Life For Rent

VS

The year ends with stock market action facing a square off. Who will be the ultimate victor? Bulls? Or the Bears? Just in case you wonder, why are the terms bulls and bears used? A bull tosses an opponent up with its horns, and hence used to describe a uptrend which is ‘bullish’.  A bear on the other hand, drags down it’s opponent, hence used to refer to downtrends. So many people, with so many views. It is for certain that economic will slow a little next year. But will there be a recession? With 2008 as an election year, they won’t allow it to happen that easily. But that does not mean it will not happen anyway. The strong fundamentals in Asia rely on a lot of things. One of which is the export market in China to the US. But if US does not spend as much anymore, this will be affected. To look for a recession, I look at multiple rate cuts from the Feds, as well as jobs data. Once unemployment shoots up, and with the feds cutting rates on and on it is very bearish for the market and economy. A rate cut is like an injection of painkiller, or novacaine. The doctors don’t like to do it, but it sometimes becomes necessary, but there are ’side effects’ still.

I am in the midst of clearing some positions and possibly going into new ones for the long haul.

Technical charts show we’re still in consolidation. Symmetric long way to go. More on the upside than downside. Looking for volume to break trendline for bullish runs. As long as the low vol holds, we go nowhere. And investors are staying at the side for now. Fund managers should be returning soon to reopen their books so I do expect a certain trend to begin soon.

Moving onto what I have learnt for the past year. When I was younger, in my teens and all, people often gave me advise. Elders, who offered their opinions based on their experiences. It was at a time where I was young, innocent, and everything was pure. I looked at true love. Marrying my first love. Live happily ever after. That kinda thing. I believed in a lot of things. One thing stocks investment taught me this year is, human behavior doesn’t change. Styles change, character changes, a lot of things do but behavior doesn’t.  I am the same person back then, but a little smarter, a little wiser, and a little more savvy. Today I give some insights to people who are younger than me and I see the same reaction as I used to give back then. Today, I begin to see the things I heard about but I have not experienced it yet. This will probably come in time. Why do I like to teach a certain group of young people, yet cannot be bothered with the rest? Seriously, if you were a teacher, would you prefer a student who loves your subject and shows interest, or one who forever challenges you and doesn’t bother bout what you say? Human behavior won’t change. As a teacher, I will of course like a student who is attentive, and not only shows interest, but also challenges what I know so I could learn from the student too.  I will be more than willing to share my experiences, but why should I waste my breath on someone who is stubborn? You’ll tell such people, “remember what I said 5-10 years down the road”. I fully subscribe to the fact that experience is invaluable. Of course it has to come from someone who is credit worthy. I personally know a few in their 50s who know crap and contradict themselves all the time.

I’ll say, the best advice, is as good as it is only to the willing ear.

I love to learn. I never had my motor skills developed much but I make up for it in other ways.

Which reminds me. Frens around have been asking me stuff like how it was when my parents divorced and all. One thing in common is, they have a niece (not a nephew somehow), aged around 9 or so, in Primary school. Parents faced/facing divorce and the poor girl has been crying her eyes out.  So they asked me, how was it like for me?

I don’t like to recall stuff like that, but I will do a once off thing since I spoke to them about it and it sorta jolted my memory.

I was a single child (and I still consider myself to me the only ‘pedigree’ one where none of my half brothers are anything like me in terms of size and all). My dad works with SIA and he still is flying with them. I don’t get to see him much and when he is not around my mom would drop me off at my grandma’s. She’d be the caretaker of sorts. In fact, if there’s a single person whom I am grateful to, it will be her. I love the times spent with her. I HATED the times when I had to go ‘home’. Home was never home. It still isn’t believe me.

I would throw tantrums when it was time to go home and all.  Through the many conversations over the years I remembered how I was like too. I was someone who was very particular in clothing. It wasn’t about style, it was about being neat and tidy. I had crew cut hair during pre-primary years and we had this clock (we still do!!) that chimes every quarter of an hour. At 11.15 when it chimes, I must be sitting on my stool wearing my shoes, cause the bus comes at 11.25. I must wait for the bus. I get VERY annoyed if I am late and the bus waits for me. So since young, you can tell I like to be punctual and I totally despise it when I’m late and people have to wait for me.

Back home, I faced strict routines. Watching TV is very limited. In fact watching TV is like taking heroine you know.Thanks to my stupid mother. I had to do it secretly. I didn’t get any toys. I remember I had one of those remote control trucks. It was just a simple one. But I never got to play it. I was promised we will play with it when we go to the beach. That beach trip never happened. By the time I could play with it finally, it didn’t work anymore. Somehow… There were batteries in it and it leaked. It must have been around 5-8 years later. Ironically I did have stuff  toys. I had a care bear, which I didn’t bother much. I loved my blanket. It was my soul mate. It went to bed with me. Carried my saliva, urine, drool, and tears. It was with me since I was 3, all the way till not too long ago actually. It was my confide.

I remember the continuous fights and all. Typical. When the divorced finally happened. I was treated like an idiot. No one talked to me about it. I was left to assume everything. Suddenly they were to ask me to say hello to this ‘uncle’ and that ‘auntie’. They did think I was a moron didn’t they? I was pretty much left alone. What I hated most was they dragged me into their affairs. Till today, I am very intolerant to quarrels and fights and adults dragging me into their affairs. If I ever get worked up beyond a certain level, I can go berserk. And I have lost count of what I have destroyed along the way. As some put it, I am not very small in size or strength. I have broken my right hand which wasn’t attended to so now it is a little deformed due to the fractured bones mal-uniting together.  Recently when another fight broke out between my mom and step dad in the middle of the night, I got pissed beyond my limit, I attacked them. No one got killed, but someone got a very bad neck ache for the next fortnight.

I have to concede, apart from my inborn character, a lot of it has arisen from how I brought up myself. I had to protect myself, emotionally, physically and all of that. I am the sort who keeps a lot of inner thoughts inside. I am also very independent and don’t like to be fussed about. My best times were spent away from home in the army and when I was in UK studying. Absolutely wonderful. Perhaps with a lot of stuff bottled in me, I have a lot of aggression and anger inside of me. I can subdue it here and there but after 20 years, I reckon it has become molded into me.Changing that will probably change the whole of me too.Why do I not share my insides? Cause I don’t need anyone’s sympathy. I handle my own affairs. 10 years ago, I said I need no one around me and I don’t need anyone either. Today it still largely holds true. Through my primary school and early secondary education, I was made fun of. I was laughed at. I hated humans. There and then I swore, when I grew up, no one will ever be able to do that to me again without paying the price for it. Animals were my best friend especially dogs. I had a couple dogs who were more humane than any human alive. They understood me and were very good with my moods. When I return home and they sensed I was in a good mood, they’ll be all over me. If they sensed I was in a foul mood, they’ll greet and then slowly walk away knowing I’ll snap at them if they continued to bother me. They have those eyes when I talk to them. When I poured everything to them. They understood. They sympathized. I only need them. I don’t need anyone else.

So apart from watching TV, playing computer games was taboo. The only computer games I had were given to me by my grandma. She and I would make a pact, and that was not to tell my mom I had a computer game. Eventually I even had a game boy. The very first generation. I had a few games too to go along with the game boy. That was my one and only game set. Till today I have nothing else, and I do not play computer games. My motor skills are very poor (to my own standard) and I pick things up very slowly. Give me a new sport and chances are I won’t even go into it cause I know I won’t learn it as quick as I want to. The gym with all it s metals and bars became my new home. A place I dominate. A place where few can step up and challenge me.  I am not done however. Very soon I am gonna begin my new phase of training to reach the next level. I am done with consolidation phases and have put on enough weight for this next set of training. Weighing at around 81kg now with 80kg as my support line (think stocks!)  I have set out all my targets.

So you can see from young, I have trained myself to be crafty too. I had to make sure if watched TV, my mom wouldn’t find out. If the TV was warm of course she’d know right? I knew where she kept my games. I was observant enough to notice the location (her cupboard) AND that she leaves the key in a particular ‘hiding’ location. So when she is off to work, I will take my games out and play. When I am not, I make sure the games are put back in the exact same position in the cupboard, lock it, and return the key and ensure everything is in position. These ’skills’ I develop and over time I had to work on it to avoid ‘detection’ and cover things up.

Looking back, it was amazing to note I turned out ‘fine’. You know people say it was quite a feat I wasn’t a gang member, or a drug addict. Perhaps like I said before, I needed no one and nothing. I didn’t need a gang friend, or drugs. Interestingly in secondary school when I was still quite small sized at around 65kg at 1.72m in height, the ah bengs also got along quite well with me. I really have to hand it to that time I served in a new school. It turned things around. Some teachers back in Cat High really made my life there a living hell. So much so, if I see them today I may just decide to slit their throats like a chicken. Mr See Yen Pai. Mr Wong Kum Chuan. These 2 are on my perm ‘kill’ list. Just don’t let me see these two sons of a bitch again.

