. behavioral-finance group for JP Morgan Funds in New York, which studies how people's emotions affect their financial decisions.
Fortunately, a bit of logic and common sense will keep you clear of these pitfalls. Here's a look at some common missteps -- and how to avoid them.

The Value Trap: A chaotic market makes it easier for investors to convince themselves that because a stock -- or a sector or a market -- is cheap, it's a great value. Sometimes, though, there's a good reason that a stock or sector is cheap: It's in trouble. You need to look past the share price or valuation and examine the fundamentals of the company, the industry and the economy before you decide that something is a bargain.
"Within industries, not all companies are created equal; some will fare better than others," says Mr. Blum. It's through research, not instinct or stock price, that investors discover the real values, he adds.

The Risk Trap: One reason investors are so vulnerable to the value trap is that another force is at work -- the urge to recoup losses. Investors who are desperate to make back some of what they have lost and return to "normal" are more willing to take outsize bets on individual stocks or narrowly focused exchange-traded funds.
But that approach is even more unlikely to work in this market environment; the combination of the credit crunch and the recession have made the stock market dangerously volatile. A concentrated portfolio is especially risky, advisers argue.
Investors can't accept that individual stocks, or stocks overall, aren't likely to deliver a reliable stream of double-digit profits each year as in the past, says Bill Schultheis, a partner at Soundmark Wealth Management LLC, a financial-planning firm in Kirkland, Washington.
To combat the risk trap, Mr. Schultheis spends a lot of time preaching the virtues of investment basics like diversification and building returns steadily through compound interest and dividends.

The Scapegoat Trap: Like the children in humorist Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon, people believe they are all above average -- at investing. Overconfidence makes it easy to blame your financial adviser for your outsize losses last year, and to think you'd be better off making the big decisions yourself.
But that attitude ignores a basic fact: In this market, nearly everyone is in the same boat, more or less, regardless of who's managing their money. Ditching your professional help and going it alone is a bad idea.
"There are certainly some financial advisers out there who weren't good at what they did, but the worst mistake someone can make is to fire that individual and decide to do it all themselves instead of finding someone better," says Mr. Blum.
The reality, he says, is that few investors have the time, patience or expertise needed to develop asset-allocation plans and manage diversified portfolios. "Firing a specific adviser may be rational; deciding to be your own financial adviser probably isn't," he says.

The Paralysis Trap: The market debacle has left many investors too terrified to act at all, whether to sell portfolio holdings to limit losses or take advantage of what may be appealing long-term investment opportunities. Some advisers report clients in their 30s and early 40s shunning stocks altogether, when the real risk that they face is likely to be inflation -- which may eat up their money if they keep it out of riskier investments that are likely to trounce rising inflation rates over the next decade or two.
"The chance of suffering more pain is so intense that they can't imagine a world that will be better," says Joe Sheehan, a partner at Moneta Group, a wealth-management firm in St. Louis. "Two years ago, they would have jumped at the chance to buy more of stocks they already owned at these low prices; now they are frozen in place and won't respond."
Mr. Sheehan tries to persuade clients of a simple fact: The world hasn't changed dramatically enough to justify paralysis. "About 92% of Americans are still employed; the S&P 500 is not going to zero," he says.
Mr. Sheehan finds himself pointing to psychological studies showing that people tend to rely too heavily on what has happened in the recent past when it comes to predicting the future. "That's one reason we're in this mess in the first place," he says.
Among other things, he notes, investors and homeowners believed that housing prices could only go up -- leading to the bubble that got millions of homeowners in horrible financial trouble.

The Comfort Trap: "When people are fearful, Wall Street comes out with a product that tries to make you feel good by promising you safety," says Andrew Mehalko, chief investment officer of GenSpring Family Offices LLC in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
For instance, Mr. Mehalko expects one of the hottest-selling products this year to be principal-protected notes, just as they were after the bear market of 2001-02. While these vehicles -- which promise to preserve your principal investment -- may provide reassurance, they often also come with hefty fees and can sharply limit your upside potential.
As a general rule, a low-risk strategy will produce minimal returns. So, while you may feel the urge to lock up all your capital in ultrasafe strategies, you need to be prepared to invest some of it in riskier products.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sheehan reports that some of his clients have even developed an aversion to mortgages. That may be rational for people with no nest egg or a job that's at risk, but it's not something that everyone should be worrying about.
"It's not logical at all," he says, because some have relatively little mortgage debt relative to home value, hold long-term fixed mortgages at the relatively low rate of 5% or so and gain from the tax deduction for mortgage interest.
Yet "all they want to do is pay off that mortgage," to get rid of "this toxic thing -- a mortgage," he says.

The Chasing-the-News Trap: If you're a financial-news junkie, it's tempting to try to react to each twist and turn of the market. But the best thing you can do is turn off the news, put the remote control down on the coffee table and step away from your television set.
In times like these -- an almost unbelievably volatile stock market, a distorted bond market and an economic meltdown -- newshounds can do tremendous damage to their portfolios. Trying to judge exactly the right moment to get into the market -- and then jump out again a day or two later -- is likely to leave you with big headaches and outsize trading expenses.
An "atmosphere of constant, breathless hysteria" isn't conducive to making smart investing moves, says Carol Clark, an investment principal at Lowry Hill, a wealth-management firm in Minneapolis. "That's not what long-term investing is all about.
"Many of those [300-point] interday moves simply don't make a lot of sense in the first place, so how can it be sensible to try and respond to them?" she asks.
Instead of acting on every new development, it's better to look past the noise and invest small amounts regularly, an approach known as dollar-cost averaging. A strategy based on a solid asset-allocation plan and dollar-cost averaging is more likely to lead to sustainable gains over the longer haul.
Ms. Clark offers one final observation. Usually, investors find themselves in traps "because your emotions have run away with your logical thinking," she says. "You need to find ways to start thinking logically again."
Sometimes it helps to do something as simple as making a list of your investment goals and putting it on the refrigerator. Whenever you're tempted to act impulsively in response to something you see on television or hear from a friend at a dinner party, you can go back to that list and remind yourself that yanking money out of the market may not be the best strategy.
"Then, when you feel an urge to turn on CNBC, you train yourself to look at the list instead," she says.

—Ms. McGee is a writer in New York. She can be reached at reports@wsj.com.
Copyrighted, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

Holiday effects on Good friday, Easter

2009-04-09T10:26:00.000+08:00

I was trying to "google" searching for any evidence of holiday effects on stock market, specifically for this coming Good Friday and Easter.

No evidences showing any holiday effects on these two holidays. However, I have checked the stock index trend before and after the Good Friday, ie. DJIA; for the pass three years. It shows the positive results. Of course, statistically, no conclusion can be made with only 3 years observation. Anyway, during this bad economy situation, do you guys really hope that this wonderful holiday can bring us some surprise, perhaps a good one.

By the way, some research shows that, the retail sales were up as an effect of Good Friday and Easter. What do you think?

Stock market falling down, falling down.....

2009-03-06T09:26:00.000+08:00

I was very busy on my works recently; well, many company are trying to reduce cost with "creative ideas" such as retrenchment, pay cut, schedule or block leaves, unpaid leaves, etc. The company that I am working in is implementing some of these ideas as well, and i would suspect more to come.

Markets are going down further, economy crisis getting worse and we cannot avoid companies from all the bad effects and we, as employers are suffering alot too.

Look at US stock markets, DJIA dropped into 6XXX level; STI dropped to 15XX level; almost everyday we see the red colours numbers in stock market. More and more ex-blue chips were became "penny stocks", look at Cixxgroup?

Luckily I was able to pull some of my money from stock markets few months ago; I would like to enter, but, I think this is not a right time. But, when will be the right time????

Crude oil price stable?

2009-02-06T10:22:00.000+08:00

I am trying to keep track on the stock price of the SPC (SGX). With most recent two week, crude oil price were more or less stable on the US$40 level. With the good financial performance and the good "earning prospect" in petroleum insdustry, SPC stock price already rose 11% within this week, ie. 5 trading days; from the opening price of S$2.45 on monday market open to the current price of S$2.72.

I believe, if there is no major "bad news", especially from the US financial sector, I will be very happy by holding the SPC shares on hand, and keep enjoying the "Paper Win $$$$".

BTW, Tonight, Singaporepools is giving out the 10 millions for the yearly hongbao (red packet) toto lottery draw. It's a big "HOPE" in this bad economy.

Obama bring us losses

2009-01-21T13:31:00.000+08:00

20 January, or yesterday, Obama finally stepped up to be the 44th US president. And perhaps because of his speech, investors seems lost confidence on his planning on financial sector, all stock indexes dropped significantly on this critical period.
And this is not only affected US stock exchanges; but as well as Asian markets. SGX drop as much as 2% upon market opening. My goodness.....

Is this the first bad thing that brought to us by Obama?

By the way, Singapore Petroleum Co. (SPC) just announced and released his FY2008 financial result yesterday. The figures shows that, although market is slowing down, but the revenue was increased so much compared to FY2007. This is most likely due to the high crude oild price during the mid year of 2008.

Beside, the board of SPC proposed the dividends of 8 cents pending approval from the coming AGM. Current stock price is $2.28 per shares. 0.08/2.28 = 3.5%, a good figure hah! I think SPC is a good stock to invest in for long term consideration. Imagine one day the crude oil price shoot up back to US$100 level, the stock price of >$5 is again possible.

SGD to RM hit high again

2008-12-18T08:20:00.000+08:00

Well, this is a good news for me, throughout this two weeks, singapore dollar getting stronger and stronger, or relatively, I would say, US dollars getting weaker and weaker, then hence, some asia countries currencies are following the US dollar to get weaker; even though there are not really "tag" with the US dollar, but they do have certain correlations.

My personal guard feeling, singapore dollar to RM, at least, will still continue to shooting higher. I am waiting the day when the figure hit 1:2.50.
:)

Stocks huge rebound after prolonged down

2008-11-14T08:13:00.000+08:00

From Yahoo! Finance, Good article to share.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Investors did an abrupt turnaround on Wall Street Thursday, muscling the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 550 points after driving it down near its lows for the year on a stream of negative economic and corporate news.

After three days of selling that wiped out about $1 trillion in shareholder value, many investors, though nervous about a prolonged economic downturn, appeared convinced the market had priced in enough bad news. So when the Standard & Poor's 500 index -- the indicator most watched by traders -- managed to recover from multiyear trading lows, buyers swarmed back in.
It's "a herd mentality," said Ryan Larson, senior equity trader at Voyageur Asset Management. "We started going higher -- and you don't want to be the last one on the boat."
The market was following in dramatic fashion its pattern of huge price reversals, one that was set early in the now 15-month-old credit crisis and that has become almost the norm on Wall Street.
Some analysts said investors were positioning themselves ahead of a meeting of Group of 20 leaders in Washington. The meeting could bring decisions on mending the troubled global financial system. The G-20 includes the U.S., Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.
There was "some anticipation that we'll hear some good news from that meeting," said Jack A. Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. Thursday's rally was "part hopeful, part technical. But certainly welcome."
As stocks rallied, so did oil prices, sending shares of energy companies higher. The biggest gainer among the 30 Dow companies was Chevron Corp., which rose $8.43, or 12.5 percent, to $75.71. Another big gainer was Exxon Mobil Corp., which climbed $6.48, or 9.4 percent, to $75.41; these two energy stocks represented one-fifth of the Dow's point gain Thursday.
The price of a barrel of light, sweet crude rose $2.08 to $58.24 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after falling to the lowest levels since January 2007. Oil has been falling for the same reason as stocks -- the fear of a deep global recession.
Stocks sold off early after the Labor Department said the number of newly laid-off individuals seeking unemployment benefits jumped last week to the highest level since right after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. There was also more evidence of a severe pullback in consumer spending -- a worsening trend that had pummeled stocks earlier in the week. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. trimmed expectations for full-year earnings, and Intel Corp. late Wednesday cut more than $1 billion from its sales forecast.
But then the S&P lifted above its Oct. 10 trading lows, and a Treasury auction of 30-year bonds got lower than average but still decent demand from both domestic and foreign buyers, said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. The auction results alleviated some fears about the government having a hard time financing its costly bailout.
Many analysts had predicted the stock market would retest the multiyear lows it reached last month. They also still forecast volatility for some time to come, as Wall Street tries to rebuild from October's devastating losses and gauge the severity of the economy's downturn. During past recoveries from bear markets, a great deal of turbulence in the market became commonplace -- so it's possible that Thursday's gains will get erased if more gloomy reports pour in.
But Hogan called the market's resiliency a "great sign."
The Dow rose 552.59, or 6.67 percent, to 8,835.25, after falling as low as 7,965.42 and rising as high as 8,876.59. That's a trading range of 911 points. The Dow did not sink below its Oct. 10 trading low of 7,882.51.
The Dow's nearly 553-point gain was the third-largest single-session point gain on record, following the 889-point rise on Oct. 28 and the 936-point surge on Oct. 13.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 58.99, or 6.92 percent, to 911.29, after dropping to 818.69 -- well below its previous intraday low of 839.80 set Oct. 10.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 97.49, or 6.50 percent, to 1,596.70.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 38.43, or 8.5 percent, to 491.23.
The stock market gained back $700 billion Thursday, after losing about $1 trillion during the first three days of the week, according to the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 index, which reflects the value of nearly all U.S. stocks. At its lowest trading level Thursday, the market value of the Wilshire index fell below $10 trillion for the first time since April 2003.
Advancing issues outpaced decliners by nearly 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 7.67 billion shares, up from 5.67 billion shares Wednesday.
Government bond prices fell as investors fled back into stocks. The three-month Treasury bill's yield rose to 0.20 percent from 0.13 percent late Wednesday, and the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.85 percent from 3.67 percent late Wednesday. Higher yields indicate lower demand.
Wal-Mart shares rebounded $2.31, or 4.4 percent, to $54.93. The discount retailer's shares had traded lower in earlier trading after it cut its profit outlook because of the flagging global economy and renewed strength of the dollar. Wal-Mart is the only company among the Dow industrials that is up for the year.
Intel also slashed its outlook, initially driving down shares on concerns that consumers are shying away from big purchases like computers. But its shares recovered to trade up 91 cents, or 6.7 percent, at $14.43.
General Motors shares, however, remained weak as the nation's automakers wait for President-elect Obama to push Congress to approve a bailout of the struggling industry. There are also reports that Obama will move to appoint a czar or board to oversee the companies. GM dropped 13 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $2.95. Ford shares rose 6 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $1.90.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies. Gold prices rose.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei closed down 5.25 percent and Hong Kong Hang Seng fell 5.15 percent. In European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.31 percent, Germany's DAX rose 0.62 percent, and France's CAC-40 added 1.10 percent.

