Monday, June 30, 2014

One Investing Tip I Learned From A Little Boy

Little Boy
No, I am not talking about any of the boy from Jack Neo's movie "Ah Boys To Men" or any other boys from my neighbourhood. Today, I met an early 20s peer retail investor and self-proclaimed little boy for lunch (in fact, after meeting him, I can publicly endorsed him to be called Little Boy ;-)) 
 
We know each others through our blogs and hence I thought it will be fun to share some of the highlights of our meeting in this blog itself. I classified him as one of those active and sunny young chap who are outspoken and friendly type. We shared more on the hobbies, work-related and world cup stuff rather than the investment related thoughts (I guess we are still deemed ourselves as newbies in this department).
 
So, what is the one investing tip that I've learned from him (through observation)? The answer is DIVERSIFICATION. While he is pursuing his degree at the moment, he is also a part-time badminton trainer and participated in a couple of his peers' business ventures. Even though he did mention that he is still not sure what he is up to for his future but from the exposures that he is gaining, I am pretty sure that his future will be a bright one. Of course, the intention of diversification in investing is to mitigate risks and diversification in life is to expand exposure, they seems contradict each other but the effect is the same i.e. POTENTIALLY BETTER OUTCOME!
 
This set me thinking where was I when I was in my early 20s? Oh yeah, I think I have already started my 9-to-5 work and focus on my "career" then.
 
Cheers!

Market News In 2 Minutes @ 30th June 2014

Market News in 2 minutes
As stock investors (even though a small one), it is important to keep abreast with the latest financial and market news. Since I am in it, I thought it might be worthwhile to share it out with my readers too.

Hence, I started this "Market News In 2 Minutes" series.
 
Following are the "Market News In 2 Minutes" for today :
 
1. OCBC (O39) - Said all the pre-conditions to an agreement to buy Hong Kong's Wing Hang Bank Ltd had been satisfied, as various regulators had given their blessing to the US$4.95 billion deal. For more details of the report, click here. (source : The Edge)

2. ICP (5I4) - Is buying a 20% stake in Australian coal exploration company Tiaro Coal for A$3.05 million ($3.6 million), and selling off its 17% stake in another Australian gold exploration company for A$2 million. (source : The Edge)

3. Jackspeed Corporation (J17) - Is selling its leasehold factory in Loyang Drive for $6.5 million under its on-going efforts to redeploy capital more efficiently. (source : The Edge)

4. SMJ International Holdings, the carpet distributor, said its IPO of 20.24 million shares comprising 14 million new shares and 6.24 million vendor shares at $0.28 each, has been fully subscribed, raising proceeds amounting to $5.67 million. (source : The Edge)

5. Chiwayland Group - The Chinese developer eyeing the local property market is poised to be the first S-chip in about two years to list on the Singapore Exchange, the Straits Times reported. It will soon complete a $399 million reverse takeover of mainboard-listed oil and gas firm R H Energy (CL7). (source : The Edge)

6. PNE Micron Holdings (5BS) - Has informed of the potential acquisition of no more than 30 percent of the company’s stake by potential investors who are in late stage discussions with substantial shareholders of the company. (source : Shares Investment)

Cheers!

MoneyIQ gathers best mortgages from all Singapore Banks

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Price Is What You Pay , Value Is What You Get Is Applicable To Indulgence Too!

If you are Value Investing practitioner or specifically following the Value Investing guru, Warren Buffett closely, I am sure you will be familiar with his "Price Is what You Pay ; Value Is What You Get" quote. To me, this generic quote is applicable not only to investing, but also to spending (or indulging).

I am a movie buff and like to watch movie in big screen, especially in IMAX 3D for big budgeted Hollywod movies like the recent X-men Days Of The Futhre Past and the upcoming Transformers - Age Of Extinction. In case you don't know, the weekend ticket price for an IMAX 3D movie in Singapore is $22 (it is actually cheaper than Australia and Taiwan). 

Many of you folks might view that this is way too expensive for watching a movie. Those of you who are not particular with the smaller screens and quality, might be able to watch it free at a later stage. Of course, there is no right wrong answer when comes to value. Just like to share some of my rationale of why I find watching movie in IMAX 3D  is value for money :

1. The wider screen, sharper image and cleaner sound system from an IMAX theatre is giving me a whole new movie going experience. I like the way IMAX shaw put it in their advertisement, some thing to the extend of : don't just watch the movie, be part of it! 

2. Value is very subjective, just like some people might spent a lot of money in getting every latest new IT gadgets that come along, to them, it is value for money.

I know, I sounded like just self reasoning for my indulgence but wouldn't we retail investors  do it constantly with our valuation of stocks (via many "proven" indicators) on their might not be proven "ttrue value"?

What is your view?




Friday, June 27, 2014

GDP Forescast Downgraded Due To Surprise Slump In Biomedical Sector

This morning, I read the top of the news from The Straits Times with the header "Surprise slump in biomedical sector its factory output". The key word here is "surprise" i.e. the experts are not expecting it.
 
From the report, last month's factory output fell for the first time since June last year and mainly due to the surprise decline in biomedical production (slumped 2.5 per cent as compared to the same period last month while the economists are expecting a growth of 2.4 per cent).
 
Basing on this surprising news, economists are downgrading the second-quarter GDP growth forecast from 4 per cent to 3.1 per cent. Also, the full-year manufacturing forecast has been downgraded from 5 per cent to 3.5 per cent.
 
This is just another testament that it is hard to predict accurately, even for the pros, I guess Mr market will go into volatile mood once again !? Note : at the time of writing, STI dropped 7.23 (0.2%) to 3,271.82 points. 
 
With this surprising news, do you foresee that there will be a long-term impact to Mr Market i.e. about time to get the wall chest ready? ;-)
 
Cheers!    

Market News In 2 Minutes @ 27th June 2014

Market News in 2 minutes
As stock investors (even though a small one), it is important to keep abreast with the latest financial and market news. Since I am in it, I thought it might be worthwhile to share it out with my readers too.

