TheFinance.sg » Alvin

What Cu Chi Tunnel can teach you about having an investing edge?

Alvin — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:07:38 +0000

During the Vietnam War, the guerrilla fighters put up a resistance against the Americans. We all know the mighty Americans had the most advanced military weapons and established fighting doctrines. The Vietnamese would not be a match to the Americans had they fought a conventional warfare. Instead, they cleverly strategised and used guerrilla tactics to undermine the Americans war fighting doctrine. Although we cannot conclude which side had won the war, but a stalemate is impressive enough for the less equipped guerrillas. The most amazing resistance happened in Cu Chi.

Edge no 1 – decide when and where to fight

The guerrilla fighters dug a 3-storey 250 km tunnel network in Cu Chi so that the fighters can avoid the aerial bombardment from the Americans. I remembered a phrase in The Blue Ocean Strategy and I like it a lot – make competition irrelevant. By choosing not to fight the …

Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam

Alvin — Sat, 12 May 2012 03:35:00 +0000

You can read about the interview with Andrew Hallam here.

This book talked about nine rules of wealth.

Rule 1: Spend Like You Want to Grow Rich

Andrew defined wealth as having the financial ability to stop working; and having passive income that is twice the national median household income.

He believes that not having a car would give you a financial headstart in life. In fact, he researched that the median price paid for a car by U.S. millionaires in 2009 was US$31,367.

When buying a home, he suggests a rule of thumb is to double the interest rate to figure out if you could still afford the mortgage payments.

Do not spoil your kids! He quoted Thomas Stanley’s book, The Millionaire Next Door, that people who received stocks, cash, real estate or other forms of financial gifts tend to be in a lower level of wealth …

Can you afford a property in Singapore at current prices?

Alvin — Sun, 06 May 2012 02:22:03 +0000

CNBC produced a slideshow on The World’s Hottest Real Estate Markets and I was not surprised Singapore made the top 10 list.

Call me biased if you want but I really believe the property market is overextended. There are signs of euphoria and history has taught us again and again, what goes up must come down. The masses are always wrong when it comes to investment. The winners will be those who are selling the properties, and not the buyers.

I have summarised CNBC’s findings in the table below.

Rank	Country	5 year price growth	Price per Square Foot (USD)(from globalpropertyguide.com)
1	China	110.9%	$644
2	Hong Kong	93.7%	$1,795
3	Israel	54.5%	$722
4	Singapore	50.5%	$1,553
5	Columbia	39.4%	$195
6	Taiwan	30.1%	$660
7	Canada	28.7%	$770
8	Norway	28.7%	Not available
9	Malaysia	28.5%	$202
10	…

Travel Investing – Beijing, China

Alvin — Tue, 01 May 2012 09:39:26 +0000

Cars

Beijing itself has more cars than the population in Singapore. It currently has over 5 million cars in the city and to my surprise, I saw a lot of European brands like Audi, BMW and Volkswagen running the streets. There were also the familiar Japanese brands like Mazda, Honda and Toyota. The cabs were mainly Hyundai. I noticed that there is always a Chinese company at the back of these imported cars. I suspect the government has made it mandatory for any foreign brand to partner with a local company. Of which, I think FAW Group has the biggest market share (based on what I observed on the roads) – FAW partners with Volkswagen, Audi, Toyota and Mazda.

The traffic is worse than Singapore and there is a restriction to driving on weekdays according to the car plate number. The car plate numbers can end in 10 variations, that …

Teacher turned millionaire through simple investing – Andrew Hallam, author of Millionaire Teacher

Alvin — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:22:42 +0000

We have Andrew Hallam with us for this interview. He is a Canadian living in Singapore and teaching at the American School. I got to know Andrew and his investing ideas through his book, “Millionaire Teacher”. I love his book and would definitely recommend it to you. It has been one of the bestsellers in the bookstores so do look out for it.

Andrew, is there a double meaning to your book title, “Millionaire Teacher”? Firstly, you became a millionaire with a teacher’s salary and secondly, you are teaching people how to be a millionaire. Was it intentional?

You are actually the first to point out about the double conundrum in this title. Initially I just wanted “The Nine Rules of Wealth” but my publisher insisted to promote me as a teacher who became a millionaire. It would push more sales for the book and I was willing to adopt …

UIA – possible scam?

