Swimming with the bigger sharks

If the American market is the place where investors considered the deepest pool with the most ferocious sharks, then I'm glad to say that I'm still safe thus far. As I have mentioned in my previous posts, I have decided to widen my opportunities by trading in other markets such as DJIA and HSI and I must say that it has not only broaden my perspective, but have also increased my awareness of the companies and news happening in the western side of the world.

It is not embarrassing to say that I have actually suffered from insomnia when I first took a dip in the US market even with my modest 2.5 years trading experiences. The utmost difference between trading in STI and DJIA is that while trading in STI, you can look at the prices every now and then to be confident and comfortable (or so one might think). However, when trading in the western market, it feels a lot more like gambling even though you're not as you have no idea what direction is the broader market heading towards.

However, it did not take long for me to accommodate myself to suit the broader pace. I did it by setting a stop loss the moment I enter a position. Of course, if the stop loss price is far from the current price, then I would have a stop to protect my profit. This not only allows me to sleep better and more comfortably, but also enforced more discipline in my trading philosophy.

The US market in my honest opinion, is a highly volatile market where I would not recommend for people who are just learning to trade. Referring to the weekly chart, while it has showed strength, the daily chart only showed further weakness as the prices climb. "To hell who said we shouldn't buy when stochastic are in the overbought region", but looked what happened, stochastic has showed that DJIA is overbought for the past 1 month and it is still climbing thus far. Nonetheless, what I really liked about the US market is that you can actually find a handful of counters that perform differently from the market return.

As one might realise, I have stopped posting my trades as like many others, I got tired of it and find it pointless. I was thinking if I should post it on a regular basis instead i.e. monthly, quarterly but we will see how it goes. So far, I have entered 5 trades this month and they have been good so far. I hope this continues while I will take another leap forward if my result this year is proved to be outstanding.

2011

2011 signifies many things for me, ranging from tangibles like completion of first year degree to intangibles like maturing spiritually. Looking in retrospect, this year hasn't gone into waste. While I have failed some promise I have set for myself such as reading more books and doing more FA, I exchanged these with better academic results, more worthy friends, and enriching overseas education experience.

February this year marks the beginning of my journey towards a three year Bachelor of Commerce degree from University of Sydney and I must say I have been enjoying myself there. In fact, I would not mind fast forwarding time to this coming February so that I could head back Sydney again. Knowing that my parents had to work hard for my education fund, I put in a massive amount of extra effort while studying there. The results from first semester was not really satisfying and I must say that I was really disappointed then as the results I got does not reciprocate my effort at all. Nonetheless, the insatiable desire for better results pushed me further and I got a much better result in semester two. However, getting better results require more than hard work, as I had to give up on several things in exchange for them. Therefore, I have learnt that getting good results is not impossible. Even though the effort you put in would not 100% reflect in your results now, things might look better with perseverance, patience and a change in method.

Studying in Sydney and staying in the International House not only widen my narrow perspective about certain countries, but also gave me an awesome opportunity to make friends with people all over the world. I'm glad that I had made a bunch of good friends over there, they too are my partners in crime, found guilty of putting in lots of effort in studies. Thank you A and C for always helping me to proof read my essays, S for giving me the motivation to strive harder, not forgetting A as a wonderful roommate, M and H as wonderful bros, and of course everyone who has helped me in one way or another.

Looking back, this year is seriously a one of a kind experience for me. Unlike the 2 preceding years where I spend most of my time reading up and enriching my investment/trading knowledge, this year I felt that I have not done enough in that realm. Even though I'm studying in Sydney, a place where its image to Singaporeans are only parties, I spend most of my time studying in my room, as I'm focused on only getting good results and nothing else matters. Today, I did not regret on the disproportionate usage of time.

2012 would definitely be a more busier year for me, and I will be assiduous in every aspect associating with school work. However, this is not going to impede me from moving towards my goal of financial freedom. I have just ventured into the US and HK market, hopefully this would lighten up more trading ideas for me. This year, it would be a totally different game (trading aspect) and would be the first time I'm doing this. Previously, I was just free rolling, trading only when 1 kind of signal comes along. This time round, or at least for the next few months, it'll be different and I will probably be at the other end of the spectrum. I would try to hit a certain amount of trade and profit a certain amount of money every week. I realise this is something I have been missing in over the past 3 years. Having said this, it also means that I would have to tighten my stop as higher amount of trades also means higher exposure to risk. If everything goes well, I have plans towards the end of the year and I would only reveal if it happens.