Hence, I started this "Market News In 2 Minutes" series.
 
Following are the "Market News In 2 Minutes" for today :
 
1. Keppel Corp (BN4) - Its unit, Keppel Shipyard, has signed a conditional contract with Golar Hilli Corporation, a subsidiary of Golar LNG, to perform the world’s “first-of-its-type” conversion of an existing Moss LNG carrier, the Hilli, into a Floating Liquefaction Vessel (FLNGV). (source : The Edge)

2. Advance SCT (5FT) - Proposed the disposal of the company’s 90 percent stake in SCT Technologies (Kunshan) Co. Under the disposal agreement, the purchaser would repay Rmb5.2 million (approximately $1 million) of legacy debt owed to Advance SCT. The company views this as a timely opportunity to exit its loss making printed circuit board and re-channel efforts into its core business of manufacturing and sales of copper-based industrial products. (source : Shares Investment)

3. Equation Corp (532)  - Established a joint venture (JV) with Tengah Engineering & Hardware and Lim Hong Kia to set up a JV company, Tengah GreenTech, where the company would hold 40 percent of its shareholding. (source : Shares Investment)

4. GSH Corporation (J16) - Via its joint venture company, Plaza Ventures, proposed to acquire Equity Plaza from DL Properties, a subsidiary of Keppel Land, for a purchase consideration of $550 million. (source : Shares Investment)

Cheers!

MoneyIQ gathers best mortgages from all Singapore Banks

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Six Criteria To Identify Rule Breakers - As Per The Book From Motley Fool

I am half way through reading the ebook from The Motley Fool called "The Motley Fool Million Dollar Portfolio : How to build and grow a panic-proof investment portfolio " (authored by David Gardner and Tom Gardner). I like the style of their writing which is funny or foolish as the authors like to quote it. 

It is a 280+ pages of gem that filled with valuable strategies (from value to growth investing, dividend to small-cap investing). Even though the one that I am reading is 2008 edition but I find that the criteria and strategies are are relevant.

Being a small retail investor, I paid specially attention to the chapter (Chapter 7 - Risk takers and Rule Breakers) on finding untapped gems, they called it Rule Breakers. I reinterpreted the rule breakers as those smaller and undervalued growth stocks that has potential to be exploded into a main stream giant (in the future and if according to the plan). 

Also, they have listed down six criteria of how to identify such rule breakers which I am repeating it here (exact words from the book) :

1. Top dog and first mover in an important, emerging industry
2. Sustainable advantage gained through business momentum, patent protection, visionary leadership or inept competitors
3. Strong past price (stock) appreciation
4. Good management and smart backing
5. Strong consumer appeal (branding)
6. Grossly overvalued, according to at least one significant constituent in the financial media (this one is a bit weird but according to the author, this is to avoid investing in "obviously great companies)

Most of these criteria are deem common sense but I thought it is worth sharing it here. For more details about the book, you can head down to the National Library or check out the content from the Amazon below :

Cheers!

Market News In 2 Minutes @ 26th June 2014

Market News in 2 minutes
As stock investors (even though a small one), it is important to keep abreast with the latest financial and market news. Since I am in it, I thought it might be worthwhile to share it out with my readers too.

Hence, I started this "Market News In 2 Minutes" series.
 
Following are the "Market News In 2 Minutes" for today :
 
1. Keppel Land (K17) - And Alpha Investment Partners, a fund managed by its property fund management arm, have agreed to sell Equity Plaza in Raffles Place for $550 million to a consortium called Plaza Ventures, led by Mainboard-listed GSH Corporation (J16), which is controlled by Sam Goi. For more details, click here. (source : The Edge)

2. Hyflux (600) - Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Hyflux International Pte Ltd, and Mexico’s leading infrastructure bank, Banco Interacciones, a subsidiary of Grupo Financiero Interacciones, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly carry out exploration, structuring, pursuit and/ or installation of water and other projects and developments in Mexico. For more details, click here. (source : The Edge)

3. LionGold Corp (A78) - Its bid to raise $5 million from a proposed share subscription evaporated as the remaining four would-be subscribers backed out of the deal. But the junior gold miner unveiled another subscription agreement with a Malaysian businessman to raise gross proceeds of $4.23 million, the Business Times reported. (source : The Edge)

4. ICP (5I4) - Its wholly-owned subsidiary, ICP (IP), has entered into an agreement with Travelodge (IP) to acquire the trade mark rights to the hotel brand name “Travelodge” in 22 territories and countries in the Asia Pacific region excluding Australia and New Zealand for A$3 million ($3.5 million). The company foresees a growth potential in the limited service hotel sector and the acquisition will provide an opportunity for it to gain access to an international mid-scale hotel brand. (source : Shares Investment)

5. Unionmet (A6F) - Has agreed to purchase a 51 percent stake in Biofuel Research for $3 million from OEL Holdings (584). Biofuel is in the business of processing acid oils and greasy waste using different technologies and the acquisition is in line with the company’s strategy to expand into the oil blending business and to diversify from its existing mineral trading business. (source : Shares Investment)

Cheers!

MoneyIQ gathers best mortgages from all Singapore Banks

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The WOLF is coming to Singapore!!

This morning, when I was inside the NEL (North-East Line) train to the office, I noticed a very eye catching advertisement. The tag line reads "Now meet the real Wolf of wall street" and on the left is the down-sized movie poster of the same name starring Leonardo DiCarprio (see the photo on the left). 

No, Leornardo is not coming to Singapore, Jordan Belfort (the titular role that Leonardo DiCarprio is portraying) is the one coming, to give a 2-hour talk at Resort World Sentosa, apparently on the secrets of his "success" (depending on how you look at it). 

Interestingly, I just blogged about the movie one month ago : Why The "The Wolf Of Wall Street" Will Never Happens In Singapore?  and now he is coming to Singapore! I didn't watch the movie but understand that it is based on the book written by himself on his ups and downs in his twenties. From multi-millionaire to jailbird to multi-millionaire, again!