Equity Analysis

2008-10-13T08:39:00.002+08:00

As the stock market or equity market is keep falling, if you are still want to enter the stock market, you have to do some research or even understand some basic theory regarding the equity analysis.

I remember few months ago, there is a post in this blog, which was saying that, to analyse the equity, there are three steps which is better to follow:
1. Global Economy analysis
2. Industry
3. Equity (or stock)

Let's discuss about the first step, global economy analysis,

i.Country Analysis:
Expected real economic growth is the most important variable to analyze in a country analysis because it has the most significant influence on the risk and returns in national equity markets. Analysts are interested in forecasting expected economic growth in the short run and long run.
--In the short run, the focus is on forecasting the stage in the business cycle and therefore expected short-term economic growth.
--In the long run, the focus shifts to expectations of sustainable economic growth as measured by growth in per capita gross domestic product (GDP).

ii. Business cycle:
The short-term goal in identifying the current stage in the business cycle is to forecast the turning point when the economy moves from one stage to another and the invest in those sectors or inductries that are expected to perform best during that stage. In most cases this is difficult to do with any degree of success, which is why analysts most often focus on long-run forecasts of sustainable economic growth. Howvere, there are oppportunities to earn excess risk-adjusted returns for the anakyst who can identify and exploit the various stages of the business cycle than others can.
There are five stages of the business cycle abd potentially attractive investment opportunities at each stage are shown in the figure below:

It seems like we are in between of "Economy slow down and recession", as shown, we are not adviceable to throw in our $ into the Stock market, rather, we should focus on Interest sensitive investment.

Dividend

2008-10-05T16:34:00.002+08:00

Let's talk about Dividend.

Cash Dividends, as the name implies, they are payments made to shareholders in cash. They basically come in three forms:

1. Regular dividends occur when a company pays out a portion of profits on a consistent schedule (e.g. Quaterly). A long-term record of stable or increasing dividends is widely viewed by investors as a sign of a company's financial stability.

2. Special dividends are used when the company does not have a regular dividend schedule or if favourable circumstances allow the firm to make a one time cash payment to shareholders. Other names for special dividends include "extra dividends" and "irregular dividends".

3. Liquidating dividends occur when a company goes out of business and distributes the proceeds to shareholders. For tax purposes, a liquidating dividend is treated as a return of capital and amounts over the investor's tax basis are taxed as capital gains.

US market plunge hit record

2008-09-30T07:36:00.000+08:00

Down! Down! Down! Dowjones index record plunge yesterday because of the 700B bailout plan failed.

I can forseen the big big economy crisis is coming, it would affect us, in Asia market of course.
But as I told my friends, economy crisis will not affect much on us if we do not pump in too much $ into the equity market (of course also provided your job or career is not being affected).

Generally speaking, when economy crisis happen, Interest rate will increase......
if we follow the economics thoery, interest rate increase, human tends to save money?? and therefore, hopefully, housing price will drop as demand low. I really hope that.

Furthermore, as a SGD earner, I hope SGD to RM exchange rate will keep hitting high, like 10 years ago, hehehe...... well, then my purchasing power in malaysia will effectively higher.
:P

My new LONG-TERM investment plan.

2008-09-10T13:04:00.000+08:00

Have you ever blocked by any financial planners from banks, insurance companies, investment firms, which selling their products such as monthly saving plans; i.e. save a fixed amount of money every month with a certain lock-in period to enjoy a special given interest rate. With the same logic or strategy, I have planned a long term investment plan for myself. So what kind of investment? Well, it is by purchasing Singapore stocks. How? I shall give a simple explanation as below:

First, I would say, this simple plan would not make me rich, but as I say, this is only for a LONG TERM investment. By looking and searching around the Singapore stocks, I have found a few potential stocks that possibly working fine with this plan. For example, I will just name it as XXX. Well, long term investment, we are normally talking about low risk investment. So, meaning to say, stock XXX has to be a stable, not volatile and constant growth stocks or at least periodically paying a stable dividends.

Again, As i mentioned earlier, the logic and strategy is similar to the saving plan given by banks, etc; ie. every month, or every quarter, or even just every 6 months, depends on your own financial capability, taking part of the saving, and purchase the stock.

For example, every quarter, I am going to purchase one lot of stock XXX at current price at $2.00, in another words, every month, roughly I will take about $500 from my saving to purchase the stock in quarterly manner.
Looking at the historical info of the stock XXX, it's having a average increment (geometric mean)of 26% in the stock price; and most importantly, it's givng an average dividend (geometric mean) of 6% for the past 5 years. Let's take 5 years as a plan, and for "worsen" estimation; we ignore the appreciation of the stock price and assume the yearly dividend is 5%.

Through these, after 5 years, you haved dumb in 20X$2000 =$40,000. But with the returns of the dividends, you got already about $5,000, which is 12.5% increases in the absolute amount. Note that this is the return estimate from dividend, without consider the increase of the value of the stock, and of course you may not need to consider this, as long as you hold the stock even if the price is falling. Furthermore, imagine, after 5 years you have 20 lots of the stock XXX. every year it gives you 10 cents (5% of the price of $2.00), you will get $2,000 for dividends, (NOTE, This is a extra income, not much, but why not?) and if you continue with this strategy all the way till you retire, wow! I would expect it will become a pretty huge extra incomes.

Of course you may doubt on the RISKs of purchasing stock, yes, I could not say no for the risk is there; but personal opinions, there are some pretty stable and constant growing stocks there (or I would say low risk). For example, SMRT? Singtel? SBStransit? etc. Still have doubt, you may check out http://www.sgx.com/ and judge YOURSELF!

Banking - Credit Cards

2008-09-01T09:57:00.001+08:00

Recently, many banks are giving vouchers or other promotion by applying their credit cards. Here I would like to show some of them.
1. HSBC (click to visit the hsbc website and apply)

CFA level 2 and level 3 result released

2008-08-20T12:58:00.000+08:00

Looks like this year's pass rate are much better for all levels.

Pass Rate:

Level 1: 35%
Level 2: 46%
Level 3: 53%

Congratulation!!!

CFA level 2

2008-08-07T13:40:00.001+08:00

I am going to register the level 2 exam (June, 2009), did some simple research on the information regarding the level 2 exam.

Based on 2008 version, it has about 18 sessions of topics, i.e.:
(1) Ethical and Professional Standards.
(2) Ethical and Professional Standards: Application
(3) Quantitative Methods ---> personally, I like this sessions.
(4) Economics: Economics for valuation
(5) Financial Statement Analysis: Intercorporate Investments
(6) Financial Statement Analysis: Pensions, Employee Stock options, and Multinational Operations
(7) Financial Statement Analysis: Earnings QualityIssues andFinancial Ratio Analysis
(8) Corporate Finance
(9) Corporate Finance: Financing and Control Issues in a Global Context
(10) Assets Valuation: Valuation Concepts
(11) Equity Investments: Industry and Company Analysis in a Global Context
(12) Equity Investments: Valuation Models
(13) Equity Investments: Residual Income and Alternative Investments
(14) Fixed Income Investments: Valuation Concepts
(15) Fixed Income Investments: Structures Securities
(16) Derivatives Investments: Forwards and Futures
(17) Derivatives Investments: Options, Swaps, and Interest Rate and Credit Derivatives
(18) Portfolio management: Capital Market Theory and the Portfolio Management Process

Looks like very tough and professional.... have to work work work very very very harddddd.......

OIIM - O2Micro Quarterly Result

2008-07-31T07:38:00.000+08:00

This is one of the stock that I mentioned before, just the day before, the quarterly financial result was released. Well, about one month ago, some financial firms gave some bad comments on this company stock, saying that it is not performing well.

However, I understand that this company keep growing all the time, since the IPO, only one quarter reported loss. Therefore, I, myself has bought the share a week ago. Although it is still out-of-money for my purchase, but I hope and, I believe one day later, very soon, it will give me a good returns.

Below are quoted from Yahoo! Finance:
Net sales for the second quarter of 2008 were $40.8 million, an increase of 8.6% from the preceding quarter, and up 6.8% from the second quarter of the prior year. The GAAP gross margin on net sales was 58.2% in the second quarter, which was similar to 58.5% in the preceding quarter, and up from 56.7% from the second quarter of the prior year.

The Company recorded a GAAP operating margin of 11.1% in the second quarter. Research and Development (R&D) expenditures were $9.5 million, or 23.2% of net sales including $288,000 of stock-based compensation. SG&A expenses were $9.7 million, or 23.9% of net sales, including $433,000 of stock-based compensation.

GAAP Net Income for the second quarter of 2008 was $4.4 million or 12 cents per American Depositary Share (ADS).

Financial results for the six months ending 6/30/2008:

Net sales for the six months ending June 30, 2008 were $78.3 million, an increase of 7.0% from the prior year. The GAAP gross margin on net sales was 58.3% in the first half of fiscal 2008, up from 55.7% in the first half of fiscal 2007.

The Company recorded a GAAP operating margin of 8.6% for the first half of fiscal 2008. This compares with a GAAP operating margin of 7.1% in the first six months of fiscal 2007. For the first six months of fiscal 2008, R&D expenditures were $19.2 million, or 24.5% of net sales, including $546,000 of stock-based compensation; SG&A expenses were $21.8 million for the same period, or 27.8% of net sales, including $848,000 of stock-based compensation.

GAAP Net Income for the first half of fiscals 2007 and 2008 was $5.8 million and $6.6 million, respectively. GAAP Net Income per fully diluted ADS rose from 15 cents in the first six months of fiscal 2007 to 17 cents in the comparable period of fiscal 2008. GAAP Net Income increased by 13% during the first half of fiscal 2008 when compared with the first half of 2007 and GAAP Net Income per fully diluted ADS increased by 15% for the same periodic comparison.

CFA level 1: Pass

2008-07-31T07:30:00.000+08:00

Spent plenty of money, and times for this exam, luckily pass the exam. Thanks God.
Although the result seems like not that good, but still happy.

Should I go for the 2nd level on Jun 2009?
It looks tough!!!

What's actually happened to the Crude oil?

2008-07-23T07:27:00.000+08:00

Sometimes I really cannot understand the oil price's structure.
Few weeks back when we heard the news from the international crude oil association said that the production of the crude oil would not decline but will keep increasing due to the demand, yet the crude oil price keep settling higher and higher.

However, this week, the crude oil price tumbled and tumbled, and marked $20 decreased since the record high at $147 at a week ago. Well. of cource, as a consumer, this is a good news to me, since the petrol price also follow the trend and decrease to S$2.06 already. If the crude oil price is continue to fall, we will be happier as well; which is hardly happened according to those analysts' spokes.

In the other side, where are we now in the economic situation, are we really with the bear?
hmm.......

Life getting tougher for us~

2008-07-01T18:44:00.000+08:00

Crude oil price going higher and higher, hit $145 per barrel, yet the STUPID fellow, still claimed that it is still cheap!! what the hell....?!?!

Furthermore, equity markets keep going low, but commodity expenses keep going high, this imbalances have made many people feel the toughness of surviving.
Some STUPID, or FUNNY guys, I do not know what they were trying to play with, the inflation hit high is so obvious, but yet they keep showing some unrealistic numbers to so called "proof" of living expenses is still remain at same level!! what the hell....?!?!

I hope and I believe~~One day... These guys will feel the PAIN too....