I'm looking forward to going back to Sydney, and am excited about making new friends, meeting new people. I would be serving the residents of International House (University of Sydney) as my role as Secretary and would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for all the votes and trust in me. I also hope that my role as a committee member in the Singapore Student Society would be significant this year, and would be glad to contribute as much as I can. Nonetheless, my first priority would be to do well in studies and to maintain my position in the honours stream.

All in all,
I had not disappoint myself over my school results.
I stepped out of my comfort zone and assumed responsibility.
I had a wonderful gf and albeit all things, thanks for the memories.
I managed to maintain my weight around a certain range.

however,
I'm still far from financial freedom.
I did not read as much books as I tell myself that I should.
I did not do as much FA as much as I should.

in 2012,
I will try to be in the range for second upper.
I will trade more.
I will maintain my weight.
I will read more books.
Contentiously the most important to me, to increase my personal net worth.

Last but not least, Happy new year guys!

Bought

Sakari at $1.90


Olam at $2.17

Bought General Motors

Bought at $20.11.

When it comes to investment...

When a portfolio goes positive and he bought..
"I BOUGHT, I BOUGHT! I HAD XX LOTS."

When a portfolio goes negative and he bought..
"..." (Silence)

When a portfolio goes positive and he did not buy..
"Damn, I was right when I told you it will only go up in the future, remember?"

When a portfolio goes negative and he did not buy..
"I knew this would happen. I told you to stay by the sideline."

If you're doing this, it is very likely that you are still new to the market. If you're doing this, it is very likely your portfolio will still continue to bleed. Investors/Traders do report about their portfolio management/trading results, but will never allow emotions to take over control.

Secondary Income

Yet another year passed, and it's going to be the year 2012, i.e. the year that has been long prophecies which Armageddon occurs. That's not my issue, of course. If I die, I die. If I don't, I continue to live my life and pursue my dreams. However, that's not what this post is about. It's only been a week since I touched down from Sydney. This is only the beginning of my summer holidays and I'm already in my first week of work.

Holidays, according to google's definition is a day of festivity or recreation when no work is done, which I suppose I belonged to the latter. Friends and acquaintances questioned about my rationale to work during my well deserved break. While my answer to all those questions can be copy-pasted verbatim, in summary and to put it bluntly, I work for the sake of income. I gave myself an adequate amount of time to weigh the opportunity cost of working during this summer vacation. I thought of going on a trip, I thought of not working and slacked throughout this holiday period, I thought of doing what I liked to do. Moreover, this might be the last few long holidays I could ever get before proceeding to the next stage of life. However, on second thoughts, I still need an inflow of cash flow to support my spending for the next 3 months.

Quote "You can be free. You can live and work anywhere in the world. You can be independent from routine and not answer to anybody." Instead of allowing me to relax and letting off some steam from my exam stress, this holiday has just given me an opportunity to stress even harder on my means of getting secondary income. Thank god, it was never my proclivity to slack. While some might say it's an unfortunate thing, the tendency to put my brain into good use has actually propelled me towards the goal of financial freedom at the age of 20.

I imagined myself 15 years down the road, living in my ideal world, where I can have my own family of 3 kids. I then questioned myself what if I'm out of job in that situation and have monthly instalments to pay, have kids to feed and have parents waiting for me to give them pocket money. Without secondary income, my spending would be 100% from my savings and in that situation, level of spending are usually high.

However with secondary income, be it dividends, rental income or short term trading gains, spending can be derive from several sources. It might be true that the amount these secondary income cannot totally replace the amount of money our jobs can bring, at least our bank account could bleed slower. Putting myself in those undesirable situations not only enforced my concrete belief in having a secondary income, but have also gave me a motivation to work towards that goal.

Sold CapitaMall

Cut loss at $1.75. Will KIV.