There are three ticket categories ($97, $197 and $497) for the event. Personally I won't be forking out money to learn from the "wolf" as I don't think his kind of "success" fit my aspiration. Would you? 

Cheers!

For more details of the event, click here.

Hair For Hope 2014 - Dare To Make A BALD Statement For A Good Cause?

Hair For Hope 2014
This post has nothing to do with stock investing but a much more inspiring one. It is a post about GIVING and MEANINGFULNESS in life. It might sounds a bit contradicting but life is not just about MONEY ;-)
 
Last year, I made a bold and bald statement and went for the Hair For Hope event to get my hair shaved for a meaningful cause. For the first time in my adult life, I went completely bald and it lasted me for a few weeks before I regained my hair back. The key thing is : I feel GREAT after the event and have a sense of achievement. 
 
If you have not already know, Hair For Hope is a charity program initiated by Children's Cancer Foundation and it is at its 12th year now! Last year, thousands of participants thronged into Vivocity to get their hair shaved. This year, the target is to encourage more than 6,500 shavees and raise $3.6 million to aid children and families impacted by cancer. Ok, ok. Ultimately, it is still about MONEY, but it is for a meaningful cause.
 
This year's Hair For Hope Main Event will be conducted on 26th July (Sat) [from 11am to 7pm] and 27th July (Sun) [from 11am to 6pm] at VivoCity, Singapore. Online registration for individual shavees has closed, but if you are interested to be part of this meaningful cause, you can still go and join the WALK-IN queue. As I missed the closing date too, hence will be joining the WALK-IN crowd on Sunday! [Note : do consider going there early as the crowd/queue is expected to be crazy/long]
 
Oh! I know many of the peer investors here like to keep anonymous in their online presence, for me, I hack care.. ;-) This is how I look when I am bald, photo taken immediately after the Hair For Hope 2013 event (which is about one year ago) :
Hair For Hope
Hair For Hope 2013
Besides being a better investor, let's all work towards being a better person too ;-)

Cheers!

P/S: If you like to find out more about Hair For Hope event, check out their official site here and/or donate online here.

Market News In 2 Minutes @ 25th June 2014

Market News in 2 minutes
As stock investors (even though a small one), it is important to keep abreast with the latest financial and market news. Since I am in it, I thought it might be worthwhile to share it out with my readers too.

Hence, I started this "Market News In 2 Minutes" series.
 
Following are the "Market News In 2 Minutes" for today :
 
1. KrisEnergy (SK3) - The upstream oil and gas company, announced it has contracted the Key Gibraltar jack-up rig for development, appraisal and exploration drilling in two licences in the Gulf of Thailand. The contract with Shelf Drilling (Southeast Asia), will start around Jan 1, 2015 and will run for a firm six-month term with an option to extend for an additional two months. For more details of the report, click here. (source : The Edge)

2. Soilbuild Construction Group (S7P) - Announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Soil-Build (Pte.) Ltd., has won a $38.6 million contract by Pepperl+Fuchs (Mfg) to construct a global distribution centre. For more details of the report, click here. (source : The Edge)

3. Olam International (O32) - Has sold an 80% stake in its Australian grains business to Japan's Mitsubishi Corp for $64 million ($80 million). (source : The Edge)

4. Hu An Cable Holdings (KI3) - Its chairman and chief executive Dai Zhi Xiang has purchased an additional 6.1 million of the company’s share from the open market, raising his stake in the company from 17 percent to 17.6 percent. (source : Shares Investment)

5. SIIC Environment Holdings (5GB) - Has acquired a 30 percent stake in SIIC Environment (Dalian) Company through its 75.5 percent owned subsidiary SIIC Environment Holdings (Weifang) for Rmb6.9 million ($1.4 million). After the acquisition, the company will effectively hold over 90 percent stake in SIIC Environment (Dalian). (source : Shares Investment)

6. United Envirotech (U19) -Its wholly owned Malaysian subsidiary, Dataran Tenaga (Malaysia), has secured a new RM45 million ($17.5 million) engineering procurement and construction project. The contract entails the construction of a sewer network in the Southern area of Johor Bahru and the project will commence immediately with expected completion by the end of 2015. (source : Shares Investment)

Cheers!

MoneyIQ gathers best mortgages from all Singapore Banks

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Why I've added Super Group (S10) to my Long Term portfolio?

Finally! I clicked the "Trade" button once again! Even though it is with my CPF Fund but I still did my usual analysis before hitting the button ;-)
 
This time round, it is non other than the very familiar brand of ours, Super Group (S10). Whether you are coffee addict or not, as long as you do marketing frequently at the supermarket, I am sure you will come across one or two products of Super Group. 
 
Following are a few key reasons that I bought Super Group as my Long Term Value Investing :
 
1. The stock price of $1.465 (when I bought it yesterday) is near its 52-weeks low.
 
2. It passes my personal Value Investing Analysis assessment.
 
3. Its recent business performance was impacted by Thailand's political unrest situation, which I viewed it as temporary (Thailand is one of Super Group's main market) 
 
4. It is a dividend-paying stock, since 2003 (Dividend-yield of more than 4% since 2012). 
 
To top it off, I've read a recent article at Fool.sg that their team have been invited to visit the factory in Malaysia recently. The gist that I gathered out of the article is that amidst current stock price volatility, their management team continue to spend on R&D and focusing on developing growth areas like tea, new products and new joint-venture business model.   
 
Are you vested in Super Group? Feel free to share your view, if any.
 
Cheers!

Market News In 2 Minutes @ 24th June 2014

Market News in 2 minutes
As stock investors (even though a small one), it is important to keep abreast with the latest financial and market news. Since I am in it, I thought it might be worthwhile to share it out with my readers too.

Hence, I started this "Market News In 2 Minutes" series.
 
