My last trade of 2007 - 43 pips

Closing the year of 2007 in abundance, I closed (once again) my favourite currency pair GBP/USD with 43 pips. This is a trade totally done through PDA, opened and closed at Clementi MacDonald's.


GBP/USD - Long @ 1.9987, close @ 2.0030 (43 pips)

Baidu.com CFO Killed in Accident

Scary?!

Shawn Wang, the chief financial officer of Chinese Internet search-engine goliath Baidu.com, died in an accident over the weekend.

Kudos to Dato Yeat

I went to a Business Opportunity seminar about Blue Ocean Strategy. The 3rd speaker of the seminar is this Dato' Yeat Sew Chuong.

His speech is so inspirational as he shared about the Asian economy versus the Western economy. As we enter the 21st century, we are already in an economic world war. It's all about money, speed and distribution.

He claimed that having WTO is a world scam, where large international corporations have the big opportunity to expand the business worldwide easily (hence faster). As small companies (especially Asian companies), we must join hands, move fast and shall not engage ourselves in the red ocean.

With his interactions with the big boys at World Economic Forum and people like Joe Ma (Alibaba), his business and economical insights set him greatly apart from the typical speakers. He really brought my mindset to the next level with his philosophical and economical reasoning. It's no wonder why he awarded the World Youth Award a few years back.

S$5,000

I was talking to a long-time primary school asking me to help her invest S$5,000.

She regarded FD as low returns, but when I told her about trading and some high-yield investment returns (which is in the range of 100% to 300%) as quite 'impossible'. I found that people normally gave all sorts of excuses to part their money into investment, yet readily spent them off as christmas gifts and some de-stress excuses.

Back to the S$5,000, I didn't give her an investment mode in the end. But rather, I told her to understand her own financial situation. Before I can tell her the right investment medium, she has to know her risk profile, expected returns, required liquidity of funds etc. And don't go for free gifts (this is especially silly when we look at investment products offered by most banks).

As always, one size doesn't fit all. Same goes to investment! Only by understand your own financial status, then will you be able to plan your Financial Routemap accordingly. When the whole Financial Routemap is firmed up, you can then consider the ERP* with the concept of Capital Preservation Model in mind.

* ERP = Early Recruitment Plan


p/s: I will talk about the ERP and Capital Preservation Model soon.

My favourite GBP/USD - 15 pips

I entered into this trade on my PDA at Novena Square. Yup, it's my favourite forex pair GBP/USD.

GBP/USD - Long @ 1.9814, close @ 1.9829 (15 pips)

Merry X'mas to all

Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas and all the best (i.e. Make Money) in the New Year. Happy Holidays!

S'pore residential market is world's hottest this year

Straits Times reported this article today.



---
Dec 24, 2007

S'pore residential market is world's hottest this year
By Nicholas Fang

SINGAPORE'S booming housing market is the world's hottest this year, with local home prices recording the fastest increase.

Residential property prices in the Republic surged 24.3 per cent, after adjustments for inflation, ahead of other bullish markets such as Shanghai in China and Bulgaria, said property investment research house Global Property Guide.

In a report published online, the firm said Singapore's strong performance, like those of Japan and South Korea, was due to robust economic growth.

The survey was compiled using the latest official data from 42 countries, though other statistics were used for a few markets, such as Japan and the Philippines, where such figures were not available.

The latest Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) numbers used in the survey show that Singapore home prices registered a 27.6 per cent annual jump at the end of September, significantly higher than the 7.6 per cent posted a year ago.

This nominal, non-inflation adjusted figure was below the 30.6 per cent recorded by Bulgaria in September and the 27.9 per cent recorded by Shanghai in October.

But in real terms, after adjustments for low inflation of only 2.66 per cent, the Republic leapfrogged these two markets to reach the top spot, said the report.

Singapore's strong showing underscored a more general recovery in Asia, where several markets gained momentum in the first three quarters of the year.

Global Property said this reflected, to some extent, continued recovery from the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

In contrast, the United States housing market crashed due to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, while high interest rates were behind the slowdown in European house prices.

'In Europe, most countries registered unimpressive year-on-year house price changes in 2007, aside from Norway and Estonia,' the report said.

Looking to the year ahead, Global Property said property prices in much of Asia are still undervalued compared with pre-Asian crisis levels, despite strong increases this year.
It expects potential improvement in rentals in Singapore.

'We believe gross rental yields are now too low, at 2 to 3 per cent.

'Nevertheless, Singapore is attracting and admitting more foreign-born workers - which is positive for prices,' it said.

Elsewhere in the region, Global Property also recommended Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, Australia and New Zealand to property investors.

It, however, cautioned against investing in Europe, apart from a handful of Eastern European states, because of high valuations after a long period of price appreciation.

In the Middle East, it found Egypt attractive for its high rental yields and low taxes, but warned of a possible oversupply in Dubai as more properties come on stream over the next two years.

---

I'm living in hottest residential market in the world!

Young and pretty lady wishes to marry a rich guy. Fantastic reply from a financial person

Since there isn't much trading over the weekend and I just received this email story from a friends, I would like to share with everyone on this:

--
A young and pretty lady posted this on a popular forum:

Title: What should I do to marry a rich guy?
I'm going to be honest of what I'm going to say here. I'm 25 this year. I'm very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above. You might say that I'm greedy, but an annual salary of $1M is considered only as middle class in New York. My requirement is not high. Is there anyone in this forum who has an income of $500k annual salary? Are you all married? I wanted to ask: what should I do to marry rich persons like you? Among those I've dated, the richest is $250k annual income, and it seems that this is my upper limit. If someone is going to move into high cost residential area on the west of New York City Garden (?), $250k annual income is not enough.

I'm here humbly to ask a few questions:
1) Where do most rich bachelors hang out? (Please list down the names and addresses of bars, restaurant, gym)
2) Which age group should I target?
3) Why most wives of the riches is only average-looking? I've met a few girls who doesn't have looks and are not interesting, but they are able to marry rich guys
4) How do you decide who can be your wife, and who can only be your girlfriend? (my target now is to get married)

Ms. Pretty

Here's a reply from a Wall Street Financial guy:
Dear Ms. Pretty, I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours. Please allow me to analyze your situation as a professional investor. My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I'm not wasting time here.

From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you. The answer is very simple, so let me explain. Put the details aside, what you're trying to do is an exchange of "beauty" and "money": Person Aprovides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square. However,there's a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason. The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can't be prettier year after year. Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It's not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worried 10 years later.

By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a "trading position". If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term – same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will besold or "leased". Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income. This has better chance than finding a rich fool.Hope this reply helps. If you are interested in "leasing" services, do contact me.

signed,
Banker

--

Interesting, huh!

3 FX wins - 56 pips in total

Yesterday night, I didn't manage to wake up to play gapping my favourite ticker (RIMM). RIMM shot up almost $15 after another fabulous quarter.

I compensated myself with 3 winning forex trades:

1. USD/CHF - Short @ 1.1559, close @ 1.1551 (8 pips)

2. EUR/USD - Long @ 1.4361, close @ 1.4380 (19 pips)

3. GBP/USD - Long @ 1.9835, close @ 1.9863 (28 pips)

Money Management

An short and GOOD article on Money Management from traders.com.

I have been trying to find an article that talks about the right money management mindset, in the hope to remind many many many of my trading friends (and those who are going to join some trading courses in hope to make big bucks).

In my many years of trading, I realised sometimes the trading strategies is not the core of profitable trading. In fact, there is no trading strategy that works 100% (except it wins more and loses less).

Personally, I used to have a strategy that works monthly (and I assume it's 100% in the 'infant' stage of trading). That strategy works so well consecutively for 3 months, and everytime it gave a returns of 30% to 70% per trade. And every month, I used all my capitals (that capital belongs to my family account) to compound all I had. We started with US$10K that time and truly went up after 3 months. But on the 4th month, i lost everything as the strategy failed. And the account was left with US$137. This was the result of poor money management. And I'm the living testimonial of such a disaster.

1. Always look for strategies that works more than 60% of the time (ya, there is no 100% working trading strategy thus far), so those trading gurus (or should I say training gurus) mentioned blah blah blah blah blah blah, please take note.


2. Always consider if there is a predetermined profit take (PT) and stop loss (SL). I've been trading options with no predetermined PT and SL all these way.

If there is, ask about the magnitude of PT and SL. If the PT is less than SL, that's means you lose more. On the other hand, this means you always look for a PT that is more than SL. A rule of thumb: Look for PT > 150% SL (this means that you even breakeven when you lose 3 times and win 2 times), e.g. PT = 30 ticks/pips and SL = 20 ticks/pips.


3. Use less than 15% of your capital. If possible, use as low as 5%. This ensures you will not be 'emotionally' hurt when you lose. And you will not lose that much when you have consecutive loses.


4. It's ok to have a losing month once in a while. Actually, most successful trading strategies or systems tend to have an average of 2 losing months (within 1 years), based on my research.


It's your money, do take care of them!

New PDA trade - 25 pips

This is one trade I did on new PDA at International Plaza with very small lot size - basically 5 cents per pips.

GBP/USD - 25 pips

Sell @ 2.0425 & Close position @ 2.0400

Total Profit = US$1.25 (yup, it's only one dollar twenty-five cents only).

FOMC Announcement Preview

Extracted from Briefing.com at 13:19 ET

---
FOMC Announcement Preview
The FOMC announcement will be made at 2:15pm ET with the current Fed probability rate standing at a 67.8% chance of a 25 bps cut (57.5% a week ago), a 30.1% chance of a 50 bps cut (29.7% a week ago), and unchanged at 2.1% (5.1% a week ago). Recall last time the Fed met in late October, they eased the funds policy rate to 4.5% (KC Fed pres Hoenig dissented against the committee's decision in favor of no ease) and left a neutral bias in the policy statement. The Fed speak held to the party line until approx three weeks ago when Fed Chairman Bernanke and Vice Chair Kohn stoked expectations for an ease as they stated liquidity problems in the credit market and their drag on housing already in recession add to risks tied to high energy prices, plunging confidence and the weaker economy expectations. The market was unofficially warned that December easing was possible. Its now been taken as a given. In Briefing.com's opinion the Fed will do a 25 bps cut, leaving a larger 50 bp on the table in case a larger financial/economic stumble/crash were to occur. The Fed has other tools at their disposal to use in the meantime. The wording of the statement can allude to another or even larger ease if conditions worsen and thereby provide the same market effect. To free up liquidity the Fed could ease the discount rate a larger 50 bp and still keep a positive (25 bp) spread to funds. By keeping a penalty spread to funds the Fed maintains more control over the amount of reserves pushed into the banking system. The increased generosity in discount borrowing would also help support the strong year end liquidity demand required to dress up year end corporate balance sheets. The NY Fed recently lengthened RP terms over year-end and loosened the terms of securities lending. The Fed could do the same for discount borrowing by lengthening the 1 month term set in August to say 3 months. Other changes may mimic those used by foreign central banks including the range of collateral accepted. There's room for creativity but simplicity has its advantages... Briefing Expectations: On September 18 after a 0.5% cut in the Fed funds target, the S&P surged 43 points. On October 31 after a 0.25% cut in the fed funds target, the S&P gained 18 points. The market has rallied more in advance of the announcement this time compared to the two previous occasions, however, so a subsequent rally of similar proportions is a long shot. There is even a chance that some "sell the news" reaction occurs following the announcement. The stock market has had a good run on recent economic data which have reduced the worst fears for the economy, and on the belief that within months the worst of the subprime mess may be over. There is still the problem of a likely sluggish economy and weak earnings growth in 2008, however. Markets and futures have been trading in a fairly tight range today ahead of the announcement.

---

Take caution on "The market has rallied more in advance of the announcement this time compared to the two previous occasions, however, so a subsequent rally of similar proportions is a long shot. There is even a chance that some "sell the news" reaction occurs following the announcement."

Nothing is certain!

ACME MADE Festive Sale!

It’s the season to be merry yet again! ACME MADE special festive sale is now on till Jan 2008!

It's about time you pamper yourself and your loved ones this season with an ACME MADE.

Payroll Time!

Yesterday, Payroll data rolled in before the market opened, reflecting a better-than-expected jump as the economy added 94,000 jobs in November. The data had many investors asking, what does the payroll data mean for the Fed?

When the closing bell sounded, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA – 13,625.6) tacked on nearly 6 points, a paltry gain of 0.4% for the session. Despite a scant gain for the day, the Dow added 1.9% for the week. To end this week on a positive note, the Dow overtook its 10-week and 20-week trendlines for the first time since the end of October.

The uneven stock market yesterday didn't provide good opportunity to trade options, but the payroll data did offer a good spike up for the forex players! It's good to be a options and forex trader at the same time.

Traders Cafe

I was discussing with some friends that how good will it be if we can have a traders cafe, where we can come together to trade together. As most of you should know, trading is BORING. So, it will be so nice where traders can come together and trade together. Hopefully it can open 24 hours and we can trade the US and FX market together!

15% equity increase on a new FX platform (2 days)

I just setup a new forex account with Interbank FX (yes, no more Interactive Brokers).

With US$310, there is an equity increase of 15% within these 2 days.

p/s: If you see why there is zero profit for some columns, it's because i'm not familiar to the platform and mis-clicked a couple of trades (but I waited till the spreads were closed up).

p/p/s: I made a 45 pips (+3 pips) on USD/JPY too!

2 wins on a single ticker (CRDN)

Been trading forex and backtesting all these while, it's been a long time since I traded options. My last options trade was a $8 win (after comm.) on Citigroup (C) last Monday (19 Nov).

Today, I went in CRDN at 2 separate occassions on a single ticker and scored 2 wins.

