ForexScientist

Renting in Taiwan, and surprises thrown in your face

2011-11-22T07:08:00.000-08:00

3 days away from flying to Taiwan, Ah Wan told me I can't stay at her parents' apartment, which is located near the school. She was unhappy about the whole affair, especially after having gone through an earlier bad experience of ordering, paying for, but having the stock run out for a pair of boots she bidded for online. I suspect she felt bad, because before that piece of news, we were planning as to how we can make her parents' then-vacant apartment more live-able. Thought of getting a TV, bringing woolen blankets and her stereo system from Taitung, maybe purchase a dehumidifier. And all that changed in the blink of an eye when someone wanted to view and potentially rent the house long-term.

I have no stake in and no claim upon that any period of stay in that apartment, but my initial reaction was that it was too much a surprise, and it shouldn't have happened. But intuitively I knew it would be fine. In my hours awake after receiving the news (and this extends to even the earlier half of today) I told myself that all would turn out to be fine. After all, couldn't I go do my walking now? But, guess what? Ah Wan was pissed at that. She complained that I was fickle and that all these different ideas makes it difficult for her to know if she should continue to help me look for a place. I think because I was so bothered about her irritation that I couldn't sleep till 4am. I had this before, but not because of something on my mind. I tried Buddhist chants, which usually prepare me very very well for my sleep. I went downstairs to walk, and deposit some cash. Nothing worked.

Anyway, this morning I took some time and found a place that I am still uncertain about, largely because it is in close proximity (slightly more than 30m, but blocked by about 7 units, and 7 floors off the ground) to the railway tracks. Seems like, though, Ah Wan thinks it will be fine.

And, why did I put in this post? Well, I'm glad, despite having to spend extra money and precious time just before my all-important, pass-or-fail-my-degree examinations, I got a taste of what it is like to settle outside of home. Staying at home leaves many many things taken care of. THAT'S A LUXURY. Looking for a home (at least somewhere to call home for two months) outside my residence of years is a very good experience. It is difficult. It takes time. Life takes time to even maintain, not to say earn and prosper. And, in a very odd way, I am doing what I wanted to achieve in Singapore - move out. Not so that I disconnect from my parents, but to actually account for and attempt to maintain my life. So that, when the time comes, I won't go hungry and dirty, or otherwise down and out,when circumstances are less than ideal.

On my first attempt at translation

2011-11-02T06:36:00.000-07:00

By the grace of 何老師, I got some comments on my virgin attempt at doing some Chinese-to-English translation. I had some good stuff, like how I was aware of some of my problems ("how do I translate that accurately?!?") and that I was translating into the language I am more familiar with and confident in. There are, of course, lots to improve on.

1. While I am happy translating into English, my mastery of the Chinese Language will determine, to a large extent, what I understand of the text, and thus the quality of my translation. This will be a multi-year (and perhaps lifelong) project to improve my CL.

2. Key terms. Not fully understanding the meaning of certain key ideas or terminology in the source text can drastically affect how I understand parts of the original piece. Here is understood 偏鄉 as 偏向鄉村（的地方）while 何老師 said that, in his understanding, it means 偏僻，偏遠的鄉下。This in itself changes how we view the extent and reasons behind certain disadvantages the children feel.

3. Imagery. 何老師 tends towards spending a lot of time imagining and visualising the narration in the text. A key example would be 一盞燈 in 每個孩子的生命裏至少需要一盞燈。Truth is, I found this term and line extremely difficult to translate, and my attempt left me less than satisfied for I tried to literally talk about a lamp/light. 何老師 asked me what I imagined the light to be like, in my mind - confessing that translation drains his time and energy because he spends much time visualising such lines/chapters/parts before attempting to translate them. I told him that I saw something like a candle light, a weak glow in a yesteryear lamp. And it occurred to me then that, to an English readership, I should be talking about a glimmer of hope, rather than the light/lamp imagery!

4. Tone. I used overly formal/academic words in translating some stuff. For example, 智商會比臺北的學生低嗎 was translated as "Look, compared to those in Taipei, are the students in the countryside intellectually challenged?" 何老師 reflected that, given the nature of the piece, that it was a speech that was quite informal and off-the-top of the speaker's mind, I should have gone for a more tone-apt way of phrasing "intellectually challenged" -- 老師 suggested "...not as smart?" This comment opened my eyes to, yet again, my inclination to overly intellectualise and complexify things. To 老師 it is very simple. Since the text called for a direct of way-of-speech, then translation should avoid affecting that "feel" of that work.

