TheFinance.sg » Alvin

Real trading statement proof: $50,000 to $86,674 – CEO of Tactical Trading Academy

Alvin — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:49:46 +0000

Welcome to BigFatPurse Interview show. Today’s guest is BL, he is the CEO of Tactical Trading Academy. He was an ex-banker, and now he has strike-out on his own to teach trading. Find out how he walk the talk.

BL, I understand that you worked in a bank, what made you join the banking industry in the first place?

This is a simple question because I have a business degree, so joining the banking industry is a natural career path. My first job was in asset management.

Is it because of interest or the perceived high pay in this industry?

I did not join because of money. When I started out in my first job, there was nobody to advise me. When I joined the industry 10 years ago, banking was not such a good job. I was actually retrenched. Is it good money? I have friends that told me …

Bruce Lee – “It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”

Alvin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:17:18 +0000

Are we having too much clutter at home? Are we adding more material things into our life but not necessary needing them? Are we spending our time aimlessly watching TV or surfing the internet?

We have limited time and one life. We must learn to stop wasting our time and money on unnecessary things. Discard them and you will have more time and money.

Bruce Lee said it is analogous to sculpting a statue. Instead of adding decoration to a piece of rock, a sculptor chisel away the unwanted parts to reveal the beauty of a statue…

3 ways to live better

Alvin — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:28:11 +0000

Live life with more courage

We have a lot of fear in our lives. Although fear has kept our ancestors alive (avoiding dangerous creatures), it has limit our potential too. Thanks to great men who had abolished fear that we are able to advance to what we are today. Thank you Thomas Edison for having the courage to fail 1000 times to discover the light bulb.

I went to Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) in my teens and there was a phrase on the building that we can see while we push off the canoes from the shore – “You cannot discover new oceans if you do not have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

We can live in our “safe” world and not try new things. We can choose to live in our comfort zone. But I found many of such people turned dispirited after a while. …

Peter Lynch’s Rule of Thumb in Investing

Alvin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:57:17 +0000

I found this on Wikipedia and it is worth archiving:

Market cap

Market capitalization less than $5 billion – Lynch generally avoids large, well-known companies in favor of small-cap stocks that still contain significant upside potential. Most fund managers define small-caps as companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion. Institutional investors often use market one investment criterion, requiring, for example, that a company have a market capitalization of $100 million or more to qualify as an investment. Analysts look at market capitalization in relation to book value for an indication of how investors value a company’s future prospects.

PEG ratio < 1.2

PEG ratio below 1.2 – The PEG ratio is a valuation metric that compares a company’s price-earnings ratio with its projected growth rate. Small, high-growth stocks generally trade at higher PEGs compared to the big-caps. If the PEG ratio is around 1, the company is considered …

Secrets of Singapore Trading Gurus vs Secrets of Highly Profitable Traders

Alvin — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:28:39 +0000

People who frequent the bookstores would know that besides my book, “Secrets of Singapore Trading Gurus”, there is a similar book, “Secrets of Highly Profitable Traders” by Chin Yong Sak. Before these two books, there were no books on the interviews with Singapore traders. Probably that was the gap that Yong Sak saw. You can read about the genesis of “Secrets of Singapore Trading Gurus”.

While I was on this project, Eileen learned from the boss of Rank Books that an author was also interviewing traders in Singapore and would publish a book too. We went ahead and happened to publish around the same time. I had bought a copy of Yong Sak’s book and I enjoyed reading it. There were actually more differences than I thought and I would like to present to you. Of course, there are also pros and cons to each book.

Different traders were interviewed

“Secrets …

Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis

Alvin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:48:05 +0000

Liar’s Poker is a book about Michael Lewis’s (author of the book) experience working in the once prestigious Salomon Brothers investment bank. He gave an insight into the internal workings, tension and ugly side of the firm. I shall pick out the useful and amusing things from the book.

Interview for an investment banker job

I found the description of the interview interesting. I do not know if this is true. “Investment bankers had a technique known as the stress interview. If you were invited to Lehman’s New York offices, your first interview might begin with the interviewer asking you to open the window. You were on the forty-third floor overlooking Wall Street. The window was sealed shut.”

