Market Updates

I apologise for the disruption in blogging but i have been spending many sleepless nites following the US market developments. My heart goes out to those who have their life savings wiped out.

But i strongly feel that the media is much too one sided..focusing only on who and how much was lost in the market. But the truth is, the market is a zero sum game. Every dollar lost in the market is a dollar gain by someone else in the market.

This is my result for last nite..my total holding period was 1 and half hours. It shows that money can still be made and infact..is made faster than non crisis times.

For example...
47.06% over an hour on Goldman Sachs (.GSMA)
$1000 becomes $1470.6...$10000 becomes $14706..in 1 n half hr of trading hours.
(e last time i checked..it rose more than 47%. but i shall leave it as this..since dats wads stated in my print screen)

My fibonnaci retacement forecast for the SPY. Fell more than i expected it to. But that would just mean more money would have been made if i traded it..

Before u run too excited to ask me for a treat..i have to declare that these are results from my virtual trade account. i.e, fake money. No point claiming credit for something i nv really did..
This are the trades i would do..based on my humble and amateur analysis.
I refrained from trading real money since i got caught unprepared by the fed's sudden ban on shorting (selling) of financial stocks. my gut was that many other unexpected and unprecedented announcements will continue to happen and it did.

govt's US$700b bailout plan was suddenly initiated..rejected shockly..n den approved which was the first in history. It was meant to be gd news n yet markets tanked. Then came the global interest rate cuts. for once..my gut was rite..in sayin the govt will do more things we nv knew they could do. And markets jus dun behave like ppl would expect them too.

yet..dere r ppl making millions off the markets rite now. I hence conclude..i need more upgrading..cos i am clearly not making the millions yet. But i shall stop at nth to get there!

Here's to my progress!..

Start of School

School started 3 weeks ago..n I hav a 4 day week…got all my bids..except for international econs..but its ok..cos as it is…I already hav 6 mods (5 CU).

Mods this term..

Financial Instruments, Institutes and Markets

Leadership & Teambuilding Through Mentoring

Corporate Reporting

Business Process

Finishing Touch

Ethics

I hav 4 morn lessons weekly..which explains y I’ve been cutting down on supper meetings lately..

n even though it has onli been 3 weeks...some people... xiao jing SOME people...r alreadi fallin aslp in gsr!!

"i stop!"

"i hide!"


"i look away!"


"what do u want?!?!"

"Fine! I surrender!..snap snap snap"
Check out e marks on her forehead!!

Trading Course/Updates

I went for yet another trading course…this time..costing me S$3288…for a 2 n haf day training..

Mervyn (GPA 4/4!!) asked me y I bother payin n goin for these courses. He said.. “jus go for internship la!”

I din really explain my reasons..cos we were talkin abt other stuff as well…n frankly..it is tedious to explain at times..

But in short..onli 20% of market participants make money. N many fund managers fill e spot of the 80%. Every year, only 10% of institutionally managed investment funds make money..n every yr..its a diff 10%...

N of those funds dat r profitable..most of them only manages 10 – 15% annual gains..

Getting myself into an internship..to learn from managers like dat?...i dunno…n also..internship..doesnt mean they gonna teach u wat they do..

I am very religious when it comes to learning…I’ve developed a high level of selective hearing..n I only learn from ppl who’s been there..done that..n in this case..i’m talkin abt hedge fund managers..high profile traders..who are able to average at least 30% per trade every few days or weeks. I’m not sayin all the fund managers in Singapore are not worthy of world class standings. Believe me..there r high performers here too! But..what r e chances that u’r gonna be under their wing thru internship?

Prayin n hopin dat u’ll impress e bank…n dat u’ll meet someone great..n dat they’ll place u under his wings..n dat he will teach u wat he does..n dat he’ll hav enuff time to do so..in my opinion…is jus leavin everything to LUCK!

I dun intend to leave my future to LUCK.

Here’s my latest trading result.

Notice where all the markets worldwide is heading..

Red figures everywhere...

N notice my portfolio now…

Bear in mind e gains r onli from 7 trading days.

Now u start to understand my persistence in spending on courses? At a time where ppl are fleeing the market..i’m busy entering it..

Jamming/New Band

I’ve also started jamming regularly again…am in e process of putting tgt a new band..playing pop/rock songs…e line up is not confirmed as yet..but we’re havin fun..so..lips r sealed..haha…

We hav some offers for gigs already..but..i dun tink we’re ready as yet…shall see how it goes..watch tightly for my musical developments..lol..

Private Lunch Invite Getco

Yes…quite a few has been askin me abt my meetin with e Getco ppl. The Chicago traders.

I sat thru a talk by them..after agreeing not to disclose any information of what they do as well as to delete any materials that we may have from them. It was trade secret.

