By: musicwhiz Interestingly, this was the half-month where everyone’s long awaited “crash” scenario came finally came true. The instability of the economic situation, coupled with the global slowdown as a result of the sub-prime crisis, finally hit home as the Straits Times Index fell through the 2,500 level. As a gauge of market sentiment, the index is very useful and there is currently a lot of uncertainty and fear going around as investors are finding out that every rally is simply a bear market rally which “traps” them to buy, even as prices go inexorably lower. Mr. Market is ferociously thrashing every stock that made a fool of him a year ago (by being over-valued) ! The fascinating aspect of the current bear market (and probably previous ones too, which I have not lived through as an investor) is that prices have the tendency to dip downwards almost every single day without fail, as if the selling is so pronounced the savage that it resembles a tidal wave. It is only with such ferocious and brutal selling that one uncover gems of companies selling at bargain basement prices. However, as Mark Sellers said, not many have the guts to purchase when the entire world seems to be selling, and the psychology of human behaviour is indeed fascinating when it comes to the stock market, as people start avoiding stocks like the plague when they become better bargains ! I took the opportunity to purchase more of China Fishery, seeing that Mr. Market was extremely manic-depressive today. Please also note that due to time constraints and the nature of value investing, I will NOT be providing half-monthly updates for my portfolio from October 2008 onwards. In future, all portfolio updates will be on a monthly basis. Below is the summary of my investments and related news as at September 15, 2008 (STI at 2,486.55 points).:- Read more...