UT Portfolio as at 23 Feb 07

As expected, the lunar new year caused a slowdown in the market. Giving red packets in the last few days caused a bigger bleeding... :(

Here's wishing all great health and wealth abundance in the year of the Pig!

Óne sad but real story to share, that should be avoidable...

One of the recent scam from the team-trading, had caused Mr.A to be delinquented and bankrupted.

Team trading required plenty of trust among members. It was because of the fact that it involved money. When money is concerned, it is very important to know all the rest of the trading partners really longer enough, sometimes background check may be necessary. Just want to share how Mr.A got into trouble by joining one of those team-trading syndicate, and had actually make a lot of money initially. Everyone was happy and sharing the fruit of success. But one fine day, there was a huge loss incurred, and the so-called team leader had run away and left the poor guy behind to bear all the debts. Eventually, he had to declare bankrupted and then realized that those people that he ever traded with, had either been declared bankrupted or delinquent before, and they needed someone fresh to open "clean-record" accounts for large trading limit. That's why they formed trading team to recruit new faces. If they are any hiccups, they will first run away again and formed other teams else where, leaving this new member as victims. What these synidicates normally do involves purposely naked short counters or buying huge volume of shares and then leave open to force-selling. When there are so many of you trading together, many trading accounts can be opened to manipulate particular counters' share price.

The real money sometime comes from buy and hold a good stock, e.g. Warren Buffet... Singapore got a lot of rich guys that are actually "Warren Buffet" style, trust me. And if you really like equity, I suggest that you can plan your liquidities into 2 areas, (1) keeping some solid blue chips in your own name for value appreciation and (2) fork out only spare cash for speculation.

Stock Market is a place that full of opportunities but also traps that are meant to kill. Greed is most of the time that make you turn profit to loss. There is no short-cut to riches...as the saying goes, nobody will put $$$ into your pockets for free (e.g. research reports), there must be someone that will be the victims in this whole game. Internet-trading had brought convenience to whoever that wanted to trade, but also brought destruction to many novice investors. Behind the glamourous side of stock market, you will never know how many people had ever died for it.

UT Portfolio as at 16 Feb 07

With the Chinese New Year around the corner, Asian stock market would see minimum upward movement. Weak hearted are advised to cut-loss and those with slightly stronger heart hold onto your investment portfolio. As seen in the past week, the major indices have not changed much and i suspect this trend to follow thru the first week of the lunar new year.

Special caution to those holding onto China equity funds; make sure the underlying of such funds you invested are invested in companies with diversified global exposure. There are rumours that a huge bubble is building due to over-speculative investors (including tertiary students) taking part in the equity bull market. As we all would recognise by now that the market is mostly driven by speculation rather than fundamentals, it is good to be extra careful in choosing your investments.

Here's my portfolio for the week:

UT Portfolio as at 09 Feb 07

This has been a great week. One week away from Chinese New Year and the Dragon roars. After a minor correction early this week, the chinese market rallied upwards to a fantastic closure.





















I bought into DWS China Ety at the beginning of the week at $2.15. At mid week, the price was at $2.10. By today, it was at $2.19. I expect such volatility to sustain till after Chinese New Year; due to profiting taking and inactive trading right before and during the festive period. Hence, those with week heart are advised to stay away. :)

I am actively looking at the european funds at the moment. Would provide some update before the end of next week. In the meantime, I wish everone a Happy Valentines' Day!

Spare $$$ Anyone? Make $$$ while internet surfing

Came across this link, thought it would be interesting to earn some extra $$$ for the Chinese New Year! Check it out. :)

UT Portfolio as at 02 Feb 07

Recent issues in Thailand have created quite a stir in the market. The best time to invest in Thailand is coming, so wait for it. :)

China is going thru minor correction at the moment, this is due to concern over reports on over-speculative Chinese stocks. The other possible reason for this would be that investors are taking profit for Chinese New Year as market are expected a slowdown during the festive holidays. I suspect such turbulence to be around for the short period of up to two weeks before bouncing back for another good closing in Feb 2007.

Here's my portfolio as of 02 Feb 07:

UT Portfolio as at 26 Jan 07

As of 26 Jan 07, my profit has crossed the $3,000 mark. Though this is nothing to shout about compared to those who invest directly in equities (like my wife), i still feel that the growth is pretty decent. :)

The past week has been hectic for me at work, resulted in very little time spent researching. Hence, i don't have anything much to comment except to advise those who trade equities to be extra careful. There are lots of noise in the market; contributed from dropping oil prices to shortage of sand. As the year has only just started, there is still a lot of chance to up your profit. :)

Today, i overheard another of my colleague going into UT investment. I am very happy for him. With the help of available data from FundSupermart, he have selected two Single Country funds and a balance fund for his portfolio. I have issued him a challenge that i can beat him in the overall profit taking within a three month period by selecting a set of funds of similar nature. This is the portfolio breakdown of his selection:

Chin:

• DWS China Equity Fund - 25%
• Lion Capital Vietnam - 25%
• First State Bridge - 50%

Calvin:

• DWS China Equity - 25%
• Aberdeen Thailand - 25%
• Lion Capital Global Flexi - 50%

The rationale for my portfolio came from a strong believe in the growth of equities in 2007. For those who have heard my story on China and my conviction on her growth, would understand why i chose China Equity. And the reason for chosing DWS instead of the rest is because of its better track record especially during the April/May '06 correction.

Being a quarter Thai myself, i always believe Thai equity would do well. It has the fundamentals required and ready for economic boom. Without the recent selldown, Thai equity would have done better in 2006. The good news is that bad storm will past and now is a good time for a great year for Thai equity in 2007. I chose Abeerdeen Thailand because of its great resiliense from correction in April/May '06 and in December '06.

Choosing a balance fund to complement is easy in this case; though i favoured Asia, the Lion Capital Global Flexi have all the fundamentals and technicals in place, with the help of a small fraction of hedging derivatives.

The challenge period will begin from 01 March 06 to 30 June 06. Loser will buy the winner lunch. :)

Anyway, this is my updated portfolio: