Life For Rent

It has been a month since the argument between Azio and Helen and the family has not met for their regular weekly dinner as well.

Azio has been staying in the dormitory over weekends and only go for spins in his bike when he feels too cooped up in the room.

The tension between Azio and Elgene has not improved either. Though both of them still lock horns over the smallest details, they have started to notice and understand each other’s habits and behaviour better.

Azio realizes that Elgene must study with the music blasting loud but he has since put on ear plugs instead of blasting through the speaker.

Azio also notices that Elgene is an avid basketballer and has the habit of sleeping in the buff.

There is even once that Azio accidentally glances into Elgene’s cupboard and saw a number of trophies in Taekwondo and basketball tournaments.

While Elgene notices that Azio has been extremely quiet the past month and has stayed in over the weekends. He also notes that Azio goes for dragon boat training twice a week.

He knows that Azio enjoys going for spin in his bike at late nights to clear his thoughts and will usually come back freshen up and study through the night.

Azio is packing his swimming trunk and towel after his dragon boat training on Saturday afternoon. He jumps a little when Elgene swings open the door, dripping in sweat.

“Oh. I didn’t know you are in.” says Elgene.

Azio nods and goes back to packing his bag, Elgene walks over and strips off his dirty and wet singlet and shorts. Azio steals a glance and notices that Elgene is not wearing any briefs underneath his shorts.

His eyes linger a little while longer and catch a glimpse of Elgene’s manhood when he wraps a towel over his waist.

Azio fidgets a little when Elgene looks at him, Elgene says “Remember to lock the room when you are gone.”

Azio swallows his saliva and replies “I will, you better remember to bring the key along with you for your bath then.”

Elgene nods and walks pass Azio, brushing his sweaty arms against Azio’s hands accidentally, that send chills down Azio’s spine.

Azio swims in the deserted pool in the campus leisurely, his thoughts keep replaying the image of Elgene’s manhood. He thinks to himself “Life is so nice to that idiot, giving him such a hard body and impressive family jewels!”

Some water enters his mouth and he struggles a little, swims towards the side and breathes hard. His breathing resumes to normal after a while and he laughs at his little infatuation over his “enemy’s” manhood.

Azio spends 1 hour in the pool and decides to call it a day, he pulls on his shorts and walks back to his dormitory with his towel hanging over his shoulder topless.

Azio opens the door to his room and Elgene sits up immediately and pulls the blanket over his naked torso. Azio looks at Elgene and Elgene turns away sheepishly.

Azio walks over to his bed and toss out the dirty laundry, he strips off completely and heads off to the communal bathroom to clean up.

When Azio comes back from his bath, Elgene has already put on a pair of shorts and sitting by his desk, focusing on his laptop.

Azio couldn’t control himself and jokes “Finished jerking off? I hope you didn’t dirty your bed or the floor. Throw the tissues at the dustbin outside otherwise they might attract ants.”

Elgene stops his typing and stare at Azio, he suppress his anger and says “You are such a pain in the arse! All men masturbates, there is no point in making fun of it. Especially when I am a virile and healthy young man.”

Azio sticks out his tongue and apologies “I was just making fun of you. I know it is perfectly normal, I just thought of making fun of you.”

He continues sheepishly “Hey, we have not been on the right wavelength all these times. If you don’t have any appointments, shall we go for dinner at Jurong Point? Just to get to know each other all over again?”

Elgene lets out a loud sigh, he says “Your treat.”

Azio eye’s grow wide, he complains “Why my treat? You are not even my boyfriend, I mean, my girlfriend.”

Elgene looks at him and gives a nonchalant look and goes back to his laptop.

Azio gives in and says “All right! My treat. But we are eating at the food court. Let’s go now.”

Wayne keeps his silence on Azio’s accusations but Cassany cuts in “Azio, why are you bringing up the past? All of us know that it was an accident!”

Azio argues “What accident? If mum had not pushed Wayne towards that oncoming car on the road, Wayne would not be on the wheel chair for the past 3 years! He had lost so much over these years in order to gain her acknowledgement that Wayne is her gay son, does she want the same sacrifice from me as well?”

Helen breaks down and screams “I don’t deserve all these! I don’t need 2 gay sons! Yes, I had wanted Wayne to die when he came out to me but I am now making amends to him and accepting him of who he is. I just hope to have 1 normal son who is not gay!”

Wayne wheels himself out of the dining hall and calls out to Ted “Ted, I need to go now. I am not feeling too well.”

Ted looks concerned and places Juno off his laps, he walks over to Wayne and asks “Everything ok? You looked very pale.”

Wayne shakes his head and pleads “Drive me home now, I really do not feel well.”

Azio also gets up from the table and says “Like it or not, you have another gay son! I am going back to the dormitory.”

Helen breaks down soon after when Ted, Wayne and Azio leave. Cassany gets Stephen to bring the boys back home while she stays with Helen for the night.