CERADYNE (CRDN)
Straight ITM Dec-07 50 Call
(Personal Account) Entry 3.10 Exit 3.40 (9.7% profit within 70 minutes)
(Managed Account) Entry 3.20 Exit 3.40 (6.3% profit within 90 minutes)
My compelling reason to trade: CDRN is upgraded to Buy and target raises to $73!
Day trade based on TCT

Another IB complaint!!!

My friend called me and complained about Interactive Brokers trading Forex!!!

Her stop loss 50 pips was not executed and the loss now is already 130 pips.

Please take note, forex traders!!!

What you see on IB is not what you get!!

Options traders, who also trade forex on Interactive Brokers, take note:
- What you see is not what you get.
- What you see is not even close to what you get.

I just closed a USD/CHF Long position at market price 1.1026 when the display bid price is 1.1050. I entered at 1.1012 yesterday. My 38 pips became 14 pips only.

And also, I just entered Short into USD/JPY few minutes ago, and the bid price is 108.42. I set limit to 108.44 (knowing the discrepancies) and it got executed only at 108.49. 5 pips loss before anything start!

Another Mastercard win!

Yesterday's market started off positively but it turned quite volatile - up and down for first 2 to 3 hours, and then plunge more than 270 points (for DJIA) southwards.

I was fortunate to exit early (because I'm tired and wanted to sleep early) on Mastercard (MA) yesterday, making $8 (after $2 commission in-and-out) - ya, it's only $8.

My new company

A short intro and advertising for my new trading and investment company.

My new company sources and evaluates consistent exceptional investment opportunities, an area traditionally reserved for the wealthy, to individuals. With a unique propriety investment plan customized for every individual, The Financial Routemap is a personalised financial blueprint by combining trading, property and mutiple sources of passive income streams for individuals to reach their financial goals in a shorter possible time.

Millionaire Mind Intensive (SG) - Day 2 & 3

More key concepts from the MMI to share:
1. 'The key to success us is to raise your own energy. When you do, people will naturally be attracted to you. And when they show up, bill 'em." - Stuart Wilde

2. Nothing has meaning except for the meaning you give it.

3. Daily VAKS: Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic & Spirit

4. 4 reasons to be rich: Lifestyle, Contribution, For who you have to become in character, mindset and habit, Getting rich is proportionate to the problems you solve and the value you add to other people's lives.

5. E-motion = Energy in motion

6. Success breeds success.

7. Definition of Fear: Anticipation of Fear

8. The true warrior can tame the cobra of fear. The secret of success is to learn to act in spite of fear.


My Money Associations (at the end of Day 3)
1. Money is... in all our hands.
2. Money is... celebration.
3. Money is... able to do wonders and miracles to our lives and the lives beside us.
4. Wealth is... something that we can share.
5. Wealth is... accumulative.
6. Rich people are... very clear of what they want.
7. Rich people are... the ones who buy dinner!

Millionaire Mind Intensive (SG) - Day 1

Just want to share what I've learnt today... Some key concepts include:

1. Your money zone is your comfort zone. To expand your money zone, you have to change your mindset to win the money game.

2. FINANCIAL FREEDOM
= Working Income + Savings + Investments + Passive Income + Simplify

3. Separate your income into different accounts for specific purposes

4. Always Pay Yourself First. Our part-time business is managing and investing money, and creating passive income streams.

5. Do a declaration by touching your heart (or chest) and point to your head and say 'I have a millionaire mind'!

6. Your Physical world is a printout of your Mental, Emotional and Spirtual World. So, to permanently change your outer world is to first change your inner world.

7. The Process of Manifestion:
Thoughts -> Feelings -> Actions = Results

8. 3 methods of Conditioning:
Verbal Programming, Modelling & Specific Incidents

9. Motivation for money should be based on purpose and joy vs. fear, anger or proving yourself.

10. 'I rule money, money doesn't rule me.'

11. 3 steps to change:
Awareness, Understanding & Reconditioning

Finally, How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything!

21 pips on Thanksgiving Day!

Today the US market is closed for Thanksgiving Day. And I have not been trading for a couple of days because of a couple of reasons.

I went JB Jusco to learn how to create Flash on tuesday evening. Then when I was happily back from dinner and learning Flash, I was caught up in a minor road accident. I ran up a kerb at high speed and the whole car bottom was severly damaged. Thus, I was busy running to Toyota and LTA for inspection and application etc etc.

Anyway, this is one trade on my favourite GBP/USD currency pair. Result is not as fabulous as before, probably because the US market is not open. Anyway, it's 21 pips!

Trading Thoughts from Joe Ross

I just read an article from Joe Ross. He is a REAL trader, author and trading educatormore than 48+ years in position trading of shares, and futures. He daytrades stock indices, currencies, and forex. He trades futures spreads and options on futures, and has written books about it all - 12 to be exact. Joe is the discoverer of The Law of Charts™, and is famous for the Ross hook™ and the Traders Trick Entry™.

----

His article includes 36 thoughts; but I have extracted some really good ones below:

2. Always determine a stop and a profit objective before entering a trade. Place stops based on market information, not your account balance. If a "proper" stop is too expensive, don't do the trade.

3. Remember the "power of a position." Never make a market judgment when you have a position.

4. Your decision to exit a trade means you perceive changing circumstances. Don't suddenly think you can pick a price, exit at the market. The Market Has Character.

6. There are times, because of lack of liquidity, or excessive volatility, when you should not trade.

8. There are at least three types of markets: up trending, range bound, and down. Have different trading strategies for each.

9. Up market and down market patterns are ALWAYS present, merely one is more dominant. In an up market, for example, it is very easy to take sell signal after sell signal, only to be stopped out time and again. Select trades with the trend.

10. A buy signal that fails is a sell signal. A sell signal that fails is a buy signal.

11. It's always easier to enter a losing trade.

13. You are superstitious; don't trade if something bothers you.

16. Read today's paper tomorrow. When you read yesterday's paper each day with the knowledge of what the market already did, you will affirm that this mornings paper with yesterday's news has nothing to do with today's market.

22. Confidence kills. Remember, you really don't know anything. Respect the market every second of every day. Expect the unexpected. Always know your position and exit your trade immediately whenever you feel uneasy.

25. Don't stop trading when your on a winning streak. "When your hot, your hot."

35. When you make a mistake of discipline, whine like a fool to anyone that will listen. Errors in discipline are mistakes you will keep on making for many years. Wearing ashes and sack cloth may help extend the time before you do it again.

36. If you squirmed and moaned while you read this list, then you share two obvious characteristics with many of us:

A. You have traded long enough to recognize that you (not the market) make mistakes, and you try to overcome them.

B. Now this is ugly, you have become part of the market and you can never leave. No matter where life takes you, you will always check the market and always want to continue being a part of it. It's like that first true love, it will always be there no matter what the distance, no matter whether they are alive or dead.

----

Some ideas are so bluntly simple, and yet traders around the world just don't see it.

Highly Volatile Markets

The market is too volatile over the past 2 weeks. Typically, traders and investors alike see market going up one day and trending down the other and call it a volatile.