Following are the "Market News In 2 Minutes" for today :
 
1. Nam Cheong (N4E) - Malaysia’s largest Offshore Support Vessel (OSV) builder announced that it has sold two Accommodation Work Barges (AWB) worth US$84 million ($105 million), with the option to purchase another two vessels, to a repeat customer, Bursa-listed Perdana Petroleum Berhad. For more details of the report, click here. (source : The Edge)

2. Singapore real estate company Frasers Centrepoint (FCL) , backed by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, plans to raise $365 million by listing its hospitality real estate investment trust (REIT) in Singapore at $0.88, IFR reported. For more details of the report, click here. (source : The Edge)

3. MoneyMax Financial Services (5WJ) - Its subsidiary, Cash Online, has entered into an investment agreement to hold 51 percent stake in a new holding company dealing in the business of pawn broking, to be incorporated in Malaysia. The aggregate consideration of the investment is RM15.6 million. (source : Shares Investment)

4. Wilmar International (F34) - Has entered into a 50:50 joint venture with Repi Soap and Detergent S. The joint venture includes plans to upgrade an existing manufacturing facility in Kolfe Karenio Sub city and to build an integrated manufacturing complex in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. (source : Shares Investment)

5. Yamada Green Resources (MC7) - Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Fuzhou Wangcheng Foods Development (Wangcheng) has agreed to acquire a 19 percent stake in Zhangzhou Meisei Foods Company (Meisei) for Rmb36.4 million. Meisei has a net asset value of Rmb190.8 million as of December 2013. (source : Shares Investment)

Cheers!

MoneyIQ gathers best mortgages from all Singapore Banks

Monday, June 23, 2014

Interview with Jeff Sun of Singapore Stocks Trading Blog

Jeff Sun High Probability TradingBefore I started this blog and my mini stocks investment venture, I always have an "Asian" (read : old mentality) impression that most of the peer investors will try to keep their success formula to themselves. However, after 11 interviews (including this one) and on-going interaction (through emails and mutual blogs' comment) with the peer investors, I found out that the opposite is true! In short, most retail investors are very willing to share their success stories, tips and cues. My bad!

Today, I am honored to introduce to you Jeff Sun, he is the author of the book "High Probability Trading : How I made 200% annual profit with just 30 minutes a day", owner of the Singapore Stocks Trading blog as well as a successful trainer (he conducted free seminars which were attended by more than 1,200 happy audience). Oh, by the way, he did all this while still holding to a full-time job!!! What?? Does young man nowadays has 36 hours a day to used? ;-)
 
Anyway, let's take a look on Jeff's investment side of story below...

Q1 : Can you give us a brief introduction about yourself?
I am a first class graduate from University of Leeds (UK). I hold a bachelor degree, with honors, in Civil Engineering and Construction Management. The intensive course has enhanced my analytical skills for risk management, which enabled me to develop my own sets of high probability trading strategies.

Q2 : Are you a full-time or part-time investor at the moment?
I am a part time investor with a full time day job.

Q3 : When (at what age) did you start investing in shares and who has influenced you the most?
I started investing when I was 21. I was making some money as a reseller in various type of fashionable product in my poly years and wanted the money to continue rolling itself. I pick up Adam Khoo’s ‘Secrets to Millionaire Investor’ and never look back since.

The book taught me the scariness of how inflation would actually make you poorer. That alone is enough to motivate me to get started with investing right away.

Q4 : Do you view yourself as long-term (holding shares in years), short-term investor (holding shares in days/months) or mixture?
I believe a portfolio short consist of a strong core of long term investment based on good fundamentals of a company and a proportion of pro-active funds for short term trading to hedge against the market during strong correction period.

Q5 : What is your basis of selecting the shares to invest (e.g. basing on fundamental analysis, technical analysis or other methods/sources [share a little bit more details if it is the latter])?
I am heavily invested both US equities and Singapore REITs. I look for both technically and fundamentally sound companies that have achieved growth in the last 5 years of their financial statement. I also make sure that the bulk of my savings go into Singapore REITs every month. This would allow me to compound on my annual returns, to achieve a substantial passive income for retirement. 

I am also a believer in setting aside a small sum of pro-active trading fund that allow you to short sell the market during a strong market retracement. By doing so, it would allow you to hedge against your long-term investments, and minimize any potential losses. 

Q6 : What is your targeted and achieved annual rate of returns (%) so far? 
My targeted rate of returns : 20% ; My achieved rate of returns : 16% onwards 

Q7 : What is your most recommended online investing resource (site or blog) to share with our readers? 
I am a really huge fan of http://fifthperson.com. The amount of free resources and written article are of top quality.

Q8 : Besides shares, what other investment are you involved in (e.g. Real Estates, Bonds or REITs etc)?
I co-owned two Iskandar properties which varies between $20,000 to $60,000 of my investment.

Q9 : What is your Portfolio Distribution like”? 
My portfolio distribution consist of 40% REITS, 40% long term investment growth (US & Singapore equities) and 20% short term trading.

Q10 : If the readers what to get in touch with you, how to get hold of you? (Sharing of your website/blog/social media profile etc..)
I strongly welcome all interested parties to visit my website at www.SingaporeStocksTrading.com or my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jeffsunh.

Looks like Jeff has utilized his fundamental and technical analysis knowledge/skills pretty well in his investing venture, I hope to attend one of his seminar one day to learn from him!

By the way, if you are a retail investor and would like to be featured in my "Interview With The Fellow Investors" blog series, please feel free to email me at investopenly@gmail.com

For the complete list of my previous interviewees, do check it out here

Cheers!

Impact Investing - What Is It and Is It For Retail Investors?

Impact Investing
Yesterday, first time came across the term "Impact Investing" from the "Invest" section of The Sunday Times. After reading through the article - Singapore 'can be good impact investing hub', I thought it is a perfect mix of investing and social responsibility.
 
So, what is Impact Investing? As quoted from the newspaper : it is a term refers to investing in companies that generate positive social and environmental impact along side financial returns.
 
There was a mentioning of social enterprises (around 200 to 300 in Singapore alone) as well as boutique companies that are creating new funds and interesting products. My question is does it means that investing in such establishments, we are deemed Impact Investing?
 
Are you familiar with Impact Investing? If yes, which are the current establishments (from Singapore) deemed to be "impactful" enough to fall under this category? Also, do you think it is suitable for retail investors?
 