As time went on, I actually became more reserved. My maternal side of the family will know that I am aloof, with very few words. I neglect to acknowledge their presence even. I am a lot different with those on my paternal side.  I saw a lot of them since I was a kid.. and am much closer. Seriously, till today, I don’t have much interest in people. I will pay attention to an individual if I am looking to exploit the person and am looking for some weakness, but other than that, cute guy here, pretty girls there, they all aren’t worth another look. Humans just bore me. My heart is still with animals. Perhaps it is the trust I have in them. I still have a bite mark I got from my previous pet. It wasn’t an intentional bite, more of in self defense but my intuition that got me to pick her from SPCA was right. I had a very good feel bout the dog then and she was indeed a very good pet. I don’t pick pets based on their color, or how cute they look. I seek a chemistry that is beneath the coat of fur. The only way for me to know if the dog and I have something is for me to spend 15 mins with the dog. I’ll know.

As I got older, romance knocked on my door. I was pretty receptive, but not that trusting still. Only those whom can approach and get through my ‘wall’ went on to develop a relationship with me. Have I ended up hurting people, yes I did. Did I get hurt too, yes I did. Part and parcel of life. No big deal. Maybe with my personality, I just take it better. I did  take it quite hard during the last one, but I survived it still. Went to UK and came back a renewed person. Yes you miss the person, and the times spent together. But what is gone is gone. Nothing much one can do anyway so you move on. Eventually. I have never lost a friend before, but a couple years ago, someone had to keep reminding me of things that I don’t want to remember. One fine day it got me worked up enough, I blasted at him. I said very horrible things. With a tongue that is sharper than any blade. I blast to kill. And that was it. Today, I have no regrets still. He had it coming. I warned him time and time again to stop talking bout my relationships that I wanted to let go and he had to bring it up time and time again. It was a good thing he didn’t do it in person face to face. Else gawd knows what I’ll do.

Am I stubborn? Yes I am. But I will retreat that hard shell when it is with  someone I trust and respect. The interesting thing is, once I have respect for someone, it will stay regardless of what happens thereafter. If I disrespect you, it is possible to change that, but extremely unlikely. Cuz once a moron, most likely, forever a moron. I know a lot of you will disagree with me on that, but I don’t really bother what you all think. It is my own personal opinion.

Moving on, I told these friends of mine, on how to handle their nieces. Both of them the way I hear,are very hurt, but are still very sweet in nature. I told them, no matter what happens with the adults and parents, give the girls attention. You, as an AJ, could very well play the role of a good uncle. Take them as if they are your daughters. Show and give them love, and someone they can trust. Cuz honestly, I don’t want to see them turn out like me. I mean, when you got a 6 year old girl asking you, why mummy and daddy are not together anymore, and why she has to spend 5 days with mommy and 2 days with daddie and she has her eyes all red when she asks that, you know she is very hurt, upset and lonely. At least she asked. Back then I had no one to ask. Other than my blanket maybe. And you’ll know in psychology, after being upset, the next few stages are likely to be anger and resentment. I don’t wanna see another angry child. I fully know how these kids feel.

I am not someone who tears easily. But when I do yes, it feels a lot better thereafter. A lot of things come out through tears. Has anyone seen me cry? I doubt so. Not that I remember. It is not bout being macho or what. It is just not that easy to cry. I usually have to force myself to cry, if I go through times when my heart hurts very badly and I can’t stop it. I have to force myself to cry. Overwhelm myself. It always works.

For those of you going thru the same thing, I’ll just have to say, I can sympathies but I won’t pity. Some feel it may be harder to go through this as an adult when you know what is happening. Perhaps, but mostly I disagree on that. Nothing hurts more than to feel ABANDONED, unloved, and unwanted at a young age. In fact you wonder, if they hate you so much, why did they even give birth to you. And it is not like you have a sibling to turn to. Today I still don’t trust humans, and married couples are all idiots to me fighting over the stupidest things. Humans don’t change. They never do. My mom is still the same as before. So am I.  So are you. Okay except for those who received the calling one night from the Lord and changed overnight.. I have met at least 1 of such people during my army days. The change is really very different. All I will say is, good for them. I think if it ever happens to me, all of you will just roll over the floor laughing isn’t it? Suddenly all smiles always and no clubbing on saturdays becuz ALL of you must go to church with me on Sunday morning. Hell yeah that will happen.

So there you go. That was me. Back a long time ago. What am I today? I am very focussed in what I want to achieve. Most of the time when I pick something up I don’t drop it that easily. Not much of the ‘3 minute man’ (in mandarin). I know what I want to achieve and am contended working towards it. I grew a lot this year. From knowing only terms like ‘fixed deposit’ as a form of investment, and deciding back then I will not do any investments and prefer to keep cash in my bank cause everyone around me all lose money in investments and would have gotten very rich if they hadn’t made any investments, I think quite a fair bit of that has changed. I will be working on value and growth investments, as well as perfecting my technical analytical skills. I do not need to be at the top. I just do not want to be at the bottom 80%.

So that’s a little bout it all. The year is indeed over. It is now the 31st of December. I have to get into the office early to log onto my stock trading monitor hehe… will get off work and meet my new broker to me. Perhaps I will return back to the office to watch the fireworks? Looking forward to spend sometime with my dear.

for all you guys and gals out there, have a happy new year ahead of you!

Remember, it is not about growing one year older. If you have not achieved your short term goals, then the past 1 year was in vain. You only got 1 year closer to death, but not any older at all.

This clip is at the top on the most-watched list. Features an attack by the Lion and then a counter attack by the buffalos!

 Enjoy!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM

Dinner was done there and it is basically our resident spot for sashimi craves and all. As many of you would know, my mom deals with raw fish for these Jap outlets and Minori is one of them. Sushi Tei and The Greenhouse@Ritz are also among the list of customers but we found our spot in Minori. I have read some reviews online and many were not good. I cannot judge if they are true but when we were there we got very good service and staff. Maybe we are ‘privileged’ in that sense but what I also observed was many of the negative reviews have only posted once. From competitors maybe, trying to shoot down Minori?

In that case maybe when you go, go with me!

Went through orchard after that as we had to pick up a cake and OMG.. now they have police controlling the pedestrians and motorists. GOOD IDEA cause the crowd was UNBELIEVABLE. The queue to cross the road from Paragon to Crown hotel backed up all the way to the entrance of Paragon. The sea of people was amazing. Hang on.. scary is the word! I do not want to be part of it all and I was just thankful it was a hit and run for that short 5 mins we transited through Orchard. Whoever’s there, good luck!

The topic on what to do with our house came up during dinner again. The decision was largely left to me because the 2 owners cannot decide. I gave them my take but also told them off. You know when children grow up, they become parents of their own parents. Do they not? I told them, the problem with their quarrels is that they do not respect one another. Shooting one another down cause you think you got it right and the other party is ’stupid’. An argument can be constructive. You state why you disagree. Look at the merits on the other side of the argument too and find something in between. A solution may not be one out of the 2 opinions. It could be a brand new idea but because of all the shooting downs and destructive quarrels, nothing is solved. Just unhappiness and stuff. When will people start behaving like adults?

On a lighter note, time for me to get presents ready! I hear we have a Christmas tree too and for those coming tomorrow, I will try and do what I can to get things in proper. Have a blessid Christmas everyone. This has been the prince. Signing off, for now!

Merry Christmas everyone! I have been extremely busy at work, where December is a seasonally busy period but it is a little crazier this year. As the year wraps up and comes towards a close, let’s try and do some catch up even though it is gonna be a short one.  You’re welcomed to join us at my place for some fun games and dinner with drinks. No presents necessary. Just drop me a tinkle.

For the stock market enthusiast, regional markets ended higher on Christmas Eve with Tokyo closed for a holiday. Volumes are still thin and everyone seems to be waiting for some form of direction. Chart wise, STI appears to be in consolidation, moving in a larger symmentric triangle. The up and downtrends converge sometime mid Jan but I suspect the trend will be confirmed way before that. We are looking to break out of the triangle, be it a breakout or a breakdown. With such low volumes, the triangle only gets stronger. We’re looking for the 3500 region before the 3600 region is in sight. We need the 3600 region to confirm the double bottom formation as we see it and a double bottom formation is generally bullish when the trend changes. Near term there could be upside but I still see many volatile sessions whenever bad news come around and I don’t think we have seen the last bit of the bad news yet. However the market is handling the bad news pretty well and has been factoring it into the prices and index movements. Reporting seasons restart from Jan as well as the Fed Meeting at the end of January. Capricorn effect? Rallies? We will have to see what the fund managers do. As it is, the bradley turn date occured on Sat and we do see a reversal in the trend. That is all the bradley turn date does, for those who subscribe to it.

