Life For Rent

After the million dollar round  table, Alvin has been dilligently doing his TA home work after getting some quick knowledge from me. I must say he has done very well so far! He has entered his first trade on Friday and hopefully it will go in his favor. I looked at it myself and agreed the charts look good and I may go in on Monday myself.

Admittedly I think he fares better than I had when I first begun. I suppose that’s what’s different. I am 29 and I feel his age cause we have similar challenges although he has been there done that more than I have.  He’s a good man and I learnt quite a fair bit from him, whether he knows it or not. You see, different struggles exist in different phases of one’s life. They are not necessarily easier, better, or worse. They are quite different. But it is through each phase, that builds you for the next. Sometimes  you have the luxury of taking your own time between each transition, while at other times you are forced to quickly finish your task, celebrate, and move onto the next. There is a reason why many refer life to a rat race. I don’t think the rate loves to run on the wheel, but he has a choice of running on the wheel or just running around within his confined space. Ultimately he belongs out there. I do suppose, he doesn’t have a choice where he belongs, does he? Like many of us.

As I get older, and face different challenges I find the transition time between each phase getting shorter, while each phase takes longer to clear, with each one extending into the next in a never ending chain. Some believe in destiny, and that our lives are meant to run the way it is. The path is there, the choices you have are to walk forward, stay put, or go backwards. Attempts to deviate from the path is not recommended, according to the logic. Many will challenge this. Some will make it, while others will fail. But if you walk your path, you will ultimately succeed. So the million dollar question is, walk the path and be guaranteed success, or challenge it and take the chance for a bigger success, or the ultimate faliure. No right answer here, and I think that is the beauty of it. So many people, all with different comfort zones. You have over-achievers, the achievers, and the under achievers. If everyone was an over achiever, then ultimately everyone is also an achiever and under achiever?

I look at people like alvin, julian, as an inspiration for bigger things. Indeed they still screw things up here and there. I don’t reckon anyone can say they haven’t screwed things up in a while. But while certain things are tangible (like your bank account, your investment portfolio etc) many others are not measurable. Experience is intangible. At the work place, they say experience is what you are paid for. True to some extent but I do not fully agree. In fact just the other week I was sharing with one of my colleagues. In our industry, it is not what you know. It is who you know. Think bout it. Doctors, engineers, lawyers. As good as they are in their own trade, do you for a second think, they can be where they are, just based on their own capability? The fact is, there is always someone better than you. But why is someone’s name right at the top? Can they increase their market value purely on their own? Without market value, would someone be given ample opportunities to perform? So to me, market value’s right on top. Then experience. Everything else flows below. Someone may not have experience, but has very good market value (whether self marketing or otherwise) and believe me, he/she can jump way ahead of someone of more experience. I suppose it may revolve around the fact that knowledge and experience can be gathered, over time. It is like an investment right? U get a greenhorn, whom you think will do well in future, and u take him under your wing. But if doesn’t have market value, would he have attracted your attention in the first place? Probably not.

Once upon a time (and for a long time) I have maintained, Singapore is a great place to work but terrible to retire in. While most of it is unchanged, perhaps the first part isn’t entire true anymore. Sure, I had reservations working as a second class citizens in another country. But is it all that good here anyway? At the recent population update, see how much the citizen population has grown, compared to PRs and foreigners. Very soon we could be a second class citizen in our very own country. The ideal situation is to be posted on overseas stints here and there. Having no kids and all is a plus point and shouldn’t I make full advantage of that? No I do not like the idea of being a citizen of another country. But 2 years hong kong, 2 years australia, things like that, why not? Knowing myself, and I told my boss, I am not someone who can stay at the same location (desk) for long. I need an ever changing environment. This explains why I am not working as an end user, but rather with one of the largest MNCs. I like roving work. This is quite unlike what is described in http://sillypore.com/diary/?p=663 but indeed, keep me interested and I will be a happy employee working for a long time.  I would love to jet around here and there for work. Let’s see what happens, especially after this merger my companies has with another giant. For one, I like my boss, and hopefully he doesn’t leave. I see that he has been very active in this ‘facebook’ look-a-like site that’s used by people in my industry to network one another, and ultimately to showcase themselves to headhunters who lurk within the site. There is a lot of uncertainty in the air. I suppose by year’s end there will be a clearer picture of what’s gonna happen after the transitioning at mid management is complete.

