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 was reading my bible today, and one of the passages was Joshua 24: 1-33. In verse 11 and 14 goes:
11 “When you crossed the Jordan River and came to Jericho, the men of Jericho fought against you, as did the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But I gave you victory over them. 12 And I sent terror[c] ahead of you to drive out the two kings of the Amorites. It was not your swords or bows that brought you victory. 13 I gave you land you had not worked on, and I gave you towns you did not build—the towns where you are now living. I gave you vineyards and olive groves for food, though you did not plant them.
14 “So fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone. 15 But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”
Wow…. how wonderful God is. He confirms again and again and again, to show that we’re in His will. We just prayed that prayer yesterday night as a family, to reaffirm our vow both Chris and I took in 1999 when we were married. “But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” Last night, we prayed it as a family….. with an addition of 3 more young lives whom we know God is touching daily.
Lord, you are out of this world.
I picked up a copy of “Facing the Giants” (another movie by the same makers of Flywheel) at HMV on my way home today, and we watched it as a family. The kids surprising sat through it (especially Elkan) as we explained along the way what was happening.
Then, at the end of the movie, we did something we’ve never done before as a family. We all knelt down and prayed as a family (The FIRST TIME!!!!) and committed ourselves as a family to God, and to do His work.
Thats not all. It seems, over the last few days, God seemed to be working in very mysterious ways with each and everyone of our family. The kids were literally evangelizing to their cousin, praying for healing for their cousin when he complained of a cut! Kyla and Ariel! I wouldn’t have believed it.
Then, God spoke to Christine in a very relevant way today through our finances. You know that she stopped work some months back to take care of the kids, and although as a family we have enough, sometimes we have an unexpected bill that makes us a little short. We were short of $350 for a bill this month as our funds were locked up in various places. She was worrying and thinking about where the money would come from and asked God for a sign to show her that staying home was the right thing to do, and lo and behold, today she got a mail from POSB informing her that she was getting her dividends for her investment on Friday. The sum? ….. you guessed it. S$350! And Just in Time!!!!
What an AMAZING God we serve. Since I’ve given the “car lot” back to Him, things aren’t really the same anymore. God, I’m just following your lead here. Take us where you want to go. 
My pastor passed me a movie called “Flywheel” a couple of weeks ago. Its a Christian movie that began its life really as a outreach movie for its own church activities by the movie makers. But, apparently, the movie took america by storm, and it was screened nationally. Its reach is also international, and I think some of the video stores are carrying it.
I had it, like for a couple of weeks now, but never got round to watching it. Today, after an excellent sermon in church, I felt God’s prompting that I had to watch the movie this afternoon.
The movie was about this used car salesman, who did all he could to get the best deals, selling his cars at dishonest prices, even to his own church pastor! But, God was all the while working in his life, and basically, the movie showed how he came round to surrendering to God all of his life, giving control of his used car business to God, and how God turned everything around in his life, from his family to his business.
You know…, I’ve forgotten how far I’ve drifted from God, and ceded my responsibilities as a servant, a spiritual leader of my household, a husband and a father. After the movie, I prayed and recommitted my life to God, and asked Him to take ownership of my “car lot”. Its His now. No longer mine. And… you know, I feel so clean and upright again before Him.
So, I pray that God will continue His good work in me and my family, and that we will be a blessing to all around us.
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.
With the kids slightly older now, Chris and I have started taking fortnightly dates on Saturday mornings. We leave the kids at my parent’s place, where they get to have lots of fun with their grandpa and grandma, and grandpa and grandma similarly gets to spend a couple hours of fun with the kids. Most of all, Chris and I get to spend some quality time together. 
Gosh…. I can’t remember when our last date was!
Anyways, early this morning, I was kinda stumped when trying to think of a nice cafe to go to for breakfast. We’ve hardly been out the last 7 years! Gosh! Luckily, I saw DD online, and asked him for some ideas. A couple came up, and I settled for the Green Room @ Aramsa Spas, conveniently located in Bishan Park 2. DD was there by the way… I’ll leave him to mention why he was there, if he chooses to. When there, we realised that the Green Room didn’t serve breakfast, but the adjoining cafe, Canopy did. So, we moved over.
It was a delightfully quiet bistro and cafe! So few people there, and the tables were spaced with so much walking space between them, the feeling was one of an un-claustrophobic charm. Apart from the service being a little slow (but we had no problems with that! We weren’t rushed for time) everything else was perfect!
The BLT sandwich was excellent, the double-shot Latte was incredible, the temperature was nice, chilly and just right for a nice quiet Saturday morning, and most of all the company was GREAT, and the reading material (Business Times, Straits Times, and a trading book by Toni Turner) was just the right catalyst.
After DD finished his meeting, he swung by, and we had a nice 30 min chat. It was really nice to catch up after so many months. The best thing was…we were sooooo relaxed…. I couldn’t remember the last time we had spent such a nice un-disturbed 3 hours together.
DD with Chris…. Yeah, we sat just outside the Wine celler. Went a bit green thinking about having wine early in the morning… but I passed.
Chris and I
DD…