I got his in an email and I thought I’d share it with all:

> The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged
us
> to get to know someone we didn’t already know. I stood up to look around
> when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.
>
> I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with

> a smile that lit up her entire being.
>
> She said, “Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I’m eighty-seven years old. Can
I
> give you a hug?”I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “Of course you
> may!” and she
> gave me a giant squeeze.
> “Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked.
> She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and
> have a couple of kids…”
> “No seriously,” I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be
> taking on this challenge at her age.
> “I always dreamed of having a college education! and now I’m getting
one!”
> she told me.
> After class we walked to the student union building and shared a
chocolate
> milkshake.
> We became instant friends every day for the next three months we would
> leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening
> to this “time machine” as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.
>
> Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily
made
> friends wherever she went.
>
> She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her
> from the other students. She was living it up. At the end of the
> semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet.
>
> I’ll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up
to
> the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her
> three by five cards on the floor.
>
> Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and
> simply said, “I’m sorry I’m so jittery! I gave up beer for Lent and this
> whiskey is killing me! ! I’ll never get my speech back in order so let me

> just tell you what I know.”
>
> As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, “We do not stop playing
> because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.
>
> There are only four secrets to staying young… being happy, and
achieving
> success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve got to have a

> dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.
>
> We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know
it!
>
> There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.
>
> If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t
> do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old.
>
> If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do
> anything I will turn eighty-eight. Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t
> take any talent or ability.
>
> The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no
> regrets.
>
> The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for
> things we did not do.
> The only people who fear death are those with regrets.”
>
> She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Rose.”
>
> She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our
> daily lives.
>
> At the year’s end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all
those
> years ago.
>
> One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.
>
> Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the
> wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s never too late to be all
> you can possibly be.

Yo yo yo! In a pretty good mood today. My mood moves with the stock market hahaa!

Inspired as I am, I created part 2 of my Dec mixshow. This will be aired at a particular retail outlet.:P

But for the rest of you who wanna take a listen, here it is! Click here.

Track List:

- Coracao (Jerry Ropero)

- The Game of Love (Michelle Branch)

- Get Up (Ciara)

- Do U Wanna Dance (Bitch Hotel)

- Dancin (Aaron Smith)

- About You Now (Sugababes)

- Push The Button (Sugababes)

- The Way I Are (Timberland)

- Gimmie More (Britney Spears)

- Fashionista (Jimmy James)

- Ride It (Gerri Halliwell)

- Uninvited (Alanis Morissette)

- Harem (Sarah Brightman)

1. Acknowledge that your retirement is a reality, even if it may be 30 or 40 years away.

Your retirement will cost you more money than you could possibly imagine, and you don’t want to wait and see if you can play catch-up.

2. Don’t wait. Do something now.

You are not entirely on your own, but it is up to you to take care of yourself. Commit to saving just a small portion of each pay cheque for your retirement before you can spend it.

3. Whenever there is free money, take it.

If you are lucky enough to work for a boss who will make matching contributions to your retirement plan, take the money.

4. Treat your retirement as another line item taken out of each pay cheque.

Instead of making large annual contributions to your retirement, have smaller contributions automatically deducted from your pay cheque.

5. If you think you can’t afford to save, you are probably wrong.

Even saving as little as US$90 (S$130) a month will help you begin to accumulate some serious long-term wealth.

6. Take advantage of the power of compounding.

The best investment decision you will ever make is to start saving money early. The younger you are, the more your money can work for you.

7. No matter how much help you think you might get when you retire, don’t count on it.

There are no sure things in life and retirement, and your retirement is definitely your responsibility.

8. Understand the difference between good and bad debt.

Credit card debt is bad debt; you get nothing in return but more debt if you don’t pay it off expeditiously. It erodes your financial independence and your ability to save.

9. There is no such thing as ‘the point of no return’.

It is never too late for you to learn how to make smarter moves with your money. There are no stupid questions, only stupid decisions.

10. Don’t save for tomorrow at the expense of today.

Do everything in moderation. Don’t stay home every night because you are too scared to spend.

Excerpted from Mark Bruno’s Save Now Or Die Trying, published by John Wiley & Sons.

The Chinese calendar, commonly known as the Farmers’ Calendar, or the Hsia Calendar, is a fascinatingly accurate system, which not only records the passage of time, but is also a tool for fortune-telling. The famous traditional fortune-telling system – The Four Pillars of Destiny – is exactly referring to reading a person’s destiny from his birth data as presented in the Hsia calendar format. The unique feature of such calendar is that all information about time – year, month, day and hour are presented in terms of the five basic elements – metal, water, wood, fire and earth, which are believed to be the basic components of everything in the Universe. The relationship between the five elements accurately helps one predict what is to come by way of one’s fortunes and thus, one can by using this knowledge, multiply the good luck or minimize the bad luck in one’s life.The Year of the Rat, 2008, in the Hsia calendar, is symbolized by two elements – with earth sitting on top of water. According to the cycle of birth and destruction, which governs the inter-relationship between the elements, earth is the conqueror of water. . Therefore, earth sitting on water is a symbol of control. But the water of the Rat year is very strong and the earth floating on top of water has no foundation and cannot control the ocean of water. As such, instead of conquering water, it is more like confrontation between earth and water elements. The Earth on top is Yang earth which symbolizes a mountain, and mountain gives sense of stability and firmness. But such floating earth in the ocean is weak in foundation and the stability appears to be fragile. This elemental relationship will bring a year which apparently is more stable but there are a lot of underlying tensions and confrontations.

The Chinese calendar year goes on 60-year cycle. This means that we have experienced the same year of yang earth on rat in 1948. This was a year when the confrontation between USSR and the west intensified with the Blockade of Berlin started and the formation of the Western Union by the Brussels Treaty to confront the threat of USSR; this is the predecessor to NATO. In May this year, the State of Israel was established and also the confrontation between Israel and Arabian countries began leading to the Arab-Israel war. .

The Chinese character for “Yang Earth” represents a big mountain. . It is associated with the quality of a firm and steady person. People born in a day of “Yang Earth” .is often calm and steady and faithful, practical and “down to earth”. . Some examples of famous earth people born on a “Yang Earth” day are Hillary Clinton, Danzel Washington, David Beckham, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Michael Jackson, Dick Cheney, Eric Clapton and Ben Affleck .

The Rat belongs to the strongest water element and it is the first of the 12 animal signs. So it also represents the beginning of a new 12 years cycle. As such, the Rat year can bring a new beginning of international relationships and social order; this could bring new regimes with new government in some countries. Indeed, there will be many major elections happening between 2007 and 2008 with change of leadership in many countries including U.S.A., United Kingdom, Russia, France, Taiwan…..The rat is also considered as a “Flower of Romance”. So years of the rat will stimulate more romance and sex scandals. The Rat is in clash relationship against the Horse. . This is a clash between water and fire elements and will often bring accidents related to both fire and water, air and the sea. The Rat is the most powerful ocean water and it will bring heavy flooding or even tsunami disaster. The most famous water disasters in history, such as the South Asia tsunami on 26/12/2004 and the sinking of the Titanic on 14/4/1912, both incidents happened on a date with prominent appearance of the Rat. Looking at past history, in 1228 a year of Earth Rat, there is big flood in Holland killing 100,000 people, and in 1588 another year of Earth Rat, the Spanish Armada encountered storm in Ireland and 5000 people died in this heavy storm. In 1888, year of Earth Rat, there is “Great Blizzard” in the east coast of the USA and 400 people died. The clash between fire and water will also bring accidents related to fire and the airline business is in the category of fire element. As such, it is observed that the year of the Rat seems to experience more air disasters. A typical year with many aviation disasters is the previous Rat year in 1996. During this year, there are over 20 major airplane crashes including the U.S. TWA Boeing 747 crashed in July, 1996 killing 230. Looking at the immediate last Earth Rat year in 1948, there were also quite a numbers of airplane crashes including the hijack of a Cathy Pacific airplane in June, 1948.

Yang earth on the rat also symbolizes unstable earth, this will also bring earth disasters such as earthquake, landslide, collapse of buildings. The Earth element is also associate with homosexuality. It so happens many famous homosexuals is born on the day of earth – this includes Leonardo Da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Tchaikovsky, George Michael, Boy George, Andy Warhol, Tracy Chapman, K.D. Lang. Rosie Odonell etc. As such, there could be more issues in this aspect in 2008. It is not really clear how earth element is linked with homosexuality. Perhaps earth is an element of more neutral nature, compare against the other four, water and fire, wood and metal.

The clash between the Rat and Horse is a serious clash between water and fire elements. This will often bring injury and bloodshed. Therefore people born in years of Horse have to be particularly careful in 2008. As it is water clashing against fire, the danger could be associate with water and fire disasters such as traffic accidents in the air or at sea. Therefore, for people born in the year of Horse, it is recommended that they carry the pendant of an Ox which will help to attract away the Rat, so as to minimize the negative influence of the clash. Anyhow, people who are born in the year of Horse will experience a more turbulent year with more movements and traveling, changes. It is suitable to engage in such movements, such as moving house or moving offices. Traveling is also good but one should avoid going straight towards the North direction as it is the direction of the Grand Duke in 2008.

