Rainbow on FI

I have talked about my Aztech story in the previous post , now let's move on to the second story, which is BakerTech. The stock is still trading on SGX. 2. The Baker Technology story Why I invested in it? It's got an attractive dividend yield for its share price and the oil industry was doing very well back then in year 2010. I recalled there was a special dividend in 2013 of $0.085 per share. If you searched around, quite a few finance bloggers / sites did cheer-leading for this stock till year 2014, which further boosted my conviction that this share will do well. Imagine those who bought in early 2014... What happened? After the oil crash in year 2015, its share price only seen the downward spiral, due to impacted earnings. This decline has not seen reversal to date. (I missed subscribing to its warrants issue offer of 2 for 5 @ SGD 0.01 in year 2012 when its share price was still ok then.) In May 2016, it consolidated its shares at 5-for-1 due to th

Today I am in a story-telling mood and decided to share my investment story of few years back to remind myself and young investors out there to be more prudent. In what way? You shall find out. 1. The Aztech story Why I invested in Aztech? Cos I chanced upon some juicy analysis post from a veteran finance blogger at that time on how wonderful are the company's producing and how good the potential earning of the company's going to be, why he chose to invest etc. So I decided to invest in the shares in year 2010. What happened? The share price of Aztech dropped over the years as business was not going well and its dividends had been negligible (no 'panadol' to ease my headache). There was a period when I thought that its earning was recovering (I recalled there was an article by Songsinger-ley Fool about it being a small conglomerate with good diversification) and bought in some more at $0.13. #Diversification or Diworsification? Foolish me indeed! That

“ Focus is essential for business. When laying down the strategic goals for your business, you must never exceed three. Once you’ve exceeded three, you won’t be able to remember them, and neither will your workers. When you set down goals each year, just determine the t hree most important , and cut out the fourth." In whatever we do, whether it is investing or carving out a niche in something, we should never lose our focus by trying to achieve too many things at a time - either we will forget or we will forgo.  Read also  A note on entrepreneurship Another piece of Ma Yun's advice for start-ups, but I think it's also applicable to whatever we chose to embark on - "the first is what you want to do, the second is how to do it, the third is how long to do it for.” To work out finer details, we can dive into SMART goal setting when the above are thought through. And last but not least - "You cannot unify everyone’s thoughts, but you can unify the

If only I could turn back time I would have invested in... 1. Apple (AAPL)? 2. Tencent Holdings (0700.HK)? 3. Bitcoin? Ya, in my craziest dream. Bitcoin looks like it's shooting for the moon. Here's a good read on  Understanding the Cryptocurrency Boom . "Would their prices go up, up and away?"

Because I can draw data from long long time ago... It dates all the way back to 1996, wow! ---- I am also using the Yahoo Finance App on my mobile which allows me to track my portfolio with ease. It is a free alternative to using stockscafe and has been pretty reliable. You can add stock symbols by simply pressing on the '+ Add symbol', add your shares holding by pressing 'Add' under the Shares column after adding symbols and also create multiple watchlists. When you enter multiple purchase dates and shares for a particular stock, it will also calculate the average price per share for you. I can see the % gain/ loss at a glance for my portfolio as a whole as well as for each stock in it. ***

⏯ “ Before you speak, listen .  Before you write, think .  Before you spend, earn .  Before you invest, investigate .  Before you criticize, wait .  Before you pray, forgive .  Before you quit, try .  Before you retire, save .  Before you die, give .”  - William Arthur Ward

"The world’s largest taxi firm, Uber, owns no cars. The world’s most popular media company, Facebook, creates no content. The world’s most valuable retailer, Alibaba, carries no stock. And the world’s largest accommodation provider, Airbnb, owns no property. Something big is going on." "But business relationships do not stay stable, particularly if there are huge profits involved. So now we would see the battle of the existing interfaces, with each extending beyond their initial footprint to try to win more territory. So Facebook goes into news, Twitter into television and so on. And because they can be so profitable we will see more and more challenger interfaces, each trying to find some way to get their icon on to your mobile phone or iPad." The above are taken from an  article published in 2015 . Today we can see evidently how these 'new generation' intermediary companies have changed the way we used to do things - in a relatively short time-span, an

