Trading positions for 30th Sept 2009

Closed the following positions:

Oakwell @ $0.10166 (-$892.25)
Noble @ $2.4625 (-$569.58)

Remaining positions

Oakwell @ $0.115

Total profits since Aug 12th: $17,968.71

Quite a bad market start, with pennies being hammered down all the way and thus cutting losses for some of my opened positions. I will not open any new positions as there are some issues with my trading account and I will need to sort it out with the brokerage house.

Trading positions for 29th Sept 2009

Closed the following positions:

Wee Hur @ $0.815 (+$153.55)
Synear @ 0.395 (+$334.12)

Opened the following positions:

Oakwell @ $0.115
Noble @ $2.47

Total profits since Aug 12th: $19,430.54

Even though the markets rallied today across all the markets (except SSE), the volume is very light during the morning. When SSE opened, it was fluctuating in the red and at 1 point of time, it was -1.83%! The closing was at 8.985 (0.33%) but other markets like HSI was pushing itself to +2.06% at closing hours.

Europe is currently in a slightly red trend and awaiting readings on the housing market and consumer sentiment from USA.

One history moment to take note. If you forget about this, one year ago today, the Dow plunged 777.68 points, suffering its biggest point drop ever. Don't worry, to drop 777 points again tonight, I guess it will take a few big players to collapse together!

Trading positions for 28th Sept 2009

Closed the following positions:

Ecowise @ $0.288 (+$279.21)
Great group @ $0.425 (+$321.36)
China Animal @ $0.245 (+$9.47)

Opened/remaining positions:
Wee Hur @ $0.80333
Synear @ 0.385

Total profits since Aug 12th: $18,942.89

Today the markets were having a mini crash, with Nikkei leading the way in the morning. HSI was in the red for most of the day while SSE was green in the morning until in the last hour of trading, the crash came and it went all the way down (-75.32 / -2.65%)!

Right now, Europe is slightly green with some news from USA and we will see how it goes from here to dow later at 9.30pm.

Buffett and Bogle Bash Wall Street

Does Wall Street ever learn?

Misguided executives and profit-minded financiers brought our financial system to the edge of ruin last fall -- but now, it seems, they've pretty much returned to business as usual. Many of the same people who helped contribute to the financial crisis are still in charge at leading financial institutions. Risk-taking behavior hasn't changed much, and many "too big to fail" banks such as Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) have become even bigger.

Short-term thinking is still the order of the day everywhere we look. Fortunately, two of the biggest names in the investment world have unleashed their wrath on the short-sightedness that pervades Wall Street.

Taking aim at the short term
Vanguard founder John Bogle and Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) Warren Buffett recently signed onto a statement from the international nonprofit Aspen Institute, warning that Wall Street's short-term focus is placing our entire economy at risk. More than two dozen high-profile investors, academic minds, and managers, including former CEOs like IBM's (NYSE: IBM) Louis Gerstner and Cummins' (NYSE: CMI) Henry Schacht, signed the statement, which advised that unless managers and investors change their behavior, regulators might have to step into the picture and change it for them.

Ultimately, the statement contends that these problems are deeply ingrained and systemic in our financial system, and that they desperately need to be resolved. The authors feel it may take significant regulatory involvement to change industrywide incentives for all involved.

The events of the past few years should have served as a wake-up call for all the players in our financial system. But at this point in the game, short-term thinking is so endemic to the investment process that it'll take far more than a strongly worded statement to change the tune of investors, fund managers, and corporate executives.

The price of folly
Buffett and Bogle are spot-on in their assessment of Wall Street's short-term blind spot. Managers are so focused on hitting near-term results and analyst estimates that they may neglect or even harm longer-term goals. Fund managers are often rewarded based on short-term results, not long-term gains.

But everyday investors are to blame as well. Investors' patience has dwindled over the years, and fewer folks are willing to hold for the long run. Instead, they prefer to trade in and out of positions, hoping to make a quick buck. This sort of near-term thinking usually costs investors more than it generates in profits.

For instance, bad timing in buying and selling mutual funds punishes investors plenty. A recent Morningstar study compared fund returns over the past five years against how investors who bought those funds actually fared with their investments. Across all fund categories, the average fund returned 1.0%, while individual investors actually lost 3.5% in those same funds!

Why the big gap? Simply put, investors lag because they are lousy market timers. Instead of buying and holding funds patiently, they make frequent short-term trades, usually at the exact wrong times. This study is just one more nail in the coffin of market timing, but in the heat of battle, it's hard for investors to ignore the herd mentality that comes with investing.

Becoming part of the solution
So how can we mere mortal investors take Buffett and Bogle's advice to heart? While it's not easy to tune out all the news and noise surrounding us, taking short-term events in stride is key to keeping the long-term picture in mind. Do yourself a favor: Stop watching the latest short-term trading advice on financial television, and don't feel the need to trade in your online brokerage account every day. You may lose a battle now and then, but you'll be more likely to win the investing war over the long run. Don't get sucked into the short-sighted investing game.

It may seem like a single investor can't do much to create change in our nation's vast financial system. However, if we want to heal our economy and make over Wall Street's excessively short-term focus, we've got to start with our own behavior. If it's good enough for Buffett and Bogle, maybe long-term-focused investing is good enough for us, too.