To me, a volatile market is where the market is going up and down within the same day, just like this:

You can definitely profit from market like this, but the probablilty is lower. Whatever 'sensitive' news is brought to the table, who knows how the market will react. Stay out of the market like this. Take note of the market and take profits!

65 pips on GBP/USD

Another 65pips on my favourite GBP/USD today within 3.5 hours!

p/s: Been busy preparing for my new venture these few days. I'll reveal more along the way!

200 pips already in GBP/USD

It's more than 200 pips already (more than 4x last record of 48 pips). Yeah!

More than 180 pips in GBP/USD

My GBP/USD position is still open since yesterday morning 10am. Current unrealised profit is more than 180 pips (already 3x my personal pip record for my forex trades!!!). Think I will be holding for another half to one day...

16 pips within 16 minutes!!

EUR/USD
Enter at 2.41pm: Long @ 1.4584
Exit at 2.56pm: 1.4602

16 Winning Pips within 16 minutes!!



p/s: Anyway, I'm still holding another GBP/USD position from 10am till now.

M&A in a volatile market

The market was very volatile yesterday. It started slightly in the red, then green a bit, and then red again. By mid-day, Dow Jones was up more than 100 points. But, DJIA finally gave up the gains (ended 55 points compared to Friday close) and break through its 13,000 support level!

Anyway, the trades were all about IBM acquiring COGN for $5 billion. Typically (but not always) the acquired company will gain in stock value and the acquiring company will lose a bit. But apparently, acquiring COGN will bring in great values and investors see this and shoot up IBM stock price.

Another good example of a 'win-win' M&A (merger & acquisition) is the recent BHP Billiton (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RTP) one!

COGNOS (COGN)
Straight ITM Nov-07 52.5 Call
Entry 2,25 Exit 2.50 (11% profit)
Day trade based on TCT

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE (IBM)
Straight ITM Nov-07 100 Call
Entry 4.00 Exit 4.50 (12.5% profit)
Day trade based on my 'revised' TCT

Anyway, I lost US$700 (for 2 contracts) on my personal account for GOOGLE (GOOG), since it dropped more than 100 points over the past few days. Fortunately, I don't trade stocks (otherwise, 2 lots x 100 points loss = $20,000!!!).

Options Trading Championship 2007

Take a look at the CNBC report on the OTC2007 (yup, the one my team got 2nd!). You can also see our team photos at http://www.freely.com/options-trading-championship.html.

p/s: You can see me at -1:45 frame. Haha.

New RSS thingy!

I realised there is really a lot of stuffs in the blogging world. I have just added a RSS reader for people who want to stay updated with my postings.

Just click the orange button to subscribe by the side of this blog (below my photo) will do. Technology really connects!

Winning Tuesday!

The night started red yesterday. I closed a position in the red for VRTX. But the market 'greened' up for me after that.

I had my first position in my managed account.

MASTERCARD (MA)
Straight ITM Nov-07 195 Call
Entry 6.30 x 2 & 5.20 x 1 Exit 7.20 x 3 (23% profit)
Day trade

But after that, I can't day trade in my managed account and thus, I traded on my own account as I see many opportunities in the market.

FIRST SOLAR (FSLR)
Straight ITM Nov-07 165 Call
Entry 10.80 Exit 11.80 (9.3% profit)
Day trade

MASTERCARD (MA)
Straight ITM Nov-07 200 Call
Entry 6.00 Exit 7.60 (26.6% profit)
Day trade

VALERO ENERGY (VLO)
Straight OTM Nov-07 72.5 Call
Entry 1.60 Exit 1.80 (12.5% profit)
Day trade

FOREST OIL (FST)
Straight OTM Nov-07 50 Call
Entry 1.50 Exit 1.65 (10% profit)
Day trade
This trade was exited on preset limit price, coz I was too tired to stay the night.

Written in KL

I'm away in Kuala Lumpur for the weekend since last Friday for the Money Mastery course in Palace of the Golden Horses.

We did a lot of things: one of which was to 'Go For Broke' and they dumped us at KLCC. We have absolutely nothing (except being dressed in business wear) with no ID, no cash, no watch, or simply means that we have nothing to even pawn.

Not trading these few days.


p/s: I will be back in Singapore on Tuesday evening!

Fed's another 1/4 rate cut

Just 3 hours ago, the Fed announced another quarter percent rate cut and here's 2 opportunities well-captured!

Goldman Sachs (GS)
Straight OTM Nov-07 80 Puts
Entry 5.20 Exit 6.40 (23% profit)

Long EUR/USD
Opened @ 1.4465
Closed @ 1.4495
PnL: 20pips

Today's Trade

CARDINAL HEALTH (CAH)
Straight ITM Nov-07 65 Call
Entry 2.45 Exit 2.75 (12.2% profit)

WEYERHAEUSER (WY)
Straight ITM Nov-07 70 Call
Entry 4.20 Exit 4.80 (14.3% profit)

Both are Day trades today (29-Oct) based on TCT!


p/s: I'm still longing POLO RALPH LAUREN (RL) and EUR/USD (for almost 10 hours already!) now.

OTC2007 Billionaires

I participated in the Options Trading Championship 2007 on 17 to 19 Oct 2007. And my group, Billionaires, won the 2nd place in the group category!

p/s: In case you are thinking what we won, we won a not-so-great thumbdrive from BOX (Boston Options Exchange). Disappointed!!

After a $20+ gap for a $100 stock...

Decker Outdoors (DECK)
Straight ITM Nov-07 140 Call
Entry 8.30 Exit 9.50 (14.5% profit)
Day trade on Friday 26-Oct based on TCT

p/s: DECK gapped up more than $20+ after beating earnings by 20+ cents.

My $9.50 Win on EUR/USD

Long EUR/USD
Opened @ 1.4369 x 20,000 & 1.43685 x 20,000
Closed @ 1.4373 x 40,000
PnL: 4.5pips & 4pips
Based on FxTM

My first Forex trade on IB

Earlier today, I started to trade forex on IB. This is my first result!

Long GBP/USD
Opened @2.0485, 2.0484 & 2.0477

Closed @ 2.0513, 2.0508 & 2.0512
PnL: 28pips, 24pips & 35pips

Based on FxTM

Trade after that 2 days..

Recently, I traded rather intensively.

C.R. Bard (BCR)
Bull Call Spread Nov-07 80/85 Calls
Entry 3.20 Exit 1.60 (50% loss)
Earning trade on 23/24 Oct

CME Group (CME)
Bull Call Spread Nov-07 630/640 Calls
Entry 4.80 Exit 7.00 (44% profit)
Earning trade on 23/24 Oct

Amazon.com (AMZN)
Bull Call Spread Nov-07 100/105 Calls
Entry 1.35 Exit 0.20 (85% loss)
Earning trade on 23/24 Oct

National Oilwell Varco (NOV)
Bull Call Spread Nov-07 75/77.5 Calls
Entry 1.00 Exit 2.35 (135% profit)
Earning trade on 23/24 Oct

BHP Billiton (BHP)
Straight OTM Nov-07 80 Puts
Entry 2.925 Exit 3.60 (23% profit)
Day trade on Wednesday 24-Oct based on TCT

Illumina (ILMN)
Straight ITM Nov-07 60 Put
Entry 3.40 Exit 4.10 (20% profit)
Day trade on Wednesday 24-Oct based on TCT

Merrill Lynch & Co (MER)
Straight ITM Nov-07 65 Call
Entry 2.45 Exit 2.20 (10% loss)
Blue Box on Briefing.com

VMWare (VMW) -1
Straight OTM Nov-07 110 Call
Entry 8.40 Exit 9.50 (13% profit)
Pre-Earning / Earning trade on 24/25 Oct

VMWare (VMW) -2
Bull Call Spread Nov-07 105/110 Calls
Entry 2.30 Exit 3.80 (61% profit)
Earning trade on 24/25 Oct

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE)
Bull Call Spread Nov-07 175/180 Calls
Entry 2.40 Exit 1.20 (50% loss)
Earning trade on 24/25 Oct

VMWare (VMW) -3
Straight OTM Nov-07 115 Call
Entry 6.10 Exit 6.70 (10% profit)
Day trade on Thursday 25-Oct based on TCT

Apache (APA)
Straight OTM Nov-07 95 Call
Entry 2.425 Exit 2.35 (3% loss)
Day trade on Thursday 25-Oct based on TCT

Wellcare HealthPlans (WCG)
Straight OTM Nov-07 90 Call
Entry 0.60 Exit 0.75 (25% loss)
Blue Box on Briefing.com


Ya, you can see that the (briefing.com) blue box may not always turn out profitable trades!

I'm taking a break today... No trading!!!

Trades these 2 days

Small Wins

RCL (Royal Caribbeans Cruises)
Straight ITM Nov-07 40 Call
BTO 2.50 STC 3.20 (28% profit)
Day trade on Monday 22-Oct based on TCT

AAPL (Apple)
Bull Call Spread Dec-07 175/185 Call
Entry 3.75 Exit 7.30 (95% profit)
Earning trade on 22/23 Oct

OXPS (optionsXpress)
Straight ITM Nov-07 27.5 Call
BTO 1.10 STC 1.10 (No win no loss)
Earning trade on 22/23 Oct

MT (Arcelor Mittal)
Straight OTM Nov-07 80 Call
BTO 2.70 STC 2.90 (7.4% profit)
Day trade on Tuesday 23-Oct based on TCT

FCX (Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold)
Straight ITM Nov-07 110 Call
BTO 5.95 STC 6.20 (4.2% profit)
Day trade on Tuesday 23-Oct based on TCT

I just long into AMZN, BCR, CME and NOV today!

MIA for a week!

Have been MIA for a week for a couple of reasons:

1. I'd been very very busy with ACME MADE and iLuv.
2. I was in Options Trading Championship for the nites of Wednesday to Friday, trading real cash. Make 2% profit on a Dow Down Week!
3. Lose quite a bit of money on my family account, so really not in the mood to do any posting!

Will be back soon!


p/s: Anyway, I profited quite a lot from ISRG (132%, 1 day), NOK (47%, 1 day), STLD (64%, 30-minutes) and NE (68%, 1 day) last week too!

13 Retirement Myths

I realised the CNNMoney.com Retire Rich series will have this type of retirement (with money) articles every now and then.

Take a look at this article under CNNMoney.com Retire Rich. Personally, I totally agreed with some of the myths as mentioned:

#3 - Everyone has debt
#4 - A million dollars will cover you
#5 - Boomers will crash the market
#6 - Without a pension, you're doomed

After reading this article, I MUST have many many millions and MUST not have debt. I won't need any pension (or CPF) and even when the market crash, I can trade PUT options to win the market!

Market Crash

Did anyone know what happened to the stock market? Based on briefing.com In Play, this is what this was reported at 14:38 ET:

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Floor Talk: This afternoon's abrupt sell-off

The markets rolled over about a half hour ago, with the decline notable for the sharp sell-off in big-cap technology stocks. While there was some initial confusion as to whether something specific sparked it, it appears the following things could account for it: 1) a tier-1 firm came out with cautious intraday comments on the tech sector; 2) a different tier-1 firm came out negative on BIDU, which took down a host of momentum tech stocks; and 3) ECB governor Weber stated that, although the ECB had temporarily paused its rate hikes, in his opinion the ECB may need to raise rates to a "restrictive" level... Dow lost over 100 points in a half hour, Nasdaq lost over 30 points.

---

Baidu dived from 359 to 301, luckily I'm not in this. So did many technology stocks (like GOOG, RIMM, AAPL, ISRG, etc etc) and investment stocks (like GS etc). Look at the index chart below and focus at the 'dive' portion from 2pm ET onwards.

But, I'm into a spread yesterday for S&P 500 (SPX). S&P 500 dived from 1,576 to 1,546 and I'm into this with the weekly options 1,555/1,570 Bull Put Spread. My maximum loss was supposed to be $6,600 and I converted it to a Iron Condor by having another 1,555/1,570 Bear Call Spread to offset the loss towards the last minute. The Bear Call Spread gave me $1,750, making my SPX loss limited to $4,850 (which is still quite high for me!!).

Market Crash!

ACMEMADE.SG

I forgot to post the fact that ACME MADE website is launched already earlier this month.

The American premium brand for laptop bags, well-known for style and protection, was founded by a couple guys with over 30 years’ experience in the design, advertising and technology worlds. ACME MADE will be rolling out 6 series: The Silm, The Designer Slim, The Tote, The Clyde Messenger, The Slim Pack & The Slim Cargo. Every series are functionally unique and serve as business attaché while still maintaining high standards for computer protection.

1 Win & 1 Lose

Trade Journal for Oct 10, 2007

Alcoa (AA)
- BTO 0.85 yesterday & STC 0.64 (24.7% loss) on IB

Google (GOOG)
- BTO 7.60 yesterday & STC 8.80 (15.8%) on IB


Open Positions/Unrealised PnL: FAST, INFY, MTB
These positions are entered before market close in anticipation for the earning gaps tomorrow. These 3 companies will announce quarterly earning reports before market open on 11 Oct 2007.


p/s: INFY (Infosys Technologies) is an Indian technology company. The first Indian company I'm playing!

3 Realised Profits in a day!

Trade Journal for Oct 09, 2007

Alcoa (AA)
- BTO 0.90 & STC 1.20 (33.3%) on MB

Goldman Sach (GS)
- BTO 1.40 & STC 1.95 (39.3%) on MB
- BTO 1.35 & STC 1.90 (40.7%) on IB

Infosys Technologies (INFY)
- BTO 1.10 & STC 1.65 (50%) on IB

All above are day-trades!


Open Positions/Unrealised PnL: GOOG, AA

Best Places to Retire (in America) 2007

Since the ineption of this blog, I don't think I really talked about where to retire. And fortunately, I came across this article from CNNMoney.com - Best neighborhoods to retire. But, this article is based in the America.