Cassany gets into Helen’s bed and asks “Mum, you feeling better?”

Helen replies “Thanks for sleeping over. It has been ages that I have my kids sleeping with me on the same bed.”

Cassany smiles and holds Helen’s hands, she says “Mum, we are all adults now. We have our own paths and Azio is a big boy. I think you see his confession coming, right?”

Helen lets out a sigh, she replies “I just hoped that all signals were wrong and this day never comes. I so badly want him to be normal and have a family.”

Cassany consoles “Mum, there is nothing wrong with Wayne and Azio’s sexuality. They are matured adults, they will live their lives well. Maybe you should accept Azio just like you came to terms with Wayne’s sexuality?”

Ted takes half day off in the afternoon and drives over to SIM to pick Wayne before proceeding to Gleneagles Hospital to collect Wayne’s medical report.

After going through the medical report, the doctor says “Wayne, I am afraid that your tumour is cancerous and you are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, it is at 2nd stage. I would like to put you on medication straight away.”

Ted grabs Wayne’s hands tightly when he hears that, he asks “Doctor Koh, are you sure? How could Wayne contracted cancer out of a sudden?”

“I am really sorry but we must be strong and starts medication if we do not want his condition to worsen.” The doctor advises.

Wayne slumps in his chair, he mumbles “Why is this happening to me? What have I done wrong?”

After leaving the consultation room, Ted wheels Wayne to the counter to collect his medication in silence.

Ted wheels Wayne to the waiting area and walks over to the counter when someone calls out to Ted, “Ted!”

Both Ted and Wayne turns to see a suave man wearing a white doctor robe, he looks like their age but stands shorter than both of them, about 177cm and cuts a lean fit physique.

He has fair smooth complexion and big attentive round eyes, supple lips on a clean shaven face. Perching on his sharp nose is a funky pair of spectacles and sports a diamond ear stud.

Ted and Wayne couldn’t make out who this handsome stud is until Wayne suddenly mutters “Flack?”

Flack turns and looks at Wayne, his looks of smiles change to a look of surprise and he asks “Is that you, Wayne?”

Wayne nods and Ted walks over and gives Flack a hug, he asks “Oh my. I couldn’t recognize you at all. When did you come back from the US?”

Flack replies “Just came back less than a week and have been busy trying to accustom to the life here. In fact, today is my first day at work.”

Flack turns to hug Wayne, he asks softly “What happened? You were perfectly healthy when I last saw you 8 years ago.”

“It’s a long story.” Wayne says weakly.

Flack nods and says “Most importantly, you are living fine now.”

 Classic example of propaganda. Films ‘encouraging’ gay lifestyle is banned, but films ‘discouraging’ the same lifestyle is highly encouraged, with an R21 rating. Discourage like how? By depicting that a gay lifestyle will always end in tears and blood and suicides. Wait a minute.  Isn’t that exactly what could happen in HETEROSEXUAL relationship too? If trying to depict HIV and suicide is typical of a homosexual relationship isn’t propaganda, I don’t know what is. On hang on. They argue of course we see more from the heterosexual side cause of ‘economies of scale’. If so, why control gay films? I have no issue with the restriction on TVMobile where you are ‘forced’ to watch what goes out. So no sex, violence blah blah, fair enough. Somehow homosexuality has been classified along the same lines violence now eh. So it has become a political ‘selective choice’. Then why air cartoons where the characters fight n slash one another with boomarangs and all that? Does a cartoon make it any less violent? If so, then can they air gay animae? You know what, forget the damn issue. TURN OFF THE GOD DAMN volume on TvMobile. If people want to tune in, they have mobile phones and mp3 devices that has radio function YOU GOONS. I love the word ‘goon’. This fella on TV from the US was sued cause he called the chinese goons allegedly. You could almost do a parody out of everyday life! A life where it’s a JOKE!

THE Media Development Authority (MDA) on Thursday fined MediaCorp TV Channel 5 S$15,000 for airing a show that depicted a gay couple and their baby in a way that ‘promotes a gay lifestyle’, MDA said in a statement on its website.

The station aired an episode of a home and decor series called Find and Design that featured a gay couple wanting to transform their game room into a new nursery for their adopted baby.

MDA said the episode contained scenes of the gay couple with their baby and the presenter’s congratulations and acknowledgment of them as a family unit ‘in a way which normalises their gay lifestyle and unconventional family setup’.

The episode was in breach of rules on free-to-air television programming, which disallows content that promotes, justifies or glamourises gay lifestyles, the statement said.

Earlier this month, MDA fined StarHub Cable Vision S$10,000, for airing a commercial that showed two lesbians kissing. — AP

What a mad rush for the exit at 4pm today when europe began trading and news of the losses announced by Credit Suisse ripped through globally. A sea of red everywhere in Europe and dow futures turned downed as well as they absorbed it. Singapore had 1 hour left while Hong Kong had already closed for the day. And within that 1 hour that was a mad rush to sell! Panic selling I tell you.

