Negotiate with your telco!

For those who are young, do take note that the faster you shed the world of your idealism, the better you'll be. I took 30 yrs or so to realise that the world is built on relationships. It's that simple. I give you a very recent example of how not to follow the rules.My gf wanted to get a new phone from a telco. Having convinced myself that life is truly negotiable, I told her to call them up and asked them to entice her to recontract under them...

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Details of brunch on Boxing day

Happy Christmas and a Merry new year!For those whose names are listed in the here, do take note of the following:1. Venue of the dim sum lunch is at Suntec city, Pearl River Palace. Pearl river palace is located at Suntec convention and exhibition centre, on level 3. If you take the escalator, you need to turn to the right and walk straight into this chinese restaurant.For those who have problems, do contact me at nine-four-three-five-eight-nine-three-zero.2. The time of the event is at 1130am, 26th Dec 2008, a Friday. The last order is at 1400,...

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The Joseph cycle - Simon Sim (2004 edition)

I happened to come across a copy of the famous book by Simon Sim - The Joseph Cycle (2004 edition) while browsing through the Singapore section of the national library. Much to my surprise, there are a lot of gems and treasures hidden among the singapore section, which I had always avoided till yesterday. There are old copies of company annual reports, industry and market analysis, accounting standards in singapore, local tax guide, local real estate...

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DBS rights issue

DBS halt trading early this morning and rumors are flying about as to what is the actual reasons for the trading halt. I thought that DBS will be settling the troubled bonds issue today, as the relevant authorities mentioned that an answer would be made at the end of this month. But that was not the reason for the trading halt. The real reason caught me a little by surprise.DBS announced that it is going to raise capital to the tune of SGD 4 bil...

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Thanking my lucky stars

Before we know it, we've flipped near to the end of the calender. As the end of this year ushers in the new year, I begin to reflect on all that had happened for this year. In summary, I would say that this is a very exceptional year for me, in terms of my career, investment philosophy and my personal growth.Here's a few things to be thankful of:1. I've survived my 2nd year in the stock market, with a few spots of 1st degree burns and a few amputated...

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A strange dream

Yesterday night, I had a very strange dream. I dreamt that a golden buddha was sitting under a banyan tree in one of Ho Bee's development - Dakota residences. A booming voice echoed around me and strange as it may seem, the voice sounds very familiar.I nearly pee-ed in my pants when the golden buddha opened his palms, as if to squeeze me like those shortists who had the impunity to short noble. The golden buddha smiled, the first time since I met...

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About this blog

La papillion is french for butterfly. This blog chronicles my journey from an amateur in the stock market to where I am today. Have I turned into a beautiful butterfly? I don't know, but I think my metamorphosis is still on-going now :)Well, the intention to start a blog so that years down the road, I can look back and see what I've learned along the journey. But in life, things seldom go accordingly to plans - and that's a good thing! Along the way, the chatbox - a central feature of this blog - grew into a nice community of like-minded people...

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The financial crisis and the shift from west to east

This is a speech by Stephen Green, group chairman of HSBC holdings, at the FT/DIFC World Financial Centres summit, dated 20th Oct, 2008. He makes a lot of sense all the time, so I think it's worthwhile listening to what he had to say about the world in general. It's a bit drawn out, but I assure you, there are lots of gems in it.Here's the actual link of this speech which I've cut and pasted here:---------------------------------------------------Good...

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Managing the Schrodinger's cat

I think there's a fundamental shift in my research techniques. After immersing myself in investing and all the literature on investments, I came to the realisation that numbers and ratios are not everything. What is? Management!Imagine out of your classmates in secondary school, you're supposed to pick one whom you think will have the greatest potential to be the most successful. Who do you pick? Do you pick the ones that perennially top the cohort?...

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New template!

After a number of complains on my blog regarding the old red/white/black template, I decided to overhaul the old one and usher in the new template. This will be the 2nd template change that I had for the year, even though it's damn tough changing it. Imagine changing the codes and keying in the widgets in again!The usual complaints for the old templates are:1. The contrast of the background and the words are not sharp enough. Hard for those with...

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Life is negotiable

It takes a few years to temper a youth's idealism, especially about the world at large. When I'm young and green, I thought that the world follows rules and that these rules are un-bendable and unyielding. How wrong was I! As I get more experience dealing with people and thinking how certain people gets certain favors without going through the usual route, I came to realisation that in life, most things are negotiable. You just have to dare ask...

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Why I'm less inclined to do book reviews

If you've been around my blog for some time, you'll have realised that I am giving less reviews of the books that I've read. To date, I've finished (my definition is to read from cover to cover) 44 books and is in the process of reading 2 more books. I'm aiming for 52 books by the end of this year and I think I should be able to hit them pretty comfortably.The reason why I didn't review books now is because after reading so many financial books,...