The Rat also forms a penalty relationship with the Rabbit. Such penalty may cause disharmony, worries and irritations, or hidden sickness. Therefore people born in the year of the Rabbit is also recommended to carry the pendant of the Ox to minimize such penalty influence in the year of the Rat.

The Five basic elements also represent different parts of our body, earth in general relates to stomach, pancreas, muscle and cells. As such, the health problems related to earth could be stomach problem, food poisoning, and diarrhea. Disorder of earth elements can mean problems of muscle and cells, this can bring obesity, diabetes, and cancer …these are all sicknesses caused by imbalance of earth elements. Diabetes is a sickness caused by disorder of insulin which is produced by the pancreas which is also symbolized by earth element in Chinese medicine. . So diabetes problem is also caused by imbalance of earth element. As such, these kinds of health problems will also come in focus in the Earth water year of 2008.

In recent years the most imminent issue threatening the survival of human race is Global warming. The polar ice caps have been melting down in an alarming speed and there are forecasts that many coastal populated cities will be submerged under the sea by the year 2050. In 2007 we have experienced dramatic change in climate and there are more weather triggered disasters. It is expected such serious impact of Global warming will intensify in 2008. The pair of elements, yang earth sitting on the rat can be interpreted as the image of floating mass of ice on a big ocean. And this is an alarming sign that the melting of Arctic and Antarctic ice will become more and more alarming in 2008. If we examine the fateful moment of one of the biggest water disaster – the Titanic, we can see the Titanic collided with a floating iceberg at mid night of 14th April, 1912. and when we translate this fateful day and time into the Chinese calendar, we can see the mid night hour on this day is actually Yang earth over the Rat, with yang earth representing the floating iceberg. And this is identical to the elements of 2008. It is anticipated there will be more flooding and water disasters associate with climate change in 2008. Such alarming signal not only shows up in the Chinese calendar, it is also reflected in feng shui. In 2008, the feng shui flying star number 1, symbolize water element, is in the centre. This centre number often reflects the focus of events prevailing in the year. Take for example, in 2005 we have Flying star 4 in the centre and the number 4 symbolizes the chicken. So this the year the threat of avian flu began. In 2006 the star 3 in the centre represents conflict and earthquakes, 2007 the number dominate the centre is 2 which is sickness and it has brought the alarm of avian flu in focus again. So we have to assume the number 1 in the centre in 2008 will bring more problems with flooding and water disaster. Global warming is an issue concerning the entire human race and every one of us has the duty to take up effective measures to preserve our environment and support the move to reduce CO2 emission.

Regarding the economy, fire element is often the driving force behind the stock market. In the year 2008 there is yang earth on the Heavenly stem with water underneath. The dominating element is water. As such, it is a year of cooling down after the heated economic atmosphere in 2006 and 2007. Fire is the symbol of the financial market and strong fire will stimulate optimism and speculative mentality. Without fire investors will play cool and conservative. However, the strong water element is the symbol of money to the earth industry. With strong water showing up, the property market is still active and profitable. Despite the absence of fire element in the year 2008, the spring and summer months still shows strong wood and fire influences bringing upward surge in the stock and property market. But investors will be more cautious and practical and there will not be dramatic fluctuations such as in the magnitude of yin fire year in 2007. In general 2008 is a year of cooling down with more stability and calmness in the stock market. .

The strong water of the Rat year favors earth and metal industries, as earth conquers water, so the Rat is a symbol of money to the earth industry, which includes property, mining, hotel, chemicals, insurance… As for metal industries, metal gives birth to water, so the strong water element in the year indicates productivity and strong activity in metal industries – this include machinery, computer, high tech industries, skincare, health business. The Wood industries, which include textile, fashion, books, publications, paper, forestry, furniture is also into a profitable year as wood conquers earth, so the earth showing up in 2008 symbolize the money of wood industry. But the profit will only be superficial as the earth element is weak.

The less prosperous industries in 2008 will be businesses of water and fire elements. Water industries refer to shipping, communication drinks…etc. The strong water appearing in the Rat year will bring stronger competition in the water areas and this will very much weaken the profitability. Fire industries refer to finance, stock market, energy, electricity, entertainment, and airline businesses. As fire conquers metal and produces Earth element, so to Fire industry, metal represents money and earth represents productivity. In 2008 metal element is absent and earth element is weak. . That is why it is a relatively weak year for the industries related to the fire element.

The property market is symbolized by the earth element. This industry had stronger activities in the past years of monkey and rooster in 2004 and 2005 as the metal elements represent productivity of earth industries. There had been some slowdown in 2006, as the fire ad earth year brought stronger competition and eroded profitability. However, in 2008, the water element of the rat will bring some money luck to the earth industry, despite there is no strong activities in the property market owing to absence of metal element.

With respect to the hi-tech industries sector, as represented by the NASDAQ. I have postulated that this industry is mainly represented by the metal element. As such, the prosperity of hi-tech industry requires the strong appearance of water and wood, which are symbols of productivity and money of the metal industry. In 2008 the water element, meaning activities to hi-tech industries is very strong. As such, it is anticipated that the year is favorable for hi-tech or internet types of business. But the absence of wood in this year could mean there are more activities without real substantial money gains.

In summary, the industries that will perform well in the year of the Rat will be industries related to earth and metal elements – such as property, hotel, mining, insurance, machinery, engineering, health, computer, and high tech industries. The sectors relating to water and fire will not be doing so well. Water industries include shipping, communication, drinks, and fire industries are stock market, finance, energy, electricity, entertainment business. The wood industries – such as textile, publications, fashion, furniture, etc are into a year with some superficial prosperity but not substantial.

In general, the yang Earth Rat year, with earth on top failing to control water below, is symbol of apparent calmness on the outside but such calmness lacks a solid foundation and the mountain can tumble and devoured by the ocean of fierce water. Some kind of new world order began to emerge but it will take time to consolidate into stability. . Still there will be international conflicts and uprisings and unrest but such events may be less turbulent than 2007. The new beginning of the 12 animal cycle led by the Rat will be first step to cool down or slow down the acceleration of Global warming problem.

The animal sign which is most unfavorable is the Horse which is in direct clash against the Rat. Such clashes will usually bring about turbulence, movements, accident or changes… So people born in the year of the Horse will anticipate more traveling, or movements such as changing jobs or moving house. It is necessary to carry the pendant of an Ox as protection to attract the Rat away. For the Horse people, the clash against the Rat could bring accidents related to the water and fire element, such as explosion, fire disasters, and air and sea traffic accidents. For people who are under clash with the year, it is ok to travel more, making changes such as moving house, or change job. However, for people born in the year of the Horse, it is recommended not to travel directly towards the direction of the Grand Duke, which is the north direction, and it is also not recommended for them to travel by sea. The other animal’s signs facing unfavorable positions are the Rabbit and the Rat. When Rabbit encounters Rat year will form “Two Penalty” relationship. . Such penalties will usually bring disharmony, irritation, worries and frustrations. Also people born in year of the Rat are offending the Grand Duke which is also not auspicious and it is necessary to carry Ox pendant to minimize the negative effect. The imbalance of fire and water elements brought about by the Horse and the Rat may bring fire and water diseases, such as high blood pressure, heart burn, irregular heart beat, inflammation, diabetes, and kidney problems. As such, it is necessary to take heavy dosages of anti-oxidant, omega 3 oil or COQ10 which is good protection against cardiovascular diseases, hyper-tension and inflammation problems. .

The animals combining with the Rat year are the Ox, the Monkey, and the Dragon. These animals are into a year of harmony. However, such animal astrology is not totally reliable as the system is not recognized as a formal type of fortune-telling. For more reliable assessment of ones fortune in the year of the Rat, it is recommended that one checks the full Four Pillars of Destiny, which requires full birth data information of the Year, Month, Day and Hour of birth. As the animal signs can appear in all four pillars in a person’s birth data, the clash and penalty relationship with the Rat will not only cause impact on people born in the year of Horse and Rat and Rabbit. Such clash and penalties can also impact any one who has such animals in the birth month, or day or hour.

Some examples of famous people born in the year of the Horse and under clash in 2008 are Paul McCartney, Danzel Washington, John Travolta, Condoleezza Rice, Richard Li, Angela Merkel, Victor Yuschenko, Kiefer Sutherland, Warren Buffett and Katie Holmes. There are people who are not born in the year of Horse, but they are also under clash because they are born on the day of Horse, so they will also face a challenging year. Some examples of these people are – Chris Martin, Lura Bush, David Furnish, Elizabeth Taylor……

People born in year of the Rat is said to be “offending the Grand Duke” and it is also recommended to carry pendant of the Ox. Examples of Rat people are Prince Charles, Prince Henry, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz, John McCain, Olivia Newton-John…..