It’s been a crazy couple weeks for me and I apologise for the lack of posts around here. I have been doing an audit with a small team of 3 including me with a crazy agenda and an even crazier schedule. I haven’t done many audits but the other 2 have and agreed this was the craziest schedule ever. There was a reason for it (though quite dumb) but work is work and it has to be done.

I have decided to work from home to tidy up some last bit of stuff and am taking a couple mins to do a blog post.

The one thing I have learnt and probably realised, why the folks at the workplace at literally alcohol fanatics. Last week Friday was our monthly team cohesion night with my colleagues back at where I am resident at. I arrived late, no thanks to a closing meeting that ended late, some after-action reviews, lots of bitching, and a terrible jam typical of fridays. Ayam penyat it was (I ate a hell lot!) and I repeatedly hinted I needed beer all week long! One of my colleagues was sweet enough to have it in the itienary too at Indochine (Wisma Atria) and after a couple beers and lots of chatting, all the frustration built in for the week simply vanished. Magically! How different is this with the sessions at say, maxwell or play. A hell lot. For one, I would have had more beer. But not once have I left feeling better. Usually it is worse. U got people with issues, u got people who have no idea what they are talking about and all that. Perhaps it is just me. For one, I simply have no time to talk or see morons. Two, there are far better things to do, which I will illustrate in a while.

Saturday saw me and my dear joining my remisier and his wife for high tea. I gotta say the dim sum high tea at goodwood park aint that bad at all. Will I go back again? YES. We all needed to do some shopping and while he got shoes, I got a new pair of jeans, to replace the one that is torn (the one from guess which was my fav, but is also the lousiest) and while I didn’t quite like the new pair at first wear, I loved it after wearing it on Sunday! And oh… we had turkish food at far east plaza. Never knew it existed, never knew we had room for it too but both of us guys are eaters I tell ya… HAH. Nice chats, good info flowing. I like.

Sunday it was the day I met up with the investment thread folks at our quarterly million-dollar- round table (as I call it) meet up. I invited our insurance guy as well since I needed to receive my policy from him after having him hold it for me for 2 months! Now I am insured against 30 critical illnesses. More to come when I have time to examine other planss.  And so for this particular round table I did a very informal technical analysis lesson in a super duper short period of time, covering some psychology aspects as well as the technicals of it all.  The market was CRAZY the week before, but my calls were spot on and yes I did make quite a fair bit after covering my short positions (I singled out 2320 region as a major support for the STI) and when it did hit, my remisier and I spent minutes just covering ALL our short positions and put warrants. In covering my short on ferrochina I also reversed the position into a triple long (had 5 shorts, bought back 20 so within a trade I now have 15 long) and bought HSI and STI calls. I actually intended to buy 10 lots, while waiting for confirmation. BUT.. i forgot to withdraw my earlier queues so effectively they got hit too and I ended up with 30 lots each. I was quite nervous and I wasn’t in the office in the late afternoon but my remisier assured me I did not need to get rid of the excess yet. The idea is, a trading mistake should be closed immediately, profit or loss. Needless to say, it ended up as a good mistake and I took some profits off the table on Friday alone when the global indices FLEW between 5% (STI) to Russia’s crazy 20%? in the green. I shared all the info with the group on Sunday and released my forecast in the near term along with critical support and resistance levels, along with my projected target of this upside.

You know, these 2 weeks made me think a lot. Maybe it has been a whole month. Earlier I said I will illustrate what has been interesting me. You see, on Sunday during our round-table, the guys went to this show room earlier in the day and took back this broucher from a show unit they went to. New launch. In novena area. Small lil unit, not cheap in terms of p.s.f but affordable as it is small and it cost at around 600k. They know my style. I said I want a junior suite in a hotel room look-a-like and they roughly knew what I meant. And it got me thinking again. It has been a crazy year for me to pick things up in the financial world apart from my own work and I thought I could take a breather to let things settle down. But no. I decided, no time to lose. I am gonna double, or triple my speed. I will be setting new profit targets at very high levels (to stress me out) all in all, cause I wanna achieve my goals as soon as possible. I want my home, and I wanna make sure my grandma has hers too. While everyone works for 1 home, perhaps, I gotta single handedly work for 2. With a little help hopefully. Perhaps it is an age thing. Or perhps not. I see many who are older than me still floating in la-la land somehow, but no not me. I do not have time for that.

