By: musicwhiz It has been a rather turbulent half-month from January 2, 2008 till today, with more sub-prime worries plaguing market sentiment and casting doubts on the ability of the USA to stem off a recession. With recession fears looming, the market has been sold down relentlessly by fund managers and house traders who are unwilling to take long-term positions. Of course, the selling of late has also been the result of margin calls, as people who purchased shares three to four days ago in the hopes of a quick contra gain could only watch helplessly as the market plummeted even more. Of the 10 trading days (including today) since January 2, 2008, the Straits Times Index only rose on 2 of those sessions, thus it was closing negative 80% of the time. In total, since January 2, 2008, the STI has lost 327.72 points, falling from an year opening of 3,482.30 to the current 3,154.58 (a loss of 9.41%). Of course, one could argue that during that time, the components of the STI have been somewhat altered, and thus the index is not directly comparable any longer. For myself, I saw a good chance of buying into a shipping trust at an attractive yield of about 10.8%, and so I made my purchase yesterday of FSL Trust at a price of S$1.17. Such defensive instruments are good during periods of market turbulence as they give consistent yield, and at the same time, I also could not find many bargains for the companies which I was eyeing. Instead of parking my money in the bank earning a measly 1.5% per annum, I decided to stash some cash into this high-yield security. Read more...