For people who are born in the year of the Pig, the Rabbit, and the Goat, the Rat year will bring “Flower of Romance” so one can anticipate a more sociable year with more opportunity to develop friendship with the opposite sex…

Feng Shui energies also change from year to year. Therefore, it is necessary to watch for the re-allocation of good and bad energies at the beginning of each year, so that we can take necessary precautions if some bad energy happens to arrive at important locations of our residence or offices. In the year of the Rat, the bad energy called “Five Yellow” – symbolizing obstacles and misfortune, arrives at the South. If your South of the house is an important area such as bedroom or entrances, it is recommended that one hangs a metal wind chime there to dissolve this bad energy. The worst months will be in February, August, and November. Another bad star number 2, symbolizing sickness, will arrive in the Northwest in 2008. The traditional method to dissolve this 2 is to hang a string of six metal coins in the affected area in the Northwest of the house The Grand Duke this year is in the North, hence it is not favorable to “move earth” or make substantial construction work in this direction. It is also not recommended for one to sit with back against exact South as you will be sitting against the unfavorable energy called “Three Shars” or “Three Killings”. As well as the “Crash position” against the Grand Duke. The bad star 3 is a star of conflict and robbery. This is present in the West of the house. It is necessary to put a piece of red paper in the West to minimize such bad influence. Also the bad star 7, representing scandals is in the Southwest, the traditional solution for this bad star 7 is to place 3 or 4 of bamboo plant grown in clear glass vase of water in the Southwest location. 

As promised, here is a run down of where we are now. We are still within the symmetric triangle formation, almost 3/4 through. With the dwindling volume it further strengthens the triangle formation where falling prices and lower volume is what we look out for. If no breakout occurs, when the 2 lines converge a decision needs to be make. Bulls and bears will fight it out to see which one wins. A break out of the downtrendline (bullish) needs a strong volume.  A breakdown of the uptrend line (bearish) may not require a strong volume but if accompanied by it, good luck to all of us!

Strong support at 3315, which we cannot break but at the moment 3422 which is EMA200 that seems to offer a good support line and has only been broken 2-3 times this year. MACD looks poised to cross signal line in time to come (bad) but this one is not a reliable indicator as it is based on price only and has a delay feature. Stochastic is heading down too.  Immediate resistance seems to be around 3558 region but for now what I am hoping for is a convincing breakout. As the index is within a symmetric triangle (no direction, 50-50% chance for up or down streak in theory) and hence I would advice people to stay out until a direction is clear and the market sentiment is known.

Looking at how DJIA closed on Friday, I would anticipate a further lower opening on Monday at least for the early session. With fund managers supposedly away, where will volume come from?

Look at the DJIA intraday chart on friday. Midway through the session a head and shoulders formation was seen. Thanks la papillon for this! A head and shoulders is a bearish formation. The index closed lower than the anticipated value which is derived from measuring the distance within the formation. Will the bradley turn date next week do a reversal for us? Will we see a Christmas rally?

Not sure how to buy a stock? How do buy/sell prices work? I got an FAQ done by la papillon at his blog on bullythebear.blogspot.com

Excellent piece of work if you ask me. One more thing I will add is on support and resistance. Generally a stock can only go upwards, when there are more buyers than sellers. Say 100 people in the buy up list to the 10 people in the selling queue. When the 100 people ‘buy up’ (which means they buy at selling price, NOT at buying price which forms a queue which can only be filled when sellers do a sell down) and clears the sell queue, the stock price goes into the next higher bid. Support levels are important when you buy cause you do not want to buy at the wrong price. Say for example 60c is a strong support level (it means there are always ready buyers waiting to buy there). It climbs to 75c but due to bad market sentiment (like the recent subprime credit problems) it heads back down but stops at 60c due to strong support. At least I do not lose money. Had I bought at 70c, I would have a paper loss of 10c. Which means if I have holding power, I will hold and hope it will go back up to 70c or higher for me to sell. This may take a long time and I will lose out on opportunity cost.

Tomorrow I will do a technical analysis on the STI. Stay tuned! For now, here goes!

Summary of questions:

1. What causes the price of a stock to go up or down? How come even though the buy queue is higher than the sell queue, the stock doesn’t move up in price?
2. What is the trading hours of Singapore and HK bourse?
3. What actually happens when I buy a stock?
4. What is long? What is short = katek?
5. What is naked short?
6. This short cannot, that short also cannot. Then if market turns bearish, just sit and cry ah? Any other options?
7. What is averaging down?
8. What are bonds, bills, warrants, CFDs?
9. What’s XD, CD? Do I get dividends if I buy on XD?
10. What is the x you see just before market opens and after it closes, when looking at the sales and transactions for the day? Married deals?
11. What are right shares? Nil-paid rights?
12. What is force key? I see that option when I’m getting my orders keyed in.
13. I have been using X brokerage firm and now I’m using Y brokerage firm. I bought some shares using X firm, so does the shares that I bought with X be transferred over to Y? If I sell my shares using Y does it constitute a short sell?
14. What are odd lots? Can I sell odd lots?
15. What is contra? (No, it’s not the game)
16. I got a company warrant. How do I exercise the warrants to covert it to shares? (Note: company warrant is not structured warrants)
17. What is pre-open and pre-close?
18. What should I do when I receive the thick annual report every year? Do I have to do anything about it?
19. What are rights warrants?
20. How do I apply for rights? What are the options I have?
21. How is the opening price of a stock determined?
22. Why is it that when I queue to buy at price of $0.50, but when the current price of the stock reaches that, I still haven’t bought my stock yet? Is it because of queuing?
23. What is CE and XE? What is cash distribution?
24. What is BB? I keep seeing people saying BBs are buying/selling.

1. What causes the price of a stock to go up or down? How come even though the buy queue is higher than the sell queue, the stock doesn’t move up in price?

I’ll give an example.

Buying vol | buy price | sell price | sell volume

say initially its 520 | 0.770 | 0.775 | 330

This means that there are currently pple waiting to buy 520 lots at 0.770 and pple waiting to sell 330 lots at 0.775. The key word is waiting, because the buy/sell queue are waiting queue.

If you want to buy 5 lots at 0.770, you join the queue at 0.770, the quotes become

525 | 0.770 | 0.775 | 330

If I want to sell 10 lots at 0.775, i join the sell queue and the quotes become

525 | 0.770 | 0.775 | 340

Notice that up to now, the price didn’t move at all. Now if I’m sick of waiting and i’m in a hurry to sell off another 10 lots, i dun sell at the sell price, i sell at the buy price. Immediately i jump the sell queue, quotes become:

515 | 0.770 | 0.775 | 340…price drops to 0.770

Same thing for buying up. If someone is too eager to buy the stock, he wants to get in 10 lots at 0.775 to jump the whole buy queue, here’s how the quote look like:

515 | 0.770 | 0.775 | 330…. price increase to 0.775

Basically it’s the enthusiasm of buyers to bid higher price that drives the price up, and the desperation of sellers to sell at lower bid that drives price down, not the buy and sell queue.

2. What is the trading hours of Singapore and HK bourse?

Singapore opens at 9 am to 1230pm, break for lunch and resume the afternoon session at 2pm to 5 pm. Hong Kong opens at 10 am to 1230pm, opens again at 230pm to 4 pm. Do take note that if you use most of the ‘live’ prices for HK stocks, it’ll lag by at least 5 to 15 min. Yahoo! finance lags by as much as 30 mins to 1 hr. The livest live price can be found from the following sites:

a. Live HSI charts – This one is good as it even has charts and is detachable

b. Real time HSI forex gold – this one is not real time, but it’s not laggy, good enuff for me.

c. HSI stock quotes – this one is straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Too laggy for me

The only free HK live price I know from brokerage is from dbs vickers. But it has it own set of problems…

3. What actually happens when I buy a stock?

After you buy a stock, we don’t have to pay for it immediately. The day that the stock is purchased is termed T day. We have to pay the stock by T+3 (or T+4, T+5, depending on your brokerage firm or broker). This means that we have to make payment by transaction day plus another 3 market days (market days exclude public holidays and weekends).

For example, if I buy on Thurs, I have to pay on T+3, which is next Tues (usually by evening, but dependent on broker). If payment is not received on end of T+3, the brokerage will sell off your shares. After payment is made, the scripts will be electronically transferred to your central deposit account (CDP). If you have an online password with them, you can check their website and you’ll see your shares there. You’ll also receive those irritating perforated pieces of paper (two of them!), saying that you made a transaction with your brokerage firm and another saying that the CDP received the shares.

4. What is long? What is short = kateks?

Longing a stock means we buy a stock, wait for the price to move up to sell again to pocket the difference. Shorting a stock means we sell a stock first, wait for the price to move down, then buy it back again to ‘cover the short position’, thereby pocketing the difference. How come we can do such things – selling something that we dun have?

The reason is because of ‘contra’. Basically it just means that it takes some time for the stock you buy or sell to be delivered to your central deposit account (CDP), so if we sell or buy before it’s delivered we don’t have to pay for anything. Usually contra period is T+3, meaning the day you transacted (T) + another 3 market days. So if I buy a share and sell it all within T+3, I don’t have to make any payment and can pocket the difference. Be careful about buying things you can’t afford to pay. If you can only buy $1000 worth of stocks and you bust that limit and buy all the stocks your trading limit allows (say $50,000) on contra (meaning that you have no intention to pay and die die have to sell by T+3), you are either skillful or just very optimistic in the face of death.