I would stay... 1. Keppel Corp (sold one-third of holdings with loss @ $6.19) Bought in Aug 2015 @ $7.50 Current $7.75 (Missed upside 25%^ ) 2. CDL Hospitality Trust (sold with no gain) Bought in Apr 2016 @ $1.40 Current $1.64 (Missed upside 17% ) 3. DBS (sold with gain at $20.55) Bought in Mar 2016 @ $15.35 Current $25 (Missed upside 21.6% ) ^Missed upside is calculated by the difference in current price and sold price / sold price. ------ Stop loss, Cut loss, Take profit, inaction  all depend on our MENTAL STRENGTH , SKILL and PATIENCE . ------- Why did I sell those stocks away even though they have good fundamentals? I seriously thought I could catch a short-term correction to buy back at a lower price than when I sold. Alas, Mr market didn't give me that opportunity and just ramped on. *** Related post: If only I could turn back time II

1. Money Money and work are closely intertwined. The base of most work is to put bread on the table, for satisfying our physiological and safety needs under the  Maslow's hierarchy of needs . As we climb up the Maslow pyramid, we will start to attain the kind of lifestyle we want and use it to achieve some kind of self-fulfillment. But up to a point, the effect of money may start to exhibit a diminishing rate of return  on these. Whereas for some, the pursuit of money may be like a game. More money = more score = sense of achievement. Money's also the main reason why so many are interested in personal finance and investment to achieve FIRE. 2. Sense of Purpose / Responsibility (aka 使命感) This is the "mission" part. It comes about when you discover a problem that you need to solve for yourself or others. It may or not may be what you like to do. But you know that you just have got to do it. 3. Passion and love I guess this is the strongest motivator of all.  Wha

My old guide for equity holding %: Straits Time index Tier% Equity holding % above 3800 90 <10 td=""> 3600 80 20 3400 70 30 3200 60 40 3000 50 50 2800 40 60 2600 30 70 2400 20 80 2200 10 90 1800 0 100 below 1600 impossible? This is an 'off-loading' concept - meaning that when the stock market gets over-heated, we retrieve back part of our capital as war chest and wait for suitable opportunities, eg. when STI drops, to build our position again in equities. We can use that in conjunction with Technical Analysis rather than blindly 'catching falling knife' when there is a market downturn. My revised % in a bigger bear market: STI level Warchest deployment % above 3500 0 3000 10 2300-2500 25 2000-2200 50 below 1800 100 You can adjust the % u

Learning points from this book: In the long-run (the author used data of US traded stocks over 86 years), low-volatility stocks are shown to give a higher return. Comparing portfolios of varying volatility - as volatility increased from 13% to about 20%, compounded return increased. As the volatility increased further beyond 25%, compounded return declined. How to select the right low-volatility stocks? Look at Beta less than 1 the stock's income yield and momentum (price trend) People who underreact to news when it comes in gradually run the risk of being 'boiled' (boiling frog syndrome). The selection of low-volatility stocks can be applied to other investment vehicles as well e.g bonds.  Hold if the above three points still hold true while reviewing your portfolio. *** A fairly simple to read book, with simple concepts and no 'cheem' investment theories. The back chapters talked about some zen which I fell asleep reading.

Start of downtrend Still no sign of reversal... Speaking those who buy-and-hold versus those who chased the market.  Who's the winner? Ah... the good ol' days. *Disclaimer: I have no vested interest in C52 currently.

My friend introduced me to the richdad's cashflow game which can be played online for free ( click here to play ). I think it's a great beginner learning tool to introduce kids (or anyone else lacking in financial literacy) to grasp certain concepts of cash-flow and investing. My takeaways from the game Clear your debts first. ( A good read here. ) You don't have to act on every opportunity Calculate the yield % on investments that give passive income before investing Investing needs both elements of skill and luck Buy low , sell high (patience, patience... duh) More money = more investmen t opportunities = higher returns Life likes to throw you the unexpected when you least expect it Even if you have achieved financial freedom , you might not necessarily get to achieve your dream ***

“Bull markets are born in pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria (exhilaration). The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy, and the time of maximum optimism is the best time to sell.” - Sir John Templeton Image source:  http://www.thegoldandoilguy.com/cycle-top-stock-market-next-month/ Read also:  Knowing when to sell your shares Technical indicators for selling

All that hype about bitcoins and block-chain led me to wonder what am I missing out here. Ok... so bitcoin is a cryptocurrency (with no practical usage at this point in time but price is inflating like mad balloon??). Then what is blockchain about? Just wondering - if blockchain one day became hackable, wouldn't that spell hell?