For the first time, I feel like I am being coached in something. And 何老師 is more than any student can ask for. Gentle with his words, unassuming, but very thoughtful and full of insights. Thank you so much, my dear teacher, guide and friend! (ok, this is not very fair, I have another mentor that...I should devote another post to)

An idea for Starbucks!

2011-10-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

I believe in making people do stuff by motivating them in the right way. And people would do stuff if it were fun to do, and watch.

I am at Starbucks at Utown, NUS, and I saw the cups and plates piling up. I don't exactly have some sort of need to have everything in order, but I didn't like how that went. And even when people returned their plates and cups to the help-to-clean-up-after-yourself rack, they weren't in any decent order.

So...how about a "machine" (purely mechanical, probably make use of gravity) of sorts to sort out the stuff, stack them in order, and empty them of unwanted fluids/waste? I'm totally thinking science centre now, where kids get real fascinated with things that display some ingenuity in its design, and which can make things/objects fly/fall/land/travel in amazing ways.

A wager

2011-10-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

「置之死地而後生」。

I ended a "heart-to-heart" talk with Wanwan earlier and, in the midst of her preparations for an English Language test tomorrow, she took the time to help me sort out some issues I am facing now.

What turned up is that I have two goals:
1. Short term (2-3years): Stay in Taiwan
2. Long term (after 3 years): Be able, financially and otherwise, to fly around to also take care of my parents

So, along these parameters we decided to do a wager. Well, she suggested it, and I agreed, because we both agree that rationally we both have little chance of staying together, and if we were to do that, I must be able to stay in Taiwan for significant periods of time.

So the wager goes: either I find a decent job (with prospects of learning the trade) or get a position to study at Fo Guang University in the two months I am there, 24 Nov 2011 - 23 Jan 2012, or we would call it quits and I would return to my life in Singapore.

There is a very clear rationale here. And I think, in some sense, Wanwan is pushing me to decide what I want to do with my life. On top of that, I know that I need a decent income and career in Taiwan for my parents to accept that I would have to spend substantial amounts of time there.

Finding one's passion, and the nature of relationships

2011-10-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

Shucks! I remember so little of what I heard last night from Wan. Ok, I should go review our extant Skype conversation. And it was very little. Soon after we started the conversation on Skype, she had to go offline – the downside of living in the 佛教學係dorms. So I called her…and so those words went unrecorded. Slowly, though, they come back to me.

One very important point – I repeated this to my 何老師today – concerns the right to give up. I was asking Wan, initially only half-interested in the answer, as to how one can find one’s direction in life. The answer in brief is to find what one enjoys doing BUT there’s a qualifier – one must fully try something before one has the RIGHT TO DECIDE. To Wan this means, once one decides to attempt something, there should be some concrete and measureable goal to achieve, as a waypoint of sorts. And, to her, despite all the possible pains and tribulations one might have to go through in pursuit of that goal, one cannot give up. To bear the difficulties is a requisite to deciding whether something works for one. The way to decide? Amidst the difficulties and tribulations, one deeply enjoys the activity, and derives satisfaction from it. So she felt my desire to learn translation by setting my eyes upon the completion of a book is a good start, for there is a visible end.

I never quite thought of things this way. As in, I’ve thought about the “right” to give up, but never thought about the need to immerse oneself in an activity to a certain extent decided upon beforehand to qualify to have that “right”. But it seems to make sense. I mean…I have for these many years not tried hard to achieve anything. Like I said, I ask very little of life. No…I ask for much but I do nothing to make sure I deserve it. Commitment to a cause is necessary payment to receive, even though such receiving continues to be a miraculous one, and not, in big part, caused by one’s efforts. So for the first time in my life, yesterday I called up the Gwyneth, organizer of the current round of BIA, and told her I wanted to 「爭取」the opportunity to join the team on the trip - on the grounds that the team could benefit from my suggestions and that I could rethink and re-understand what I learnt during BIA2009. Anyway, an update to that, I can go with them but I need to finance my involvement on my own.