Cheers!
   

Market News In 2 Minutes @ 23rd June 2014

Market News in 2 minutes
As stock investors (even though a small one), it is important to keep abreast with the latest financial and market news. Since I am in it, I thought it might be worthwhile to share it out with my readers too.

Hence, I started this "Market News In 2 Minutes" series.
 
Following are the "Market News In 2 Minutes" for today :
 
1. SIA (C6U) -  (1) An air operators' permit (AOP) is expected to be issued to the Tata-Singapore Airlines (SIA) joint venture in July and commercial operations are likely to start in September, according to India’s Financial Express newspaper. (source : The Edge) ; (2) Singapore Airlines’ Scoot entered a joint venture agreement with Nok Airlines Public Company Nok Mangkang Company and Pueannammitr Company (PNM) to set up a joint venture airline through the acquisition of the existing Pete Air Company (@ 2 billion baht or $80 million). The company believes that acquiring Pete Air will expedite the start-up in Thailand as compared to a green field venture. (source : Shares Investment)

2. Genting Singapore (G13) - Plans by Genting Singapore to develop a casino in South Korea's Jeju Island have hit a road bump. Just days before a planned ground-breaking event on June 24, the company has decided to reschedule the ceremony. For more details, click here. (source : The Edge)

3. Sunningdale Tech (T35) - Said it has entered into placement agreements with several high-profile investors including Yarwood Engineering & Trading and Sam Goi. It has agreed to issue an aggregate of 153 million new shares at $0.1633 each to both the investors to raise gross proceeds of roughly $24.9 million. (source : The Edge)

4. EuroSports Global (5G1) - Has acquired a 60 percent stake in the following companies: (1) Autoinc Sports, (2) Autoinc Lifestyle (3) Birel Singapore for a consideration of $1.5 million. The target companies are involved in the trading of sports and luxury automobiles, maintenance and grooming services for luxury automobile and the retail of go-karts and provision of maintenance and storage service for go-karts. (source : Shares Investment)

5. Advance SCT (5FH) - Has proposed the placement of 1.7 billion new shares at $0.0019 per share, representing a discount of approximately 5 percent to the weighted average price of $0.002 per share as of 19 June. The proceeds for the placement will be around $3.1 million and the bulk of it will be used to fund the company’s growth and expansion plans. (source : Shares Investment)

6. Vibrant Group (F01) - Its wholly owned subsidiary Singapore Enterprise has purchased a 51 percent stake in Shentocil for $51,000. Vibrant intends to upgrade the property to maximise gross floor area and views it as a good investment held for rental and capital appreciation. (source : Shares Investment)

Cheers!

MoneyIQ gathers best mortgages from all Singapore Banks

Sunday, June 22, 2014

GoDaddy Promo Code - Create Your Own Domain For $1.99 only

If you have not already noticed, I've since purchased my own domain (www.investopenly.com) so as to have an URL address that's my own! You can still access my blog via investopenly.blogspot.com as Google is smart enough to redirect it to my own domain. ;-) 

There are a few reasons for me to purchase my own Domain :

1. This investment theme blog has been existed slightly more than three months and I like the blog title and hence try to secured it as soon as possible.

2. With own domain, it could open up a whole lot of other online opportunities that free-hosting might not be able to enjoy. 

3. I managed to secured a GoDaddy Promotion Code that allow me to buy a .COM domain with only $1.99 (For the first year). If you are interested, you can click on the image below and input the Promo Code:

Show your amazing talent online! Start with $1.99 .COM from GoDaddy!
GoDaddy Promo Code : cjcfw199 
Of course, there is nothing wrong to remain blogging with Blogger's free domain, just that it might not be as exclusive ;-)

Do you blog with own domain? What is your reason(s) for getting your own domain?

Cheers!

What Are The Three Things That Made You Smile Today!?

Yet another humid and hot Sunday afternoon. The best thing to do is to stay at home, on the air conditioner and blog. Since it is a weekend and am in a more relaxing mood, so I've decided to blog anything but...investing.

Being an optimist by nature, I tends to look things at the bright side. I always believed that we cannot control external ACTION (situational or action by another party) but we can definitely control our REACTION.  I chose to react POSITIVELY!

One thing that I did regularly (almost daily) is to appreciate little things that happened around us. You see, big things are hard to come by, hence, rather than appreciating live only occasionally, why not choose to appreciate small things that made us smiles on daily basis? Mind you, most of these things doesn't cost anything ;-)

Hence, I do update "three things that made me smile today" regularly in another online community to remind/motivate myself as well as my readers on appreciative living. Trust me, if you look hard enough, we have never short of things that made us smile everyday! 

For example, a great soft-boil egg plus kaya with peanut toast bread and kopi at Yakun with my wife is my perfect breakfast this morning and it made me smile. I know what some of you might be thinking, it is such a routine and small thing and nothing to smile about. But hey, that's exactly the point, we need to learn to appreciate those really SMALL things!    
Soft boiled egg - almost an art form, this morning!
So, what are the three things that made you smile today?

Cheers! 

P/S : Life is not about how big the numbers in your bank account at the end of the day, it is about how many fond moments you have during the journey of life!

Saturday, June 21, 2014

What Is Your NO-NO In Your Investment Venture

Whether you are a seasoned investor or a newbie (like me), I believed there is/are certain area that you deemed as NO-NO in your investment venture. What do I meant by "NO-NO"? They are the steps or actions that you would never do previously, now and in future. 

Just to quote as an example, you will never invest on leverage (i.e. based on borrow fund). This is my NO-NO, by the way. Of course, for some seasoned and skilled trader, this (invest on leverage) might be an opportunity, instead. 

Some of the other potential NO-NO are :

1. Never invest based on recommendation by friend/family member alone

2. Never invest in penny stocks

3. Never invest in certain industries etc...

What about you? What is your NO-NO?

Cheers!

Friday, June 20, 2014

Market News In 2 Minutes @ 19th June 2014

Market News in 2 minutes

TGIF! Wish everyone have a great weekend ahead of you!