Let’s look at Cosco which will interest many. There was a resistance at 3.6 and I was telling someone earlier in reply to his message that Cosco has to close above 3.6 to remain bullish. Going up high intraday does nothing. I will reinforce this point later. Now look at the surge over the past 3 days. Pretty. But look at the volume, it has been falling. This is an obvious sign of distribution. It is not obvious while the prices are going up but the chart tells you another story, and that the counter is going through obvious distribution. The BBs have been pushing the prices higher to get more retailers in. Remember, any surge in prices NOT accompanied by higher volume, you gotta take notice. When volume is falling instead you gotta go on red alert. Accumulation is visible by observing flat prices, but increasing volume. You know the folks are buying up, yet are doing it so slowly, just eating away whoever that dumps so the prices do not really move, but you get volume which goes higher and higher. Back to cosco. Remember I said it shot up real high intraday? Towards 3.69. I know a lot of people would have been waiting at 3.6, saw it go up, and bought on retracement. Nothing wrong with that. Technically it is right. But if they did not check the volume they are in for a rude shock. True enough the minute bad news came out, and when Cosco broke 3.6 again, panic selling started. Everyone sold and sold and sold. We’re talking bout 10 seconds and 4 bids were wiped out. Classic panic selling. You could also have some short sellers coming in. I have to point out despite the price jumps, it has not reached overbought regions yet. So today we have more volume than yesterday. Possibly those who bought earlier today dumping away at the last minute, and also some short sellers joining in perhaps. So what has the intraday high of 3.69 given us? It closed at its low today at 3.5 and it has given us a bearish shooting star formation. A shooting star usually marks the end of any upside and indicates reversal. There are no sell signals yet, although early warning signs have shown in my early MACD indicator but I an assure you the sell signals will appear if it opens and closes below our current levels. So where do we go from here. I do hope it recovers some ground, but if it doesn’t and continues its trend down and breaks 3.35, this will be extremely bearish and I will recommend profit taking at this point. We have some minor support lines along the way but 3.35 is an MA support and it is definitely profit taking time. Failure to do so and if the shooting star trend sparks a new downtrend then by the time you realise the panic that is going on, it could be too late. Upside 3.6, downside 3.35 so those are the 2 points we are looking at. Shanghai closed up over 9% today, so that’s how crazy a stock exchange can be. Such a jump is NEVER good in the short term if you do not have holding power, I suggest trimming of positions and watch the s shares carefully.

YZJ on the other hand did pretty well. Trend is intact. And notice the higher volume as this counter goes. Then again the counter has so many BBs in it, you really don’t wanna mess around it too much. I just picked yzj out to show how a healthy uptrend should be accompanied by increasing volume.

When the family gathers at Helen’s place for their weekly dinner, Stephen is there as well. Stephen always enjoys chatting with Ted, getting free advice from him on legal issues.

Helen, at the other side of the table, is complaining to Cassany on her worry for Azio about his new bike and Cassany is reassuring Helen that Azio is matured enough to exert extra caution.

At the living room, Wayne is reading the latest Harry Potter’s book to Juno & Wy-en when Azio opens the door.

Wayne throws him a dirty glance and says “Why are you always the last one to turn up for our gatherings? I wonder what your excuse is this time. All of us know that you stay here on weekends.”

Azio sticks out his tongue and replies “I went for my dragon boat training earlier and went for a spin, forgot about the time.”

Both Juno and Wy-en tear themselves away from Wayne and run to hug Azio and they shout on the top of their lungs “Mummy! Uncle Azio is back! We can have dinner now!”

Azio gives a light pat on Juno & Wy-en heads and complains “How many times must I correct you boys to address me as brother?”

The boys dodge away from Azio and run towards the dining hall, Azio walks to Wayne and gives him a peck and notices that Wayne looks pale and a little tired.

“Are you ok? You don’t look too well.” Azio asks.

Wayne smiles and replies “I am ok, just tired easily recently. I just had a body check up and the report will be out tomorrow.”

Azio nods and wheels Wayne to the dining hall. Helen starts nagging when she sees Azio “The whole family has to wait for you always! The boys are so hungry, can’t you be more responsible?”

Azio looks away to Cassany for help but she ignores his look and gets the maid to lay the table.

They start on their dinner soon after, halfway through, Stephen asks “Azio, so when are you going to bring a nice girl to join us for dinner? Such a good looker like you shouldn’t have any difficulty in getting a fair lady.”

Helen agrees and chips in “Yes, Stephen is right. You are already 22 and I have never seen you bring a girl home. Isn’t there lots of girls in your campus?”

Wayne and Cassany look at Azio inquisitively but Ted continues on with his food, oblivious to the topic.