Prof Jaya brought to e attention of Robert (e trader from Getco) e moment I entered e seminar room. (I cannot thank Prof Jaya enough for e opportunity).

After I sat thru e talk which lasted one hour, explaining their trading systems, I was left speechless. The systems they build were built on brilliant ideas…which is enterprising in every sense. After the session with them, I finally understood y they’re all billionaires and y the 7 yr old company which started with 2 person is now worth 1.5b USD and comprising of only 100+ ppl.

What’s more impressive is that they have over taken e leader, Merrill Lynch, in areas of forex and equity trading in terms of daily volume in e US. Their trading system is so advanced that so long as volume came, so will millions of profits each day. Yes. Each day. I can’t reveal e range of profits and volumes…but all I can say is..breath taking.

The talk was attended by a handful of professionals ranging from economist to analyst to traders…lots of them expert in their field.

There was a lunch session scheduled after the talk…but not everyone could come. Out of SMU, only 2 students were invited to the private lunch session and I was honored in every sense to be one of the 2. The other guy is a final year Information System and Quantitative Finance international student from India. A lot of us were curious and abt y he chose to come to spore to study IS. Afterall, India is already boasting a fleet of impressive IS universities. And his response was that SMU has very gd reputation and is well known even in India and that spore was a tremendous international nation to be furthering business studies in.

I feel proud. Although I tink India is doin very well too. I’ve heard a lot about the Indian School of Business (What their locals call the India’s SMU) and they offer world class master courses which I was told by many profs to go for if I ever had the chance.

We spoke of possibility of building trading systems tgt. We may work something out…we’ll see how it goes.

As for employment possibilities…both of us were told to keep expectations really really low as their staff turnover is near 0 and it is extremely hard to get a position in GETCO. There was a PhD who kept calling and had to sit thru 27 interviews b4 he gotten a position in the company. So the fact that Robert bothered to call me up from Chicago last Nov already gives me a lot of pride. As I continue to set my expectations low.

We had a 8 course lunch at JAAN, the French restaurant at the 70^th floor of Swissotel. (which I din hav to pay a single cent. Lucky me! Thank you Mr Robert once again). The food was fantastic and the view was nothing short of spectacular.

I didn’t snap photos there cos it would have been a waste of opportunity. I’d rather be talking to them…or listening to them talk…that’s much more valuable. But I did find pics of some of e things we had…

P.S> and I owe Sentill a big thank you too for swaying me into biddin for prof jaya’s class at e very start. Thank you!

Argh!

I'm so grumpy!! In the space of a day...my monthly profits were slashed from 40% to 21%!!!

A banc of America analyst downgraded the ratings on AIG from 'Buy' to 'Neutral'. And that caused the giant bearish candle...grrr...

Closed my position..and took my 21% profits...but still...my returns could have been twice the amount!..grr...

Well...at least it was still a money making trade...

Shall monitor a little more before deciding my next trade. It may still continue the bull run...

Wealth Academy

Alrite..u prob hav noticed..that i haven been ard to post too much.. This is becos i've been away on course the past week..e course i was waiting for - Wealth Academy - by AKLTG finally commenced. It is highly anticipated by me becos in my opinion, this is more worthwhile than any..n i mean ANY university module has to offer.

It was a course with practical application possibilities and sets u to take action and workable strategies immediately. All in all..i felt it was great value for money although i painfully paid around 3k for the course. But the course is actually a 18mth package..which included booster sessions..follow ups..post course workshops..helpline and many other value adding services. Thus to me..it was 3k well spent.

activities to get everyone going..

It was held at the expo and commenced at 9am daily and ends at 1am in the morning..which shows how packed and how slp deprived i was..

Thru this course..i further understood y AKLTG (Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group) is currently the best training company in Singapore in both the school and private sector. Cos they practice what they preach..' Always over deliver'.

Although I have seen and spoke to adam in person for quite a few times..i have nv attended any of his courses. I was curious to see how he manages to win the acclaim of so many trainees in the past. Not that i doubted his abilities...(if i hav i would not hav bought his books)..but i wanted to see for myself why he commands up to $1000/hr just as a speaker.

Adam Khoo . Alan Phua

The coaches that helped make the course possible

He was able to keep interest of the audience up and while he teaches many concepts..he was able to make it a joy to listen to him and also link up to the demographics. From his course materials...researches...content...i could see that a lot of work has gone into making the course the success it is now. The amount of content was unbelievable..and even though i majored in finance..and investment b4 SMU..i have to say he (together with conrad) has really shown me strategies that blew me away. The very same strategies that Warren Buffett and George Soros used to make their millions and billions with little or no risk at all.