My quotes for the weekend : 
Our life is as good (or bad) as what is in our mind! 

As stock investors (even though a small one), it is important to keep abreast with the latest financial and market news. Since I am in it, I thought it might be worthwhile to share it out with my readers too.

Hence, I started this "Market News In 2 Minutes" series.
 
Following are the "Market News In 2 Minutes" for today :
 
1. KS Energy (578) - Announced that its 80% owned subsidiary, KS Drilling, has agreed to sell jack-up rig KS Orient Star 1, for US$84.88 million ($106.1 million). (source : The Edge)

2. Kian Ho Bearing (K22) - The privately-held Raffles United has issued a mandatory unconditional cash offer (23.5 cents in cash for each share) for Kian Ho Bearings offering. The offer price representing a premium of 6.82% to the last transacted price of 22 cents and the closing date is July 17. (source : The Edge)

3. Geo Energy Resources (RE4) - Announced it will be acquiring two coal concessions in South Kalimantan, Indonesia for $55 million. The management said that the acquisition is in line with its strategy to expand its business operations and increase its coal production levels, and will grant access to and control over the coal deposits in the mining permit area. (source : The Edge)

4. Halcyon Agri Corp (5VJ) - Said on Thursday it has offered to buy rubber processing plants in Indonesia for $450 million. For more details, click here. (source : The Edge)

5. Asia Fashion Holdings (GH3) - Via its subsidiary, Rich Circles Enterprise, agreed to purchase China Construction Material, an investment company incorporated in Hong Kong, whose primary business activities include the manufacture and sale of different types of building panels. The purchase consideration of the acquisition is expected to be at Rmb100 million. (source : Shares Investment)

6. CNA Group (5GC) - Proposed a private placement of 16.7 million shares, representing 4.6 percent of the existing share capital in the company. The net proceeds of $1.2 million after deducting expenses will be placed in deposits with banks or financial institutions, while waiting for plans on their utilisation. (source : Shares Investment)

Cheers!

MoneyIQ gathers best mortgages from all Singapore Banks

Interview with B of "A Path To Forever Financial Freedom" Blog

Interview series
Wow! I can't believed myself that this is my 10th interview post already! I would like to take this opportunity to thanks all those who have agreed to participate in this little blog series of mine and also those who are about to agree ;-)
 
I saw many encouraging stories from the peer retail investors (many are bloggers and young ones too). We all have a story to tell/share and hence I hope to be able to share more stories from the peer retail investors.
 
My 10th interviewee is having the shortest nickname I've ever seen : B (but I believed he is quite active in the online community as I constantly saw his comment in other blogs). B is the owner of "A Path To Financial Freedom" blog and I would like to thank him for initiating the email exchange that ended up in this post. So far, we are kind of "great mind think alike" ;-)
 
OK! Without further ado, let's take a closer look at the story of B...

Q1 : Can you give us a brief introduction about yourself?
I am an ordinary retail investor, like many others who loves to blog about financial and personal finance issues to bring greater awareness to the larger community we live in. I am currently 28 years old (turning 29 in Aug later) and I am pursuing a part-time Master degree at the Singapore Management University (SMU) while working full-time in an accountancy profession. Contrary to what many people think, I started entering the workforce at the age of 22 so I have been working for almost 7 years now. I am married last year to my great wife and had our precious baby boy joining our family addition this year.

My plan is to retire from the corporate workplace at the age of 35 based on the 10 year target I set from myself and have the flexibility to do anything I want after that. To bring an even greater awareness to the public community, one of the thing I planned to do once I “retire” is to write a book on my journey towards financial freedom and the impact to my lives. It will probably be called “My Story - The Journey The Peak The View”

Q2 : Are you a full-time or part-time investor at the moment?
I am currently a part-time investor, putting in some amounts of money I earned from my full-time job into a portfolio system containing mainly dividend growth stocks I hope it could run on its own one day.

Q3 : When (at what age) did you start investing in shares and who has influenced you the most?
I started investing at the age of 24 (4 years ago) under the influence of my friends from the workplace, my dad who has been a passive investor himself and some books and blogs which inspires me to start off.

Q4 : Do you view yourself as long-term (holding shares in years), short-term investor (holding shares in days/months) or mixture?
My plan is to hold the shares in my portfolio for as long as I can while receiving dividend income in the progress. However, when the stock price has gone beyond the valuation that I feel it should be at, I might consider selling.

Q5 : What is your basis of selecting the shares to invest (e.g. basing on fundamental analysis, technical analysis or other methods/sources [share a little bit more details if it is the latter])?
I select based on some of the fundamentals I like to see in a stock, in particular good balance sheet which includes low debt ratio, low pay-out ratio and sufficient cash reserves. I also used the average of past P/E multiples to judge where the stock is currently valued by the market.

Q6. What is your targeted and achieved annual rate of returns (%) so far? 
My achieved rate of returns I calculated using the XIRR function thus far is around 11% per year, including the dividends. I am pretty satisfied with the returns and as long as I am getting this consistently I would be a happy man.

Q7 : What is your most recommended online investing resource (site or blog) to share with our readers? 
There’s a couple of blogs I really enjoyed reading and learning and I would recommend these blogs:

CreateWealth8888 – (
http://createwealth8888.blogspot.com) – One of the few retail investors I know who has gone through the peak and trough of market cycles. I really enjoyed his daily posts and learned much from his own investing mistakes which he was willingly glad to share.

SMOL – (
http://singaporemanofleisure.blogspot.com) – A person who gave me the impression that he knows and has “everything” he wants in life and a philosophist in life too I guess. I really enjoyed his wisdom words and stories – always makes me think deeply about life.

SGYI – (
http://sgyounginvestment.blogspot.com) – A young person for his age who gave me the impression that he knows a lot of financial literacy issues that people of his age don’t. Great articles on a few topics he wrote which impacted many of us directly (CPF, housing, Loans matters). 