Alvin — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:38:01 +0000

I received an email from UIA out of the blue, asking me to invest in the company at a pre-IPO price which is on a 5x discount.

I was wondering, if the opportunity is so good, why would it land up in my email and not snapped up by some other billionaires and millionaires? Sounds fishy to me.

And UIA means Universal Interests Accumulative.

I cringed when I read this para:

By October 2011, UIA reached 204 countries becoming Earth’s default one world currency™. UIA differs from banks because it issues its own currency without having to incur debt and does not charge or pay any interest. UIA’s one world currency™ is safer than other currencies because its value does not fluctuate daily from changing foreign exchange rates.

Another quote:

The Agency has a capital base of $1 Zillion and is the world’s largest investment entity. The Agency is backed …

STI ETF marks 10-year anniversary and averaged 9.01% annually

Alvin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:11:12 +0000

Received this email excerpt from SGX:

The month of April 2012 represents the 10 year birthday for the SPDR® Straits Times Index Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). The SPDR® Straits Times Index ETF is Singapore’s first locally-listed ETF, and also referred to as the streetTRACKS STI ETF. This ETF allows investors to access the broad market exposure associated with the 30 weighted stocks of the Straits Times Index, in one, single exchanged traded security. This element of efficiency is one reason that ETFs are sometimes referred to as portfolio products.

On their website, State Street Global Advisors provide an indication of the returns associated with the streetTRACKS STI ETF from the inception date of 11 April 2002 to 29 February 2012. Over this period, the Net Asset Value (NAV) of the streetTRACKS STI ETF gained 72.90%. Including the dividend distributions associated with the ETF, the NAV gain is enhanced …

Dr. Doom Talks Boom at Maybank Kim Eng Invest Asia 2012 – 7 Apr 12

Alvin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 07:22:37 +0000

Maybank Kim Eng invited Dr Doom, Marc Faber, to Singapore for a talk. I did not expect him to speak only 45 mins and charged $44 for the ticket. Although KE also invited prominent figures like Magnus Bocker (CEO of SGX), Pua Seck Guan (CEO of Perennial China Retail Trust), and Ron Sim (CEO of OSIM), they should have mentioned it in their promotional flyers. I suspect the latter 2 CEOs are issuing rights soon.

Mr Bocker encouraged more active trading. Of course, this would bring good business to SGX. He mentioned that 25% of the investors in Hong Kong are active and active means having trades on a daily basis. It is 17% in Australia and 10% in Singapore. I am not sure if I heard wrongly. These percentages look too large in my opinion.

I also disagree with him when he compared equity returns with property returns. Saying …

Asymmetry in shorting – Is shorting more risky?

Alvin — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 02:39:32 +0000

Other than the direction, I used to think that short selling is the same on the long side.

I found that is not true and here is why

When you short, you can lose more than your capital

Imagine you short a stock at $50 and it goes to $0. Your gain is $50 or 100% gain. This is the maximum gain you can get. On the other hand, if the price continues to go up to $100, or $200, or $300… You can lose more than your capital with 200% or 400% or higher – the sky is the limit! And this is without any leverage. It is definitely not a position you want to be in.

Yes. Of course you can put a stop loss to it. In fact, you MUST always have a stop loss when you short anything.

On the long side, you buy a stock …

Pay off $250,000 debt in 1.5 years – Collin Seow of Alpha Alliance

Alvin — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 01:58:14 +0000

I got to know about Collin through Yong Sak’s book, “Secrets of Highly Profitable Traders”. I could have interviewed him earlier if I have known him. Nonetheless, I jumped on the chance this time round.

Collin is a successful remisier and he maintains a blog at www.collinseow.com. Besides his brokerage business, he is actively teaching trading at Alpha Alliance.

I believe most people know you as a successful remisier. Would you share your success with us?

When I started my remisier practice, I did not know how to manage client’s risk. Six months into the business, my friend who was one of my clients defaulted on $250,000. My commission at that time was only about $2,000 a month. A $250,000 debt looked daunting in comparison. My friend told me to declare bankrupt together and said we could lead normal lives again after six years. I decided otherwise and …

The Invisible Hands by Steven Drobny

Alvin — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 09:47:13 +0000

Following “Inside the House of Money“, this is the 2nd book by Steven Drobny on global macro hedge funds. This book, “The Invisible Hands“, focus on the 2008 global financial crisis, how some of the managers survived and why others did not. It pointed out the fundamental flaws in real money funds and how it continue to fail in future crises.