Anyone who knows me, when I set my goals, they must be achieved. It will take the whole world to end, to stop me from it. I have very high expectations and demands of myself, possibly due to the lost opportunities and time that has gone by. The chats I have with my peers and those older are very insightful. Within our round-table we have one who’s a property guru at age 20 (he really marvels me) and older folks in their mid 30s who have been there, done that, and have the achievements to prove it all. I think we leverage off one another and there is always something to gain from one another, and all of us are more than willing to share stuff, and offer advice. Advice, that ultimately churns out dollar and cents, not advice on what to do in relationships and all that jazz. We do talk bout it, but off the million dollar round table.

This change in me pretty much surprised me. Cause I see a big 180 deg shift within a very short period of time (exceeding my expectations). People around me are quite marvelled at the speed I pick things up, my interpretations of things and my strategy. My remisier for one often says I have reached enlightenment. He’s also my technical analysis mentor and seriously, I do not believe I have ever trusted anyone with the amount of money flowing through the transactions that we share sometimes (he piggybacks on me on some positions). There are loads of people who are tired out from work everyday. I am one of them. Throw me into a dumb audit, into a meeting, looking through the numbers jumping on my trading screen, making very quick calculations in my head if its a go or no go, processing what is going on in the meeting, answering text messages from my investment savvy friends and from work, and replying to MSN messsages on everything under the sun.. all at once. Sure some stuff are prioritized. If someone MSN me something stupid at this times, naturally he or she will get no reply. But to process all the other info takes up a lot of energy from my brain. But with the ‘training’ with practice, I have been able to do it better as  times goes on. My calculations are quicker, and I am able to arrive at a crticial decision if I should buy, hold, sell within seconds. You can also find me actually offering my opinions during the meeting while keying in my orders at the same time and thankfully I have not screwed up on the orders.  I have screwed them up before and it wasn’t due to work, or multi tasking, it was due to emotions. I have been pushing my limits beyond breaking points. After each point I survive, I move onto the next one. I have now arrived at the level where I can do all of that without much emotion and frustration due to improved mental stamina.

Alrightie, time to get back to my stuff. I will write more as time goes by. The featured track will be back this weekend!

PS : Dinner @ outback steakhouse on Sunday was good. I had my meat rare. And believe me, it is RARE. I challenge any of you to try it. HAH. I like my steak bloody yes. The server came over and asked how I would like my steak, and I said bloody. Yes, I had a pint of beer already, and no I was not drunk. On hindsight, I think medium rare brings out the flavor better. With a bit of  fat of course. Eating a steak with the fats removed is one of the world’s biggest sin.

This post is specially for Alvin.

To further illustrate what I have taught last Sunday, I will use Ferro as an example. Lesson learnt, on where you might have gone wrong. But heck if Ferro tanks 20c intraday then maybe you would have escaped before I did.

You guys recall I employed a short term fibonacci projection for upside. Using the previous low, till the mid term resistance (major) at 1.04 where triple bottoms were seen previously. Note how each key fibonacci level coincide with the price movements. Fibonacci often becomes automatic support and resistances. I did say, look out for Ferrochina on  the upside @ 82c (interim upside target if the rebound is valid) where I feel profit taking will take place.

This chart is in detail. First you will have the 20 day Moving Average as the first resistance. Here is an example of how trading should be done (my style) and position sizing which I taught.

Assume the price is now 67.5c and you wanna go long. Identify the key resistances, which in this case I will use 82c based on fibonacci and candlesticks. Dowside risk is around 60c. This level is subjective. If you have a bigger risk appetite, you may have a cut loss at a break below the low itself at 45c. This represents a more than 20c downside. More risk than reward, it is a lousy trade. So I employ 60c. I also factor in a 5% whipsaw allowance so that I don’t get whipsawed out (minimises the chance) of an intraday price action. So if your whipsaw allowance is 5% (you can use whatever value you are comfortable with, but if the stock is volatile you got to cater more), then your cut loss point is 3cs below 60c, which is 57c. Good to note, this also happens to be the closing price of that candlestick. ie, if the price hits 56.5c, cut loss.