Shorting, on the other hand, doesn’t work on T+3, take note!! We have to cover our position by the end of the day (T+0), otherwise SGX will buy back for you.

5. What is naked short?

Naked short means that you short a counter that you didn’t have, AND didn’t cover by the end of the day and is subjected to SGX buy back. The procedure is like this

a. You sell short a counter and never cover your position by buying in at the end of the day

b. On T+3, you don’t have the scripts in your CDP to deliver to the buyer, so SGX will initiate a buy in for you

c. SGX will buy at 11:30am on T+4 at 2 bids higher than the closing price of T+3 or 11:30am price of T+4, whichever is higher. That is, higher of (closing of T+3 or 11:30am price of T+4) plus another 2 bids. I remember someone saying that the bids will increase every few minutes until someone sells it to SGX. Other penalties may apply.

In other words, you’re subjected to the whims of the market and you’ll only know the results after 3 or 4 market days. AND DO NOT BUY BACK YOURSELF – YOU’LL JUST BE OPENING ANOTHER POSITION! Good luck to you.

6. This short cannot, that short also cannot. Then if market turns bearish, just sit and cry ah? Any other options?

There are proper ways to short the market. Listed below are the ones I know, but bear in mind that each also have its own risks. It’s not within the scope of this faq to discuss.

a. Put warrants

b. CFD – contract for difference

c. Short the market, borrow scripts from SGX to cover your short position . When price drops low enough, buy back the scripts and return to SGX, pocketing the difference.

7. What is averaging down?

This is a method to lower down the average buy price so as to be able to get out of it IF it rebounds at lower price. An example will do the trick.

Suppose I bought a stock, 10 lots at 0.770. The price subsequently tanked and I held on, thinking that it is temporarily. But it tanked to 0.600, a 22% drop in price. For it to rise back to 0.770 (ignore brokerage for simplicity), it has to rise up 28%, which is even harder. So I buy in more to ‘average down’ my buy in price.

So when it reached 0.600, I bought 10 lots at 0.600…tanked down further
Bought it 5 lots more at 0.550.

My weighted average buy price is 0.658 [ (10x0.770 + 10x0.600 + 5x0.550)/(10+10+5)]. If the price rebound slightly and hit 0.660 (assuming no brokerage), I can break even and sell already, instead of waiting to sell at 0.770.

The risk? You are throwing money into a sinking ship. It might sink and sink and never recover. Do this only if you’re sure why the stock is sinking. Otherwise you’re just digging deeper in your own grave. Most pple prefer averaging up – if the stock is performing as you expect, then you throw in more funds. Whatever you choose, just know what you’re doing and the risks involved.

8. What are bonds, bills, warrants, CFDs? (adapted from veron97, cna forum)

Bond/bills

A debt investment with which the investor loans money to an entity (company or government) that borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a specified interest rate.

The indebted entity issues investors a certificate, or bond, that states the interest rate (coupon rate) that will be paid and when the loaned funds are to be returned (maturity date). Interest on bonds is usually paid every six months (semiannually). The main types of bonds are the corporate bond, the municipal bond, the Treasury bond, the Treasury note, the Treasury bill and the zero-coupon bond.

The higher rate of return the bond offers, the more risky the investment. There have been instances of companies failing to pay back the bond (default), so, to entice investors, most corporate bonds will offer a higher return than a government bond. It is important for investors to research a bond just as they would a stock or mutual fund. The bond rating will help in deciphering the default risk.

A bill is just a shorter term version of bonds. In Singapore, bill is anything less than or equal to 1 yr while bonds are more than 1 yr, like 1,2,5,7,15 and 20yr bonds.
Check this website out to find the difference in prices and yields.

Warrant

A derivative security that gives the holder the right to purchase securities (usually equity) from the issuer at a specific price within a certain time frame. Warrants are often included in a new debt issue as a “sweetener” to entice investors.

The main difference between warrants and call options is that warrants are issued and guaranteed by the company, whereas options are exchange instruments and are not issued by the company. Also, the lifetime of a warrant is often measured in years, while the lifetime of a typical option is measured in months.

Basically, call warrants means that you want the price of the underlying to go up. If the underlying goes up, the call warrants will also rise in price. Put warrants means you want the price of the underlying to go down and it will rise in price if the underlying goes down. Can read this website for more information on the basic of warrants e.g. IV, delta, strike, settlement, expiry.

Contract For Differences – CFD

An arrangement made in a futures contract whereby differences in settlement are made through cash payments, rather than the delivery of physical goods or securities.

This is generally an easier method of settlement because losses and gains are paid in cash. CFDs provide investors with the all the benefits and risks of owning a security without actually owning it.

9. What’s XD, CD? Do I get dividends if I buy on XD?

When a stock wants to give dividend, it will put a CD – cum dividend remark. This means anyone who buys now or owns the stock already, will be entitled to get dividends by the time the stock closes its book. XD stands for ex-dividend. If you buy the stocks on XD, it will be too late to reach the registrar so your name will not be in the company’s book – so you’ll not be entitled to dividends. To make it really simple:

a. If you buy on or before CD, you’ll get dividends

b. If you sell on or before CD, you won’t get dividneds

c. If you buy on or after XD, you won’t get dividends (the seller gets it)

d. If you sell on or after XD, you’ll get dividends (the buyer won’t get it)

Don’t worry about record date or book closure date, it’s none of our concern. Just worry about CD/XD will do. Oh, and of cos the payment date.

10. What is the x you see just before market opens and after it closes, when looking at the sales and transactions for the day? Married deals?

The x at the opening and closing is the pre-open and pre-close matching respectively.

For pre-opening, it’s basically for those orders that are keyed in before the market is opened AND are transacted. What happens is that there are buyers who bid for a price and sellers who ask for a price. There is some formula to calculate these two bid/ask price, and this calculated price is the opening price of the stock. If there are a total of 10,000 buyers and sellers matched, then you’ll see 8:59 x 10,000.

Same thing for pre-close matching, but this time the calculated price is actually the closing price of the stock.

Do not mistake the x when market is open for trading for pre-close/open matching, they are not. These x are married deals, a different ball game altogether. Married deals are private deals with a willing buyer and seller, so the price are decided between the two parties and are independent of the bid/ask quotes you see currently on the screen. Married deals are important, esp if the volume for the transactions are huge – usually indicates to me that institutional buyers are buying/selling.

11. What are rights shares? Nil paid rights?

Cash-strapped companies can turn to rights issues to raise money when they really need it. In these rights offerings, companies grant shareholders a chance to buy new shares at a discount to the current trading price. Let’s look at how rights issue work, and what they mean for all shareholders.

Defining a Rights Issue and Why It’s Used

A rights issue is an invitation to existing shareholders to purchase additional new shares in the company. More specifically, this type of issue gives existing shareholders securities called “rights”, which, well, give the shareholders the right to purchase new shares at a discount to the market price on a stated future date. The company is giving shareholders a chance to increase their exposure to the stock at a discount price.

But until the date at which the new shares can be purchased, shareholders may trade the rights on the market the same way they would trade ordinary shares. The rights issued to a shareholder have a value, thus compensating current shareholders for the future dilution of their existing shares’ value.

Troubled companies typically use rights issues to pay down debt, especially when they are unable to borrow more money. But not all companies that pursue rights offerings are shaky. Some with clean balance sheets use them to fund acquisitions and growth strategies. For reassurance that it will raise the finances, a company will usually, but not always, have its rights issue underwritten by an investment bank.

How Rights Issues Work

So, how do rights issues work? The best way to explain is through an example.

Let’s say you own 1,000 shares in Wobble Telecom, each of which is worth $5.50. The company is in a bit of financial trouble and sorely needs to raise cash to cover its debt obligations. Wobble therefore announces a rights offering, in which it plans to raise $30 million by issuing 10 million shares to existing investors at a price of $3 each. But this issue is a three-for-10 rights issue. In other words, for every 10 shares you hold, Wobble is offering you another three at a deeply discounted price of $3. This price is 45% less than the $5.50 price at which Wobble stock trades.

As a shareholder, you essentially have three options when considering what to do in response to the rights issue. You can (1) subscribe to the rights issue in full, (2) ignore your rights or (3) sell the rights to someone else. Here we look how to pursue each option, and the possible outcomes.

1. Take up the rights to purchase in full
To take advantage of the rights issue in full, you would need to spend $3 for every Wobble share that you are entitled to under the issue. As you hold 1,000 shares, you can buy up to 300 new shares (three shares for every 10 you already own) at this discounted price of $3, giving a total price of $900.