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Silly stubborness and Cannular conviction

What's the difference between stubbornness and conviction? I was linked to this thread in Wallstraits by musicwhiz, but it was during one of those walks, with the pettering and pattering of the rain hitting my umbrella that I thought a little more deeply about this.Let's give a scenario to this. I researched in company X and after months of research, I finally bought into company X at a price that I deemed attractive. The price of company X subsequently...

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Hongguo 3Q results

Hongguo released its 3Q08 results last Fri. It wasn't doing exceptionally well, but given the current state of matter, I think it's quite alright. Let's just do a quick one here.Here's my thoughts on the statements:1. Looking at the 3Q to 3Q results, revenue increased which is followed by an increase in both gross profit and net profit in absolute terms. However, gross and net margins fell slightly.The increase in revenues comes from the increase...

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Valuable Vicom

Long time ago, I mentioned about Vicom being a prime candidate for value at around $1.50, fully unaware that it will hit around $1.50 so soon this year. At the lowest, Vicom was trading at around $1.30 near end of Oct 2008. They just announced their 3Q results today.Here are the main ratios for Vicom over the last 9 months:--------------------------9M08------------9M07Gross margins--------28.8%-----------29.3%Net margins-----------23.0%-----------23.4%ROE...

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Bank Bubble Burst

This is a chart that shows the market cap before and after the sub prime crisis about a year ago. I think in a snapshot, we can see plainly who's the survivor and who's no...

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Save enough and not much more

You might have noticed that these days I've been sharing more on my private life. Some recent events made me re-think the way I look at things, which is important for me to write it out so that I can think through it clearly.I am a self-professed champion fighter of expenses. I do have trouble spending my money and have the soldier discipline to put aside my income to save. But recently, I've been thinking very hard about why I would want to accumulate...

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Trust me

Recently I'm not in a good mood.I was reflecting on the past mistakes that I had made in life. Not those little ones but the major ones - especially those that involve a considerable monetary loss. I realised that they all share some commonalities. I wanted to share this even though it's a little bordering on my private life, but I think the lessons are important enough so that those who read it will learn not to repeat it. I've been doing quite...

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Post dinner thoughts

The dinner on Halloween's night at vivocity is such a success; I wondered why we didn't had it earlier! Since I'm such an introvert, it's quite difficult for me to put aside my shyness and meet so many strangers at one time. But seriously, I'm very thankful that I did and very happy to have met all who attended - Lumiere, KK, Cookieguy, Cheng, Pepper.Special thanks to Dream and San for making things possible - and for the excellent wines and champagne!I...

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Surviving through lean times - Part 2

Having talked about how to cope with possible recessionary fallout by trimming expenses and boosting income in order to boost savings, here I'm going to share about how to prepare myself psychologically for it. I believe the psychology part of preparing for the recession could be much more important than just the material aspects. This is because the mind will cause us to feel about the same thing differently at different times. You know what I...

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Surviving through lean times - Part 1

Possibly facing my first recession since I started work 5-6 yrs ago, I think it's a good time to figure out how to tide over this rough period. Fail to plan, plan to fail, they say. I think I need to think about 2 aspects of coping with the possible recession - How to save more and how to cope with it psychologically. But for this post, I'll just focus more on the savings part. Maybe more on the psychology part at a more opportune time.How I'm going...

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Pantene Chrysalis

San introduced me to this short movie:It's really a short movie (4:03), and it's a million times better than most thai flicks i've seen, despite it's length. It's the blending of music and moving stills that creates such an emotive force within me that I get goose bumps every time I saw this. And I've watched it at least five times. There is really only one sound track in this short film, it's none other than Pachelbel's Canon in D. The movie blends in the touching parts of the film with the touching parts of the song, creating an emotive resonance...

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Superfriends meeting on 31st Oct 2008

For those who are regulars in my cbox, you would probably have known that on Friday, 31st October 2008, the Superfriends of Bullythebear will be having a dinner and dance party at Wood restaurant bar, Vivocity. Erm, dance is optional of course, but maybe we can all ask dream the golden buddha to do a little jiggle for us after a few glasses of wine. It's going to be held in a private function room at Woods, timing will be advised when it's nearer the event next week.I would like to confirm the attendees for the event. For those who had been invited,...

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Keep your style, fade your fashion

It's simply not fashionable to invest in debt-ridden companies now.Investment are like clothes. There are investments themes that come and go with the vicissitudes of fashion wear. From my short history of market experience, I already can see the different main fashion themes which are hot at different periods.In the bull market, there are many many themes. Sector rotation, I think that's what they call it. I used to pay attention to companies belonging...

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