Only one good thing to me is... SGD to RM back to 1:2.40 level :)

$$ Not Strong Enough, yet expenses growing...

2008-06-17T14:51:00.000+08:00

Two weeks ago, the exchange rate between SGD and RM hit almot 1:2.40. I was quite happy, but this did not last long. Malaysia ringgit sudden go strong and now the rate has been fallen to 1:2.37. Never ignore this 3 cents, it could make a big difference when we consider in the Oil Price issue.

Last week, I went back to home town, wuth my friend's car. I was surprise and shock!
Although I knew the normal unleaded petrol price was increased to RM2.70/Ltr two week ago, but i still shock that the Shell V-Power price hit RM3.50/Ltr.

My goodness! although in Singapore, V-Power is much more expensive, it's about SGD2.30/Ltr; but I would say relatively, V-power is so much more expensive compare to normal unleaded petrol in Malaysia. the RM0.80 difference per litre. I wonder such a big difference, if I am a driver in Malaysia, how ridiculuos for me to pump the V-Power in Malaysia? I really have No idea...... However, I am pretty sure, although I am earning SGD, and although RM3.50 is considered cheaper compare to SGD2.10 (normal unleaded) in Singapore, I will not pump V-power in Malaysia though.....

I am Back!

2008-06-09T07:45:00.001+08:00

Well, just finished my exam yesterday, and I could say that I am FREE !
By the way, these few months, there were alot of CHANGES, for example, Stock market, Crude Oil Prices, Exchange Rate, etc.

Congratulation to SGD to RM exchange rate, as it has been climbing up all the way till 1:2.3990, which is close to what I "expect", well, according to the rules and conduct, perhaps I should not use "expect" anyway. I'd better use "HOPE" here, haha....
I do hope this up trend will continue....., continue to UP! next target: 1:2.5? :D

While, the stocks that I am holding, are 90% recovered since the economy downturn few months ago caused by the sub-prime issue. It's a good news to me, and to all of you I guess. However, unfortunately last friday US stock market came with a sudden BEAR~ which is probably because the crude oil price hit $139+ level. A big bad news.... expecially to Malaysian, why? Why I would say so? Regarding the gas price increases last week in Malaysia. A 40% price jump on those has made most of the Nations unhappy. Well, to me, although I think it is fair for a government to do so because this is a global trend, most of the countries are using the floating price for the gas price, but not to most of the Malaysian, since most of them is so "used to" getting the subsidies from government since they are born. This sudden pull out would get them angry are expected.
Anyway, I think as time going, they will "used to it" for the NEW situation!
--"USED TO IT" should not be an EXCUSE to avoid a (good) CHANGE!

Another Good time to exhcnage for Malaysia Ringgit with Singapore Dollar

2008-05-16T11:28:00.000+08:00

Singapore Dollar, SGD or S$ or whatever you regconise it, has been growing strong during this two weeks. As quoted from Yahoo Finance, the exchange rate for Singapore Dollar to Malaysia Ringgit hit the historical high, nearly at 2.37.

look backward and reference to the past experiences, the exchange rate between this two currency is slowly. So, I would recommend to change at this time period, or in another word, I think the rate may fall back to 2.28 or 2.3 level. Of course, I hope, and I believe, long run in future, this rate will clock higher and higher. I do wish it clock it at 1 SGD : 3 RM? Hahaha....

Busy, Busy and Busy

2008-04-28T07:31:00.000+08:00

I am pretty busy recently, morning till evening, most of the time busy on my job, my works;
while at night busy on studying and preparing for my coming exam next month.

I understand that, as an investor, every weekday is another good chance to get profit as long as stock market is open!

However, I would so sorry that, I am going to rest for a while until my exam paper is over.

Still, thanks to everyone, but hopefully all of you will still continue to support my blog!

Invest in stock

2008-04-22T07:51:00.000+08:00

if you are not US citizens or not staying in US, you are not advice to invest in US stock in this long time period as the US dollar is keep falling value. You may be earning an attractive returns from the stock but you might also end up with losing in currency exchange.

Furthermore, looking at the majors blue chips or big company stock price, most of them are still in the "falling season", especially semiconductor industry or even whole technological industry and IT industry, eg. Intel, microsoft, google, broadcom, marvel, qimonda, etc.

In the mean while, Singapore stocks are remain stable during this month, alternatively small rising and small dropping. The STI is remain stable in 3200 level. The banking stocks in Singapore are different with the US one. They are most giving attractive dividends, shall price growing stronger.

During this period of time, many of Singapore stocks are giving out dividends, some of them are quite attractive, you may consider it. Of course, after executing the dividends, share price may fall accordingly, but some of them are good chip where I dont really worry about the share price to gain back to the initial level. Below are some of stocks which giving good dividends:
SPC
ComfortDelgro
SMB United
UOB
Sihuan
SMB united
etc etc etc.... for more, please refer to http://www.sgx.com

Will Crude oil price bring economic crisis?

2008-04-19T19:01:00.000+08:00

From Yahoo!

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's hard-line president declared that crude oil prices, now above $115 a barrel, are too low, state media reported Saturday.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told an oil and gas exhibition in Tehran on Friday that he thought the commodity still had to "discover its real value," according to the Web site of Iran's state-run television.
Oil prices have hit all-time highs above $115 a barrel in recent weeks, amid reports that oil and gasoline reserves in the United States were lower than expected and as the dollar sinks to record lows.
"The oil price of $115 a barrel in today's global markets is a deceiving figure. Oil is a strategic commodity that needs to discover its real value," the Web site quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
Crude oil futures surged to a new trading record of $117 a barrel Friday following an attack on a key pipeline in Nigeria. The increase capped a week of record highs fueled by supply woes and the dollar's weakness relative to other major currencies.
Ahmadinejad said despite high oil prices, the true value of crude oil, adjusted for inflation, is currently less than what it was in 1980.
"While the price of other commodities have increased, the economic value of the current oil price is even less than 1980," he said.
But some figures suggest that today's crude prices might have surpassed inflation-adjusted highs set in early 1980. Depending on how the adjustment is calculated, $38 a barrel then would be worth $96 to $103 or more today.
Ahmadinejad accused Western industrialized nations of "selfishness" in their quest for cheaper oil.
"When they get hold of oil, they assume that oil is a free commodity and belongs to them and has wrongly been placed in other territories. ... This is the spirit of selfishness and arrogance," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.
A host of supply and demand concerns in the U.S. and abroad, along with the dollar's weakness, have bolstered oil prices, even as record retail gasoline prices in the U.S. appear to be dampening demand.
A weaker dollar makes commodities such as oil less attractive to investors as a hedge against inflation, and it makes oil more expensive to investors overseas. Analysts believe the weaker dollar is the primary reason oil has soared this year. The effect tends to reverse when the greenback gains ground.
Ahmadinejad called the U.S. currency "a handful of paper" without any global support.
Iran has stopped using the U.S. dollar in its oil transactions with the outside world, switching to currencies such as euro.
"The dollar is not money any longer but a handful of paper distributed in the world without commodity support," the Web site quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

-To me, crude oils price is too high, people are crazy!!!

2008 Forbes 2000, List of biggest global company

2008-04-04T10:43:00.003+08:00

A good investing strategy always lie on the good research by following the steps as:
1. Economy -- Understand the big picture of the "big market", Macroanalysis
2. Industry -- Different industry may outperform and underperform at different business cycle in certain economy condition; e.g. Oil and gas company keep growing now.
3. Firm, Stock -- Last but not least, this will be the direct "consideration" for an individual investor.

So shall we look at the global companies performance???Forbes has listed out 2008 global 2000 biggest companies. Surprisingly, Citigroup which has been stay at the first place in past few years, has been dropped to 24th this year. This most likely is due to the sub-prime crisis and credit crisis, and the write-off of the organization.

In the other way, the UK listed world largest bank -- HSBC jumped to the first place this year and recorded US$2348 Billions of Assets. Can't imagine about the figure? It is US$23,480,000,000,000.

As you can see from the list, you can see at the first 20 in the list, out of 20, 7 seats is occupied by Oil and gas related companies. "THANKS" to the surge of the oil prices!! This has made the rich, richer; but the poor, poorer!!

Japanese Car producer -- TOYOTA has done a good job this year and able to stand at the 8th in global; Or the 1st place in Asia.

Credit Crisis is Over ???

2008-04-02T08:55:00.000+08:00

Investors believe that the worst of the Credit crisis in US already over, and money started to flow back to the stock market.

Big news reported from banking sectors or financing sector, such as Lehman Brother and UBS, swiss has helped the stock market soar even in the bear run.

DJIA has surged nearly 400 points yesterday and most of the stock indexes close up at +3%. So, is it true the credit crisis is over and bull coming back? Well, we shall see...

Singapore stock market remain stable

2008-03-31T14:29:00.000+08:00

Due to the efforts from US Fed and government to stabilize the US economy; Asian market, most specifically here, the Singapore stock market stay stable at the moment.

Furthermore, the good news about FTA between Taiwan and Singapore last week has brought STI index rose back to the 3,000 level. It could be a good sign, and I think the singapore market will continue to remain stable, or slightly growing as long as no further bad news regarding US economy is announced.

Singapore Banking firms' stock price all rose to their stable price; DBS and UOB are now at the $19 level and OCBC is able to stand at $8.20 level. Believe me, they will continue to grow!

Effects from Taiwan Politics

2008-03-25T09:29:00.000+08:00

Given the result of the Taiwan election, Mr. Ma succesfully won and ready to become the new Taiwan President. Due to his announcement that the FTA -- Free Trade Agreement between Taiwan and Singapore, Taiwan and Singapore stock exchange get boosted these two days and I forsee such a big wave may continue for the time being until Mr. Ma begin on duty.

The ETF (Exchange traded fund) of Taiwan rose by 7% till the end of the market hours.
STI and Taiwan Stock index also rose by around 5% overall.

Banking stocks in singapore continue to rose in these two days, it maybe another good chance to invest again.

We are in challenging time

2008-03-18T08:51:00.001+08:00

President Bush declared "we're in challenging times" and huddled Monday with top economic officials -- including Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox.

Federal Reserve is going to take interest cut again, rates are continues to be cut again and again, but these does not seems help the stock market or even the economy. Stock market indexes are continues to plunge, and the economy crisis infected globally.

DJIA was dropped from the high at 13,500 three months ago to 11,900 the latest, in another words, within 3 months, DJIA index has already dropped about 12%. I, as a stock investor, I am deeply feeling the pain, and you? Doesn't feel the pain? Just try to imagine the price of a cup of coffee is increase from $5 to $5.60; the fuel is increase from $2/litre to 2.24/litre; etc.Similarly to Asia stock market, STI has dropped from 3,400 to 2800 currently, or -18% within 3 months. I am still holding plenty of stocks, though most are blue chip which seems not serious affected by the bearish market; however, I am totally fed up towards the stock market. I think I will not enter into the stock market until the big BEAR get killed!!!

Good News to a Stock Market

2008-03-12T09:11:00.001+08:00

Fed Announces $200 Billion in Help for Banks, Leading Dow to Biggest Day in 5 Years

From Yahoo!

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Fed promised a $200 billion booster shot for ailing markets -- and Wall Street answered with its biggest bounce in more than five years.The Dow Jones industrials shot up more than 416 points, the biggest single-day point gain since July 2002, after the Federal Reserve announced the move as part of a worldwide effort to help struggling banks and mortgage providers.