However, while the discount on the newly issued shares is 45%, it will not stay there. The market price of Wobble shares will not be able to stay at $5.50 after the rights issue is complete. The value of each share will be diluted as a result of the increased number of shares issued. To see if the rights issue does in fact give a material discount, you need to estimate how much Wobble’s share price will be diluted.

In estimating this dilution, remember that you can never know for certain the future value of your expanded holding of the shares, since it can be affected by any number of business and market factors. But the theoretical share price that will result after the rights issue is complete – which is the ex-rights share price – is possible to calculate. This price is found by dividing the total price you will have paid for all your Wobble shares by the total number of shares you will own. This is calculated as follows:

1,000 existing shares at $5.50 $5,500
300 news shares for cash at $3 $900
Value of 1,300 shares $6,400
Ex-rights value per share $4.92 ($6,400.00/1,300 shares)

So, in theory, as a result of the introduction of new shares at the deeply discounted price, the value of each of your existing shares will decline from $5.50 to $4.92. But remember, the loss on your existing shareholding is offset exactly by the gain in share value on the new rights: the new shares cost you $3, but they have a market value of $4.92. These new shares are taxed in the same year as you purchased the original shares, and carried forward to count as investment income, but there is no interest or other tax penalties charged on this carried-forward, taxable investment income.

2. Ignore the rights issue
You may not have the $900 to purchase the additional 300 shares at $3 each, so you can always let your rights expire. But this is not normally recommended. If you choose to do nothing, your shareholding will be diluted thanks to the extra shares issued.

3 Sell your rights to other investors
In some cases, rights are not transferable. These are known as “non-renounceable rights”. But in most cases, your rights allow you to decide whether you want to take up the option to buy the shares or sell your rights to other investors or to the underwriter. Rights that can be traded are called “renounceable rights”, and after they have been traded, the rights are known as “nil-paid rights”.

To determine how much you may gain by selling the rights, you need to estimate a value on the nil-paid rights ahead of time. Again, a precise number is difficult, but you can get a rough value by taking the value of ex-rights price and subtracting the rights issue price. So, at the adjusted ex-rights price of $4.92 less $3, your nil-paid rights are worth $1.92 per share. Selling these rights will create a capital gain for you.

Be Warned

It is awfully easy for investors to get tempted by the prospect of buying discounted shares with a rights issue. But it is not always a certainty that you are getting a bargain. But besides knowing the ex-rights share price, you need to know the purpose of the additional funding before accepting or rejecting a rights issue. Be sure to look for a compelling explanation of why the rights issue and share dilution are needed as part of the recovery plan. Sure, a rights issue can offer a quick fix for a troubled balance sheet, but that doesn’t necessarily mean management will address the underlying problems that weakened the balance sheet in the first place. Shareholders should be cautious.

12. What is force key? I see that option when I’m getting my orders keyed in.

When buying or selling, you can only key in within 6 bids of the current price. Different price range have different bid size.

So, if a stock is currently trading at say 1.50, you can only sell up to 1.56 or buy up to 1.44 (within 6 bids, each bid being 1 cent). If you need to go beyond, you need to check the ‘force-key’ option. Some brokerage firm have free force keys, some are subscription based.

13. I have been using X brokerage firm and now I’m using Y brokerage firm. I bought some shares using X firm, so does the shares that I bought with X be transferred over to Y? If I sell my shares using Y does it constitute a short sell?

The answer depends very much on whether the shares you bought with X firm are deposited in the central depository (CDP). It will be, after you made payment by T+3 days. If that is the case, the shares you bought have nothing to do with X firm anymore, so you can very well sell the shares using Y firm or any other firms. It will not be a short sell.

If you buy shares using X firm, but within T+3 you sell it using Y firm, then you have an open position with X and a short position with Y. You still need to pay for your shares plus brokerage with X before the shares will be transferred over to CDP. In the meantime, you have to cover you short position with Y by buying back within the same day of transaction, otherwise you will be subjected to SGX buy back.

If you buy shares with X firm, paid for it by say T+1, then sell it by T+2 using Y firm, then I’m also confused! To be sure, check CDP website to ensure that the shares you paid for are already deposited inside before selling using Y firm. Life’s too bland for you? haha

Do yourself a favour, keep a good transaction record of which shares you buy, T+3 payment date and with which brokerage firm.

14. What are odd lots? Can I sell odd lots?

Usually, each lot size in SGX shares consists of 1000 shares. There are some exceptions, for example the STI ETF 100 shares, you can buy at 100 shares per lot instead of the usual 1000 shares per lot. How do we get odd lots? Usually through corporate actions like rights or entitlement, script dividend. For simplification, I assume all shares have a lot size of 1000 shares here.

Since you can only buy or sell a minimum of l lot, there is some problem if you want to buy/sell less than 1 lot, like 800 shares. These are called odd lots, and they can’t be transacted in the normal markets.

I know that for poems, there is a unit shares market – specifically used to buy/sell odd lots. But take note – due to the liquidity (or rather the lack of), expect to sell your odd lots below market price and buy odd lots (to top up to 1 full lot) at a discount. This mean you can buy 1 share of DBS at $20 plus dollars if you so wished.

15. What is contra? (No, it’s not the game)

When you buy a stock, you normally have to pay on T+3. T+3 means that transaction date + 3 more market days (public holidays, sat, sun not counted as market days).

E.g. If I buy on Thurs, T+3 is actually next Tues.

If I managed to sell off the stock I bought before T+3, that means that I don’t have to pay any capital upfront and get the difference between the price I bought and the price I sold. This is called contra.

Usually contra are for short term traders, who goes in and out within the T+3 days. Those who contra all the time will also whack huge lots (more than what they can afford to pay) since they don’t have to really pay for the stocks upfront and they are going to sell off before the T+3 date, regardless of profit or loss.

Just be careful if you buy more than what you can afford…If the stock went down, you might have to hold or sell at a loss. Not advisable, unless you’re a good chart reader who knows when a stock can make spectacular gains all within T+3.

16. I got a company warrant. How do I exercise the warrants to covert it to shares? (Note: company warrant is not structured warrants)

Courtesy of lonewolf from cna forum, who did the sleuthing.

Q. What shall I do when I want to exercise my warrants?
A. When exercising your warrants, you must submit the following to the Warrant Agent:

1. Your latest statement showing the number of warrants you have in your securities account. This can be obtained from The Central Depository (Pte) Ltd or via CDP Internet Access if you have applied and gotten an I-PIN.

2. The exercise notice, a copy of which can be obtained from the Warrant Agent. You need to sign the notice and provide the following details:
a. your name
b. address
c. CDP securities account number
d. NRIC number
e. no of warrants converted *
f. no of shares subscribed *

* The number of shares subscribed for every warrant held depends on the conversion ratio.

3. The subscription amount in the form of a cashier’s order made payable to the issuer.

The Warrant Agent will inform CDP of your exercise notice after it has verified your particulars. This date is known as the Lodgement Date (L).

Q. How will I know who the Warrant Agent is?
A. Pulses, a monthly publication by Singapore Exchange, publishes a list of warrants traded and their respective Warrant Agents. You may also check with the company which issued the warrants.

Q. When will the warrants be debited from my account?
A. CDP will debit the warrants from your securities account immediately after notification from the Warrant Agent that they have earmarked the warrants and that your exercise notice is in order.

You cannot sell the warrants once you have exercised them.

Q. How long will CDP take to credit my account with the new shares arising from the exercise of my warrants?
A. After receiving the exercise notice, CDP will credit the shares into the ‘Available’ balance. The converted shares will be credited to the ‘Free’ balance of your securities account five market days after Lodgement Date. This is provided the Warrant Agent has sent the new share certificates to CDP and the new shares have been approved for listing.

CDP will notify you in writing after your account has been credited.

Q. When can I sell the converted shares?
A. You may sell your converted shares only after receiving CDP’s notification, or when your shares are in the Free balance of your securities account.

If you sell before the shares are in your account, you risk being bought-in. To meet your delivery obligation, the Exchange will buy-in the shares from the market if you do not have them in your account by due date. You will have to pay for the difference between your sale price and the buy-in price, and all other related charges.

Q. I have just sent in my exercise notice to convert my warrants to shares and there is an entitlements distribution. Will I be eligible for the entitlements distribution?
A. Whether you are eligible for the entitlements will depend on how the listed company had defined the entitlements date. Listed companies can set the entitlements date to be either on Lodgement Date (L) or the day after Lodgement Date (L + 1).

Consequently, if your warrants are converted on L, which happens to fall on Books Closure Date and the listed company had defined entitlements date as L, then you will receive the entitlements.

However, if you have converted the warrants on L, which happens to fall on Books Closure Date and the entitlements date had been set as L+1, then you will not receive the entitlements.

Q. What happens if there is a warrant issue or entitlement for the shares I have in my CPF Investment Account?
A. If the warrant entitlement comes free, the warrants can be left in your CPF Investment Account for you to sell or convert to shares with your CPF funds before the expiry date.