So to recap, if your buy price is 67.5c, your risk is 11c. Potential upside is 14.5c. It is an okay trade, but not an excellent one. Indicators are bullish though, as with many counters after last Friday’s action.

 For me, I covered my short position last Thursday at 57c and swung into a long with a reversal trade (I had 5 shorts, but I bought 20 long, so effectively I got 15 long positions). I could use the same cut loss point, or I may also take 45c thereabouts. It all depends on the trader.

So now let us go into position sizing. This is where Alvin got confused I think. Position sizing is different from whipsaw.

Suppose you have 100k capital. Your risk is rather medium, so say, it is 10%. 10% of 100k is 10k. Ie, you are willing to make a max loss of 10k on this trade (but of course you let profits ride!).

You are going to buy at 67.5c, with a risk of 11c. 11c is $110 per lot. 10 lots is $1100. You can probably buy around 90 lots for trading, with a max loss of 10k of  your capital. This is position sizing. You do not anyhow ‘hun tum’ a value in, cause your losses can get out of hand. Follow the rules, know where the points are, and what you stand to lose. BELIEVE me, if ferro does go against you and u gotta cut loss, it will be FAR easier for u to do so, than for someone who just hun tum x number of lots without doing position sizing. Most likely, the latter will be TA turn FA. Cuz the person did not prepare mentally for unrealised losses.

Do note, this is the worst case scenario. Now u are left with 90k. 10% of 90K is 9k. Note that as you keep losing, your risk automatically falls. With this way of position sizing, you can lose 20 trades in a row and you still will not be bankrupt. In fact, you can keep going virtually infinite number of times. This is how I take care of my possible losses, and let profits ride. More often than not, profits will be more than losses. I am able to say that this is achievable almost 99% of the time, but only if you know what you are doing.

Hope that answers some queries. Feel free to ask if there are further doubts. Remember, adjust the ranges to your own risk appetite. Position sizing is a must however. It is probably the only reliable way to minimise losses and maximise profits in my opinion. This, will also prevent people from going “TA turn FA”.

DJ Charles Ming says : Ahh finally something more upbeat. If you have been following, you’ll know I took this song right off my trip to Perth earlier in the year. For 2 weeks, I heard this track (amongst others) every single day, and when we were on our road trip we heard this probably 5 times a day I kid you not! What’s different between this one and the others is that this was love at first hearing. Contrary to their earlier track “Apologize” which has had tonnes of mixes,  I cannot imagine hearing this in a club though. As much as I dislike gigs and live performances, if I had to attend one, the genre would have to be rock, somewhat like the way this track does. You stand one your feet, full to the brim with alcohol and you yell and scream it out.

You may remember I used to love certain tracks in the club for it allows me to yell (where the blasting music drowns me out so I don’t feel too self-consious of my wild side). Stop and stare is a clear example of a shout and yell song that will allow me to spew everything (both good and bad) in me out. “A song to vent on” is probably how I will describe this track, not forgetting the many beautiful memories I took from Perth with a track like that accompanying me. Every holiday of mine has an accompanying song and believe it or not the last trip to Bangkok also had one.

It will be a long long time (if ever) before this track goes down on my rankings and I am gonna share it all with you here. Here’s the edited version of MTV for you. Sing along now!

Song lyrics | Stop And Stare lyrics

A follow up to a previous post. No one has guessed it right yet so here goes another clue!

I PASSED MY EXAM!!!! WOOOO HOOOOO!

Sadly not everyone I know did….

My baby’s gone on a holiday on a company trip… boo.. I miss my baby

But.. I think this is good for us.. Yes I think so. Hope you enjoy yourself! See u in a week..

Dearest Irene and Melvin, congratulations!