Hoping to ease the credit crisis, the Fed -- acting with the European Central Bank, the Bank of Canada and the Swiss National Bank -- agreed to loan investment banks money in exchange for debt, including slumping mortgage-backed securities.
The idea is to create a market for assets that investors have recently been too scared to buy. That freeze in demand had sent asset values plunging and caused huge losses for some of the world's biggest banks.
After a series of hefty losses in stocks, the market hopes the central banks' decision Tuesday might be more effective than previous moves -- like rate cuts, which had led to initial stock pops that later fizzled.
"It's not just a rate cut. I think it's a very creative way to do financing," said Anthony Conroy, managing director and head trader for BNY ConvergEx Group. "It shows the Fed is willing to do things that are a little out-of-the-box to shore up credit issues. I really think they went to the heart of the issue."
Investors certainly seemed to like it: The Dow rose 416.66, or 3.6 percent, to 12,156.81. It was the biggest point jump in the Dow since a 447-point rise on July 29, 2002, and its widest one-day percentage gain since March 2003.
The Dow had lost more than 500 points in the past three sessions and is still down about 2,000 points from its October 2007 record high.
Broader stock indicators also soared. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 47.28, or 3.7 percent, to 1,320.65, while the Nasdaq composite index surged 86.42, or about 4 percent, to 2,255.76.
It was the S&P's biggest point gain since April 5, 2001, and the Nasdaq's biggest since May 8, 2002.
The latest step by the central banks was seen as a direct lifeline to investment banks, which previously couldn't borrow beyond already established Fed liquidity plans.
The plan basically allows Wall Street's biggest institutions to put up troubled assets as collateral for loans, use the new capital to make money in the market, and then pay back the loan up to 28 days later.
Though eventually banks would be forced to take the troubled mortgage-backed debt back on their books, the plan still takes short-term pressure off them. Many of these banks will release first-quarter earnings reports next week.
"The big problem has been the financials, and this helps supply money directly to the banks and may take some of the need for aggressive rate cutting off the table," said Peter Dunay, chief investment strategist at Meridian Equity Partners. "The Fed is basically going to take the bad loans off the banks' books, and the market seems to be loving that idea."
The Fed may have avoided dramatically slashing interest rates again when it meets next week. Economists remain concerned about the unrelenting rise in oil prices and the dollar's weakness, which contribute to inflation -- and cutting rates only adds to those pressures.
Government bond prices fell as stocks rallied. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, spiked to 3.60 percent from 3.46 percent late Monday.
Financial sector stocks, many of which have dipped to multiyear lows in recent days on liquidity concerns, led the market higher Tuesday.
Citigroup Inc. rose $1.42, or 7.2 percent, to $21.11, Washington Mutual Inc. rose $1.72, or 17 percent, to $11.76, and Bank of America Corp. rose $1.33, or 3.8 percent, to $36.64.
Morgan Stanley rose $4.19, or 10.9 percent, to $42.49, Lehman Brothers rose $3.33, or 7.8 percent, to $46.31, and Merrill Lynch rose $2.76, or 6.4 percent, to $45.60.
Bear Stearns Cos. rebounded from losses to rise 67 cents to $62.97, even after an analyst said the No. 5 U.S. investment bank might need to sell itself, or layoff more staff, to stay afloat. The cost to insure Bear Stearns bonds has been spiking to all-time highs. A spokesman for Bear Stearns didn't immediately return telephone calls.
The Fed's announcement overshadowed a report from the Commerce Department that showed the United States' trade deficit grew larger in January. The latest snapshot of the economy showed that the trade gap increased to $58.2 billion -- the highest since November.
The primary reason behind the widening trade deficit is high oil prices. Crude rose as high as $109.72 in premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange before ending at a new settlement record of $108.75. The weak dollar has contributed to oil's rally from $87 a barrel in January.
Gold prices rose, while the dollar edged up against most other major currencies.
The only sector posting major losses Tuesday was health care, which has been strong in recent months. WellPoint Inc. fell after Goldman Sachs trimmed its ratings in the managed care sector to neutral from attractive. The investment bank singled out WellPoint's performance amid pricing pressures. The stock plunged $18.66, or 28 percent, to $47.26.
Google Inc. shares spiked after European Union regulators cleared the Internet company's $3.1 billion bid for online ad tracker DoubleClick. Shares of Google rose $26.22, or 6.3 percent, to $439.84.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 29.84, or 4.63 percent, to 673.81.
Advancing issues surpassed decliners by more than 5-to-1 on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume came to 5.17 billion shares, up sharply from 4.15 billion shares Monday.
Stocks overseas rebounded. Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average rose 1.01 percent, while Hong Kong's market closed up 1.28 percent higher. Britain's FTSE-100 rose 1.7 percent, Germany was up 2.01 percent, and France added 1.61 percent.

--This good news not only bring a big boom to US stock market but also Asia countries' Stock market in the next day. Especially for banking stock, most are rose about 5% at the opening.

Good stock ready to buy in and keep for (relatively) long term

2008-03-11T14:47:00.006+08:00

Under Nasdaq: OIIM
O2Micro International Limited.

I worked in this company before, and looked through the performance of the company as well as the stock price chart throughout the years. This is almost the good time to buy in the stock and wait for it to rise in future. you may ask, for how long? I am not sure, with considerations of the bad economy situation in US. But I am relatively confidence that some capital gains could be achieved.

The current stock price is $7 to $8. Of course it would be the best to wait (if possible) till it drops to the historical lowest price at $5. However, if you were able to gain and sell it off at at least $15, why do you care about the $2 or $3? Hmmm.... anyway, these are just my personal opinions.

Click to view the Chart inYahoo!

New Car - Worth it?

2008-03-11T14:10:00.006+08:00

I have ordered my first car in my life two days ago. Spending about SGD34,000 (OPC) for a brand new Subaru Impreza 1.6i Sedan 5MT.

I heard that this car is having a quite heave fuel consumption, which in worst at 7km/l. hmm, i have no idea, anyway, it's already ordered and no way to feel regret, somehow, feeling excited and can't wait to get my Aqua blue Subaru.

Below are some brief descriptions and specification of this car:

Symmetrical AWD
Subaru has been on a single-minded mission to think differently about car design for more than three decades. Perfecting the unique combination of SUBARU BOXER and totally linear drivetrain layout, that is Symmetrical AWD, while others trod more traditional routes. Why? Because these two complementary concepts produce superior driving potential that only Subaru has exploited across its whole range. Everything from engine to transmission, transfer to propeller shaft and rear differential is logically arranged in line, without the doglegs or deviations of other four-wheel drive (4WD) systems, and in a laterally symmetrical layout. All the resulting benefits work together, giving every Subaru naturally neutral balance and poise, for perfect weight distribution front to rear and side to side.

Subaru Boxer
Lightweight and compact, SUBARU BOXER Horizontally-Opposed Engines are intrinsically smoother and more efficient than In-line or V-type designs. Superb rotational balance means less vibration, because the pistons counteract each other to cancel it out. Obviously, the flatter configuration also means the engine sits much further down in the vehicle, giving a lower centre of gravity that enhances the advantages of the AWD and suspension systems.

Three Advantages:

Better balance
When you turn a corner, centrifugal force always tries to move your car towards the outside edge of the bend. How much this affects handling depends on the vehicle's centre of gravity. If it's high, it takes longer to regain balance and control. If it's low – as in the Impreza – there's less deviation and body roll, giving greater stability.

Less vibration
With its 180 degree configuration, the SUBARU BOXER engine cuts vibration dramatically by eliminating the inertia of opposing pistons – unlike upright or V-type engines where pistons compete with each other. The result is instant responsiveness throughout the rev range and unprecedented driving comfort.

More grip and traction
Full-time AWD has distinct advantages over two-wheel drive (2WD) – especially in cornering. By transmitting power through all four tyres, the car steers naturally and neutrally in the direction of the bend, avoiding understeer or oversteer, which can lead to instability in 2WD vehicles.

Click to enlarge

Entrecard - Boost up your Traffic

2008-03-07T08:50:00.004+08:00

No doubt, entrecard user is growing exponentially as a powerful tool for promoting blogger's site. Initially, I was still doubt about the effectiveness of this entrecard of boosting up my blog's traffic; until yesterday I began to try out. Surprisingly, the visiting traffic was increased 10% in half day! And, it's still continue growing!!

Wonder how does it helps and works? Read through the following: (Special thanks to About.com)

What is Entrecard?
Entrecard is a free advertising exchange network. Users can advertise their own Entrecard ad on any blog in the Entrecard network for free for a certain number of days. Ads are paid for through Entrecard Credits that users earn by visiting other blogs in the network and dropping off their "cards" at those blogs through a special Entrecard widget, which appears on every participating blog in the network.
To get started with Entrecard, simply sign up on the Entrecard website. Once your account is activated, click on the "Get Code" tab to copy the code for the specific widget you want to use on your blog. Simply paste that code into a widget on your blog and you're ready to go.
When you join Entrecard, you'll have the opportunity to create your own 125x125 business card. This card will also serve as your ad when you advertise on another site in the network. You can change your card's appearance at any time. Remember, this card is your ad, so try to create something that users will click when they see it.

How Do I Earn Credits to Pay for Ads through Entrecard?
Every participating Entrecard member will display a special Entrecard widget on their blogs. That widget includes an icon for Entrecard members to click on to drop off their virtual card. You earn one Entrecard credit for every virtual card you drop at other sites in the network. You also earn one credit for every card another user drops off at your site.
When someone drops a card off at your site, their card will appear in your Entrecard in-box. If you'd like, you can simply click on that Entrecard in your in-box to visit that user's site and reciprocate by dropping your card off, thereby earning another Entrecard credit for you and the other person.
You can also earn Entrecard credits when another person advertises on your blog and pays you with the credits they've earned.

How Do I Place My Entrecard Ad on Other Websites?
To advertise on other sites, you'll simply navigate to the "Campaign" section of your Entrecard inbox and find the blog within the network where you want to advertise. Simply click on "advertise" under that site's card. Once the owner of that site approves your request, your ad will appear on that site for 24 hours for each advertisement slot you buy with your Entrecard credits.

How Do I Pay for Entrecard Ads?
To advertise on another site in the Entrecard network, you'll have to pay with credits in an amount equal to twice the number of cards dropped off on that site each day. In other words, if 10 cards are dropped off on that site each day, you'll have to pay that user 20 Entrecard credits to place your ad on that site. Remember, each ad you pay for is displayed for 24-hours. You can pay for as many 24-hour units that you want, however, each site can only have 9 ad units in its qeue. Once the 9-days in the site's advertising queue are filled, you'll have to wait until another unit opens up to purchase additional ads. The cost to advertise and the wait time are shown under each users' card within the "Campaign" section of the Entrecard site.

Placing Other Entrecard Users' Ads on Your Blog
You have the option to approve or reject any ad that another Entrecard user submits to you. It's important to visit the sites of anyone who asks to advertise on your blog to ensure the content is appropriate to your audience before you approve it (you don't want to offend your readers).

Want to try it out?? Just go to
Entrecard.com

Currency continue to growth?!?!

2008-03-06T09:23:00.005+08:00

Asia contries' currencies continue to growth with respect to US dollar. Of course, it was due to the falling value of US dollar in fact.

US dollar to Singapore dollar exchange rate already hit the recorded low at 1.38 something. This is not surprise actually, and it should be expected which you can refer to my earlier blog @
Asia Currencies keep growing...

Well, if you consider about the current US economy, again, I would expect the US dollar will continue to fall, perhaps, 1:1.35 or even lower in near future. Well, as a resident in Asia, I might be happy; but, since I am working in a European company, it is not a good idea for US dollar to depreciate as every dollar of earning will be converted to a lower EURO. When company's revenues falling, in another words, my bonus is more likely to decrease as well. >_<'

Starbucks Promises Customers Perfection

2008-02-28T15:12:00.007+08:00

From Yahoo! Finance
Starbucks' New Pledge: to Make a Perfect Cup of Coffee, or Do It Over Again

SEATTLE (AP) -- A day after shutting down most of its U.S. shops for three hours to retrain baristas on espresso basics, Starbucks is welcoming customers back Wednesday with a new promise posted in stores: "Your drink should be perfect, every time. If not, let us know and we'll make it right."

Starbucks Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Schultz said the 135,000 baristas who got the refresher course pledged to uphold "the uncompromising standards and quality that have made Starbucks the world's coffee leader."
Nearly 7,100 company-operated Starbucks stores across the U.S. -- all except the licensed shops in supermarkets, airports, malls, hotels and the like -- closed at 5:30 p.m. local time Tuesday for a teach-in that was part espresso tutorial, part pep rally.
Instead of dumping shots straight into the paper cups they'll serve to customers, Starbucks baristas are getting back to pouring espresso into shot glasses first. "You get to see if it's a quality shot of espresso," store manager Justin Chapple, 25, said during a training session at a New York City store.
Starbucks switched to automatic espresso machines years ago, but it still takes skill to work them. Baristas have to adjust the grind to make sure a shot doesn't pour too quickly, making it watery, or too slowly, making it bitter.
"It's not as simple as pushing a button," said Ann-Marie Kurtz, Starbucks' manager of global coffee and tea education.
Starbucks wouldn't disclose how much revenue it stands to lose during the shutdown, but analysts say the financial impact will be negligible compared to charges the company will take as it closes about 100 poorly performing U.S. stores this year and pays severance to more than 200 corporate support staff it laid off last week.
U.S. stores make up the bulk of Starbucks' revenue, which totaled $9.4 billion in fiscal 2007, when the company earned more than $672 million.
Robert Toomey, an analyst with E.K. Riley Investments, said he didn't expect a surly backlash from customers getting turned away. "It's a low-traffic time of day," he said. "The risk of ticking off customers is pretty minimal."
It makes sense to tackle the training in one fell swoop, and it shows the company -- which has seen its stock slide about 50 percent since late 2006 -- is committed to turning itself around, Toomey said.
"They know they've fallen short," Toomey said. "The quality of the product has deteriorated a bit over the last few years, and they know they've got to improve it."
Christina Mallozzy, a pharmaceutical saleswoman, looked miffed when she walked up to a Starbucks on Manhattan's Upper East Side only to find out it was closed. "I'm not furious. My life's not going to end," said Mallozzy, 25. She was, however, annoyed because she had she had gone to the trouble of snagging a parking space.
Meanwhile in Seattle, a line a dozen people deep snaked outside one of Caffe Vita Coffee Roasting Co.'s Seattle shops at dusk Tuesday, as the local chain gave away free espresso drinks while the world's largest gourmet coffee retailer shut its doors.
"Free-market economy, baby! You've got to take advantage of what the competition throws at you," squealed Amy Grooms, a 29-year-old accountant who said she quit going to Starbucks once she moved to Seattle, because she thinks independents brew better-tasting coffee.
Other rivals offered similar deals. Dunkin' Donuts slashed the price of its small lattes, cappuccinos and other coffee drinks for 99 cents for most of the day. Yet spokeswoman Michelle King demurred when asked if it was a competitive jab at Starbucks.
"We are offering this promotion today because there is an opportunity to reach a large number of coffee drinkers, as well as provide our own loyal customers with a great deal," King said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
McDonald's Corp., which has been trying to steal Starbucks customers by revamping its coffee menu, declined to comment on Starbucks' training effort and offered no special deals Tuesday.
Starbucks plans to train its international employees over the next month, as well as baristas who work at the company's more than 4,000 licensed shops.
AP Business Writers Tali Arbel in New York, Mark Jewell in Boston and Dave Carpenter in Chicago contributed to this report.
The graph below is quote from www.yahoo.com

Fed Rate will be cut again???