The traditional real money funds are still significant in today’s world as they have the largest managed assets in the world.

“Real money funds comprise a majority of world’s managed assets, which totaled $62 trillion at the end of 2008. Within this grouping, pensions are by far the largest category, at $24 trillion, with U.S. pensions at $15 trillion, or almost one-quarter of total managed assets.”

The 2008 crisis did not spare the famous endowment funds of Yale and Harvard. The universities have …

7 Singapore REITs trading at 30% discount

Alvin — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 15:12:46 +0000

There are 20 listed REITs in the Singapore Exchange. Out of these 20 REITs, 13 are trading below its net asset value, and 7 are trading below 70% of net asset value:

Saizen REIT
Frasers Comm
Fortune REIT
Suntec REIT
Starhill Global REIT
LippoMalls
K-REIT

Click here for the pdf version.

Disclosure: I do not hold any of these stocks at the time of writing….

The stock market quadrant – who to buy from and who to sell to?

Alvin — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 05:34:21 +0000

Jon was sharing with me this diagram. Not exactly the words in the oval (I added them), but pretty much for the scale from pessimism to optimism and belief to skepticism. I found it apt to relate people in the market.

Non-investors are generally skeptical and pessimistic about the stock market. They believe the stock market is dangerous and it is not worthwhile to take the risk. They believe they cannot make money from it so they stay clear of it. In fact, the scary stock market crashes and bad economic news put them in constant pessimism.

In a bull market, retail investors are rife with greed as they are optimistic about the stock market. As they do not have any strategy or proper risk management, they will believe in whatever tips or recommendations from experts, analysts or friends.

During a market crash, retail investors will turn from greed to …

Understanding Stock Market Risks – Financial Fraud Risk is real! (4)

You are here for a purpose and not an extra part

Alvin — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 03:35:04 +0000

The movie Hugo had a dialogue that left a great impression on me.

Hugo is a boy who lost his father. His father taught him how to fix clocks at a young age. Hugo has been fixing mechanical parts thereafter.

Hugo and Isabelle (Hugo’s friend) were talking on a clock tower that oversee the night scene of Paris.

On finding a purpose, Isabelle was commenting the automaton (robot) looks sad. Hugo replied, “I think he’s just waiting to work again, to do what he’s supposed to do.”

“Everything has a purpose, even machines. …Maybe that’s why broken machines make me so sad. Maybe it’s the same thing with people.”

Like clock work, he said that “I’d imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if …

No related posts.

Asia’s Youngest Wealth Coach is bullish on Silver – Jonathan Quek of True North Asia

Alvin — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 09:45:44 +0000

Welcome to the BigFatPurse show, today I am proud to invite the first foreign investor from Malaysia to the show. Touted as Asia’s Youngest Wealth Coach, he runs a few businesses and had appeared in numerous media programmes and publications. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Jonathan Quek.

Hi Jonathan.

Hi Alvin.

Asia’s Youngest Wealth Coach, pretty big declaration, how did you come out with this tagline?

It started about 3 years ago when I was giving talks to universities, financial institutions and corporations in Malaysia. I started giving financial talks in universities as part of my personal social responsibility. After 3 years, corporations and government agencies started paying me to speak. Soon, the media started giving me titles and someone actually quoted me as Asia’s Youngest Wealth Coach.

When was it? How old were you then?

I think I was around 23.

And now you are?

It has …

How big is your wealth container?

Invest Wisely in 2012 with Dr Alexander Elder

Alvin — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:40:51 +0000

Dr Alexander Elder is rather famous in the trading scene. I jumped on the rare chance when he came to Singapore to conduct a 2-day seminar (11 and 12 Feb 12). Although it was a paid seminar, I think MacQuarie subsidized quite a bit. Thanks for offsetting the cost and Phillip Capital for putting it together. I have documented the pointers below.

Ocean of ignorance

Dr Elder shared about something he learned in his chemistry class which had no relation to the subject, but it was meaningful enough to stuck in his head till today. His professor said we live in an island of knowledge and surrounded by an ocean of ignorance. As our island of knowledge expands, our boundary of ignorance increases too. The more things we learn, the more things we find that we do not know or understand. There is no way one can totally understand what …

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…