“Another stress-inducing trick was the silent treatment. You’d walk into the interview chamber. The man in the chair would say nothing. You’d say hello. He’d stare. You’d say that you’d come …

Investment & Trading Report Card – Dec 11 and Year 2011

Alvin — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 02:48:46 +0000

2011 has been a tough year to trade, especially for trend following strategies. Post August 2011, the market has been volatile with no clear indication of direction. Only Dow Jones closed the year on a slightly positive note while the rest of the European and Asian indices were negative.

Equity Markets

+4.49% (Dow Jones Industrial Average)
-1.12% (S&P 500)
-3.21% (NASDAQ)
-7.34% (FTSE 100)
-15.61% (DAX)
-18.68% (NIKKEI 225)
-18.22% (STI)
-19.00% (CAC 40)
-21.34% (Hang Seng)

The funny thing is that most of the problems are with Europe and US, but Asian markets received the greatest beating. Again, the market showed its irrationality.

Commodities

+10.14% (Gold ETF)
-10.14% (Silver ETF)

Trading Results for Dec 11:

Open trades:
Celgene – Bought $63.22 , now $67.59 (+6.9%)

Closed trades:
Olympus – Bought 740.4, sold 1,224.3 …

Top 10 Favorites of BigFatPurse 2011

Alvin — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:22:18 +0000

Here is the list of 10 BigFatPurse posts most viewed in 2011! Thank you for the support and I wish you a great 2012 ahead!

10 things I learned about life in 2011

Alvin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 03:07:35 +0000

We have come to the final week of 2011 and I have 10 things to share about life:

1) I have everything I need

Looking at the things I have, I can conclude that I have everything that I need. Humans do not need a lot of things to survive. To survive is not difficult for most of us. We can eat simply, live simply and use what we have. Do we really need the latest iPhone? Do we really need a big house? These are wants. We have got what we needed but we are not satisfied and we want to progress in the social ladder to fulfill our wants. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying that we should not have wants. But we cannot focus on the lack – what I want but I have not get it yet. Instead, we should focus on what …

Earned almost $400k from investing – Sam Goh of Wisdom Capital

Alvin — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:55:52 +0000

Download audio file (2011-11-28_Sam_Goh.mp3)

Alvin: Welcome everyone, welcome to the first video interview I am doing on BigFatPurse.com. My guest today is Sam Goh, a young and promising investor, who started Wisdom Capital at the age of 22. He is still studying in SMU by the way. Despite his age, he has already earned numerous accolades, including the “Money Sensible Youth Excellence Award” in 2006. Sam, welcome.

Sam: My pleasure.

Alvin: Would you tell us what this award is about? The “Money Sensible Youth Excellence Award”.

Sam: “Money Sensible Youth Excellence Award” is actually an award that serves to reward and commemorate young investors who have taken the initiatives, or who have taken their first steps in managing their finances prudently. It was held in 2006 through a nationwide competition, across the four polytechnics. I decided to participate in this competition through Temasek Polytechnic and I wrote an …

T3B Forex Gathering – 17 Dec 11

Alvin — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 01:18:44 +0000

Clarence called for a year end gathering to introduce passive income strategies for short term volatility and long term stability. It may sound grand and good. In actual fact, he meant an automated forex trading system and land banking.

Algojunction

Algojunction was started in Sep 11 and had performed very well for the past few months:

Sep – 145 pips
Oct – 1031 pips
Nov – 2090 pips
Dec (as of 17 Dec)- 1196 pips

He explained that it is leveraging on the mirror trader platform, whereby it is not a robot that is trading, but it allows you to follow another successful trader by automatically follow his entries and exits. There were 500-600 strategies to be employed but you can check the performance to evaluate before you decide who to follow. Clarence will put up a daily update on the market and the traders he is following. He shared …

MasterYourFinance.com Investing Mentor Session – 12 Dec 11

Alvin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:49:37 +0000

I have the privilege to conduct the mentor session on 12 Dec 11. For the first part, I shared about the book that I wrote, “Secrets of Singapore Trading Gurus”. There are many good points mentioned in the book but I will only highlight one secret from each trader.

Someone in the audience has requested for the slides and I intend to put up the screen shots and elaborate from here.