Wan also shared this with me: for two to depend「依靠」on each other, they must firstbe firmly established on their own. Their lives must, individually, have strong foundations. Otherwise, any sort of dependence will only cause both to stumble and falter. In a very deep sense, a relationship is always about oneself. So to love “others” one must first love oneself. To project one’s dependence on others, one must first be able to rely on oneself. It’s counterintuitive, but deep in my guts, that makes so much sense. To not give others what one does not first desire, is, in this sense, really about treating yourself right.

Anyway, the thing that is left to do now is to determine how I should spend my two months in Taiwan, in December 2011 and January 2012. And after I decide, I should stand by it, and complete whatever it is that I want to do.

Venerable Bodhi, on giving up

2011-10-19T10:22:00.002-07:00

So I really didn’t resolve the issue behind my lack of willingness and motivation in getting my degree. A simple Bachelors, with three not-quite-tough modules to go, and, there I was, for the past few days (minus last night) doing NOTHING to pass my modules. I got round to talking to Venerable Bodhi and Wan about this, and reaped lots. I don’t dare say the “insights” has gone from the rational to emotive level but it sure seems I am gathering more reasons to put effort into completing these darn courses.

I’m gonna split it into two posts. The first about what I learnt from Venerable and the second, from Ah Wan.

Venerable Bodhi has always been the most sympathetic and I have never seen her get so serious. Ok, I have seen it, just once when she dealt with a student who gets a little too touchy with the opposite gender. And that was a big deal given that he and his peers are in that age of puberty. Anyway, What I got from Venerable is that I have to have a standard, a code, a way to tell me where I am heading. Without a roadmap, Venerable fiercely (to me) pointed out, I would always be lost and dissatisfied with life and whatever I am doing. That’s because I would go hopping from one tentative aim to another, always finding some reason to be unhappy about it, and always giving up. Having given up, I would feel, yet again, there is no meaning in what I am doing and the cycle continues.

And regarding this “giving up”. I simply give up too much! Or rather, that has been the only choice I ever made, between “holding on” and “giving up”. How many darn times?? Initial sparks of passion drives me to decent heights, for a beginner, that is, and then I just stop! I stop doing what consumed me and my energy for the last couple of months. I’ve attributed it to a lack of praise (which is so readily available for a rookie who outperforms people’s expectations), and I considered if it is the difficulties; Dr Don thinks, once I see myself easily succeeding at something, I lose interest; but truth is I really have no idea. I was on to something last night. I think it is about meaning, and relevance to my life. I don’t typically get on to something by thinking about its “far-reaching” significance…I simply enjoy it. Being recognized, and accomplishing some measure of success gives me a high. But, now laid bare before me, I can never finish doing something, anything, just by going on a high.

I don’t try for anything. A Chinese expression describes me well: 「苟且偷生」- to ask little of life, and thus, implicitly live on borrowed time. It means taking the safe path, to not rock the boat, to do as everyone does, keeping ones head down. Of course, many of those phrases hardly describe me…but I do ask very little of life. I take what is given, and, now and then, try to cheat a little more out of the system (society, parents, friends etc), but I never asked in life for anything big. How ironic! And I desire meaning; easily the biggest thing that can be found anything in the universe and the whole of life.

I will walk

2011-10-07T17:53:00.000-07:00

A small (but not insignificant) impulse I had in the last few days, going through all that head- and heartache, is that I want to walk. To walk and understand myself better through walking. Ah Wan, my girlfriend, told me she does not want me, in the least, back in Taiwan in November if I have no concrete plans of my own. I previously told her I wanted to learn about food and farming, because they are the basis of life. But she doubts that, and is at least partially right in thinking that I really hope to spend some time with her. Her conclusion? I would be disappointed, yet again, just as I had been at the end of my recent Sept trip.

Iam still planning on doing my farming stint, but now I also want to do something else - walking. I thought of walking round Taiwan, but that sounds like it would take two months or so. So, preliminary map-check says it takes 341 kilometres of walking to get from Taipei City to Kaohsiung City. The last time I remember doing route-march, we did 24 kilometres in 10 hours. I doubt I am as fit. Plus I don't want to rush things. AND I might just fall real ill along the way, and require good periods of rest. I think the other half, along the Eastern Coast, through Taitung, Hualien and Yilan, would be considerably longer, but with a great coastal view.