Irene and Melvin are 2 of my poly mates 10 years ago and my oh my, look at how time flies! These 2 have been dating since. They even hid it from us back then but it was easy to tell.. you see, Irene my part of my FYP team while Melvin was with another group but we all hung out one another and it tickled us to see, why the 2 of them would always wait for one another. And although the two of them were always together along with us, you can’t help feeling that ’something is brewing’..

Fast forward 8 years later, it is nice to see them finally married. It is interesting, and nice to see, actually while all of us have grown up and changed in our own way, we are still pretty much the same. We look the same, behave the same, sound the same and all. Melvin always has the bochup aura around him while Irene would go ’shou bu liao’ (cannot take it!)!.  Yes it is lovely to see the newly weds. Hopefully they don’t disappear now that they are married.. as many have, I noticed.

The wedding dinner was held last night at the Merchant Court ballroom. Anal as I am, I began looking for areas of improvement and areas where things were done well. Doors were to be opened at 7.30pm and people were flowing in from 7pm for cocktails. Unfortunately, it was just soft drinks which was flat. They were probably left out way too long, and it was unacceptable to my standards. As a pre-dinner cocktail ‘holding area’, it would be nice for some hors d’oeuvres for the guests. Although people tend to hang around chatting, I would have liked some music. Better still, a projector with flashes of the event details, a couple pictures of the couple and all. At least something for the guests to look at, and actually be reminded hey this is the couple’s wedding, thank you for waiting, doors will be opened soon but meantime here is the list of hors d’oeuvres specially chosen by the couple for the guests, and feel free to wave to the servers who will be carrying a tray of all the goodies. That would probably be somewhat my expectation of my own wedding reception…

Cause I found myself wandering around the hotel and if it weren’t for someone who was already there calling out to me I wouldn’t have known it was there. Looked like some private function.

Into the hall we went and we began chatting among ourselves and all while waiting for the rest to ’stroll’ in.. as usual. I gotta say most of the guests were in on time save for one or two. We had a video prepared by the video crew, showing the day’s events leading into the wedding dinner itself. A great job done in the very limited time cause Mel and Irene also took shots and video recordings at this very nice and quiet area in Seletar. It was all very sweet and I think the couple looked really good in the video, while I reckon the video guy did a great job filming and recording.

If I could add something to it, I would like some visual and audio stimulants for the waiting guests. It took a whole 1 hour before doors opened before the march-in could occur so there’s plenty to show actually. Shots of the couple since they were kids. I would love to have showed shots of the 2 growing up, all the way into poly where they met (go beg borrow steal from ex classmates for photos), leading all the way up the wedding day itself where the video begins rolling. I don’t think it is a good idea if everything went into the video for it will be too lengthy and you know, the attention span of humans on average is just 10 mins worth. Once video finishes, commence the march-in immediately. The idea is I would wanna take my guests through the journy since I was born all the way to the wedding day, and woah la, here we are in the flesh, marching in.

Good pick on the music by the couple. No cheesey wedding march for once. It was this nice song which I havent’ quite heard before (I guess that’s the point) but very symbolic of the couple. I think every couple should choose music that represents them, rather than the usual wedding march.

Overall, I think the food was quite good. Maybe cause I was hungry.. but I reckon the herbal chicken was done very well. Not overpowering in herbal taste (I personally don’t like it too strong) and the tenderness from the chicken was to my liking, rather than the usual way of double steaming it till the meat just falls off the bone. 8/10 for that. The steamed fish wasn’t too bad. Fresh, but a little overcooked I reckon. Fish is a bit tricky. First of all there are many ways of doing it, the teochew way, the cantonese way etc. Secondly, how long does it take for the fish to arrive at the table from the kitchen? I am quite particular cause fish gets cold very quickly. A nice fish has to be done right, else you don’t give a fresh fish enough justice! Most likely for myself, I would have substituted it with another dish. But you see, I am not so ‘traditional’ when it comes to the menu

The server’s march in for the first dish was unncessary to me. If one wanted to create a ‘wow’ impression, I reckon there are more innovative ways of doing it. I shan’t describe, else someone may copy my idea! In any case it should once again, the character of the couple should show in the presentation, from start to finish.