Azio looks up and says “Girls? Why not boys?”

Stephen laughs and answers “It will be a huge loss to the female popularity if you choose boys over them. They have already lost Wayne and Ted, they can’t be losing you and all remaining hopes.”

Helen shows a look of disapproval and reprimands “Can’t you just grow up, Azio? Why are you making jokes over such issues?”

Azio wants to say something when Cassany cuts in “So how do you like your new bike?”

But Azio chooses to continue “What’s wrong being a gay? Wayne is gay so is Ted. Me too.”

There is a pause of poignant silence when Juno asks “Mummy, what is gay? I want to be like Uncle Azio, I want gay.”

Cassany and Stephen show a look of discomfort and contemplate what to say to Juno when Helen slams her chopsticks onto the table.

Helen demands “Azio, how could you say such things in front of the kids? Why can’t you be a responsible adult and stop making a fool of yourself?”

Juno and Wy-en look startled at Helen’s reaction and keep quiet but Azio has no intention to back off, he argues “Why can’t you accept that your sons are gay? As for Juno and Wy-en, I am sure Cassany and Stephen will guide them well to understand my sexuality.”

Helen shouts “Shut up! Just shut up now!”

Wy-en gets so startled at Helen’s explosion that he starts to cry, Stephen quickly walk over to Wy-en and carries him, he tells Juno “Juno, bring your plate and come with us to the living room.”

Ted also gets up and says “Let me help Juno to the living hall.” He looks at Wayne knowingly and Wayne nods.

Helen wants to leave as well but Azio stops her by saying “Is it that you want to create another accident to paralyze me like what you did to Wayne in order to accept the fact that I am gay?”

KUALA LUMPUR- ALL it takes is one fruit or 100ml of its juice and the ordinarily harmless star fruit becomes poison in a matter of hours for kidney patients.University Malaya Medical Centre consultant nephrologist Prof Dr Tan Si Yen said this was what had happened to Tang Gon Seang in China.

The 66-year-old, who has been suffering from a kidney ailment, was in Shenzhen visiting his son when fell into a coma on March 29 after eating star fruits.

‘Star fruits contain a neurotoxin which is not present in other fruits. It affects the brain and nerves. In healthy persons, the kidneys filter it out. In kidney patients, it cannot be removed and worsens their condition,’ he said.

More than 10 other patients in the hospital suffered the same condition after consuming star fruits. Two of them died.

After discovering the star fruit connection, Mr Tang has been undergoing dialysis.

His brother-in-law Teoh Thian Lye, 55, confirmed that Mr Tang had been on medication for kidney problems for three years.

The family sought the help of MCA Public Complaints and Services Department head Datuk Michael Chong to transfer Mr Tang back to Malaysia as the family could not afford the hospital bill of RM1,000 (S$430)-RM2,000 a day in intensive care.

According to Dr Tan, there was little awareness of this relatively new discovery and no local cases yet.

‘The public must be alert to reactions to star fruit. Look out for initial symptoms including hiccups, numbness and weakness, and neurological symptoms including confusion, agitation and epileptic fits,’ he said.

‘The risk of death is high,’ he added. — THE STAR/ANN

Azio storms out of the room with his toiletries and take a quick shower, when he returns to the room, Elgene is already in slumber land.

Azio dries himself with his back to Elgene and Elgene flips over just in time to catch Azio in his nudity.

Elgene takes a quick glance and immediately turns back. He is surprised that Azio has a lean and well proportionate physique.

Azio puts on a set of clean clothing and leaves the room, he badly wants to see his V-Strom.

When Azio reaches Ted’s office an hour later, Ted is still in a meeting with a client. He waits impatiently in Ted’s office when he chances upon a photo frame with Ted and Wayne’s picture on it.

Azio looks at the photo and thinks “Wayne used to be so active and attractive before the fateful accident. Thank god that he has Ted with him all these while.”

Azio is deep in thoughts when Ted comes in, he gives a light pat on Azio’s shoulders and that gives Azio a jump.

“Geez, why didn’t you make any sound when you come in?” Azio asks.

Ted smiles and says “I did but you were deep in thoughts. You ready to go? I have to pick Wayne from his campus after bringing you to the showroom.”

Azio jumps up enthusiastically and says “I am all set to go, you are such a darling to my brother! You are the best brother in law!”

Ted shuts down his laptop and responds “Don’t be a bootlicker. It doesn’t work on me. But I am indeed your best brother in law.”

The salesperson walks Azio through the functions of V-Strom with Ted listening attentively as well. Azio’s heart skips a beat when he is all set to drive his V-Strom away.

Ted insists that Azio follows his Mercedes SLK 200 to the campus to pick Wayne and they will follow him back to his dormitory after that. Azio reluctantly agrees.

