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,...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More