2008-02-28T15:03:00.001+08:00

From Yahoo Finance!

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve is ready to lower interest rates again to brace the wobbly economy even as zooming oil prices spread inflation, Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled to Congress on Wednesday.
He is fighting to keep the economy afloat after mighty blows from the housing and credit crises, while trying to contain inflation.
For now, the priority is shoring up the economy, Bernanke suggested in an appearance before the House Financial Services Committee. He pledged anew to slice a key interest rate and help the economy, which many fear is on the verge of a recession, if not already in one.
"The economic situation has become distinctly less favorable" since the summer, the Fed chief told lawmakers.
Since then, the housing slump has worsened, credit problems have intensified and the job market has deteriorated. Bernanke said that combination of bad news has made people and businesses more cautious about spending and investing, further weakening the economy.
The country should prepare for "sluggish economic activity in the near term," Bernanke said. Concern is growing about the possible return of stagflation, when stagnant growth is combined with rising inflation, for the first time since the 1970s.
Were energy prices to continue to rise at a sharp clip -- something the Fed does not anticipate -- it would "create a very difficult problem" for the economy, Bernanke said. Inflation would spread and growth would be further restrained, he said. If that happened, it would be a "very tough situation," he added.
The Fed is prepared to lower rates again to bolster economic growth, Bernanke said. The Fed "will act in a timely manner as needed to support growth and to provide adequate insurance against downside risks," he said, sticking closely to assurances he offered earlier this month.
The central bank started lowering a key interest rate in September. Over just eight days in January, the Fed shaved 1.25 percentage points, the biggest one-month reduction in a quarter-century. Economists and Wall Street investors predict the Fed will cut rates again at its next meeting, March 18. Some analysts believe rates will drop again in April.
Brian Bethune, economist at Global Insight, said Bernanke's remarks "keeps the door wide open for further rate cuts."
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrials edged up 9.36 points.
Bernanke said that at some point this year, the Fed will need to "assess whether the stance of monetary policy is properly calibrated" to foster the Fed's objectives of price stability "in an environment of downside risks to growth."
He was hopeful that previous rate reductions and the $168 billion economic aid plan of tax rebates for people and tax breaks for business would energize the economy in the second half of 2008.
As the Fed chief began his first day of back-to-back appearances on Capitol Hill to discuss the economy, there was more bad news on the housing and manufacturing fronts. Sales of new homes fell in January for a third straight month. Orders to factories for big-ticket manufactured goods dropped in January by the largest amount in five months.
Bernanke has come under some criticism for not acting sooner in cutting rates. But Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus, the committee's top Republican, expressed sympathy. "There is perhaps no other public figure in America who has been subjected to as much Monday morning quarterbacking as you have" over the past months, Bachus said.
The committee chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., suggested the economy is not suffering through a garden-variety slowdown.
He made clear that he wasn't trying to put the R-word -- recession -- in Bernanke's mouth. "I'm not going to be responsible for the nervous people at the stock market who overreact when you twitch your nose," Frank told Bernanke. "But the problems we now have are different."
Many of those woes are linked to the housing meltdown. Bernanke was asked when he thought the housing market might stabilize. It's possible, he said, that by "later this year it will stop being such a big drag directly" on the economy. But home prices probably will decline into next year, he added.
"It is very difficult to know, and we've been wrong before," Bernanke said.
Even as the Fed tries to bolster the economy, it must remain mindful of inflationary pressures, Bernanke said.
Oil prices, which have set records, briefly shot past $102 a barrel on Wednesday; prices eased, but still remain close to $100 a barrel.
"Should high rates of overall inflation persist," Bernanke said, "the possibility also exists that inflation expectations could become less well-anchored." If people think inflation is escalating, they will act in ways that could make things even worse, a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. Bernanke said that could complicate the Fed's job of trying to nurture growth while keeping inflation under control.
If oil prices continue to skyrocket this year, it would be "hard to maintain low inflation," Bernanke acknowledged.

--My personal Opinion or discovery, although fed rate is going to cut, but most likely the stock market end up dip rather than soar, because words like "rate cut did not meet expectations"is played around.

Singapore - SPC & OCBC

2008-02-22T13:28:00.000+08:00

Singapore Petroleum Corporation (STI: SPC)

Although SPC share price has been dropped significantly throughout this two months, however, SPC announced another high payout dividend at $0.40.

Current price is $6.90, therefore the payout or the dividend yield can be approximately calculate as 0.4/6.9 = 5.8%. (Note: this dividend payout is not the annual dividend payout, which means the annual dividend yield for SPC is definitely higher than 5.8% for this year).

According to the current market situation, I am not sure whether is it worth to buy SPC stock to gain this $0.40 dividend, without understanding of the financial prospect of SPC. However, if we just refering to the oil price trend, it seems that the oil based stocks are still can buy; somehow, this is for sure for long-term investment.

Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation (STI: OCBC BK)

Today, OCBC announced the 4Q07 result, which reports full year net profit of S$2,071 millions; or 30% rose compare to last year.

Return on equity (ROE) , based on core earnings, improved from 11.8% in 2006 to 13.4% in 2007. The Group’s equity in the second half of 2007 was boosted by about S$1 billion mark-to-market gain on its 10% stake in Bank of Ningbo, which was listed in July 2007. Excluding this effect, adjusted return on equity would have been higher at 13.8% for 2007. Core earnings per share for 2007 grew by 32% to 59.7 cents.

A final tax-exempt dividend of 14 cents per share has been proposed, bringing the full year dividend to 28 cents per share, up from 23 cents in FY06 and representing a payout of 46% of the Group’s core earnings.

By rough estimation, since the payout is 46% or 0.46, which means the retention rate (RR) is equal to 1-0.46 =0.54, or 54%; with the ROE equals to 13.4%; we can estimate the next years' growth, g as: g=RR x ROE, or equals to 7.2%.

CEO of OCBC group, David Conner said:”We achieved strong results in 2007 in spite of the turbulence in global financial markets. Our coreearnings growth of 30% is our best performance since 1999, while our ROE is at its highest since 1994.Given the ongoing concerns over the effects of the US sub-prime crisis and a possible US recession,the economic outlook for 2008 is uncertain. We will nevertheless continue to work hard to delivergrowth by expanding our customer franchise throughout the region. ”

Phillip Securities Research giving a target price of OCBC at $9.30 (current price: $7.60).

Asia currencies keep growing...

2008-02-19T09:33:00.000+08:00

Due to the slowing down of US economy, most of the Asia currencies are growing high, especially for the Thai Baht, Japan Yen, Indonesia Rupiah, Malaysia Ringgit and Singapore dollar.

Malaysia ringgit so far hit the lowest point at 1 USD to 3.21 RM. This compare to the rate at 1 year before when Malaysia Ringgit was tagged with USD at 1 to 3.8, it grows about 15% already.

Meanwhile, similar to Singapore Dollar, USD to SGD exchange rate has been dropped from 1:1.70 till 1:1.41 now; or around 17%.

Well, Look at the US economy now, it seems that exchange rate for Asia currency will still continue to grow further.

For Singapore Dollar, one could expect the exchange rate can hit at 1USD to 1.38 SGD in by the end of 2008.

Happy Chinese New Year

2008-02-18T11:37:00.001+08:00

While Chinese New Year still on-going....
I wish all the investors have a very prosperous new year,
and wish all the stock markets continue to UP UP and away~~

Microsoft $44B bids on Yahoo!

2008-02-04T16:08:00.000+08:00

Google so far is already captured about 62% market share on the search engine and internet advertising. Is this a obvious signs that Google is gradually or will finally monopolize the internet market in the future?

Yahoo!'s performance has been continuosly falling since 2006, perhaps nowadays, internet surfers are prefer to use Google search rather than Yahoo! search which used to be a KING in 10 years back.

Microsoft, as another big competitor, could have seen the problem with Google getting stronger in internet, a $44 Billions bid on acquisition of Yahoo! will be a significant push for Microsoft, or perhaps, "Mycrosoft!" after the integration of Yahoo! and Microsoft to be a big player in online advertising and compete with Google.

Google claiming that if Microsoft success to acquisite Yahoo!, will be bad for internet; and hence he is trying to offer help to Yahoo! to thwart Microsoft's bid. In contrast, Microsoft is claiming that the "merging" of this two companies, will definitely is good for internet.

Efficient Market

According to the definition of Efficient Capital Market (ECM), an newly coming information which would affect the stock price of a company would react fast enough that nobody is able to gain any extra or so called abnormal return on the price change.
Is Microsoft $44B bid on Yahoo! case considered a Efficient Market?

It seems logical for Yahoo!'s share price rose about 50% (to be exactly, 48%) as Microsoft is giving a bidding price that is 62% above of the market price. The share price change is happened at the announcement of the Microsoft's bid prior to the Stock market reopen. So we may conclude that the market is efficient, but not fully efficient. From the one day trend of the stock price of Yahoo!, we can see that definitely some investors, or perhaps more specifically, arbitragers would have gain a big return, without considering the trasaction cost or taxes.
We, as a small investor, if you always think that this kind of situation can always gives us an opportunity to gain some significant return by buy and sell, you are definitely WRONG!
You may ask "why", you can easily see many investors can gain from it.
Explanation:
Firstly, even the market is not a fully efficient one, where there was a delay between the new information (announcement of the bid) and the price change. As a small investor, especially an outsider, we got the announcement normally are later than the price change. Even if you are able to receive the information prior to the price change, ask yourself, are you so confidence or rational that you can dump in your money on the RISK for it? Statically shows that, as human nature, or risk adverse behavior does not allow you to fast react on this kind of situation.
Anyway, if it is so lucky that you are the one considered as a smart investor, let's assume,
you able to buy in the lowest possible price of the stock at around 11.30am @ price of $27.40; and again you are so lucky that you able to sell away the stocks at about 3.45pm (market is about to close) @ the price of $28.70. Therefore, effectively, you are only earning $1.30 per share, or only $1.30/$27.40 =4.7%. Wow... seems still attractive? But do not forget about transaction cost or tax (if available), especially you are a SMALL investor.
Again, at best you can only get 4.7% of return but not 48% which you can see!

Furthermore, if you are the one so unlucky, you bought at the peak at the beginning of the stock opening because of the "good news", at the price of $28.70, you may have sell it at $27.40 because of "scare of loss", stop for loss limits. You have already loss about 4.5% without consider the transaction cost. Even if you do not sell is at $27.40 because you are a high-risk taker, till the market off, you most likely still holding the stock now, and wait for the next trading day.
However, so unlucky, the next trading day is Monday, which monday effect may come.

Well, I am not saying that you cannot get any return for it, but what I want to stress is,.....
There is a RISK, perhaps a HIGH RISK,
So, Think carefully if you want to take the risk!

Google such a BIG GUY can miss it also??!

2008-02-01T13:26:00.000+08:00

From Yahoo!

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google Inc.'s earnings and revenue growth decelerated more than analysts anticipated during the fourth quarter, magnifying worries that the Internet search leader's moneymaking machine is bogging down as the U.S. economy teeters on the brink of recession.