When they reach SIM, Wayne is already waiting for them at the pick up point. Ted parks his car and walks over to hug Wayne and kisses his forehead, Wayne waves to Azio and Azio waves back happily.

Azio thinks to himself “Wayne is really fortunate to have Ted, he takes so good care of him. And to have boyfriend who isn’t afraid to show his affections in public, how I wish I have a boyfriend like him too!”

When they make their way to Azio’s dormitory, Wayne asks Ted in the car “Why didn’t Azio get off his bike and say hello to me earlier? That’s unlike him! He loves to stick to me.”

Ted smiles and places his big palms over Wayne, he says “He was so happy with his bike and that cool helmet you bought him, he just simply couldn’t bear to take it off and get off that monster.”

Wayne smiles back and replies “I hope we got the right present for him, you know how mum is like, she just simply couldn’t trust Azio to take care of himself. Remember how strongly she objected to Azio to move into dormitory? And she never trusts motorcyclists.”

Ted looks at Wayne lovingly and reassures “I am hope Azio is old enough to do things right. And you shouldn’t worry too much, he is an adult. Spend more time thinking of me is a better advice.”

Wayne smiles back and looks out of the window, he realizes that the cars beside theirs are casting envious looks. He smiles to himself and look away.

When Azio switches off the ignition on his bike, Ted wheels Wayne over and Wayne reminds “Promise us that you won’t speed, and be responsible on the road.”

Azio flinches his long wavy hair and nods, he says impatiently “You are just as long winded as mum. If you continue at this rate, Ted will be checking his ears soon enough.”

Ted gives a light punch to Azio and says with a smile “Leave me out of the siblings quarrel.”

The 3 chat a little longer and Ted decides it is time to go home for Wayne to take his rest. Azio kisses Wayne and hugs Ted before they make their exit.

When Azio walks up the flight of stairs to his room, loud muffled music roars through the corridor. He soon realizes that the loud music comes from his room.

He opens the door and the loud music deafens him immediately, he closes the door and shouts “Are you deaf? Why do you turn up the volume so high? We will be booked for nuisance if others complain about it!”

“Don’t bark at me. Go elsewhere to bother others and leave me alone.” Elgene replies.

Someone asked me in my private buffer, how do I tell if a counter is under accumulation?

First let’s understand, in layman terms what the terms are. A security has 3 ways of movement. Up, down, and sideways. In that order, it’s accumulation, distribution, and consolidation. Simple right? No stock moves in a straight line. At some point it needs to consolidate. I like to put it in a crude way. You eat something (accumulation) feel shiok, sit down, watch tv, shake leg (consolidation, or digestion, if you so prefer) and then you need to take a dump! (distributing). Of course, you could eat, feel shiok, eat somemore! Or you could have a real bad tummy, and take a couple dumps one go, get out of the toilet bowl, walk around (consolidate) and then dump again. Everything moves in a cycle. So do stocks.

When a stock goes up, people are accumulating, generally. That’s all to it.

What I suspect is, people wanna know how do you tell during consolidation phase, if the stock will head up or down thereafter. ie, when a stock is trading sideways and flat for a period of time, is it consolidating AND accumulating, or is it distributing slowly?

First of all, one has to understand how fund managers (BBs) mentality is and how they play. BBs are humans too and yes you can see what they are up to, but problem is when you have more than a few groups of BBs, it is best to stay out. Stocks like YangZiJiang is an example. Big players everywhere on both sides. As how I put it, “When 2 elephants fight, the grass and everything below them dies”. We are just a small player, easily trampled to death! Now, a fund manager always wants to buy low sell high. Who doesn’t? They can employ a few methods. One way is to buy the stock, do an analytical buy call, and let retailers chase the price up. The second way, and this can be step 2 from the previous step, begin ‘distributing’ to the retailers. You see, the big players don’t buy all at one go. If I were to buy 10,000 lots, will I put a buy queue there? No way. The whole world can see what I am up to! And no one will sell the minute they see a huge buying interest. They will wait for the buyer to buy up. Hence the buyer is no longer buying low. No good. The fund manager can employ a method that I like to call left-right hand. You need market depth to see this.

For example, fund manager wants to begin buying from $1.

He puts a block buy at say $0.95. He puts 5oo lots there. The current price is now $1 assuming. He begins buying up. At $1.01. After a pause, he buys up again $1.02. And then he buys up again $1.03 and so on. He stops at $1.05. By now, it would have attracted the attention of traders and investors who see the buy ups. The fund manager now sits one side and let the retailers continue buying. Buying buying buying. Assume the price is now $1.09. He decides this is enough, he begins to distribute. ie, sell down. He will sell down and wipe all the buyers (usually retailers who end up carrying their ‘baby’) all the way to $1.05. By then retail investors begin to panic and realise they have been conned. They will cut loss and sell their holdings, driving prices lower. Hopefully it will be so low, it will kiss the 0.95 mark, and the fund manager’s queue gets done. Wow, he made a profit from buying up, selling down and he managed to force the price down to 95c to buy low.