This is why i said..it is in my opinion..more worthwhile than any modules that any university has to offer. Like the likes of Bill Gates, Jeff Begoz, Steve Jobs and Robert Kiyosaki says.."success has got very little(if any) to do with school".

Andrew . Clarence . Alan

Clarence went to the course with me..and he was in a critical mood..since he too had to pay 3k for it. And after being critical for the 4 days course..he too realized that..it was realli a course packed with value and was worth the money..guess we both needed some directions and pushing as well..

At the course..there were veri veri little ppl dat were from the same age group as clarence and I was..n that was not necessarily a bad thing..cos we were able to network with many different talents that has got expertise that we could tap on. For the first time..i actually ran out of name cards to exchange with ppl..and that reminded me to always carry extra cards..esp at events such as this..

researchin..n somehow..andrew took my pic..

alot of the fellow course mates alreadi hav their own families..and were faced with many constrains that I currently do not have..and they all said the same things.. "I wish I knew all these concepts..when I was at ur age.."..and it further re-affirmed my belief that this is my time..to go out and just chase my dreams..

at lunch time

on day 3 and 4 of the program..we were veri much in depth into value investing, momentum investing, options trading and more importantly..chart patterns and technical analysis which makes all the other forms of investing possible..I was stretched to be honest..although i have seen most of the techniques b4..but it is making it work together that is hard..and i am still brushin up and learnin the trade..

Japanese Candlestick reversal trends

Bullish and Bearish Engulfing

Piercing, Harami patterns...

Standard 7 analysis (Non-candlestick)

this is the first ever Wealth Academy that has featured Conrad..an investment expert and guru that went bankrupt learning the trade..was heavily in debt and had all his assets seized (except for a chair that the bank left him). Although he was once down..he was nv out..n he told himself he has to master e art no matter what..and true enough..after clearing his debt..he is now comfortably making about US15k per mth just by clickin..

when he demonstrated jus how he performs scalping (intraday trading that makes him a few hundred dollars in a few minutes)..I began to realise..his concepts are veri real..and veri workable..in fact..he posts his analysis on his website everyday before the US market opens..and he is never far from the actual performance..he now has got followers all over the world.

depsite being the master of the trade..he is surprisingly a veri sincere person who carried no air at all with him. The fact that he and adam unselfishly shares concepts and knowledge further shows how humble a person he is..he has truly won my respect..

durin the course..there were games that involved real money which we were supposed to contribute..which e consolidated amount adds up to become the prize money..of all the games..it was the 'trading floor' that i felt was the most beneficial..like they always preach..games are a reflection of our true self. The game was a simulated stock market trading floor which was very much similar to the real thing..and when real money is involved..u realli see the real behaviors of ppl..everyone was runnin around..there were ppl panickin..there were ppl pointin fingers and blaming one another..there were ppl who were greedy who refused to take profits when markets were up..n ppl who refused to let egos go and cut loss when their analysis was wrong...

the game was held in a real time condition whereby prices changed every 6 seconds and that sent many ppl into panick mode...the whole room was noisy and chaotic..there were ppl who spent out of their means..went bankrupt..ppl who took loans from 'loan sharks'..n lost everything..

After a session of trading..the place is a mess..jus like SIMEX used to be..

and i have to admit..my team didn't do well on the first trading floor game..starting with a capital of $25,000...we onli managed to end up with $27,500 (2,500 profit)..which was way behind the top performers who managed ending balances of 3 or 4 times ours..

debriefing after trading floor

after the game..i din feel gd..cos..i din like to lose..i dun tink anyone does..so i went to analyze our trades..our behaviors..and what made the others succeed..and realized we were too conservative..not utilizing our funds..

thus..the followin day..we strategized..changed our game plan..remained calm..n gone for the kill..

and our efforts paid off..starting with a capital of $25,000...we finished with $365,000..achieving a return of $340,000...which saw us finish 3rd in the trading floor..and entitled my team to real profits..and real prize money..(covered all our losses in previous days and paid for my meals and midnight cab..hee hee)..I went up to the stage to collect the prize on behalf of my team..n realized like they say at the course..anyone can do anything..its jus a matter of using the rite strategy..

alan . Conrad (the master) . Clarence

but in reality..there are still alot to be learnt b4 I can label myself investment ready..n rite now..there are still tonns of course materials i have yet to read up on..so..its still early days..but i hav to get myself ready..b4 e U.S slips into a recession and stocks become realli cheap..buy low..sell high..

Jun Chen . Conrad

now..that the course has ended and gone into post course period..it is all about taking action..and i am still in midst of drafting my plans..n so is clarence..n prob most of other course mates..but I am confident..that we can achieve many things that we have not done so previously..and even if we do not succeed anytime soon..we will continue to chase our dreams..cos there r no failures..there are onli feedbacks..