The quarterly results released Thursday spooked already jittery investors, causing Google's slumping stock price to plunge 6.5 percent farther.
Google earned $1.21 billion, or $3.79 per share, during the final three months of 2007. That's up 17 percent from net income of $1.03 billion, or $3.29 per share, in the same period a year earlier.
It's the first time Google's quarterly profit has climbed by less than 25 percent since the Mountain View-based company went public nearly 3 1/2 years ago.
If not for stock awards given to its employees, Google said it would have made $4.43 per share -- a penny below the average estimate among analysts polled by Thomson Financial.
The earnings would have been even lower if Google hadn't benefited from an abnormally low tax rate of 25 percent in the quarter. American Technology Research analyst Rob Sanderson estimated Google would have earned 11 cents less if the company had been taxed at its more typical rate of 27 percent.
Chief Executive Eric Schmidt rebuffed the notion that the feeble U.S. economy undercut Google's growth.
"I am happy to say we have not seen a negative impact from the rumors of a future recession," Schmidt told analysts during a Thursday conference call.
Company co-founder Sergey Brin said in an interview that the company hasn't seen evidence of the recent economic turmoil affecting its business.
"I'm very happy with things," Brin said. "I think things are going really well."
Investors apparently don't share Brin's optimism. Concerns about the crumbling economy denting Google contributed to a nearly 20 percent decline in the company's stock price this month. Now it looks like the sell-off will continue as the calendar turns to February.
Google shares rose $16.03 to finish at $564.30 in Thursday's regular session then plunged $36.90 in extended trading after the fourth-quarter results came out.
Google executives said a revision in the company's formula for showing advertising links crimped the fourth-quarter results by reducing the number of revenue-generating clicks. Without providing details, the executives said Google made the change to decrease the frequency of "accidental" clicks on ads.
Total paid clicks in the fourth quarter rose 30 percent from the same 2006 period. In the first three quarters of 2007, Google's paid clicks were rising at a clip of 45 to 52 percent.
Brin and other executives also said Google didn't reap as much revenue as management envisioned from its advertising partnerships with rapidly growing online social networks like News Corp.'s MySpace.
Management didn't quantify the size of the shortfall, but Brin said engineers are addressing the problem.
Google has guaranteed News Corp. payments totaling $900 million during a three-year contract scheduled to end in 2010, so it can lose money if ads on MySpace aren't paying off.
Fourth-quarter revenue totaled $4.83 billion, a 51 percent improvement over $3.21 billion in the previous year.
In a more important measure to investors, Google retained $3.39 billion in revenue after paying fees to the thousands of Web sites in the online advertising network that fuels its profits.
The net revenue missed analyst estimates by about $60 million.
Google's fourth-quarter performance would make most companies envious.
But Google's market value of $175 billion has been built on the premise that it will consistently produce even more robust profit gains as advertisers shift their spending to the Internet from television, radio, newspapers and magazines.
Google generally only gets paid when Web surfers click on an advertising link on its site and other online destinations. So its growth could taper off if consumers become less inclined to click on ads if they become more because they're more reluctant to spend amid signs of a recession.
But Google also could benefit if consumers become more focused on saving money during hard times, according to Jonathan Rosenberg, the company's senior vice president of product management and marketing.
In Thursday's conference call, Rosenberg painted a scenario in which more consumers will turn to the Internet in search of the best deals -- a quest that will lead them to Google and perhaps induce more revenue-producing clicks on ads.
For all of 2007, Google earned $4.2 billion, or $13.29 per share, a 37 percent improvement over $3.1 billion, or $9.94 per share, in 2006. Revenue in 2007 totaled $16.6 billion, a 56 percent increase from $10.6 billion in 2006.

STI plunge again and again

2008-01-29T17:30:00.000+08:00

Just about three weeks time, STI can ever dropped to as low as 2700 level. about 20%.
Although this few days it was able to climb back to 3000 level. It was tough, so tough for them to recover to original level as recorded at end of 2007.

While at the another side, US may have another rate cute again, but personally think that no matter the rate is cut or not cut, it would bring a negative effect toward the stock market in this kind of situation now.

Related reports can be shown as below:
but do not hope for too much!

From yahoo!
Asian Markets Rise As Investors Take Heart From Wall Street Rally, Hope for US Rate Cut
HONG KONG (AP) -- Asian stock markets rebounded Tuesday as investors cheered an overnight rally on Wall Street and snapped up beaten down shares on expectations of a U.S. interest rate cut later this week.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 3 percent at 13,486.5 in afternoon trading, while Hong Kong's blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 2.3 percent to 24,597.63 by midday. Both markets -- Asia's two biggest -- tumbled more than 4 percent Monday on fears the U.S. economy, a major export destination, was entering a recession.
Stocks in India, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines also rose.
Monday's drop gave investors a chance to re-enter the market, said Francis Lun, a general manager at Fulbright Securities in Hong Kong.
"Hong Kong's rally is really making up for yesterday's fall," he said. "The market was oversold."
Sentiment got a lift from Wall Street's gain on Monday, when investors in the U.S. took a dismal new home sales report as a sign the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates when its policy-making committee meets Tuesday and Wednesday.
That would come right on the heels of a deep three-quarters of a percent cut in a key rate last Tuesday to 3.5 percent that sparked a rebound in stock markets worldwide after they plunged early in the week.
Investors speculate this week's interest rate cut will be either a quarter point or half point.
"If they don't cut rates, then we will probably see the markets fall again on Thursday," said Lun.
Lun said Asian investors were also heartened by President Bush's last state of the union address Tuesday in which he stressed the government's determination to reinvigorate the moribund economy with tax rebates.
Bush urged lawmakers to urgently approve a $150 billion plan in tax relief for families and incentives for businesses to invest in new plants and equipment.
"As we meet tonight, our economy is undergoing a period of uncertainty," Bush said. "And at kitchen tables across our country there is concern about our economic future."
Bush reassured Americans that their country's economy was robust, but warned of a rocky road ahead in the short-term.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 176.72, or 1.45 percent, on Monday to 12,383.89, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 23.36, or 1.76 percent, to 1,353.97.
Many Asian countries are heavily reliant on American consumers to buy their exports, and stock markets across the region have reacted sharply to grim economic data over the last few weeks pointing to a recession in the world's biggest economy.
The U.S. economy has been battered by a housing slump and credit crunch triggered by a spike in defaults on risky mortgages that has led billions of dollars of bad assets at major American and European banks.
U.S. stock index futures were mixed. Dow futures were down 11 points, or 0.1 percent, at 12,366, while S&P 500 futures were up 2.3 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,356.9.
In Hong Kong, gainers included export-related stocks such as Li & Fung, which jumped 4.4 percent. Clothing maker Esprit Holdings was up 4.1 percent.
China coal stocks listed in Hong Kong were also "hot," said Lun, on expectations that the prolonged and unexpectedly severe winter across China will drive demand for more coal. China Coal ended the morning session up 3.3 percent while China Shenhua was up 3.4 percent.

Stock market is a game for big players

2008-01-24T10:05:00.000+08:00

Stock market falling a couple of days, but yesterday a sudden boost to US stock market and temporarily help the market. But this is useless!

Big guys always play on some tricks, ie. rate cut, recessions and so on, to get excess gain from it,
but what happened to the investor at the bottom quartiles? -- they are still suffering...

too bad too bad....
Stock is a game for big players, but not us!

New Post comes with Dissapointment

2008-01-21T09:21:00.000+08:00

It has been a LONG TIME, I did not post anything new on this blog;
This specifically is due to "Dissappointed" on the market trend - "Plunged, Fall, & FALLEN"
STI reaching closely to 3000, DJIA have been falling almost 5% in a weeks,...
Recession is coming also....
2008 is a bad year.

Anyway, recently I am also busy on my study works, CFA CFA CFA, it's interesting, but tough!

Technorati Claiming Post

2008-01-09T11:03:00.001+08:00

Technorati Profile

Who cares where January Goes?

2008-01-08T13:17:00.000+08:00

Quoted from MarketWatch

The theory is that if the market is up in January, it will be up for the year; a down market in January will lead to a tough year. In football, that would be like betting on the outcome of a game after the first quarter. Of course no bookie would take a bet at that point, at least not without odds that take into account the score.
So a little extra information can always help, and when more than 8% of the year is in the books you can make a somewhat better guess at how the year is going to shake out. And since the market trends higher over time, your odds at betting "up" are inherently better than 50-50, particularly in years when January is an up month.
In short, this January adage is fun to talk about but isn't very relevant for everyday investors.
Adages aside, there are reasons for my enthusiasm for small-cap growth stocks in 2008. After value stocks dominated the market from 2000 to 2006, the tables turned in 2007 and growth stocks spanked value. Note that this occurred despite the subprime crisis and declining investor appetite for risk. Since a reduced appetite for risk is usually a death sentence for growth stocks, the fact that growth led the market in 2007 gives us a clue as to how cheap growth stocks really were heading into the year. Even after growth's good showing in 2007, price-to-earnings ratios for the highest-growth small caps remain below their historical averages. The valuation opportunity for U.S. stocks is particularly compelling for foreign investors, since a weaker American dollar increases the purchasing power of foreigners buying U.S. equities.
In fact, despite the well-publicized housing crisis, we think the weak dollar may boost exports enough to prop up the economy and keep us out of recession. With the dollar approximately 19% lower than it was two years ago against the euro, companies that export products and services should fare well. We believe high-growth companies with global distribution potential in such areas as technology, pharmaceuticals and medical products are poised for an excellent year.

STI performed at the last day of 2007

2007-12-31T23:16:00.000+08:00

As the last day of 2007, STI well performed at the beginning of the day.
However, the good sign did not stand for long, it started to fall back after the market reopen since the afternoon session.

STI finally closed at 3482 level and reported +34.68 increase in index.

In another hand, how will be the US market perform tonight?
2008 is coming.....

From Yahoo! :-
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street ended a painful year with another steep loss Monday as investors glumly anticipated that 2008 would bring more of the uncertainty and turbulence of 2007.
The Dow Jones industrials fell 101 points, the latest in a string of triple-digit moves that became commonplace in the just-ended year amid a continuum of bad news about housing, faltering mortgages and shrinking credit. Thanks to a big first-half advance, they managed to finish 2007 with a respectable increase of 6.43 percent -- not as large as the 16.29 percent jump in 2006, but a better performance than the modest loss in 2005.

Happy new year...

SGX rules changed

2007-12-26T10:22:00.000+08:00

Too bad for those stock with prices higher than $3, will be clocked in with minimum price of 1 cent instead of 5 cents before.

This, of course will affect the stock price up and down not so volatile.

too bad for the OCBC, it has been dropped alot before and now this rule came out to "restrict" it.
Unless there will be a big volume come in to buy in the OCBC stocks,
otherwise, I think it is quite difficult for it to go up significantly.

SGX has done a bad thing, to me.....

OCBC :'(

2007-12-21T20:48:00.000+08:00

Too bad, OCBC stock price fall again and again;
Two months ago, most of the analyst reported that the fair price of OCBC is around $10.80.
However, the truth is proving that, we shall not dependent on ANALYST so much.
They are trying hard to eanr money for their clients, for their employer, as well as themselves, but we are neither one.
End up sacrificed
:(

too bad too bad...

Singapore Market continues to fall

2007-12-20T20:18:00.000+08:00

Too bad that singapore market is always follow the trend of US market, especially when US market do not performs well. In the past one week, STI has dropped more than 100 points. Banks blue chip stock prices are fell to their lowest price again. Beside, SGX also fall till $12 level. I am not sure whether this is a good time to BUY, but I am pretty sure that US will be going to recession soon.

Anyway, for US market, I do not hold any stock for a long time, but I really hope some of the stock price of them continue to drop. For example, Nasdaq-OIIM and Nasdaq-MRVL; I am looking forward to their lowest price. Then I will consider to buy in. Since from historical, these are good earning stocks. :)

CFA - Standards of Professional Conduct

2007-12-18T13:51:00.000+08:00

1. Professionalism:-

Must use reasonable care and judgement to achieve and maintain independence and objectivity.
Must not knowingly make any misrepresentations relating to investment analysis, recommendations, actions or other professional activities.
Must not engage in any professional conduct involving dishonesty, fraud or deceitor commit any act that reflects adversely on professional reputation, integrity or competence.

2. Integrity of Capital Markets:-

Members and candidate who possess material nonpublic information that could affect the value of an investment must not act or cause others to act on the information.
Must not engage in practices that distort prices or artificially inflate trading volume with the intent to mislead market participants. --if this rule is followed, why I still always see the similar problem happen on the real market? >_<"

3. Duties to Clients & Prospective Clients:-

Fair Dealing
Suitability
Performance Presentation
Preservation of Confidentiality

4. Duties to Employers:-

Loyalty, Must act for the benefit of employer.
Additional Compensation Arrangements, must not accept things that might reasonably be expected to create a conflict or interest.
Responsibility of Supervisors, Must make reasonable efforts to detect and prevent violations of applicable laws, rules and the code of standards by anyone subject to supervision or authority.

5. Investment Analysis, Recommendations and Action:-

Diligence and Reasonable Basis, must exercise diligence, independence and thoroughness.
Communication with Clients and Prospective Clients
Record Retention

6. Conflicts of Interest

Disclosure of Conflicts
Transactions - priority on Clients and employer
Disclosure of Referral Fees

CFA - TVM

2007-12-18T10:46:00.000+08:00

TVM, Time value of money, it was a new word to me, but I found it is quite interesting and nothing difficult but simple maths.

What i am suprise is the Financial Calculator, it's cool!!!
no wonder it's selling more expensive than scientific calculator.

I am really exciting and hopefully can get my CFA text as soon as possible.

US stock Market and Singapore Marke, all in trouble...

2007-12-18T10:38:00.000+08:00

Stocks did not perform well,
Exchange rate fall,

Everything sucks, December 2007 is already recorded as my worst month in this year.

Luckily, 2007 Bonus already announced, not so good;
but not too bad also.