That’s a simple example and takes a lot of assumptions, but in a gist this is what we do. A smart trader does not just cut loss simply because intraday supports and resistance is broken. Remember a line is never broken unless it closes above or below. So the fund manager can do this in a day, or over a few days. Using the same example, and assuming he wants to collect at 95c you will find a strong support there and they will not allow the price to fall lower. Why not just let it drop lower so they can buy cheap? If they do so, they lose control of the counter and momentum. Staying in control is very important. If they allow the stock to plunge, they could end up losing money because of the prices they had bought earlier. Too wide a gap may not be easy to control. A smart trader will have market depth, and can see the BBs putting in the block queues. If the BB wants the price to be supported, the block queue at 95c assuming is not filled, they will lift it and put it one bid higher at 95.5. If they wanna support it further, they will bring it up the next bid. You can actually see the blocks move. In a single moment, a single bid loses x bids and the next bid gains the exact same x. And it keeps moving up and down depending on the price they ultimately want to control. This is why any breakout must come with volume too. We do not want the BB to be the one causing the breakout. We want genuine breakouts with strength that surpasses what the BB can do. The BB is strong, but he/she does not win all the time. As you can see how many funds have lost money too.

Distribution is the other way round. Lift the price artificially high, and then drop off their holdings bit by bit, hopefully at the same price, if not higher. Naturally no one will just release all at one go. It will not only wipe out the whole queue but it will cause others to take notice. The idea is to carry out your actions under radar. The first stock that came to mind is Jade. ML acquired the lots and began distributing it. The punters who thought they can make a 1 bid profit, swallowed all the stocks ML was dumping literally. This is ‘carrying someone’s baby’. Slowly but surely, a hundred lots here, 2 hundred there at a time, people swallowed all the stuff ML threw out. When ML (the BB) was done, they packed their bags and left. You can imagine what happened. How could one see from the chart? I use the accumulation/distribution line. I look for divergence that buck the trend. Ie if the trend is up, but the line has a bearish divergence then something is wrong! It is not sustainable. The line uses price and volume to tabulate, and it can be delayed. The only way to see live accumulation or distribution is to look at market depth and you need a trained eye for it.

So let’s see Jade. You see the buy ups to bring it to 20-23c range. Look at the area between the parallel lines. Flat prices. It didn’t change much. Closing mostly flat. But look at the accumulation/distribution line. You would expect it to be roughly flat, but it was trending down. This suggests distribution and I would wanna take heed! It suggests something is not right, better check, or better still stay way.

Here is the STI chart that I love to use. Look at the rally up towards Aug last year before it corrected for the first time. Noticed there were NO proper retracements. Any rally without proper retracements is BAD. Pure and simple. It cannot be sustained and the moment the funds decide to dump, all hell will break lose due to the holders holding at a high. As the funds bring up the price for distribution, you’ll have people happily buying away feeling overly bullish. And then the uptrend stops. Goes flat. Those who were the last few to buy will begin to panic. Contra period is up, for one. Weak holders will begin to let go. Coupled with the distribution power left behind by the fund managers, a sharp correction could be impending. You will remember around June, you hear reports of independent analyst firms who sounded the alarm that the stock market will see at least a 15-30% retracement in months. This could be one of the ways they saw it but naturally their computer programs are far more sophisticated to analyse data across the board. As you can see from the chart, the trend is clearly up. Up up up. But the accumulation line is falling and this suggests the prices were brought up for distribution. Would you wanna take heed when the price is going up but the line is bearish? Of course!

I have trouble finding a chart with a proper bullish divergence for you. But just imagine, a chart with a lower low, but showing a higher high on the accumulation line instead. This suggests a reversal could be coming.

So on during a consolidation phase, I could use a mix of indicators, candlesticks and price action to determine if there is distributing or consolidation. To be sure, I will need market depth. Accumulation and distribution is not a perfect science. But if you get it right, you will be able to see insider’s price action before reports are due. Unusual activity should be taken note of.

Here are some charts for you look at. You will see many s shares sharing the same chart. I bought XLX, Ausgroup, China Energy, Synear for it’s necktie in formation. XLX and Ausgroup has already formed. China Energy in formation while Synear has a while to go and some of these are tikam stocks. Which means, I have no intention of holding them past contra period. Watch ferrochina carefully. Depth shows possible accumulation and them trying to manipulate the prices so that it goes undetected. My indicators are not conclusive hence. A breakout of 1.47 convincingly will be bullish.

