$SPY Continuation and opportunity in Telefonica and France Telecom

Posted by Investment Moats | Jan 6, 2011 | Technical Analysis |

S&P500 Today’s bullish engulfing pattern looks bullish for guys who have already long. We thought that we are going to hit some form of intermediate top into a correction but looks like bulls won another day. Under a different context such a pattern is a buy signal but in this case probably the significance is not that much. Not a great place to long S&P500, probably not a good time to exit as well. Telefonica I was vested in Telefonica and got out of it thinking it is likely to go lower. I was taken aback to see the...

Evaluating a Single Premium Life Insurance Policy:Great Eastern Prestige Harvest

Posted by Investment Moats | Jan 5, 2011 | Insurance, Personal Finance |

The writer is not a certified financial advisor and his insurance philosophy is outlined in this brief. Do consult with a certified financial advisor to get a second opinion before making decisions. For more write-ups on insurance do take a look at the insurance section. Yesterday I got a message from an old friend of mine. A friend approached him to introduce Great Eastern Prestige Harvest to him. This product was introduced as a Single Premium Insurance policy. Considerations: Premium is USD 90,000. Non-participating. This policy does not earn bonuses from a participating fund from the Insurance company. Denominated...

Why you should track your spending habits using a budget application like Quicken

Posted by Investment Moats | Jan 4, 2011 | Personal Finance |

In past articles I explain adequately how to go about creating a budget easily and my preferred method of budgeting using virtual envelopes. With Smartphones like iPhone and Android getting popular, many would say that all they have to keep track is just 1 month spending and do it in their smartphone. My advice is to use one that you can keep track and review for a long time. Preferably, I hope that GNUCash, which is opensource would be able to do that but sadly its too complex for me to recommend to you guys. Your Spending Trail is...

Wilmar goes into China property and price plunges

Posted by Investment Moats | Jan 4, 2011 | Technical Analysis |

Is this a good opportunity to get into Wilmar? I probably will have a hard time valuing it but for those investors who always thought Wilmar was too expensive, this is an opportunity. But is this a foolish move? When a company diversify into another industry, most of the time it became worse. This is a 3 years price chart. Support can be found at $5.30 to $5.10 region. What do you guys...

Psoriasis, Investing, Blogging and thoughts for 2011

Posted by Investment Moats | Dec 31, 2010 | Investing, Personal Development |

I really don’t like to come up with this post but I guess it might be easier this year. Work have been hectic in a way I think most people would think its not, but for me it is enough. This year have been a year where I muddle through and at the end of the year I really don’t know if I have achieve anything work wise. I realize one thing is that I really can’t concentrate that well. Psoriasis and Wellness One main reason is that my psoriasis have gotten to the point where it is starting...

First REIT Excess Rights Results: I got 2750 excess rights!

Posted by Investment Moats | Dec 31, 2010 | Shares & Derivatives |

Folks following this blog would know that I applied for First REIT 5 for 4 rights issue. In addition to that I Applied for 20000 excess rights, paying SGD10,000 for this. Today on the 31st Dec 2010 is the trading day for all these rights and a check on my CDP account shows that I got some excess rights! It’s a welcome surprise because, First REITs is strongly held I feel and not likely to have so much excess rights. My previous experience with Sing Investment was disappointing. Anyway, the 5 for 4 rights issue left me with 250...

The one cost that most people failed to budget for: Wedding Gifts!

Posted by Investment Moats | Dec 29, 2010 | Personal Finance |

I wonder if you guys have this problem. Some of you diligent folks would have a splendid budget plan like the one I use here. But my question is, do you budget for Wedding Dinner Gift Money? I assume a lot don’t! Simply because you really do not know how many of your friends will get married this particular year. The current prevailing market rate is near SGD120 bucks. And this is one cost that will go up with inflation. Its better if you will get married soon, because you get to “recover” some of these cost. But if...

Pertama Holdings: Cash Rich Dividend Stock with Zero Debt Average Yielding 5%

Posted by Investment Moats | Dec 26, 2010 | Shares & Derivatives |

Its Christmas time and I have 4 days of free days so what better way then to spend a morning writing up this company I chance upon. Company Profile Not many would be familiar with the name Pertama Holdings. Pertama is a retailer of electronic goods sold to consumers with a brick and mortar front end. It runs 12 Electronic Stores in Singapore and 6 Electronic Stores in Malaysia. You have never seen it’s store? Well, the reason is probably because it doesn’t have much of a store. Back 8 years ago, its got only one store that I...