Feeling like getting a concolation prize; no surprise but feeling better when everything get sucks...

CFA - Bond basic

2007-12-15T11:24:00.000+08:00

These days I was trying to read some basic understanding about the curriculum in CFA.
After the Financial Statment Analysis, now is about the bond basic.

Well, as a engineer, of course those topics are so so so much strange to me, but never mind, so far i still manage to understand them mostly.

But I just realised that,
For engineering, or scientific equations, we are trying to match the equations to the real case;
but one of the difference between Economic or financial, watever it named, is....
Real case is matched to the equations, which means, The so called economics or market, are created by Human! Economics are follows the human's thinking and mind.

Dont understand what I mean?
Just for simple example:

Science: Why there is so call electrons? why V=IR?
yup, these all are nature, we creates this just because nature are behave like this, we can not change.

Financial: Why there is Money? Why there is interest charged for borrowing "money"?
well, these are all created by human, from our ancestors, and grdually forms a so called "Format" or mind which we are continues to follow, performs, use, improve; and yet we can change, of course; for example, who knows one day in the future, human no longer using "money" as Trading? Or rules includes the equations regarding Financial or economics changed?

Anyway,
It is a good thing to learn!
Life long learning!!!

Stock Stock Stocksss.... Why are you so Volatile?

2007-12-15T11:14:00.000+08:00

2007 Stock market is really sort of funny, at the beginning of the year, the stock was so powerful and had a long Bull run, but due to some stupid news and incidents, a long bull still not as powerful as the short bull.

Market still dropping, we are suffering, most of the small stockholders are suffering, suffering the loss, suffering the feeling of fears,...

Volatile market, yesterday could have soar 200 points, but days after, could fall more than 200 points about few days continuously.

when are the bad news stop coming while good news keep coming?
will there be any bull coming on 2008?
2008...
2008...

It has to be a good year, orelse, more and more people will suffer...
so please....
please....
We need a BULL!

CFA - Introduction to Financial Statement Analysis

2007-12-13T15:39:00.000+08:00

I have started my self-study on CFA.

Financial statement analysis, almost done; it looks easy to understand, yet quite complicated to me.

Easy as in, most the the things explained inside are quite straight forward, but what so called complicated are those new terms and format of the Balance sheet or income statement.

We, as an engineer, used to face those so much complicated equation, but yet still manage to pass thru the exam, because I am really more comfortable to dealing with calculation rather than things in so many WORDS.

GOD BLESS ME please....

Market unstable

2007-12-13T15:34:00.000+08:00

Today, Singapore stock market again shows the unstable conditions.
I was thinking to sell my OCBC at the morning, but did not processed. :(
now the price dropped till $8.55, too bad too bad.

If I were able to sell this off, I would have bought the SPC at $7.80 or $7.85.

Another bad day.....

Third Fed Rate cutting became a Trick?

2007-12-13T09:39:00.000+08:00

On the day when Fed announced that thirf rate cut, US stock market fall abruptly due to so called "rate cut did not meet the expectation". However, one day after, the US market soar at the beginning of the trading day.

To me, I would guess this became a trick from the BIG investors. Big playes can always affect the staibility of the stock market by throwing or sell off their big volume of stocks. Just like a positive feedback reaction or humanity reaction, small investors will follow the trend, again sell off their stocks. And, at the end of the day, it becomes a GOOD chance for big one to buy in the CHEAPER stocks, and get a GOOD earning from that.

So, does this explain why stock market fall at first day and soar at the second day?
I am not sure, it was just my opinion.

Somehow, my conclusion is:
Stock market is like a game for BIG players, if you are big enough to join in the game,
You are always the WINNER.

However, too bad, why I am just a cheap labour?

Stock Market Stable, temporarily?

2007-12-11T13:02:00.000+08:00

This week's stock market, especially Asia stock market, are able to get back to the stable region. it's up and down, but not volatile.

STI remains stable at 3500 to 3600 level; KLCI also remain good at 1400 level.
Generally, Oil related stocks still performing good, especially for those listed as blue chips. At this situation, blue chips are always recommended. For example, banking,-- DBS group. When bad times coming, it fall, but the good point is, they are really able to back to a norm price fast.
Furthermore, if you are able to catch the opportunity, buy at $19.00 about two weeks ago. Now, you already get plenty of extra income as year end extra BONUS. :)

Same for OCBC, as I said before, it is slower than DBS and UOB, but potentially it still able to perform well. As you can see, now OCBC's stock price is being held at $8.80. Thanks god and hope this continues.

There are Big Stock PLAYERS

2007-12-06T22:16:00.000+08:00

I believe there are some stocks big players go into the market to "play play", because stocks are always rally in the morning and fall back, or even drop below the opening price or closing price on one day before.

STI was first rose another 50 at least in the morning today, hit the level of 3600; but collapse at the near market closing time.

same as OCBC, it rose till $8.70, then fall back to yesterday's market close price. damn it!!

There was good news from US market yesterday but this did not help to singapore market. this is weird as bad news from US stock market always make singapore market collapse together but in the another way, good news never help on singapore market though.

Just get the news from Yahoo!, "Stock look to higher open on Bush plan"; another good news, but I really hope this gives an impact to singapore market tomorrow, a good one of course!

"Investors also waited for President Bush to announce details of a plan to freeze interest rates for up to five years for some subprime borrowers. The plan was completed Wednesday after talks between the Treasury Department, mortgage lenders and Wall Street banks."

so, let's see again!

Stock Market Rally

2007-12-06T09:58:00.000+08:00

Wall Street resumed its rally Wednesday after new data showed the overall economy is holding up but isn't too strong to prevent the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 196.23 points.

Singapore Stock market also remains stable for these few days. As yesterday, Singapore STI rose another 60+ points and HSI rose 466 points. Again, Oil related stock rally again yesterday, ChinaOilFld rose more than 10% in a day, it seems that ChinaOilFld is aggresively want to hit back the price at its IPO day.

Banking Stocks are slowly crawling back to the stable prices, I believe that there are still more spaces for Singapore three banks such as DBS, UOB and OCBC to grow.

Little Bear left Asia? Will it come back again?

Oil Related Stocks Soar

2007-12-04T22:53:00.000+08:00

According to Singapore market, or in singapore exchange market, most of the oil or oil field related stocks soar in this afternoon. For example, ChinaOilFld rose 6.9%; ChinaAoil rose 1.9%; China Petro rose 2.5%; SPC rose 3.4%; etc. However, this do not help much to the overall STI index.

STI index up and down, likes oscillating throughtout the whole day and end up closed at 3527.87, +6.31 only.

KLCI finally hit the 1400 threshold level this two days. Today KLCI closed at 1415.81, -3.53.

Hong kong market still performing strongly, and back to a high level recently. Today HSI rose 0.77% and close at 28879.59, +221.71. It is believed that HSI may hit 30000 level, if Fed rate is not a rumor.

Asian market still high ly dependent on the US stock market trend, and so far the most focused topic will be the 3rd Fed rate cut in 2007. US stock traders are waiting, others are waiting and We are waiting !

Well, there is a bad news to me anyway. That is SGD to MYR exchange rate dropped again to 2.30 level. Too bad....

STI still hopeless

2007-12-03T21:39:00.000+08:00

This morning, Singapore stock market rose quite significant (more than 100 points) at first, perhaps due to the good news from US on last friday. However, STI still lack of sufficient "pushing" and fall back at the end of the day. Overall, STI just rose only 0.29 and closed at 3521.36. This is the 3rd peak around this range. Some people predict that market will start to fall lower, as statistically, stock market always fall vigorously after the 3rd peak happened.
It is not a good idea for penny stock holders.

Same bad situation for Singapore currency. US to SGD rose abit, close at 1.45+ while SGD to RM also gives a bad figure at 2.31.

2007 is ending, so please give us some good and happy surprises before the end of the year 2007!!

US stock Cap Higher end of the week

2007-12-03T08:41:00.000+08:00

From Yahoo!
Stocks Mostly Advance After Big Run-Up; Tech Shares Lag After Dell Report Disappoints
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street closed out a volatile week and month with a comparatively mild performance Friday, ending mostly higher on encouraging words from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The major indexes ended the week with gains, but still posted big declines for November.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 150 points in the session after Bernanke gave investors more reason to believe further interest rate cuts could be on the way. But the market gave back a big chunk of the gains, a fizzle that was perhaps to be expected after stocks' huge gains Tuesday and Wednesday. Nervousness about tech stocks, the result of weak results from Dell Inc., pulled the tech-dominated Nasdaq composite index down.

In a speech late Thursday, Bernanke said persistently tight credit conditions, the housing slump and high energy prices will probably create some "headwinds for the consumer in the months ahead," and the central bank will have to be "exceptionally alert and flexible."
The comments echoed those of Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn earlier in the week, which helped Wall Street recover some of its recent steep losses. Investors read Bernanke's words as a sign that the Fed is willing to lower interest rates again after cutting them at the past two meetings.
"Although the U.S. is in the eye of the credit storm, we've seen the Fed cut rates and we've heard from Bernanke that they're prepared to do so again if necessary," said Robert Jukes, global equity strategist at Collins Stewart in London.
The Fed meets again Dec. 11, and a rate cut could help reinvigorate the slowing economy, proponents of such a move say. Evidence of a more reticent consumer came Thursday in a Commerce Department report that showed consumer spending rising a modest 0.2 percent in October, the slowest pace in four months.

The risk of rising inflation had been keeping the central bank cautious about loosening its policy. But that risk is looking less threatening now, given that oil prices have dipped below $90 a barrel for the first time since October and that the Commerce Department said core personal consumption expenditures have risen 1.9 percent year-over-year. Core PCE is one of the Fed's preferred inflation measures, and a reading between 1 and 2 percent is considered a comfortable rate.
Still, Friday's performance showed that uncertainty remains and that it doesn't take much -- in this case a weak number from Dell -- to dent a broader rally.
The Dow rose 59.99, or 0.45 percent, to 13,371.72.
Broader stock indicators were mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 11.42, or 0.78 percent, to 1,481.14, and the Nasdaq fell 7.17, or 0.27 percent, to 2,660.96.

For more, please visit:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071201/wall_street.html?.v=2

-- Thanks to US Fed Reserves, Singapore market grapped a time to catch a breath. I guess the following weeks, before the Fed rate cut news to be announce, Asia market will be stable or go advance. No more bear run ya!

Market vs Exchange Rate

2007-11-30T19:59:00.000+08:00

These few days, Stock market playing a good performance though, however, exchange rate to me is going the other way. I need Singapore Dollar to be stronger, compare to Malaysia Ringgit as well as US dollar. The exchange rate from Singapore Dollar to US dollar went down a little bit these days, From 1.43 something, till today's 1.447. About two months ago, analysts predicted that US dollar to SGD will be reaching low as 1.38, at least at the end of 2007. I, really hope this will be coming true, hence, I will be paying lower enrollment fee and exam fee EFFECTIVELY :P, abit selfish har!

And for the SGD to Malaysia ringgit, two days ago it was nearly hit at 2.35, unfortunately, perhaps the stronger US dollar in these two days have brought Malaysia ringgit to climb up to the range of 2.33 and 2.32. Again, I need this figure to be go higher and higher, especially when chinese new year is coming. Then I will be paying lesser money to parents EFFECTIVELY, :P selfish again har!

Well, fortunately, these two days stock market is pretty stable and doing good. My "OCBC" stock slowly and gradually going up. Although it is still in losing manner, I believe OCBC can perform much better, and I am looking forward to it's dividend as well as the share price at 2008. :) keep going!!
OCBC: $8.50, +$0.05

Another good chip, -- ComfortDelgro, finally it back to a normal and stable price range. Thanks god. However, SMRT, make me feel disappointed, SMRT is earning, better growth, but share price is performing in another way round, slowly decreasing. Anyway SMRT is a good stock where to HOLD in long run for dividends. Think long term lor.
ComfortDelgro: $1.91, +$0.01 ; SMRT: $1.61, -$0.02

Today Asian market perform nicely, keep it up then everyone will be happy, and then earn extra money to spend in SITEX, and boost the singapore economy, hahaha.

STI: +43.05
HSI: +161.07
KLCI: +22.66

Asia Stock market Roar on 29-Nov-07

2007-11-29T17:08:00.002+08:00

We see another fact that US market indeed affect Asian market alot. Just as there is a hope that US Fed will have another rate cut. the 3rd times in this year, US market rose 300+ points, and hence Asian markets mostly get excited and follow to rise!
Well, it's good, of course, but I hope this is not a short effect, because..... I need $$$, well, Everyone need it!!!

STI: +108.5
HSI: +1111.3
KLCI: +7.74

Fed may cut the interest rate again

2007-11-29T09:06:00.000+08:00

From Yahoo!

1.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street barreled higher Wednesday for the second day in a row, giving the Dow Jones industrial average its biggest two-day point gain in five years after a Federal Reserve official hinted that the central bank may lower interest rates again.