However, if you have to pay for the warrant entitlement, i.e. you have to subscribe for the warrants, you will not be able to use your CPF savings to do so. In this case, you can:
1. provide your CPF Agent Bank with the cash to subscribe for the warrants on your behalf; or
2. transfer the right to subscribe for the warrants from your CPF Investment Account to your CDP Securities Account before you subscribe in cash.

However, if you want to sell your rights instead of subscribing for the warrants, you may sell your rights in the same manner as you sell your shares purchased with your CPF savings.

Q. What happens if I do not sell or exercise my warrants by the expiry date?
A. On expiry date, warrants become worthless and cannot be exercised into new shares.

Q. I am still holding the physical warrant certificates although the company’s shares and warrants are already traded scripless. How do I exercise the warrants?
A. The exercise procedure is similar to that for the first question. However, you will have to surrender your warrant certificates to the Warrant Agent.

If you wish to have the new shares credited directly to your CDP securities account, you will have to fill in your securities account number in the exercise notice.

Q. How do I sell my new shares if I have opted to receive physical certificates after exercising the warrants?
A. Physical share certificates cannot be used to settle the sale of your new shares. You must first deposit the certificates with CDP. You need to pay a deposit fee of S$10 (excluding GST). Payment may be made in cash, or by cheque made in favour of “The Central Depository (Pte) Limited”.

After receiving your share certificates, CDP will send them to the share registrar to have them transferred and registered in CDP’s name before they can be credited to your account. The whole process takes 17 market days; 15 days for the registrar to transfer and register, and two days for CDP to credit your account.

You may sell your converted shares only after receiving CDP’s notification, or when your shares are in the ‘Free’ balance of your securities account.

Q. How can I check the expiry dates for warrants?
A. The trading name of the warrant provides the expiry date. It appears in a year-month-day format. For example, CSC W050427 indicates that the warrant expires on 27 April 2005.

17. What is pre-open and pre-close?

‘Pre-Open’ Routine
It is a 30-minute session before regular trading starts at 0900 hrs. It comprises the ‘Pre-Open Period’ and the ‘Non-Cancel Period’.

During the ‘Pre-Open Period’ (0830 to 0859 hrs), buy and sell orders can be entered, amended or withdrawn. They will not be matched and executed during this period. The ‘Non-Cancel Period’ is between 0859 to 0900 hrs, during which input, amendment and withdrawal of orders are not permitted. Orders that are matched are executed at a single computed price, which will be the same as or better than the price at which the orders are entered. This computed price shall be the opening price for the day. Unmatched orders will be carried forward into the regular trading session.

‘Pre-close’ Routine
At 1700 hrs, all unmatched orders are carried forward to the Pre-Close Routine, which runs for 6 minutes and consists of a ‘Pre-Close Period’ and a ‘Non-Cancel Period’.

Orders can be entered, amended or cancelled during the ‘Pre-Close Period’ (1700 to 1705 hrs). During the ‘Non-Cancel Period’ (1705 to 1706 hrs), input, amendment and withdrawal of orders are not permitted. Orders that can be matched are executed at a closing price computed for the day, while unmatched orders will become void.

18. What should I do when I receive the thick annual report every year? Do I have to do anything about it?

The thick annual report consists of a few important information that any serious investors need to pay attention to. Firstly, it gives a snapshot of how well the company is doing in that financial year if you look at their financial statements. Secondly, the chairman/CEO will have give his/her message to shareholders, detailing the next year’s direction, a summary of the company’s performance and generally what to expect in the future. Lastly, there will also details of where and when the annual general meeting (AGM) for the company is taking place. The AGM is a meeting where shareholders and the directors will meet once each year to pass resolutions regarding the company. Examples of such resolutions include approval of director’s fee, re-election of directors, approval of dividend payout, rights issues, etc.

You can choose not to go to the AGM and missed communicating directly with the directors (and the free food) and instead appoint a proxy to vote for you on your behalf. OR you can totally choose to ignore the AGM.

19. What are rights warrants?

In addition to issue rights shares, a company may instead choose to issue rights warrants. Somewhat similar to right shares, rights warrants give the shareholders an opportunity to subscribe to rights that will be converted to company warrants upon ceasing of nil-paid rights trading. These company warrants give the holders the right to convert the warrants to ordinary shares at some point in the future (before the expiry of the warrants) by exercising them.

This is quite different from rights shares. Subscription to rights shares and subsequent ceasing of nil-paid rights converts the rights to ordinary shares immediately, whereas rights warrants are converted to company warrants (so you can choose when to convert to ordinary shares anytime before expiry of the warrants). The benefits of the warrants is thus this – you can save capital that would be otherwise locked up as warrants are leveraged derivatives, so the locked up capital is a fraction of that of ordinary shares. If the company is doing well, the price of the warrants will rise and you might choose to sell it without exercising it. Or if you believe in the long term prospects of the company, you can choose to exercise your warrants by converting it to ordinary shares.

To find out how to exercise warrants, look for the relevant questions in this faq.

————————
Paul (see comments) mentioned that there are some warrants that can only be converted on a specified date, an example of which is TechOil@GaeW101126. As always, it’s better to check the OIS that comes together with the rights issue for more information that might not be applicable for others.

20. How do I apply for rights? What are the options I have?

Okay, you received a bombshell in the form of rights issue and you don’t know what to do despite reading the thick OIS (offer information statement) mailed to you. You panicked.

If you flip the OIS and look for the section under “Procedures for acceptance, payment and excess applications by entitled depositors” under the Appendix section, you can see that it’s all spelt out clearly for all the possible cases you can imagine.

I’m only going to go through the basics. There are two main ways to subscribe for your rights:

a. acceptance and application by ATM of a participating bank

b. acceptance and application by CDP

First before choosing either options, look at the mailed Form A – white form (ARE for rights shares) or green form (WEWAF for rights warrants). Pay attention to the number of rights shares/warrants provisionally allocated – that is the amount that you are allocated, so you can choose to take it all up, partially, not at all and/or apply for excess. Find out how much you need to pay for and how much you need to pay if you want the excess rights.

If you go by ATM, it’s the easier option. Just go to the ATM screen, click on other transactions, then look for something like “ESA – IPO applications”, then find the company that is relevant. You’ll be guided to type in the amount of rights that you wish to accept out of the allocated (e.g you may be provisionally allocated 5000 rights but may want to accept only 2000), plus another separate screen where you’ll be guided to type how many excess rights you want to subscribe. Then you’ll come to a screen where they will tell you how much you have to pay. Make sure this screen you check carefully before pressing. I know for DBS you need to pay a service charge of $2.00, not so sure of other banks.

If you applied through ATM, then do not send any forms! It’s done – just wait for them to mail you how many excess rights you’ve successfully got and how much you applied for.

If you’re going through application by CDP, then you have to fill form A (the coloured forms). There’ll be instructions to tell you how to fill but I’ll run through a little. First, delete away the I/We* and my/our* that you see accordingly. Then look under Registration – and fill in quantity (the number of rights shares/warrants) you accepted, calculate and fill in the amount payable to CDP (multiply the quantity by issue price per share/warrant). Fill in the number of excess rights you wish to apply and repeat, total it up and sign below.

Next go to the bank to get a cashier’s order or banker’s draft (it’s just a cheque that is issued by the bank – you have to pay the bank a certain fee in addition to the amount for their services) with the following written – “CDP – XYZ RIGHTS ISSUE ACCOUNT” and crossed “NOT NEGOTIABLE, A/C PAYEE ONLY”. On the reverse side, write your name and your securities account number. Finally send the banker’s draft/cashier’s order and the form A to the enclosed envelope mailed to you. Affix your own stamp!

21. How is the opening price of a stock determined?

(from ccloh of cna forum)

This is done by matching the highest bid price and quantity with the lowest ask price and quantity until a common price is met. For example:

BUY
—-
100,000 1.10
90,000 1.09
80,000 1.08
70,000 1.07
60,000 1.06
50,000 1.05
40,000 1.04
30,000 1.03
20,000 1.02
10,000 1.01

SELL
——
10,000 1.00
20,000 1.01
30,000 1.02
40,000 1.03
50,000 1.04
60,000 1.05
70,000 1.06
80,000 1.07
90,000 1.08
100,000 1.09
200,000 1.10
300,000 1.11
400,000 1.12

the 100,000 @ 1.10 BUY will match with 10,000 @ 1.00, 20,000 @ 1.01, 30,000 @ 1.02, 40,000 @ 1.03 from the SELL

the 90,000 @ 1.09 BUY will match with 50,000 @ 1.04, 40,000 @ 1.05 from the SELL

the 80,000 @ 1.08 BUY will match with 20,000 @ 1.05, 50,000 @ 1.04, 10,000 @ 1.05 from the SELL

the 70,000 @ 1.07 BUY will match with 50,000 @ 1.05, 20,000 @ 1.06 from SELL

the 50,000/60,000 @ 1.06 BUY will match with 50,000 @ 1.06 from SELL.

final match price = 1.06 !!!!