Deep within me, I hope this impresses Ah Wan. I liked the feeling when I last took a night off to cycle to a location 30-odd kilometres away from school, where and when I went to do some research on the university. But also, I am trying to understand myself, and face hardship. My parents generation has been said to be the one that took lots in their stride to give us a comfortable life today. I want to know I can do the same.

Another thing, and this is dedicated to Kelvin, for I am walking (pun intended) the same path he intended when he first thought of India. If you cannot join me, my friend, I will walk with your spirit alongside me. And to show you it is possible, and because we both have such a courageous and innocent trust in the life, I shall do this without money. I will depend on gifts of food and shelter along the way. I'll, certainly, bring a tent, to sleep outdoors, and clothes and stuff to clean myself with, but I won't bring money, that much I promise.

The fear of success, and the bachelor's degree I nearly gave up

2011-10-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

The past few days hasn't been easy. Been quite a ride. I've been having a headache that doesn't seem to go away - a constant pressure around the crown of my head which increases with how tired I am. I was telling my doc, Victor Loh, at the University's clinic that I think it is a physical manifestation of mental worries/pressure.

I haven't been very happy. The issue of hoping the my girlfriend who give me more time and attention cropped up again. And she's been real busy. So busy that she had to choose between rest, and giving me attention. And sure I was not pleased to hear that. On one level, that is to say I am not very important to her. On top of that, she tells me she hopes to that she could sometimes also be at the receiving end of some attention and comforting when she's facing stress (and not some needy boyfriend), i.e., I am currently not "grown-up" enough for her to depend on.

And all these made me question my approach to life. I wanted to tell her about my desire to not finish my bachelor's, because I am starting to think that it really is a waste of time. And truth is, having wasted 3 semesters, I really don't want to be wasting another possible two months, which is all it takes to complete the course. Of course, it might sound really silly to give up at this point, but I used Steve Jobs to encourage myself on this matter - would you be willing to do what you are gonna do today if it were your last day on earth? Hell, no!

But thankfully, I have enough friends who did the great favour of offering me listening ears and thinking minds, of a different perspective. My teachers and mentors are my friends too, btw. And they all noticed one thing - I am resistant to the idea of graduating, and there must be some underlying reason. I gained from listening to their insights - fear of success, grief over the lost of something deep within me, (de)valuing academic qualifications as a proxy to attaing/not losing something else.

And this morning, for no good reason, it all made sense. I don't like the idea of getting a bachelor's because I think it is a corruption of my "innocence". You see, I believe that life should be lived simply - as close as possible to the basis of life. I am afraid that getting my degree would somehow cause me to lose sight of that. I don't want my deeper purpose to be corrupted. I think a degree adds nothing to life, especially when I have learnt all, I believe, that I want to and can learn from my course of study. I am preparing to go back to basics - farming is on this path. And yet, a degree?

But the Diamond Sutra offered a different perspective. The Buddha asked Ananda if the persons who attained any of the four (stage of) realisations (which culminates in Arahantship) can have thoughts in his mind, that he has attained some realisation. And Ananda replied in the negative. Why? Because if the realised being has such a thought, then he has attachment to a self, which is to say he has not any realisation. At a deeper level, there are no realisations to speak of, they are just skilful means that the Buddha "invented" to help us get there. (even the term "get there" is problematic, since there is nothing and nowhere to get (to))

But I can't but notice that, to the average, commonsensical, worldly mind, there really exists the four attainments. And so the four attainments are real but yet not so real, all at the same time, and it matters as to how you see it. So I figured out that, the degree is not real, there really is no such thing as a degree. Just like in math, we can confuse a process "4 + 3" with an iteration, which appears as an self-existent static object, "7", so we can wrongly believe that a degree is a "static" "achievement" when it is really the "outcome" of a process of learning. And what it takes for me to accept getting a degree is to realise that there is no such thing as a degree and that I, being aware of that, cannot define myself by that paper qualification. Thus, I can't be corrupted because I got hold of some paper or supposedly "completed," successfully, a process.

