Thursday, February 23, 2012

Complementary opposites

I realised, by living with my wife, that we have different ways of looking at things. She could fuss over details that I wouldn't bat my eyelids over. Or I could crunch over the numbers before buying things while she just looks at the colours available. I think that's the thing that makes us, as a couple, interesting. It would never do to have two person who are too similar. Wouldn't it be boring? Of course, we cannot be too 'interesting', otherwise we would argue at everything and anything and living together would be near impossible. I see this differences as being complimentary opposite.



I guess in the market, the two camps of TA (technical analysis) and FA (fundamental analysis) works the same too. They are different; they see different things and do different things. You can even say they are opposite, but I think they are complementary to each other. One just have to look at how successful AK applies his knowledge of both to his positions to know that it can be done. I guess each camp can learn a little from the other, if you keep your mind open and receptive to new ideas. It's really like two blind men trying to figure out how an elephant feels like by touching different parts of it - you are really only seeing one perspective of the bigger picture.



I think I did a post on this topic before. It's found here. Must be getting old and naggy.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Selling mode

Throughout the entirety of this week and last, I was trying to sell of a good part of my portfolio. I sold off all my aims before the run up and all my sabana and all my lippomall. Don't be alarmed by the word 'all' - it means different things to different people. I sold all because the amount that I had in it is not big in the first place, so it is senseless to try to earn that extra few dollars by staggering it into multiple sell batches.



As to seller's remorse, I believe it no longer plagues me. I conclude that it is essentially an emotional problem, you know, the twin forces of greed and fear. These days, I'm more emotionless regarding the market. Que sera sera, whatever will be will be, isn't that what the folk songs of old taught us so?



So what's the rationale for selling? It's just an old nagging feeling that something isn't right. I get more bearish as the market goes further up and gets more excited as it goes further down. I think that's the right kind of feeling to have, if you think about it. I can rationalise further by going into charts and all, but essentially that is just the carrots and potatoes that are served with the roast chicken. The main reason is that I don't feel good putting that much money into the market at this moment in time (I'm above 100% invested  - don't ask - before I sold off, if that's even possible). I think around 50 to 70% invested is more proper for me. But don't follow me, because if I change direction, I'm not liable to inform you and if the market rises up further, you're silly to blame it on me.



Do I always act on feelings? I think not always. But recently, I do. Newbies are not entitled to having feelings about the market, so maybe I shouldn't do that. But what am I? No longer a newbie? Or a newbie pretending not to be one? Nah, who cares....


Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Results announcement calender

Here's the result announcement for this month. I'll be paying attention to a few counters that are announcing their full year results. I wonder whether this is the thing that keeps STI awake these days and wondering what will become of STI when the excitement dies off.



Tuesday, February 07, 2012

The swan song of local bloggers

As the market transforms back and fro into a beast that is neither a bull or a bear (perhaps it had always been a hybrid chimera of sort - a bull with bear head for instance), I noticed that more and more old timer bloggers are slowly exiting the blogging scene. I say that with a tinge of heartache, because some of them had been blogging together with me since I started circa 2006 period, right near the peak of the bull market. 6 years had since passed, with each of them patiently and industrially churning out articles after articles, sometimes to an unappreciative crowd of anonymous users, and hopefully not blogging just to yourself.


I guess there's a time and tide for everything. As we grow older, a lot of activities will exact their demands on our energy and time. Suddenly passions that you once had might have gone uninteresting and unloved with the passing of time, but that's only natural, since new activities might also interest you more and you would willingly devote more of your resources on them. Like the market that we, the small group of local financial bloggers, discuss, poke at and debate relentlessly, the blog that we had painstakingly nurtured also has its own bearish and bullish cycles.


I'll try to keep this blog for as long as possible, but I do not guarantee a full premium cbox features in the future as these premium features requires me to pay for your enjoyment. But as avid readers and followers of this blog can see, I've reduced tremendously the amount of blog posts here because I simply cannot muster the energy and patience to blog about another market related stuff. I felt that I've done that and covered that many times in the blog's illustrious (hopefully) 6 years since 2006, so it's just a rehash and churning of stale ideas.


Walk with me, blog articles by articles, and we shall see where this road will lead us.