15HWW – (
http://www.my15hourworkweek.com) – I think we are about the same age and almost similar portfolio as well. One of the few people in our finance community who tracks his incoming and outgoing cashflow on a continuous basis which I think is a great sharing to the public. A young couple with an ambitious target plan as well ;)

Gerald – (
http://www.sgwealthbuilder.com) – Another veteran who shares plenty of his experiences and thoughts on his posting for the other retail investor to learn ;-)

There’s a couple of other great bloggers such as AK71, Drizzt, PIB and BullytheBear which was much worth mentioning but I think I would not want to list down all here.


Q8 : Besides shares, what other investment are you involved in (e.g. Real Estates, Bonds or REITs etc)?
Beside the shares (which includes REITS) in my portfolio, I do have some stakes in the real estates overseas which I co-owned with my parents.

Q9 : What is your current Shares Investment portfolio size (in range, no need specific)?
The latest count I have was at $257K which is exceeding my 10 year target plan I designed when I started investing 4 years ago.

Q10. If the readers what to get in touch with you, how to get hold of you? (Sharing of your website/blog/social media profile etc..)
You may leave me a comment or PM me at my website (www.foreverfinancialfreedom.blogspot.com) and I will definitely follow up on your queries if I am able to help.

Like to take this opportunity to congratulate B for his new inclusion to his family and thank him for in-depth sharing of his story. Hope to catch up with him one day (face-to-face).
 
By the way, whether you are a lady or gentlemen (for that matter, boy or girl), as long as you are a retail investor and would like to be featured in my "Interview With The Fellow Investors" blog series, please feel free to email me at investopenly@gmail.com

For the complete list of my previous interviewees, do check it out here

Cheers!

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Interview with Stoical Keynes of "My 15 Hour Work Week" Blog

interview series with Stoical Keynes from My 15 hour work week
First, I would like to apologize to Stoical Keynes (owner of "My 15 Hour Work Week" blog) for being late in publishing this post, the turnaround time that I am giving to myself is to publish the interview post within 3 days (upon receipt of the interview answers), but he need to wait for more than a week. Reason being that his last email was sitting in my "Junk" mail since 11st June 2014. I only uncovered the gem today while trying to refresh/purge my "Junk" emails.
 
Anyway, as per the motto of my blog "late is better than never"! ;-)  
 
Secondly, not sure whether Stoical is his real name but one thing for sure to me is that I have difficulty in pronouncing the name. In any case, let's take a look at this young man on his investing journey so far.

Q1 : Can you give us a brief introduction about yourself?
I am a young, married adult who is passionate about personal finance. Mainly how to cut expenses, increase returns and achieve financial independence earlier than most. My goal is for me and my wife to be able to have the option to semi-retire by 35.

Q2 : Are you a full-time or part-time investor at the moment?
Definitely a part-time investor. I have no intention of spending 40 hours a week on my investments. ;-)

Q3 : When (at what age) did you start investing in shares and who has influenced you the most?
It's 18 if you consider unit trusts/ILPs and 23 if we are talking about owning a stock through a personal CDP account. I came to know about Warren Buffett in JC and his story and achievements fascinated me.

Q4 : Do you view yourself as long-term (holding shares in years), short-term investor (holding shares in days/months) or mixture?
Definitely long-term as I haven't sold much shares for the past 4 years. But things could change in an instant and my track record is still pretty short.

Q5 : What is your basis of selecting the shares to invest (e.g. basing on fundamental analysis, technical analysis or other methods/sources [share a little bit more details if it is the latter])?
It's definitely not technical analysis so I am tempted to go with fundamental? However, I am not well-versed in the science of valuing a company (yet). For now, it's mostly about whether I believe in the story behind the stock. I also have a smaller portfolio that relies on periodic passive investment which is basically a Regular Savings Plan (RSP) that allows one to invest in the STI ETF.

Q6 : What is your targeted and achieved annual rate of returns (%) so far?
My targeted rate of returns : 10%
My achieved rate of returns : 16% onwards ( I have been lucky thus far)


Q7 : What is your most recommended online investing resource (site or blog) to share with our readers?
I think AK71 writes a good blog at http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.sg/ that has benefited many readers.

Q8 : Besides shares, what other investment are you involved in (e.g. Real Estates, Bonds or REITs etc)?
My wife! =) On a more serious note, I am invested in bonds that will only mature in >30 years time. That's the outlook on my CPF funds.

Q9 : What is your current Shares Investment portfolio size?
I share to inspire. It's stated in my blog and it's slightly more than $200,000 at this point in time.

Q10 : If the readers what to get in touch with you, how to get hold of you? (Sharing of your website/blog/social media profile etc..)
Drop me an email at 15hourworkweek@gmail.com or leave a comment on one of my posts at www.my15hourworkweek.com

By the way, whether you are a lady or gentlemen (for that matter, boy or girl), as long as you are a retail investor and would like to be featured in my "Interview With The Fellow Investors" blog series, please feel free to email me at investopenly@gmail.com

For the complete list of my previous interviewees, do check it out here

Cheers!

Cool eBooks Companion - NLB's eReads

If you have not already know, one of the common attribute of world's wealthy and successful persons is : AVID READER! Yes, they tends to read a lot and read widely. As a retail investors, I guess besides Annual Reports, there are lots of other interesting and important knowledge to grab too.
 
With the invention of eBooks, as long as we are connected to the network, I would say that there is practically unlimited eBooks we can read (legally) anywhere, anytime. No, I am not talking about Amazon's Kindle or Barnes & Noble, I am talking about something closer to us (Singaporean).
 
If you have not already know, our own National Library do provide loaning of eBooks feature and they simply called it eReads. Recently, I've borrowed my first eBook through eReads and I must say that I like it a lot as the interface and reading experience is fantastic. The beauty of it is it you can read the book right away via your web browser i.e. no app is required.
 
Oh! The book that I am currently reading is stock investment related and it's called "Getting Started In Stock Investing & Trading - illustrated Edition", very easy read and good for newbies like me. If you are interested, you can check out more details of the book from the Amazon site (by clicking on the image below) and loan it from NLB ;-)
 
 
Are you reading any stock investment related book now?
 