I offer no guarantee to the above for it is my way of looking at things and it may not work for everyone. Also, I have noticed supports have been holding and resistance lines have been broken of late. This suggests an early sign of a trend reversal. Remember, in a bull trend, supports hold, resistance lines are broken. The reverse is true for a bear trend. DJIA could have some retracement which is healthy as long as the major supports are not broken. MA support is around 12655 right now. S&P has quite a bit to retrace if it wants to as there are gaps to fill. Overall if the prices bounce off support, the outlook remains bullish. Nonetheless, caveat emptor!

By Michael Sivy, Money Magazine editor-at-large
Last Updated: April 22, 2008: 4:40 AM EDT

(Money Magazine) — The economy is in trouble and fear rules Wall Street. No wonder. Banks and other financial companies are posting huge losses. The Federal Reserve has had to engineer a rescue of investment bank Bear Stearns. Home prices are sinking.

The Fed is cutting interest rates to battle recession, but the stock market refuses to be calmed. The Dow swings wildly even as it teeters on the edge of a bear market. And oil keeps rising while the dollar keeps falling. It’s all unsettling in the extreme.

But the really scary question is, What’s next? Are we at the start of a deep recession and a crushing decline in stock prices? And however serious the problems, how can you best protect your investments?

I’d argue that if you apply a little long-term thinking to the worries that are keeping you up at night, you may well conclude that the outlook for your portfolio isn’t so bad – and in fact, that it may even be mildly encouraging.

We’ve had downturns beforeWhy does this one seem scarier?
Normally, bear markets and recessions are simply a phase of the business cycle. But the current slump in the stock market and the economy has a different, and potentially more dangerous, origin – a financial crisis.

The outlines of the story are by now depressingly familiar. When the real estate boom ended, a variety of supposedly safe mortgage-backed financial instruments turned out to be poison. The banks and other institutions that owned this debt – or were exposed to it indirectly – suddenly found themselves on the hook for enormous losses. Exactly how big no one could say. The uncertainty has made them much more cautious about lending, and that in turn is hurting companies that rely on short-term borrowing.

Falling home prices and the credit squeeze also hit consumers directly. The cash-out refinancings that homeowners used to pay off other debt and support their standard of living are harder to come by. The big fear is that reduced consumer spending and a credit crunch together could trigger a recession much worse than the normal business-cycle slump.

How bad could things get?
Bear markets that are set off by a shock can be severe. The Great Depression of the 1930s, the stagflation caused by the oil crisis in the 1970s and the real estate bust in Japan in the 1990s all crushed stock returns for years.

Among the most pessimistic economists now is New York University’s Nouriel Roubini. He worries that the damage caused by the housing bust will be too big for the Fed to contain. Roubini expects that without far more extensive government intervention, home prices will fall a lot further, leading millions of homeowners to walk away from their mortgages. Banks will have to write down the value of mortgage-backed assets much more sharply than they already have.

The resulting domino effect would knock down the entire financial sector, commercial real estate and commercial lending. The process could take several years to play out and would wreak havoc on the portfolios of pros and Joes alike.

Other gloomy forecasters take more measured positions, but many still believe that the decline in housing prices is at best half over. They expect that stocks will suffer another significant decline and that any near-term rebound in prices will prove only a temporary respite.

That sounds awful. Why on earth should I be optimistic?
First, remember that predictors of doom make headlines precisely because their positions are so extreme. Most forecasters are more positive. The UCLA Anderson Forecast still anticipates that the slowdown won’t even be severe enough to rank as an official recession. (To qualify, the economy has to actually shrink for at least six months, not just stagnate.)

Edward Yardeni of Yardeni Research is one of many economists who expect a short, shallow recession during the first half of the year with a recovery starting by fall, and he projects that S&P 500 operating earnings will rise 7% for the year. Yardeni also notes that the price/earnings ratios of big value stocks are quite low and that growth stocks are the cheapest they’ve been in more than a decade.

Even Warren Buffett, who has said we’re now in a recession, is bullish longer term. His Berkshire Hathaway has sold a variety of options basically betting that the stock market is close to a bottom.

I’m inclined to agree that the outlook for the economy is more encouraging than most investors seem to think. For one thing, it appears likely that most of the damage has been done and that stock prices today reflect what are now widely recognized problems. Moreover, while you can find similarities between the three big shocks of the past 80 years and today’s situation, none really matches present circumstances. Let’s look at them in more detail.

Depression. The 1929 stock market crash was the best-known event leading into the Great Depression, but the loss of paper wealth wasn’t what unleashed the calamity. The more important causes included bank failures, excessive consumer debt and restrictions on international trade. Some of these seem to have parallels today, but the most important factor is completely different.

As banks failed in the early 1930s, the Federal Reserve allowed the money supply to shrink by as much as 35%, causing the economy to keep contracting. Today, by contrast, the Fed has been pumping money into the economy as fast as it can. Over the past year, in fact, the money supply has grown more than 7%.

In addition, the Fed is intervening to an unprecedented degree to shore up troubled banks and brokerages. It’s likely that Bernanke & Co. will keep pushing interest rates down to make it easy for banks to lend money, thus minimizing the credit squeeze.