Keane taught me to let go of fear and greed towards money. Only in this way we are able to invest objectively and buy and sell at the right time. This applies to relationship too. When we are afraid to give in too much for the other person, we will not receive much in return as well. To be well loved, we need to love people as much as possible. Give and you shall receive. In trading, if you …

On Sale: Secrets of Singapore Trading Gurus

Alvin — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 02:37:31 +0000

Finally, the book is on sale at major bookstores! Over the past year, I have interviewed 8 traders in Singapore and recorded their wisdom into this book. Besides the book, you get to watch hours of interviews online! Thanks to Eileen of Moolah.asia and Aktive Learning who had helped to make this happen. Click here to buy

The Genesis

You would find familiarity to Mr Propwise’s “Secrets of Singapore Property Gurus“. This is no coincidence as this is indeed an appropriate sequel to his book since both are based on interviews. I was pretty inspired by “Market Wizards” series of books where Jack Schwager interviewed traders of various techniques and perspective. It gave a good insight into the minds of traders. I was thinking, “why don’t I do the interviews myself and get to hear from the experts directly!” I shared my idea with Eileen and …

On Sale: What Your School Never Taught You About Money by Dennis Ng

Alvin — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:34:49 +0000

Dennis’s third book is on sale now! Free delivery to your home! BUY IT NOW!

Titled “What Your School Never Taught You About Money“, the book covers 41 topics including:

What Your School Never Taught You About Success Mindset

What do successful people share in common?
Learn how the rich think to become rich
Increase financial literacy to increase wealth!
A powerful concept that can help you achieve wealth and riches
Use your time and money wisely and wealth will naturally follow
Robert Kiyosaki’s definition of assets and liabilities are wrong
5 laws of money that would pull money towards you
7 strategies to fatten your purse
How to go from “Money Not Enough” to being financially free?
Why studying hard and working hard no longer guarantee success

What Your School Never Taught You About Financial Planning

Painful lessons from the Asian Financial Crisis
Common misconceptions taught in …

Style of no style approach to investing

Alvin — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 02:39:08 +0000

Dennis shared a nice video interview of Bruce Lee. The legendary kung fu master is well known for his philosophical approach to fighting. He invented Jeet Kune Do, which emphasises on developing your own style of fighting that suits you, and not trying to stick to one school of kung fu.

Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

I see similarity when we approach the market. There are many schools out there – value investing, growth investing, trend following, countertrend trading, system trading, algorithm trading, and …

Investment & Trading Report Card – Nov 11

Alvin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:50:42 +0000

Olympus was hit by accounting scandal. Unlike MF Global, Olympus did not filed for bankruptcy. It hid its debts for many years but its business is still afloat. Being the world’s largest endoscope maker, the company still has a foothold in the market. I see this as a temporary problem and it would turn around eventually. The risk of delisting still exists unless Olympus can report its financials before 14 Dec 2011.

Trading Results:

Open trades:
Olympus – Bought 740.4, now 1022.4 (+38.1%)
Devon Energy – Sold $65.53, now $61.94 (+5.5%)
Hang Seng Index – Sold 18970, now 18097 (+4.6%)

Closed trades:
[Closed] Agricultural Bank of China – Sold $3.39, bought $3.23 (+4.7%)
[Closed] BOC Hong Kong – Sold $17.60, bought $16.90 (+4.0%)
[Closed] Chevron – Sold $101.33, bought $97.26 (+4.0%)
[Closed] Cathay Pacific …

T3B Gathering 23 Nov 11

Alvin — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:22:42 +0000

Keane opined that the market is confused. Despite the indices making lows, there are still many US stocks that broke 3 year high within the last 2 months. Asian markets have retreated relatively more as Europe pulled their money away from Asia to save themselves. US has a lot of multinational companies overseas and hence are less affected by Europe woes and US debt problem. He is waiting for the last support to be weakened and the market will be on a bear run. However, there are more limitations to short selling than on the long side, for reasons such as the availability of stocks for shorting. Hence he will be holding cash in anticipation to buy a lot of stocks at the low, just like the low point in 2009. The stock market is never stable. Most importantly you must be stable.

Secret of the Rich – no fear …

A kind reader rebuts

Alvin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:44:19 +0000

A kind reader has commented on my previous posting regarding options and sent me an email for clarification. I do not know everything and I can be wrong. Hence, I appreciate readers who bother to tell me that. Although we all want recognition to feel good but no one is perfect and it takes more courage and effort to point out my mistakes. I take things objectively. It is unnecessary to react negatively and be defensive about it. I would rather be open and see the other person’s perspective before judging.

Below is the original email which the reader has gladly allow me to post it.

Alvin,

I appreciate that you are pretty open minded about taking in comments. As such, please take down my comment from your website – my purpose was not to publicise my thoughts or to discredit your blog but just to get the message across …