Trading positions for 25th Sept 2009

Closed the following positions for the day:

Asiafood @ 0.671 (+$1,602.60)
Supfasten @ 0.2825 (-$245.69)

Opened/remaining positions:
Ecowise @ $0.28
Great group @ $0.415
China Animal @ $0.24

Including a dividend from Straits Asia previously for $324.25

Total profits since Aug 12th: $18,359.60

Trading positions for 24th Sept 2009

Sold off the following positions:

Genting @ 1.17 - (-$497.63)
Marco polo @ 0.581 - (+$54.16)

China Animal is halt today as they are doing issuing placement shares.

Cleared some positions as HSI was plunging like hell in the morning and in the afternoon.

However, I have also opened some new positions:
supfasten @ 0.285
Asiafood @ 0.6334

Total profits since Aug 12th: $16,618.83

Trading positions for 23rd Sept 2009

A great day today for Mermaid, as I exited at $1.175, gaining a nice profit of around $3.8k for today.

The following are opened for the next trading day:

Genting @ $1.17
Marco Polo @ $0.575
China Animal @ $0.24

Total profits since Aug 12th: $17,087.97

What am I holding now?

As of now, I am holding the following portfolio:

Picked up stocks:
Celestial - avg price of $0.45
Chasen - avg price of $3 (after reverse stock split)\

Currently trading stocks:
Mermaid - avg price of $1.07

Most likely, I will be out of Mermaid today if the stars are aligned for this counter. Still my word of advice, don't chase a flying stock..

Busy month in September...

We all think that September is a month where stocks will retrace but unfortunately, this Sept has been a bullish month for the past 3 weeks!

Looking back in March, we have came all the way from 1400-1500+ range to 2680+ range, and Dow from 6800+ to the current of 9780+ range.

In the meantime, I have been trading in and out of the Singapore market and have recovered my stucked funds in Celestial. I will share my trading counters whenever I am free and one thing to take note is, I do not hold them. So basically, I am doing contra all the way.

1 interesting thing to take note that I read in one of the posts in the forums. They were talking about why this rally won't last. Here is the quote:

Does he know that if one invest only during the time of financial crisis instead of during the boom years , one will be richer than buying the other way around? It will hold true till WWIII and you don't have to worry about stocks then because you be dead.

So either the world collapse into another worldwar or the economy gets better. Even if the economy doesn't get better in a year then it must get better next next year or it will go bust. Choose one. I suspest many people wants everything to fail and markets to plunge again. Silly people. If market were to plunge again after spending TRILLIONS then I can't think how will the economy ever pick up again.

So either we get this right or WWIII. So either buy now or die.

Here is the thread: http://forum.channelnewsasia.com/viewtopic.php?t=281274&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Do you think this makes sense? After spending trillions of dollars, our economy is still like trash?

Buffett's Words of Wisdom

It pays to listen closely to anything and everything Warren Buffett has to say on business and investing. Continuing from the first part of this article, we've gathered more prudent words of investment wisdom from the Oracle of Omaha.

"You should invest like a Catholic marries -- for life."

When investing, you should look for businesses strong enough to endure for decades. And just as with marriage, you should be sure that this particular investment is better than any other alternative. If you invest with this lifelong approach, you will begin to focus on the important attributes of the business, rather than concerning yourself with insignificant hiccups. Buffett never concerns himself with a business's temporary setbacks, as long the important factors -- good management, low capital requirements, and durable economic advantages -- remain intact.

"You should invest in businesses that a fool can run, because someday, a fool will."

We're talking about small-f fools here, of course. A really good business will be able to withstand the poor decision-making of incompetent management. Every business life cycle will undoubtedly contain periods of superior and inferior management alike. Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) was doing fine before the legendary Roberto Goizueta took the helm, and thereafter the company skyrocketed. Yet Coke is a sufficiently remarkable and simple business to do well without superstar management. Ironically, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) should also do just fine without Buffett at the top. Buffett is truly extraordinary, and over the years, he has worked to ensure that Berkshire will manage just fine in the future.

"My idea of group decision-making is to look in the mirror."

Long-term success in investing requires the ability to go against the herd. Buffett's best investments have come at some of the direst moments in a company's history. If Buffett had relied on public opinion, he would have never invested in Berkshire Hathaway, American Express (NYSE: AXP), or GEICO -- nor, more recently, in Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and General Electric (NYSE: GE).

It's extremely difficult to invest when all the "smart money" is going against you. Buffett, unlike most investors, possesses an unwavering conviction and discipline when making decisions. He learned this trait at age 11, when he made his first investment of three shares of city services. After he bought the stock, the price dropped. Buffett sweated it out and sold for a small gain. Shortly thereafter, the stock skyrocketed.

"You pay a very high price in the stock market for a cheery consensus."

If you let Mr. Market guide you, you'll pay a costly price indeed. As we now know all too well, the market overcharged many for the investment du jour last year, but what went up had to come down, and vice versa. A few years back, financial stocks like Citigroup (NYSE: C) were seen as impregnable. Yet the dramatic fall of the financial sector proves that those who followed the crowd paid up and suffered. It's best to use Mr. Market to serve you, not guide you.

"If you lose money, I will be understanding. If you lose our reputation, I will be ruthless."

That's what Buffett told the staff of Salomon Brothers during the Treasury securities scandal in 1991. It's also what Buffett tells his managers: Berkshire can afford to lose money, but not an ounce of reputation. In business and in life, your reputation is the most important attribute. Buffett's reputation for integrity is so unquestionable that he's often sought out as the buyer of choice for companies seeking a good home. Buffett has earned his reputation over the past 50 years, and he's acutely aware that it would only take seconds of poor judgment to destroy that reputation.