As described in the article: "If life after work means more than a beach chair, the best place to retire might be the big city." I wonder why the big city is the best place, but this article is definitely very inspiring!

As for my personal favourites (based on the visuals and short writeups), here's my final shortlist:
No 23: Austin, TX (that's the picture on top)
No 27: Charlotte, NC
No 29: Seattle
No 32: Louisville

Anyway, here's the link!

My first Google (GOOG)!

At the opening bell, I decided to get into Google (GOOG) today for one stupid reason! I think it will top the $600 mark today!

Indeed, it passed $600 mark before I switched on my laptop at 10.30pm (or 10.30am ET). I decided to buy an October 620 Call option (2 steps out-of-the-money) at when the stock price was slightly below $599 and it cost me $8.30.

With a opening bell gap up of $0.95 and fulfilment of The Chicago Trick slightly at around 1.30pm ET, I continue to hold when GOOG hit new high at 602.41, 602.90, 603.41 then 603.9496.

Time to go to sleep! At $603.51, I sold the position at $9.80 made a $150 profit (18% profit for my first GOOGLE!). GOOG continued to rally to the $609 region and the option i trade hit around $12.50 bid price.

Internet Options Trading Contest

The internet marketing world is fascinating and constantly evolving. You now see an internet marketing campaign for a options trading course.

This is how I got linked from here and there:
1. I purchased Avi Frister's Forex Trading Machine eBook and Videos.
2. On his regular e-newsletter, he introduced Bill Poulos' Forex programme.
3. And now, Bill introduced this contest to me!

Here's the contest link by AJ Brown - for you to post a comment below and answer these two questions:

1. WHY do you want to become a world-class options trader (besides the money)? What does all that money get you?

2. HOW will going to my Million Dollar Options Trading Intensive and participating in my 6-month immersion Apprentice Program help you?

Yup, the best entries (as judged by AJ) will get (1) One FREE ticket to the Million Dollar Options Trading Intensive (valued at $2,495.00) and (2) FREE entry into the 6-month Apprentice Program starting in January 2008 (valued at $2,495.00).

Though I knew the odd is low, but just for the fun of it. I just joined. I'm the #156 entry!



My original unmoderated answers to the 2 questions:

(1) I started trading options at the age of 21. The amount of leverage is somewhat one of the highest among all the financial tools. During these few years, I started a magazine publishing business and a couple of smaller busines, but none of these provide me the ease of lesser manpower problems and all other typical brick-and-mortar businesses had. Options trading has always provided me the luxury of working at home, spending more time with my family and friends and have a more fulfilling life. As mentioned in my blog imgoingtoretireby26.blogspot.com and as the world-class options trader, I’m going to use options trading as my main vehicle to achieve financial freedom and abundance and YES, semi-retire by the age of 26 (now, I’m 25!).

(2) Through the Intensive course and Apprentice programme, I can realise my dreams to retire with my whole family on time and scale a greater height in options trading. I always believe options trading is not just about the money and the trade; it’s a journey of discovering oneself. Which is why trading is not just an transaction of cash and positions; it’s a transaction of fear, greed and all sorts of human emotions that come to trade!

My first RIMM!

On wednesday when RIMM (the Blackberry company) was at $95+, I decided to buy an October 105 Call option. It's 2 steps out-of-the-money and it supposed to cost me $4.40. I'm quite keen to get RIMM but yet, I'm unwilling to fork out $440. I set a limit price at $3.85 and went to sleep at 1.30am (SG time). Haha, the limit price was executed around 3.30am at $3.85.

RIMM is expanding into China, with 2 new great products coming into the market and with very strong stock momentum. On thursday, stock price rallied to close at $100.50 (a jump of $4 plus) in anticipation of the company's Q3 earning report after market close.

Industry estimate (based on Briefing.com) was 0.49 and RIMM reported 0.50 with upside guidance. On friday, the stock gapped up $7.19 on the opening bell and next, it passed the criteria for guaranteed profit as determined by The Chicago Trick slightly before 11am ET.

And me, I made a 136% profit (my highest in recent days) when I close the position $9.10. RIMM continued to rally to the $114 region and the option i trade hit around $10.50 or more.

My first RIMM!

Concluding NOV trade...

I finally concluded the whole trade saga on NOV (National-Oilwell Varco). Despite the whole hiccup on MB trading platform, I made a gross profit of US$1 (ya, it's only one dollar!). And after all commission and admin fee, most probably I lost a net of US3.05!

Here's the details of the trade:

(1) Bought NOVJY (NOV Oct 145 Call) at 7.80
in anticipation of the stock split of NOV (payable on 28 Sep and execution on 01 Oct) on Friday 28 Sep

(2) Sold NOVJY (NOV Oct 52.5 Call) at 15.00
Stock Split on Monday 01 Oct and I thought I profited US$720 (as posted here on Monday)!!!

(Note: I sold at a 'profit' on MB platform, since it's a green on my position window. But the symbol part was erroneous!)

(3) On Tuesday 02 Sep, I apparently got a short position NOVJY (NOV Oct 52.5 Call) and 2 long positions NOVJV (NOV Oct 72.5 Call). These 2 long positions should be what I had on Monday instead of the 15.00 NOVJY. I bought back the short position at 13.80 and sold one long position at 3.30.

(4) Sold the other long position at 3.31
on Wednesday only after MB platform recovered the options execution (Ya, many options were in chaos with all expiration dates wronged and no option execution can be done till 11am ET).

In summary, my gross profit is only US$1.


P/S: If you think you read wrongly, you don't. MB platform gone went all the time. The last time (about 2 weeks ago), I got lesser cash balance because of their system error. Fortunately, I always screen capture everything in trading!

P/P/S: I'm going to withdraw my cash asap and switch back to IB or OX or some other trading platforms.

Error on NOV splits trade!!!

This is maddening!!!

Today when I opened my trade platform, I got 3 positions: 2 long NOVJV and 1 short NOVJY.

And these were losing counters. I sold NOVJY yesterday for $15.00 to close, but apparently, this was an error. Today, the MB Trading platform revoked the order. And this became a short position. And the bought leg (from last friday) splits into 2, and hence the 2 long NOVJV.

I called MB Trading and they said I should cover the short position by the end of the day!! And I have to incur the losses despite their technical fault!!!

Let's see if the market reverse and how much I can salvage the trade. Maddening!!!

Another Split WIN!

This time round, I profit from the stock splits of NOV (National-Oilwell Varco). I bought into it 'accidentally' on last Friday when I limit the price of $7.80 for the NOVJY (NOV Oct 145 Call). Despite the Ask price then was $8.40, it plunged to execute my trade at $7.80. And then, the call option closed at $5.50.

As always, stock splits will result in the stock price to rise on the execution date (which is Monday ET). I sold it off at $15.00, but the price continue to rally to around $16.00. (although the price rise shouldn't be this much!)

Great! Another stock split win - profit of $720 or 92.3%!!!

P/S: In case, you are wondering how come I claim only $720 profit instead of $950... The reason is the trading platform displayed a daily PnL (as mentioned, the option closed at $5.50 and I exited at $15.00) and hence a $950 closed PnL displayed.

8 cents profit from an US$1.7K investment!

On friday, I entered a credit spread on $SPY. I 'risked' US$1,725 to earn a measly US$75 profit(which translated to only 4.3%). There's a total of 18 pairs of spreads (i.e. 36 legs).

Unfortunately, the trade was executed on optionsXpress and the commissions summed up to US$74.92! If you still don't understand what it meant, my net profit is only US$0.08!!!

Once again, Stupid me to invest US$1,725 to earn US$0.08!!!

Hanoi Traffic

I was taking a look at my photos and videos took at Hanoi and I found this one extremely interesting to share.



You can see that the traffic there is truly chaotic; and you can literally cross the road without looking for the coming motorbikes!!

iLuv i199

A cool product! I'm currently doing the press ads of iLuv i199. It's a High Fidelity Mini Audio System to stream music via Bluetooth devices. Apparently, there is this patent-pending technology from iLuv called BluePin that helps iLuv products send/receive music and audio wirelessly to/from many devices. You can sync with any audio device, computer or Smartphone equipped with Bluetooth wireless technology so you can send your favorite tunes to your iLuv stereo from up to 33 feet away.

Singapore is Top 5 Forex market

As mentioned, I just read 'Handbook to Forex Trading'. The book stated that the forex market is US$1.7 trillion daily. But recently, I went to a Forex preview and they said it's US$2 trillion.

Yesterday I came across this article on Straits Times and realised something else. Singapore forex market is top 5 in the world with more than $231 billion average volume. Not bad for a small red dot!

Property Prices in Vietnam

Yesterday I read the Straits Times and I realised that the property prices skyrocketed to more than US$460 psf already (from US$180 psf 3 years back). Who knows whether the property market in Vietnam will be on par with Singapore within a few more years?

This truly proves the statement "Buy property and wait" rather than "wait and buy property"!

T. Harv Eker 'Secrets of the Millionaire Mind'

"You can have all the knowledge and skills in the world, but if your "blueprint" isn't set for success, you're financially doomed." --T. Harv Eker

I'd been reading 2 books every month as part of my ongoing financial education. And typically, I will read them if I'm on a tour. In July-August when I was in Taipei, I read Adam Khoo 'Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires' and I bought (and read) a Chinese book there about the way of Investing by Warren Buffett.

And over the past 6 days, I just read T. Harv Eker 'Secrets of the Millionaire Mind' and Nicholas Tan 'Handbook of Forex Trading' The forex book is rather elementary and I recommend to those who know nuts about trading (it only covers the fundamental of forex and some trading basics - which I think personally will start your forex trading journey, but not able to propel it any further).

Anyway, what I'm interested now is to share more about Eker book. The #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestseller is definitely one book for reshaping your millionaire mindset. There are 2 major sections: (1) Your Money Blueprint, and (2) The Wealth Files.

Eker likes to ask 'Who the heck is T. Harv Eker, and Why Should I Read This Book?'. I think the answer is simple. Many of us want to be a millionaire and mastering the inner game of wealth is definitely not an obvious science! This book really demystifies why some people are destined to be rich while others, hmm, otherwise.

Definitely one of the more powerful, persuasive, and practical wealth management / personal improvement / NLP book!



p/s: I will talk more about this book as I discover more about it.

Back from Hanoi

Been away for the past 6 days in Vietnam. I have the luxury of travelling with my parents for the 3rd time this year. First to Genting in May, then to Taipei in July-August and Hanoi for the past 6 days.

I'd been to Hanoi in December 2003 when I was still a NUS newbie doing community work. Things really change - the buildings are getting taller, motorbikes are getting more and more (including the loud horns every split second) and the pho ga (chicken noodle) costs US$1 to US$2 (previously only US$0.40 to US$0.80).

As always, they will be so happy and thankful when you give them a small tipfor their wonderful service. After all, $1 for us is just $1; but $1 to them may need them to work for one whole day.

Though everything are still not as good as any of the cities I have visited this year, the 'speed' of living is pulsing fast - just look at how fast they walk and drive. More and more properties been developing and the news reporting on 6 consecutive days of positive rally of their index. I look forward to seeing Hanoi develop into a more vibrant city - more commercial yet keeping the good old days in the Old Quarter (aka 36 Street).

And personally, I have thought of some new business ideas that I will be exploring into - HD cinematic experience, luxury hostel/hotel and cafe etc.

If You're into Forex trading...

When I'm going to start a forex trading account, I realised there are so many of them online.

These are som recommendations (or maybe considered as stringent criterias) to take note:

(1) You can open a mini account. A mini account can be funded with as low as US$250 (standard account is typically US$2,500). Mini Accounts feature smaller, 10k contract sizes and leverage of up to 200:1. For new forex traders, a mini account is a great way to get started trading in a live environment.

(2) Choose trading platform that provides you the convenience to fund your account via credit card or paypal. Do take note of the relevant banking fee - paypal (typically US$0.30 + 3.9% of the transferred fund) & credit card (US$10 to US$20 convenience fee).

(3) Look for platforms that suits your lifestyle. Some provides wireless platforms so you can trade on your PDA or mobile device. Some provides web platform while some others need you to download their real-time trading software.

(4) Commission-free forex trading - Pay no commissions, only the bid/offer spread. The bid-ask spread is already the commission for them. And also trade on spreads as low as 1-2 pips on the most widely traded currencies.

(5) Live chat is available to help you anytime '24/5' when you are trading.

(6) Additional forex resources are important. Chartings, trader educations & webinars will be helpful in your trading journey.

(7) Guaranteed fills on stop loss and limit orders. Stop loss and limit orders are an important part of every trader's risk management strategy.

Look out for all these before choosing your trading platform. With the right trading platform, victory is already half-way there.

Forex.com is one good one that I use; otherwise you can consider Oanda.com or Interbank FX.

First Straddle Win!

During the recent moody subprime happening, financial companies like Lehman Brothers (LEH), Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sach (GS) and Bear Sterns (BSC) are expected to swing their stock price violently when they announce their quartetly earning report face-to-back this week.

Anticipating the swing of the stock price of Lehman Brothers (LEH) on Monday night, I entered the Straddle trade on Sep 60 Call ($1.90) and Put ($3.20). LEH announced their earning on Tuesday before market open and open with a gap up of $1.36. But surprisingly, both call and put options depreciated in value (call $1.55 and put $2.00) when market opened on Tuesday morning.

But I closed the put option when I see a steady rise in the stock price at $1.20 (ya, a loss of $2.00). And the great news was definitely the announcement by Fed chief to reduce rate at 2.15pm ET and the stock continued to rally more than $5 from previous close. At around 3.40pm ET, I closed the call option at $4.60 before market close.