The end of the whole ceremony I feel, is often overlooked. I could sound anal again, but this is where I am particular too. What makes this wedding different from the rest? I mean hey, your guests gave big ang pows (hopefully!), won’t you want them to have a lasting impression of your wedding? 10 years down the road, you want them to go "ohh that wedding of so and so 10 years back I can still remember this and that, it was unforgettable". That is it, it should be unforgettable. The closing has to come with impact. Instead of people beginning to leave, and all of you stand in a row to shake hands with your guests as they all bid farewell. I don’t want guests to have the "I am tired and I got work tomorrow, it is just another wedding so it is time to go". I haven’t quite figured how to glamorise the exit still. But I will be working on it.

With every wedding I attend, I take back a few lessons.. what has changed, what hasn’t. What are routine procedures, which parts bore guests, and so on. Even if there has to be rounds of yum-seng, it has to be lively. The phototaking was very muted. Apart from being behind schedule (a problem I noticed in all weddings), the couple would have been very tired by then. You got 30 tables, u go round 30 times and smile 300 (1 time for each guest per table) times, your jaws will be screaming. And you wanna look good in the photos right? This area needs some adjustment. Personally, I wonder, who said the photos must all be done at once? Why not do half first, go ahead with the second change of dress and march in, before doing the other half. Something like that. At least the bride can take a rest from the heels!

You may be wondering, why do I appear so anal? Perhaps I have very high expectations (not necessarily deep pockets!) but a wedding is the one and only experience of a life time. Hopefully. I try to shake off all the negativity bout relationships and all but yes, a wedding is supposed to be memorable. I do not mind having a higher standard for just a little bit more. Would it cost a lot to have visual and audio etc..? Not really. These are minimum standards for me. If I had a deep pocket I would get married elsewhere, and fly everyone there too. If I HAD a REALLY deep pocket, I will cover accomodation too and I will do my best to ensure the entire experience, from the time they check in at Changi airport, till they pass through immigration on the way back would be a memorable one, in a good way of course. Unfortunately I do not see myself becoming a rich banker soon

The next wedding is my bestie’s wedding, in Nov. This time round I play one of the best man, and he has chosen Raffles hotel for the dinner. I have no idea what else he has planned for now. I have yet to get the suit done. I came across this young little boy.. looks very boy boy.. around 15 or so. I love his dressing. Very smart vest, very nice skinny tie. Too bad for someone of my size, it won’t go well. I need a nice coat, with a fat tie. The groom had a tie with a very interesting knot. Maybe I am a sua ku, but I haven’t really seen that kinda knot. hmmm… I like it!

My style I realise, aint really into the trendy and fasionable. I don’t really fancy it. I like smart looking outfits. That lil boy, with the vest and skinny tie and the whole outfit, I likeeee. I think he will grow up to be a fine young man. Too bad the weather here does not permit such a dress code around here.

Looking smart is attractive. I guess I carry that from my dad. Trendy and all.. well… I say, just leave it for the young kiddos. No offense to those who are into forever changing trends. I just feel, someday, as one gets older, one needs to quit changing diapers all the time and move on. You could be in those all the way till past 30 but the fact is, few will take you seriously.

CONGRATS to Melvin and Irene once again! It is very nice indeed to see a couple in love. So did you all have any energy to roll all over the money filled bed? I have said it for 8 years, but I suppose hopefully I don’t have to wait much longer, for some little melvins to pop out!

I came across this somewhere. This bloke has put it down from day 1 till it was all over. Some bits of it is quite hilarious actually. Here it is for sharing!-

It’s 3 45am. I can’t sleep. it’s 18 Jan 2008. Look up at the top of the page.
Joy to the world.
I’m going to ORD. ROD to be exact.

I was sent to the IMH,
i couldnt control my tears.
Why was this happening?
Where did it go wrong?
What did I do?
why me?
Questions that didn’t matter,
answers that never answered them.
I am alone, always will be.
It’s one thing to lose ur sight at birth,
another in childhoold,
the worst just before stepping into adulthood.
Whatever’s gonna happen to my family now?
Who will support them?
Am I to sell Tissue? Beg?
Let’s be realistic.
Who will employ me?
What about my future?
My dreams, my hopes, my ambition.
Who will love me?
I weeped.