Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Exclaiming my disclaimer

As I was replying to the constant stream of people who are asking me questions on the DBS rights issue post, I suddenly thought of this: What if I'm doing more harm to them than good?

The comments and the questions kept on streaming day in and day out, and I just kept replying them. But somewhere in the 30th to 40th comments out of the present 68th comments, I reflected on the usefulness of it all. It's quite obvious from some of the questions that most people do not read the offer information statement (OIS) issued by DBS. There is a whole lot of information that pertains to almost any situations that anyone can think of, but somehow, perhaps the thick tome of the electronic bits and bytes (constiting of a total of 166 pages, mind you) does not make a leisurely read at all.

So why do I think I'm doing more harm than good?

1. I'll be breeding laziness. You know, it's so easy to ask questions, but to dig them out yourself is not all that easy. Just ask someone, it's infinitely easier.

2. I'm not an expert, so I might give information that to the best of my abilities is known to be the truth, but is in fact false. I mean I won't mislead others purposely, but to be frank, I didn't even read the whole of the OIS. I only read certain sections of it to find the information I needed to answer some of the questions. The rest is based on a mix of my past two experiences dealing with rights issue and common sense. What if I thought I was right but turned out to be wrong, and someone suffered financially because of it?




So for those who still have questions on the rights issue, do keep them coming. But mind this big disclaimer, I'm not a qualified advisor. Hey, if you win or lose money, I don't take responsibility lah, ok?

4 comments :

Anonymous said...

I have missed the deadline to subscribe for the 500 DBS rights using my CPF account. What can I do now?

la papillion said...

Hi Soo Guan,

I do not know if investing using CPF accounts have any difference, but I do know that the last date and time for the acceptance and payment for right shares is on 20 Jan 2009, 5pm.

This means that you can just go to ATM and accept the rights, pay for it, and even subscribe for excess if you wish. I do not know if using CPF accounts is any different from what I had just described.

You should call up their customer service hotline if you had queries. It's 1800-111-1111, it's available 24/7.

Anonymous said...

Hi la papillion,

Sorry I did not make myself cleaerer. I hold 1000 shares of DBS using CPF account. I checked the letter from by CPF investment account bank, and it mentioned that I have to return my acceptance letter to them by 5pm 14th Jan. So it seems I have missed the dateline for to use CPF acct. Just finding if there is anywa I call sell the rights or trade later the rights. If not, i have to consider a lost opportunity.
Thanks

la papillion said...

Hi Soo Guan,

Hmm, in that case, it might be too late. Still, there should be some numbers there to call, perhaps you can explain your situation to them and see if the rights you're holding can still be subscribed or sold off.

If really can't, then you'll have to take the 'loss'.