Cheers!    

Market News In 2 Minutes @ 19th June 2014

Market News in 2 minutes

As stock investors (even though a small one), it is important to keep abreast with the latest financial and market news. Since I am in it, I thought it might be worthwhile to share it out with my readers too.

Hence, I started this "Market News In 2 Minutes" series.
 
Following are the "Market News In 2 Minutes" for today :
 
1. Tiger Airways Holdings (J7X) - The unprofitable low-fare carrier part-owned by Singapore Airlines, said its Indonesian venture will stop flying (from 1st July 2014), as the budget airline tries to restructure operations. For more details, click here. (source : The Edge)

2. Fragrance Group (F31) - Its subsidiary Fragrance Vic-Mel (Spencer) has acquired a 1,800 square meters property located in Spencer Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia for A$44.5 million. (source : Shares Investment)

Cheers!

MoneyIQ gathers best mortgages from all Singapore Banks

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

How Do You Build Up Your Invest-able Capital?

When comes to stock investment, one of the key element is the size of your investment i.e. the capital that you've invested. Example, for an annual returns of say 8% (which is considered very attractive) and you only invested with say $2,000, the actual returns in actual quantum is only $160 per year. However, if you've invested say $20,000, the actual returns is $1,600 per year (before taking into consideration of the compounding effect if you were to reinvested the earnings).
 
Of course, I know I am talking nonsense and saying the obvious (who doesn't know right?). My real intention is actually try to do a quick survey on how do you folks build up your invest-able capital (i.e. your War Chest)? I come to aware that there are quite a number of young chaps (in their 20s) able to save up to hundred of thousands just for investment purpose. Kudos to them!
 
So, to make thing simple, you can choose from any of the following method(s) and share them in the comment section :
 
1. Savings (via allowance from parent or full-time/part-time job or your business)
 
2. Other streams of income (e.g. internet marketing, commission etc..)
 
3. Sudden windfalls e.g. 4D, Toto or inheritance
 
4. Others ... please provide details.
 
For me, they are purely from the savings (#1) and am looking rigorously into #2 (especially on internet marketing segment). What about you?
 
Cheers!

Market News In 2 Minutes @ 18th June 2014

Market News in 2 minutes

As stock investors (even though a small one), it is important to keep abreast with the latest financial and market news. Since I am in it, I thought it might be worthwhile to share it out with my readers too.

Hence, I started this "Market News In 2 Minutes" series.
 
Following are the "Market News In 2 Minutes" for today :
 
1. Gazprom - Russia’s top natural gas producer listed on the Singapore stock exchange on Tuesday, giving it greater access to Asian investors in the wake of a multibillion-dollar gas supply deal with China. For more details, click here. (source : The Edge)

2. Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (U9N) announced that it has secured a shipbuilding contract for four 260,000DWT very large ore carriers. (source : The Edge)

3. Global Logistic Properties (MC0) - The provider of modern logistics facilities in China, Japan and Brazil, said it has signed a new build-to-suit (BTS) agreement with Japan Logistic Systems Corp., a major third-party logistics (3PL) provider in Japan. (source : The Edge)

4. Vallianz Holdings (545) - Is planning to issue up to 230 million shares at an issue price of $0.13545 each. It also indicates that Legend Financial, Golden Summit International, Zymmetry Investments, ICH Partners and ICH Invest & Trade has agreed to subscribe to a total of 170 million shares, representing 6.74% of the enlarged share capital. For more details, click here (source : The Edge)

5. Koh Brothers Group (K75) - Announced its Joint Venture company KBD Westwood has won a $126.5 million construction contract for a new executive condominium at Jurong West. (source : The Edge)

6. Ace Achieve Infocom (A75) - Has secured a new IT project worth RMb48 million from China Unicom. The company will be supplying and installing IBM storage devices and servers in Beijing, Anhui and Xinjiang. The project is expected to be completed within 18 months and will help increase the company’s presence in the China market. (source : Shares Investment)

Cheers!

MoneyIQ gathers best mortgages from all Singapore Banks

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

BuffettBooks - A free and great site to learn Warren Buffett's Value Investing

Stocks Investing is an on-going journey, a journey of on-going learning and sharpening on what we've learnt. Besides keeping abreast with the markets development and reading Annual Reports (like what Warren Buffett would advocate, click here to see how he compares reading Annual Reports with playboy, in an interview).
 
There are plenty of resources, both online and offline, free or paid, to learn Value Investing (which is also the investing strategy that I am following). Having said that, it is always never enough to learn new perspective/insights from different writer/author (on the same subject).
 
Today, I would like to share a FREE and great site that providing a detailed video courses on Value Investing. It is call BuffettBooks, I am still going through the video courses myself and so far I like what I've learnt.
 
Following are some key reasons why it is recommended (especially for the newbies) :
 
1. The course is systematically into three different levels (Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced Lesson Plans). Each of these Lesson Plans further broken down into mini series to cover specific topics. This enable the learner to pick and choose the specific level/video to watch and learn.
 
2. The presenter, Preston Pysh is the bestselling author of, Warren Buffett's 3 Favorite Books and The Diary of a West Point Cadet. He managed to dissect and breakdown the technical lingo/knowledge into bite-size and easy to understand layman terms.
 
3. This video course is actually the gist from the following Value Investing classics:
Security Analysis (700 pages),
The Intelligent Investor (640 pages),
The Wealth of Nations (1264 pages),
The Theory of Investment Value (613 pages), and
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway shareholder’s reports (296 pages)
 
4. It is a video course and hence we can learn and absorb the knowledge faster.
 
5. There is a built-in calculator for THE most important indicator of Value Investing i.e. the Intrinsic Value. If you like to go straight to the calculator, click here.
 
I know many of you might have already passed this basic learning stage long ago, but if you are newbie to Value Investing (like me), do check it out.
 
The only way to "keep earning" is to "keep learning" ;-)
 
Cheers! 

Like What You See? Subscribe To Us Here...

* indicates required