Did I read wrong? "Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited (SET:ADVANC) signed a non-binding and conditional letter of intent to acquire 56.2% stake in Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SGX:Z74) from Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SGX:Z74) and DTV Service Company Limited for THB 2.6 billion on September 5, 2017. The shares will be acquired at a preliminary indicative price of THB 7.8 per share which is subject to further negotiations and/or due diligence. The transaction is subject to satisfaction in the due diligence result, approval from the Board of Directors and the approval from the shareholders of Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited, Thaicom Public Company Limited and Singapore Telecommunication Limited" [Source: SGX ] 2.6 billion (2600 millions) THB is only about SGD 106 millions. I wonder how they came up and justify with such low figure in the letter of intent for acquisition. Or maybe there's some missing link here? Baffled.

S&P500 now at 254 .  https://stocks.cafe/stock/summary/S27?basicchart=0&days=1260&exchange=XSES Chiong, chiong, chiong. Good for those who bought and huat, huat, huat. --- STI now at 3291 . Courtesy of iStock

Introducing the famous... Short-term Traders Ricardo, Jesse Livermore, George Soros, Steinhardt -------------------------- Value Investors Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett ---------------------- Growth Investors Philips Fisher, Rowe Price, Peter Lynch --------------------- Passive /Index Investor John Bogle (founder of Vanguard) --------------------- ---- Or how about... mixed martial arts for me? 黑猫白猫🐱 ，会捉老鼠就是好猫。

In addition to using credit cards or debit card in spending to get 'rewards', here are 2 other avenues that require minimal efforts to get little rewards. As they worked via app, it is really convenient. You only need to remember to scan within the same day to get the points. :) 1) CapitaStar$ If you stay or work near any Capital mall, this would be a good app to have (you can also get bonus Star$ for using the app the first time). Simply  spend a minimum of $20 or more  in a single receipt. Just a little tip on scanning or taking photo of your receipt - do ensure that the date of transaction, transaction number , total transaction cost and shop address are clearly shown. Otherwise, your receipt will get rejected. Also, remember to scan in on the day itself or on the next day of purchase to be eligible. Good news for Passion Card member, you can also link up your account to your star$ account to earn 1.5x Star$ (normally is 5 star$ awarded with every 1 dollar spen

https://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/cards/debit-cards/dbs-visa-debit?pid=sg-dbs-vanity-cards-dbs-visa-debit Highlights: From now till 31 st   December 2017, accumulate a foreign currency spend of S$1,500 on DBS Visa Debit Card and get S$50 Cashback. Get S$10 Cashback when you charge S$200 to your new DBS Visa Debit Card within the first month. Get  5% cashback   when you pay using Visa payWave, through your card,   Apple Pay ,   Samsung Pay   or   Android Pay . Keep your cash withdrawals to three times or less and up to S$400 every month. The deal's a bit sweeter than the Standard Chartered Unlimited Cash Back credit card which I have just gotten. (However, SC's sign up cash back is damn good.) --------------------- The best decision I made today is to bring in my clothes, even though it was bright and sunny before I left house. 天有不测风云。It started raining cats and dogs when I was walking home.  Moral of the story: Make hay while it shines. Jus

A quick recall to my old blog post  Blue Chips in Red Sea , I have done another mini simulation here. (Got nothing much to do in my short break before starting new work hehe.) This was the list I put up in Sep 2015 - Fast forward 2 years ... Which are the 'blue-black chips'? Most of the chips managed to rebound quite a bit, except Noble Group and a handful of the black sheep. CityDev, Jardine, Genting and GLP soared. [Apologies for missing out Capitaland that time.] Have you made the right choices 2 years back? :) -- Let's take a look at how the 'blue-black chips' dividends are   doing. ComfortDelgro - Yield has increased YOY. Recent dividend payout in August was $0.0435. As for how its dividends would keep up in future I find it hard to say since it has quite a few sub business units to keep it afloat while Uber and Grab grabbed its taxi market share. At least one can take comfort in its dividends. No pun intended. HPH

It's always good to learn something new from blog reading. Those scraps of information are like bread crumbs which can lead me to discover more interesting stuff about investing - to know what I don't know. As the saying goes, danger lies when you don't know what you don't know. Stalwart - simi lai? "Stalwart is a term popularized by legendary stock picker Peter Lynch to describe a large, well-established company that still offers long-term growth potential. " "In addition to a strong balance sheet, one of Lynch’s key measures for a stalwart company is the P/E growth ratio (PEG) , which is calculated by dividing the company’s price-to-earnings (PE) ratio by its earnings growth rate . Lynch determined that PEGs below 1.0 were an indication of an underpriced stock relative to its growth rate. He considered stocks with PEGs below 0.5 to be a real bargain. For dividend-paying companies, he factored in the dividend yield to arrive at a yield-adjusted PEG