Once all the banks’ bad loans have been identified and written off over the next year or so, some institutions will be out of business and others will have been forced to merge à la Bear Stearns. Their stockholders and bondholders will have suffered – a lot. But most of the U.S. economy will be poised to recover.

Stagflation. In the 1970s a sharp spike in oil prices following the OPEC embargo produced a devastating combination of slow growth and soaring inflation. Today oil prices are as high as they were in the ’70s, after adjusting for inflation. Yet the U.S. economy is more than twice as energy-efficient as it was back then.

Like a car that gets 28 miles to the gallon instead of 14, today’s economy can better tolerate high fuel costs (although there is still some pain). And despite a few bad inflation numbers in recent months, pressure for price increases generally remains moderate.

Stagnation. In the late 1980s, Japanese real estate boomed. When the bust came, financial authorities there kept trying to prop up prices so that companies could avoid big write-downs. The result was much like removing a bandage very slowly, and for 13 years investors in Japanese stocks felt the pain.

Azio braves through the heavy human traffic to NTU the next morning, he thinks to himself “I hate this maddening crowd. I can’t wait to get my hands on my V-Strom!”

After alighting from the bus, Azio runs through the blocks of dormitory to his room. He thinks to himself “How could I have forgotten to bring my lecture notes home last night?”

When Azio opens the door to his room, he lets out a yelp when he sees someone in his room and that someone grabs the towel off Azio’s bed and covers his private areas hastily.

“Who the fuck are you? What are you doing in my room?” demands Azio.

“Mind your freaking language, punk! I am your new room mate.” The guy retaliates.

Azio shakes his head a little and repeats “My new room mate? Since when? Says who?”

“I can’t be bothered with you, I am late for my lessons. Go ask the dormitory management if you are so worried that a man has come into your sanctuary.” The guy says.

The guy turns his back and his taut buttock cheeks greet Azio and it is at this instant that Azio starts to size the guy up. The guy pulls out a clean piece of bermuda and slips it on and pulls a t-shirt over his muscular back.

The guy is about the same height of Azio but definitely weighs heavier, he is about 77kg, a muscular frame accentuated with defined biceps. His muscular back also matched perfectly his protruding chest, and he is even tanner than Azio.

He has a bad boy look with a Mohawk haircut and spot a goatee, Azio is still looking at the hunk when the hunk stares at him and questions “Never see a man change in front of you before? Get used to it, punk.”

The hunk is about to leave the room when Azio finds his voice “I am sorry, I apologize for my behavior. What is your name?”

The hunk turns back and replies nonchalantly “None of your business.”

Azio is taken aback by his rudeness, he has wanted to say something when the hunk just walked out of the room. Azio just sits on his bed, cursing the hunk in his head when his mobile rings.

“Hey Az, where are you? The class is starting soon!” the voice from the other line says.

Azio snaps out of his zombie state and replies “Shit. I am coming over now.” After hanging up his phone, Azio grabs the lecture notes on his desk and about to leave when he sees a student card on the floor.

He picks it up and realizes that it’s that hunk’s student pass, he looks at the name that reads “Elgene Chan Chee Han”.

Azio lets out a loud laugh when he sees the photo, he talks to himself “So nerdy looking, such a drastic change! But too bad, a good looker with an undesirable personality.”

Azio places the student pass on Elgene’s bed and rushes off to his lesson.

It is a long day as Azio only has a full day schedule and only an hour break in between the lessons. When the last class ends, Azio walks back to his dormitory with his pals.

One of his pals remind Azio when Azio is about to open his door “Az, do not forget our dragon boat training tomorrow yah?” Azio nods. He wants to take a quick shower and goes over to Ted’s office as fast as he could.

He swings open the door, totally forgetting that he has a room mate now. The forceful swing jolts Elgene out of his nap, he sits up and snaps “What is wrong with you? Can’t you behave like a normal human?”

Azio looks at the topless Elgene and realizes that the blanket has strategically covered his torso and lower half of his impressive body. He replies “I forgot that there is someone else in the room.”

Elgene gives Azio a cold stare and lay down again, with his back facing Azio. Azio rolls his eyes and takes off his shirt with the door ajar and searches for his toiletries.

Elgene mumbles “Close the door when you are changing unless you are an exhibitionist. I don’t have the habit of showing my family jewels to the whole campus.”

Azio stops his search and answers back “I don’t know what pisses you off today but I don’t deserve your rudeness. If you want your stay with me to be pleasant, show me some basic courtesy!”

Elgene turns over and stares at Azio, his movement causes his blanket to slide down and reveals a hairy trail from his navel, Elgene pulls up the blanket a little.

“You are a spoilt brat, I take back my politeness and apology. You deserved everything I said this morning.” Azio snaps.