Zimbabwee goes to barter trade–What happens when fiat money collapses

Posted by Investment Moats | Dec 23, 2010 | Market Review and Trends |

Here is a story found from New York Times. I believe a lot of folks know that Zimbabwee had hyperinflation for quite some time. Paper money there is basically worthless. So how would you procure healthcare services? By Trading Peanuts. The hospital’s cavernous chapel is now filled with what looks like a giant sand dune of unshelled nuts. The hospital makes them into peanut butter that is mixed into patients’ breakfast porridge, spread on teatime snacks and melted into vegetables at dinnertime. “We literally are providing medical services for peanuts!” exclaimed Kathy McCarty, a nurse from California who has...

Mint.com Launches Finance Game to Teach Kids–Should Singapore Schools do the same?

Posted by Investment Moats | Dec 23, 2010 | Personal Finance |

At Investment Moats, we have profiled that Mint.com be one of the good choices for online personal finance software. What makes Mint.com so good vs the competition is that it is such an innovative company when it comes to not just making their products very usable to users but also provide value added info and training to get you to take control of your finances. Here is a profile of Mint.com’s founder Aaron Patzer’s take on the importance of good design to encourage usability. Today, we got the news that Mint will be partnering with Scholastic to offer a...

Silverlake as a Dividend Income Stock:Some preliminary views

Posted by Investment Moats | Dec 21, 2010 | Shares & Derivatives |

I read up JW’s write-up on Silverlake and here are my views on it before going deep: Software Development and Maintenance is High in Margins When you are selling knowledge products such as software and pharmaceuticals, you embed a lot of value add into it. As such the company normally quotes high margins for it. Cost is really low because the main cost is manpower cost which is seriously loopsided because being in the industry, using indians and chinese developers and engineers but quoting european engineers cost as part of maintenance and development quotations allow the company to have...

4 Wide Moat Dividend Stocks that could rise in value in 2011

Posted by Investment Moats | Dec 19, 2010 | Shares & Derivatives |

We are almost to the end of 2010 and hope you guys had a great 2010 in investing. While we sit here reflecting on 2010, why not take this opportunity to take a look at 5 stocks that might do well in 2011 Telefonica (TEF) Telefonica is a stock that I took interest in not too long ago and divested one day ago. It did give me an insight to the kind of dividends I should be getting as an international investor, how much withholding tax could impact payout. However, I still think it’s a great stock. Its one...

Investment Moats Dividend Stock Portfolio Update Dec 2010

Posted by Investment Moats | Dec 19, 2010 | Shares & Derivatives |

This update came abit belated as I was busy with work. The key changes for this month have been: Speculative purchase of CapitaMallAsia. Beaten down quite badly and like Yanlord and other mid caps we should expect a bounce. Don’t think I will hold this for long Subscribe to First REITs Rights Issue and Excess Rights. My belief is that there should be excess rights from international investors who cannot subscribe to rights issues. Hope to get some more. With this, it has possibly make First REIT and Starhub my biggest holdings Sold Telefonica. I do see some weakness...

First REIT gets land lease extension for MRCCC

Posted by Investment Moats | Dec 13, 2010 | Shares & Derivatives |

Investment Moats posted a question to First REIT some time ago as to the land lease renewal process and how much it cost. For an insight to that read the article here. Here we see a successful renewal and the cost of renewal. Granted, MRCCC is a much smaller than the other premises but 28k is a small sum by any standards, just like what Victor from FIRST REIT...

How to calculate dividend withholding taxes on US ADRs for international investors: My experience with Telefonica

Posted by Investment Moats | Dec 12, 2010 | Investing, Personal Finance |

Not too long ago I wrote about being invested in Telefonica as an experiment to see how much I will be tax as a international investor investing in US ADRs and how much taxes I will be levied with. To recap: There is a 30% withholding tax on dividends of US Stocks listed on US Stock Exchanges. Last I checked, there is not many ways you can bypass this. The withholding tax currently for Spain, where Telefonica is from is 19% as of this posting (Dec ‘10).This was raised from 15% in Jan 2010 if I am correct. We...

Author: Investment Moats