My Apistos spawned!!!!! Saw the fries swimming free with mummy this morning before we left the house. Will have to keep monitoring them for 3 days, and remove the adults in a couple of days. 
Wheeee!!!! I’m so happy….. Can’t get any pics now. The fires are too tiny.
I finally got meself a small 30cm(L)x18cm(B)x18cm(H) tank for my desk in the office. Have been thinking about it for days now! 
Just filled it up today with cycled water from home, 2 baby guppies and a pair of Pelvicachromis pulcher, or more commonly known as the Rainbow Krib. Its a more common cousin of the Pelvicachromis taeniatus, or Nigerian Red, which I really want. But the Nigerian Red is S$55 a pair, and I’ve decided to only get it for home. The Pelvicachromis pulcher on the other hand is only S$3.00 a pair. I’m hoping they settle in nicely and lay me some eggs!
Its been about just over a month since I started getting into the stock market. Have made just over a thousand, and more to come.
The journey has been very very fun, enriching and absolutely absorbing. I’ve learnt so much since March, and realise that there is so much more to learn. But, what I have started to realise, is that I’m starting to begin fashioning my own style in trading/investing/speculating.
There is really so much information out there, that one can literally drown if he/she tries to listen to everything.
For example, there are fundamental and technical ways to analyse a stock, micro economic and macro economic factors, intra-day trading, swing trading, value investing, swing trading, etc. I’m still streamlining my methods and style, but I’m happy to note that I’m settling on a style that I’m comfortable with. It’s different when you trade on paper and in real life. Don’t know how to fully describe except through an example.
I remember when I was in secondary school, sometimes I come back home after school and cook my own lunch. Most of the time, its maggi mee or something simple, but I remember there were a couple of times I went to the supermarket and picked out a whole chicken for roasting. The first time I used a knife to cut off the chicken’s feet, my mind went numb when I heard and felt the steel go through the bones and tendons of the dead chicken’s joints. urrgghh….. I felt like I had just murdered someone. But, the second and third time, it became easier and easier.
Same thing with live trading. My first trade with Macquarie Infra and Babcock & Brown, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I just put in the money after considering for ages whether I should do it or not. It was just 2 lots each, and they weren’t expensive stocks. Just about 80 cents I think. But…. I felt like I was putting down at stake, a million dollars! Good thing I came out of those trades relatively unscathed.
Even though its only been over a month, I’ve come quite a long way. I no longer have the stress and shakes when plonking money down for a good stock. My heart no longer beats irregularly nor skip beats. I guess a lot of it is also due to the confidence in knowing what to do, what to expect and the exit plans, etc.
Wah Lau.. today, the market is just a sea of RED.
This is my watch list of stocks in Singapore. Mostly index component stocks, but still cannot tahan the Dow’s drop. Good thing I saw the signs early, and got out of a pretty good stock. Made a small sum of just under 1k. Not too bad…..
I just went to check my imaginery stocks at Investopedia, and what do you know!
Its mostly turned green.
Whats the lesson here?
Make sure you choose fundamentally sound and good stocks, and ride through the volatility. Over the long term, your investments should appreciate.
Of course, theres a lot more complexity to the business of investing/trading. This is just one of the minor lessons.
I’ve always felt strongly about continuing education, but the type of education, and the timing for the right education is very important. Just the other day, I read about the disappointment of a man who had just completed his Executive MBA at a prestigious Business school, and had expected to command a huge salary jump in his next job. Alas…..he was brought back to reality that he didn’t really have the experience, and he eventually took a lower paying job than his previous job.
I’ve also always felt that the Executive MBA wasn’t the right education for me at this time in my career. Neither were technical certifications something which kept me excited. So…I’d rather spend time with my family!
But, recently, as some of you may know, I took the plunge into the business of learning more about the stock market, and seeing if this was the right thing to do. Well, I’ve reached a point where I’m convinced that this is something which I need to have good skills at, and it wasn’t going to be enough reading books and going through forums and learning from fellow investors/traders. So, I decided that I needed to learn from the best.
So, tonight, I begin my formal lessons with the previous Head of Technical Analysis of UBS Investment Bank. Not too cheap I might add, but something I felt absolutely necessary to pursue if I were to take this seriously. This is something I’d like to give my fullest attention to, since it is my goal to begin managing our own portfolio instead of getting our proxy wealth advisors to do it on our behalf. I’m also preparing for the future.
As expected, today’s stock market was on an express train downwards. The STI index shed 83.91 points and basically erasing the gains it etched last Friday before the Dow’s decline on Friday night.
My own Hong Kong blue chip stocks is down by 4%. 
I expect this week to be still in turmoil as there are a number of result announcements from banks and companies. In particular, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch. So… this is not for the faint hearted. Stay out.
I haven’t been monitoring my US portfolio on Investopedia since the last time I posted, but when GE announced a 12% off their 1st quarter earnings causing a crash of their stocks from about $37 to just $32.05 when the NYSE closed last Friday evening, which then caused a downward spiral of the Dow jones Industrial Index to close about 200 points downwards, I just had to go take a look at what the damage to my Investopeda portfolio was.
I’m now in the red! -$2.5k.
There was really any way to avoid this. An extremely jittery market reacting to a GE announcement which caught everyone by surprised. Chiefly because in GE’s boardroom announcement just a month before, GE’s earning’s were right on track. This meant that the reason for them not reaching their earning targets were caused within the the last few weeks. GE, with their large business across the american business landscape is seen by many as a barometer of how the US economy is faring. An already jittery market responded in a kneejerk fashion, and the result is an impact to the entire market.
This is not good at all. Sentiment is that the US is already in recession, and this is confirmed by GE’s announcement. All my investopedia stocks fell, even Apple Computer. I am of the opinion that this is not the end. There will be more to come. Although I am no economist, and still very much a greenhorn when it comes to the stock market, etc, I can tell that the state that the US economy is in; a Stagflation no less (Inflation - rising costs & prices; and Stagnation of the economy), is an extremely precarious position, and that the FED is close to being without any more ideas in solving it.
So….in my opinion, if you are not well versed in the market, you should get out of the market and stay out until a firmer picture is out. A further market crash could be on the cards.
I just checked stock the stock price for my portfolio again, and found that it has grown. Very nice feeling indeed.
Actually, the reason why I signed up with Investopedia, was because I recently learned a method for choosing stocks, and was trying to find out if my understanding of the method is correct. Because I couldn’t find (at that time) a simulation based on local Singapore stocks, I signed up with Investopedia. But, I found a local site yesterday, and will be channeling my energies to that as well as my own real life stock portfolio.
Unfortunately, I would have to give up this portfolio, as managing and monitoring stocks really takes up your time. Plus…. the US market only opens from 9:30pm onwards, and I’m really tired out by then. In any case, I am very happy my theory works. I picked a string of Singapore SGX stocks last night, and by the time the market closed, I was S$660 up. Very happy.
Will be putting the methods to work on my live portfolios soon. Cheers!
