Thursday, August 27, 2015

What I did when the Market tanked

Looking at the title, this is obviously a trap to lure people to read things that has nothing to do with the title at all, So don't say I didn't warn you lol I was away from Singapore during the worst two days in Singapore's stock market history. As the world's stock market went tumbling down, I was sitting on a bed waiting for breakfast to be served. Do you ever have a feeling that the market always crashes when you're not around? It's like there's...

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Aspial 5.25% bond - Good buy or Goodbye?

Aspial, the group that is better known for the brands under the group: Lee Hwa jewellery, Gold heart, Citigems, as well as the pawnshop that litters all over neighborhoods in Singapore like a blue plague - Maxicash. They are offering a retail bond, one of the rare ones in Singapore, at an interest rate of 5.25% per year. The question on my mind is whether this is a good buy. Bonds being bonds, are capital guaranteed upon maturity. But the guarantee...

Wednesday, August 05, 2015

My personal inflation rate

Lizardo here did a very interesting take on the inflation rate in Singapore. He found that based on the official recent 35 yrs of history (1980 to 2015), the average inflation rate is about 2.22% (or CAGR of 1.97% pa) . A longer period from 1962 to 2015 gives an average inflation rate of 2.75%. I think the official figures might not mean much to you, because it depends on the price of a basket of goods that may or may not be relevant to you....

Monday, August 03, 2015

5 ways to avoid emotional capitulation

I know quite a lot of people are sitting on a huge pile of cash, waiting to be deployed into the stock market when the situation presents itself. I'm always very interested in the psychology of investors and how they intend to cope with the volatility of the market. It's really easy to rationalise and say you will cut loss when the counter goes below a certain level and you will buy in when others are fearful. It's even easier to say that when your...