Investors' renewed hopes for a rate cut added to their relief that companies that made losing bets on subprime mortgages, such as Citigroup Inc. and Freddie Mac, are coming up with ways to raise cash. The market was clearly optimistic that at least some of the damage from the months-long credit crisis was finally being mitigated.
However, Wall Street has been fickle in recent months, with the Dow often rising and falling by triple digits, and no one is betting that the mortgage crisis that tripped up the nation's financial industry this year is over or that the market's huge gains so far this week will stick. Despite its spectacular advance, the Dow remains more than 6 percent below its Oct. 9 record close over 14,000, having plunged due to worries that the housing market's slump will lead to further losses for banks, and that the Fed can't keep slashing rates.

-- For more details, please go to http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071128/wall_street.html

2.
The economy grew at a slower pace in the late fall as shoppers watched their pennies heading into the busy holiday season.
The Federal Reserve's new snapshot, released Wednesday, suggested the strains from a severe housing slump and a painful credit crunch are affecting the behavior of individuals and businesses alike -- making them somewhat more cautious.

Yet, the hope that the Federal Reserve will cut a key interest rate for a third time this year to energize the economy sent stocks soaring on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrials jumped for the second day in a row, gaining 331.01 points to close at 13,289.45. It marked the index's biggest two-day point gain in five years.

"Reports on retail spending were downbeat in general," the Fed survey said. "Most retailers said that they were expecting a slow holiday season, with only small gains in sales volumes compared with last year," the Fed added.

--For more details, please go to http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071128/fed_economy.html

-- This is a very good news, especially to Asian market, STI will definitely follow the spike on the indexes as well as for the stock prices for the blue chips. STI rose 80 points when the market just open on 29 of Nov.

Asian Stock Market & Currency Exchange - 28, Nov

2007-11-28T17:16:00.000+08:00

Even though the US market rose quite significantly due to citigroup's issue, however, that did not effect the Singapore market. The market trend still so much unstable, traders are still advised to becareful while investing.

STI: -2.92
HSI: +161.03

On another side, there is a good news, that Singapore to Malaysia Currency exchange rate keep going up, so, Singapore Dollar, SGD, or whatever you specify, Keep it up and up!! :D

Asian Stock Market

2007-11-27T20:42:00.000+08:00

Yesterday US Dow Jones Industrial Average slides 237.44, today most of the asian market also dipped.
STI: -45.94
HSI: -416.41
I am getting concern when will be the worst point for STI......

By Joseph Altman, AP Business Writer
Abu Dhabi's Sovereign Fund Agrees to Invest $7.5 Billion for a 4.9 Percent Stake in Citigroup
NEW YORK (AP) -- The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will invest $7.5 billion in Citigroup, offering the nation's largest bank needed capital to offset big losses from mortgages and other investments.
The cash from the sovereign investment fund of the Gulf Arab state, which has benefited from this year's surge in oil prices, will be convertible into no more than 4.9 percent of Citigroup Inc.'s equity. Citigroup characterized the investment as passive and said the fund will not be able to name any board members to the bank. -- From Yahoo Finance.

-- I think more or less this will be affecting the US Stock Prices later.... let's see...
--- yoo!! it's really affect the market, DJIA rose 215; updated at 28-Nov-07 8:37AM Singapore time

STI rose 2.8% on 27-Nov, Good news to the Stock Market?

2007-11-27T09:26:00.000+08:00

There were so many analyst reports showing that the Stock market is in the bear run situation, but so strange that yesterday Asia stock market get triggered and rose alot?
I personally still believe this is not a good news to us as a small stock trader. There is a word can describe this, perhaps, -- "回光返照".

Singapore market always affected by US market seriously when US index dropping; especially DJIA. Since US is suffering from sub-prime and others financial issue, do we think the market will be recovered that easily? hmmm.....

There are even some pessimistic analyst, analyzed that, there is a possibility for STI fall back to 2600 range, I....hope this will NOT be TRUE!!

Thinking "Bee" - Bee Movie

2007-11-26T09:02:00.000+08:00

Well, it could be a little bit oudated, but working life is always BUSY, and since I was realized that I did not step into cinema for a long time; therefore I picked this funny animation to spend over my weekend :D
It is funny, and cute, but is not up to my expectations anyway, maybe it was because the near ending was a little bit too exaggerate, to me of course. BY THE WAY, it is just a MOVIE, an ANIMATION larrrr....

Fed Rate Cut - What will the market do now?

2007-11-25T17:31:00.000+08:00

By Chris Ciovacco September 19, 2007
This month we have a special article by Chris Ciovacco the Chief Investment Officer for Ciovacco Capital Management, LLC. with the recent rate cuts by the FED I felt this extremely timely and would like to thank Chris for providing us with this information. -- Tim McMahon,editor
"Developments in financial markets since the Committee’s last regular meeting have increased the uncertainty surrounding the economic outlook. The Committee will continue to assess the effects of these and other developments on economic prospects and will act as needed to foster price stability and sustainable economic growth.."
Federal Open Market Committee, 09/18/2007
With the Federal Reserve (Fed) lowering its target discount rate (interest rate) by 0.50% on September 18, 2007, it is prudent to examine how stocks behaved in the year following similar historical rate cuts. I chose to focus on the Fed rate cuts in 1986, 1995, 1998, and 2001 since the current Target Federal Funds Rate (Fed Funds Rate) of 5.25% (prior to the cut) and the current published inflation rate of 1.97% are similar to the rates found in those years. Another factor in choosing to examine the years above is the market’s expectation of how low the Fed could possibly go during a lowering cycle is heavily dependent on where rates start from. For example, prior to the first rate cut in June of 1981, the Federal Funds Rate was 20.00% and published inflation rate was 8.94% (full-year 1981). June of 1981 is vastly different from September of 2007. As a result, I see limited value in examining how stocks behaved after the 1981 cut or other periods which were significantly different from today.

-- For more details and information, please refer to:
http://www.fintrend.com/ftf/Stock_Market/FED_rate_cuts.asp

Asia Stock Market

2007-11-23T08:58:00.000+08:00

HONG KONG, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Asian stocks may find asteadier footing on Friday after six straight sessions oflosses, with holidays in the United States and Japan likely tokeep markets more subdued. Wall Street was closed on Thursday for the Thanksgivingholiday and will have a half-day session on Friday. All eyesare on Black Friday, the start of the major U.S. holidayshopping season, to gauge the health of consumers in Asia's topexport destination. Japanese financial markets are shut on Friday for LabourThanksgiving Day.

-- My opinion, Stock market in a Bear Run situation already. I should not enter into the market until 2008, hopefully what I am holding will back to the stable prices.

Differentiations between Stock Market Crash and Bear Market:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a significant cross-section of a stock market. Crashes are driven by panic as much as by underlying economic factors. They often follow speculative stock market bubbles.

Stock market crashes are social phenomena where external economic events combine with crowd behaviour and psychology in a positive feedback loop where selling by some market participants drives more market participants to sell. Generally speaking, crashes usually occur under the following conditions: a prolonged period of rising stock prices and excessive economic optimism, a market where P/E ratios exceed long-term averages, and extensive use of margin debt and leverage by market participants.

There is no numerically-specific definition of a crash but the term commonly applies to steep double-digit percentage losses in a stock market index over a period of several days. Crashes are often distinguished from bear markets by panic selling and abrupt, dramatic price declines. Bear markets are periods of declining stock market prices that are measured in months or years. While crashes are often associated with bear markets, they do not necessarily go hand in hand. The crash of 1987 for example did not lead to a bear market. Likewise, the Japanese Nikkei bear market of the 1990s occurred over several years without any notable crashes.

Singapore dollar to Malaysia Ringgit Exchange Rate Hit High again :D

2007-11-21T17:37:00.000+08:00

Good, I hope this can hit another high at 2.4, or even higher.

PSP New Game - Medal of Honour Heroes 2

2007-11-20T21:13:00.000+08:00

Title : Medal of Honour Heroes 2
Producer : Electronic Arts
Game Type : First Person Shooting
Language : English
Date of Released : 2007, Nov 13
Price (est) : USD39.99
Website : http://www.ea.com/psp/medalofhonor_heroes

母校出了这群无聊的人

2007-11-20T19:52:00.000+08:00

随意浏览，突然发现我的母校竟然出了这群"XX"；无语，无聊也算了，竟然穿着校服拍摄还摆上了Youtube.

Singapore - Straight Times Index (From Yahoo!)

2007-11-20T11:43:00.000+08:00

Too bad, Stock market seems like going to crash :(

The handsome employee

2007-11-19T20:11:00.000+08:00

20-Nov-07, the photo has been removed

This employee was sleeping and snoring loudly, too bad it is just a photo'

Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)

2007-11-19T09:09:00.000+08:00

It's has been 3.5 years working as an Engineer. Work experienced gain, so far so good. However, I do not know whether I would work as an engineer throughout my life, meanwhile I decided to give it a try, to take up the CFA program.

There are PROs and CONs for everything, yet so far, as a candidate, I can only see the CONs;-

1. Everything is expensive for CFA; i.e. Course (therefore I decided to self-study), Materials (no choice which I have to spend, :< ), Enrollment and Exam fees (aiihh...)
2. Have to STUDYYYYYYY...... AGAIN, POOR THING!!!
3. ETC. so hopefully, everything can go smooth and nicely. Btw, I will give some descriptions for thr program as below: quoted from http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprog/index.html

What is the CFA Program?
It's a self-study, graduate-level program for investment professionals.
The three-year program requires you to study for and pass three levels of exams. If you pass the exams and meet other requirements, you earn a CFA charter.

Requirements

Become a candidate

1. Fulfill the entrance requirements. You must:

Have a U.S. bachelor’s (or equivalent) degree, be in the final year of your bachelor's degree program, or have four years of qualified, professional work experience or a combination of work and college experience that totals at least four years
Meet the professional conduct admission criteria (during the application process, you will be asked to sign statements of Professional Conduct and Candidate Responsibility)
Be prepared to take the exams in English
2. Sign up for your first exam. Registering for the first exam also enrolls you as a candidate in the CFA Program. Requires one-time program enrollment fee in addition to exam registration fee.

Maintain your candidate status

You must maintain a commitment to the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct — a commitment that cannot be taken lightly and demands that, above all else, you put the interests of your clients first. There is nothing that CFA Institute does that is more important than promoting and enforcing the use of the Code and Standards among members and candidates.

Become a charterholder

1. Pass each of the Level I, II, and III exams. Requires a minimum of 250 hours of study with substantially more depending on individual circumstances.

2. Meet the work experience requirements.

3. Become a regular member of CFA Institute.

4. Receive your official status. We will notify you when you have completed all requirements and can begin using the CFA designation; you will have the option to receive the charter by mail or during an award ceremony provided by your society.

5. Maintain your status. Follow the charterholder guidelines.

Good Deal - Standard Chatered Credit Card

2007-11-15T20:37:00.000+08:00

Standard Chartered Business Platinum Card
I received a call from Standard Chartered bank at the knock off time. The person in call trying to sell me this credit card which I think it is a good deal and hence I would like to share with you all. As Long as you apply before Jan of 2008, you will receive the promotion with $50 bonus cash after 45 days after the approval. If interested, you may browse thru http://www.standardchartered.com.sg/cb/credit_card/card_main.html

Taiwan Trip Photo

2007-11-15T20:20:00.001+08:00

Linkin Park - What I've Done MTV

2007-11-15T14:49:00.000+08:00

Forward 转贴:

2007-11-15T14:04:00.000+08:00

如果這方法有效那我們就可不再殺生了!感恩呀

螞蟻怕酸味家裡的甜食擺沒幾分鐘，螞蟻大軍立即來襲，讓人又氣又厭！>我以從事糕餅業的經驗，獻給各位一項無毒無污染又安全有效的妙招——整粒的新鮮檸檬，對切成兩半，在看得到螞蟻的地方及其動線，擠出檸檬汁，並拿著切半有果肉的那一面，沿途塗抹，神奇效果讓您再一次驗證大自然的奧妙！
蚊子怕辣味蒜頭嗆退牠我家院子百花爭豔，誘使我常流連其中不忍離去，然而花多蚊子也多，叮咬得我腫包累累。>一天，友人送了一袋蒜頭，媽媽留下夠用的量，其餘的分植於花壇四周，其特殊的辛辣味隱隱飄散。令人訝異的是，平日兇猛的蚊子不見了，連下雨過後會出現的超大隻蚊子，也銷聲匿跡了！所以，驅蚊除了打掃環境、清除枯枝爛葉，試植蒜頭絕對是上上之策！
蟑螂怕香味神出鬼沒的蟑螂，最愛隱身於掌管我們民生大計的廚房裡。面對「打不死的蟑螂」，我的辦法是——將一塊浴用香皂切成數小塊，置於容器內注入清水，擺放在蟑螂出沒的櫥櫃內，不出數日，打開櫥櫃將令您訝異於蟑螂的無影無蹤，櫥櫃內還多了怡人的香味。想要效果持續，僅須定期補充香皂容器內的清水。

SGD to RM exchange rate

2007-11-10T11:20:00.000+08:00

The graph below is quote from www.yahoo.com