No doubt the put option loses $2.00 of my bought value, it was the call option that brought me the glory by rising $2.70 in value! This resulted in a $0.70 profit (13.7% out of $5.10 that cost me on Monday).

Using Straddle strategy, it was the 'insurance' that I can profit no matter which direction the swing of the stock price.



Great! My first Straddle and first Straddle win!

ACME MADE is coming to Town!

Approaching the launch of the Singapore website, I'd been working on the brand ACME MADE for the whole day! Planning for the Press Release, the Promotional Materials (Brochure, Media Card, Envelopes etc), the promotional free gifts, the website www.acmemade.sg and most importantly, the pricing!

Let me tell you more about ACME MADE. In the America, ACME MADE is famous for its well-designed laptop bags that can easily act as a beautiful handbag. A picture is more than a thousand words. Just take a look at the brochure design cover I did. You'll understand what design and quality.




Website will be launched by end-next week. Stay tuned www.acmemade.sg.

Live A Simpler Life

Many relate wealth as the ability to have a luxurious life! That's a myth, at least to me. If you make big money and you spend a big bulk of it, how can accumulate great wealth in the shortest possible time?

In actual fact, I realise a rich person normally (but but all the time) spend so much lesser and utilize what around him/her as much as possible. If he's part of the top management, he may use the company fund to get a car or go to the posh restaurant. If he buy a expensive watch (those like Cortina, The Hour Glass etc) or a luxurious apartment, he may be buying it to invest.

He only use his money to pamper his loved one (family, parents etc). He buy only the essential (apartment, and basic wants (car, TV, computers etc). He will only start' spending big money if his income is so much more than his spending.

Look at the article below from TODAY newspaper published on 12 Sep 2007.




Spend more time with your loved ones and don't be blinded by your materialistic pursuits. Save your money (so that you won't have spare cash to spend excessively). Live The Simple Life!

First win on New Trading Platform

Recently, I found a trading platform called MB Trading that requires only $1 commission per contract (for options). I used to trade with (and still using) optionsXpress, but the commission is at least $14.95.

I just tried using MB Trading and managed to squeeze out my first win on this platform. Here's the details:

1. Underlying Stock: FMC, trading ~93.00

2. FMC's stock is spliting 2:1, payable on 13/9 and executing on 14/9.

3. Buy to Open @ 93.06 and Sell to Close @ 93.57

4. I bought FMC Oct 90 Call at 5.30 and sold at 5.70: 7.5% profit in 42 minutes.

Typically, if I trade only 1 contract with gross profit $40 (based on the same trade), I will only make $10.10 (= $40 - 2 comm x $14.95). But now, with MB Trading, I can make $38 (commission summed up to only $2). So if you are a new options trader and trade small number of contracts, it's good to use MB Trading. Otherwise, optionsXpress is excellent for big time traders.

ps: Please note MB Trading doesn't support options spread (MB Trading is incorporating the spreads within 2 to 3 months). Anyway, the spread order (up to 4 legs) optionsXpress also costs only $14.95, so it's not too bad and OX has excellent trading infrastructure.

pps: When I trade, I usually look into the ROI percentage rather than the absolute amount. You may not think $40 is any great; but if you see 7.5% return in 42 minutes, you'll know what I mean!

ppps: Imagine you are buying stock of FMC @ 93.06 and selling it @ 93.57, your ROI is only 0.5% compared to 7.5% through trading options. You do the math.

Retire at 40: Here's how

Here's an article I read from MSN Money (think it's contributed by The Simple Dollar) about how to retire at 40 through working hard and invest on Indexes, starting from age 20!

--

It's simple, but hard. Take 20% of your gross income every month, invest it in a balanced index fund and leave it there, then retire 20 years later with enough for a lifetime. Do you have what it takes?

A young, forward-thinking man wrote and asked this simple question:

Right now, I'm 20 years old. I am willing to take a large percentage off the top of my salary for the rest of my working life in order to be able to retire very young and live off of the proceeds of my investments and do volunteer work. How many years would I have to work if I saved 20% of my income?

He went on to name a number of other specifics about his situation, but they're really not important. If you were to take 20% of your annual income starting at age 20 and put it in a fund following the S&P 500 Index ($INX), that fund continued to grow at the long-term historical rate (12%) and you received a 4% raise each year, you could walk away from your job and live off the interest at age 41 matching your current salary -- or quit at 43 and be able to give yourself a 4% "raise" each year from the interest, which is probably the better plan because it combats inflation.

Raise the amount to 25% and you're done at age 38 and able to live in perpetuity at age 40.
Obviously, some people are going to balk at this and state that it "can't" be done. The truth is that it can be done if you have the willingness to live below your means and authentically behave as if 20% of your total salary doesn't exist.

It is challenging, don't get me wrong. Let's take the case of someone who makes about $60,000 a year. He brings home a paycheck every month in the amount of $3,200. In order to save 20% of his whole annual salary ($12,000), he would have to be willing to immediately take $1,000 of that take-home paycheck every month, put it straight into an investment and not touch it at all. This takes an amount of financial fortitude and will power that, quite honestly, most Americans don't have.

--

In fact, when we put our money into the index (whether it is S&P 500 or Straits Time Index for Singapore), it's safer since putting your money into any stock. Reason is simple (but not that obvious):

1. Many people think that stock is risky, so investing in index may be in the same league.
2. Index doesn't rise everyday, just like stocks.
3. Index doesn't even rise every year, just like stocks.
4. But, the not-so-obvious fact about Index is that it tracks the best-performing stocks in a certain category. There will be new performing stocks added to the index and lousy performing ones removed from the index every now and then.
5. You can safely assume that over time the index will rise in value. But you must be thinking how long will the index will confirm rise?
6. Index rises 10% (for STI) and 12% (for SPX) on average every year. But, it is only the average; sometime the indexs do fall on a yearly basis (due to economic recession or correction, 9-11 kinda' incidents, Iraq war, dot-com burst etc etc).
7. But through research, over 5 years, putting your hard-earned money into the Index will confirm generate the guaranteed returns for you!
8. And over 10 years, you can SAFELY get back the compounded average returns (for 10 years) on your money.
9. If we put it in mathematically terms, money + 10 years' compounded 10% to 12% per annum = 2.5x to 3x your money.

If you compare with putting your money in your savings account, think again! With a measly 0.25% per annum, you money will only grow less than 30% (almost 10x slower)!

Today is my 25th Birthday!

Ya, today is my 25th birthday. I popped up from bed to start this blog 'I'm Going To Retire By 26'.

It was 5am (GMT +08:00) in the morning of Singapore and I intended to start this blog. Today I turn 25 (the quarter mark!) and I made this commitment to retire by this time next year. Maybe 'retire' seems a bit too exaggerated, but I want to be in control and do whatever I like by 26. So, it's more like a 'semi-retirement'! Is this better?

Many may think that how can it be possible! And ya, they are really really a lot of such people and 'pour cold water' at me. And especially so, recently! Anyway, I will talk about it when I have nothing to write about.

Here I am going to conclude my first blog: Happy Birthday (to myself)!