And here's what I think of getting a degree now - it is a gift. I really don't believe I need the degree. But certainly to the worldly mind the degree is real, and so should be obtained. So, in order to satisfy the minds that think the degree is real (and necessary), I shall get the degree. I think, in that sense, it is a gift, my gift to those around me.

And my gift to all my friends who understand this post? Well, nothing more than this post itself.

金剛經的啓發

2011-09-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

Donkey years ago, I heard the line 「有花堪折直須折，莫待無花空折枝」 and did not make much of it. Today, I realised that this was a story about 因緣。

Everything has it's causes and conditions. The distinction is important - it is often thought of as delineating the primary and secondary reasons behind a result/phenomena. For example, I might have gotten my salary because I put in the hours and effort. Most people would agree that is the primary "cause" of receiving a salary, but often we forget it wasn't our OWN effort, but also the secondary "causes" like having an employer to employ you, that we have had some educational background (made possible by even more other causes and conditions) etc.

For a long while I've been fighting the idea that there can be "primary"and "secondary" conditions for a phenomena, since for a phenomena to occur there must be both occurring in confluence, so there really cannot be a distinction in their importance.

But today I perceived the "causes and condition" theory in a new light - in terms of control. I think, from the standpoint of "I", there are parts of the equation that we can control and parts which we cannot.

And what motivated that understanding? That I've been unhappy about things. I put up time for my girlfriend, and expected her to appreciate me, or at least use me more (as her breathing dictionary), but got none. See - I can put in my part of the equation, but I can't help her put in the rest. Understanding so, I realised 「隨緣」 hardly means that one is passive/aimless. One must put in the full measure of what one can control and LEAVE THE REST to other actors. So the end cannot be expected.

So if there are flowers on the branches, and you so desire to possess them, then go ahead and bring them home, do not wait for the flowers to have withered, for, try as you may, you would only have some twigs for your fireplace then. Of course, like Kelvin mentioned, you can pluck the flowers only if you are willing to face the consequences.

So, should I study for my Stats exam?

It is time to start again!

2011-09-18T00:08:00.001-07:00

I spent half a year in Taiwan and found someone there. Lots went through my mind since I returned from Taiwan, while I tried and continue to try to make sense of my experiences but one things is clear - passive/investment income is key to what I want to accomplish in future. And this cash has to be available irregardless of which country or place or time I end up in.

There are two directions - do translation and trade forex. So here I am, full circle. I'm happy, because I don't quite like having to tell myself that I have, yet again, let go of another of my spurts of interest in stuff that goes on around me.

I have committed myself to spending thirty minutes each day on each area. And though I haven't been all that successful in keeping to that, I'm gonna try my hardest in the weeks to come.

Cambodia - My inhumanity

2008-09-28T06:51:00.000-07:00

I came back from Cambodia about 34 hours. Haven't done much though. No work, no assignments. Just had 2 tuitions. And I'm in the midst of another. Left my student some work to do though.

My inhumanity. I didn't shed a tear visiting the Tuol Sleng Prison or the Killing Fields. Both were extremely moving and meant a lot of pain and a great deal of suffering for victims involved. I suspect that it was also difficult for those who were executing and torturing the victims.

I felt disconnected. At the Killing Fields, the guide for the site was just odd. So odd that many of us forgot his suffering (his entire family was killed by Khmer Rouge) and concluded (at least temporarily) that he has gone mad (or gotten a screw loose in his head) from staying on the site since 1980.

I missed his pain totally! I can't believe I was that insensitive to have not seen him as another human being. My friend, and travel mate, Joshua told me that I lacked the sociological training. I think not. I lack humanity. I lack compassion. I was trapped in my small little world, and couldn't see that there was some very severe conditions and occurences that was in this part of the world. And in HIS WORLD too.

On speaking to Vindy and Joshua, and hearing their interpretations of the guide's odd behaviour (like asking what bullet it is to the westerners during the guided tour - an M16 round), I was in shock. I didn't know! I wish I understood the significance of all our guide did and said. I wish I could detect his anguish in his eyes. I wish (much later) that I could relieve some of the pain.

And the significance of the M16 - 5.56mm - round is this: It was used in an American rifle. The M16 was developed by the US in response to the russian AK47. Who was behind Pol Pot? Was he really communist? I've no answers. But the bullet sure says something.

Later over a drink, I realised how useless my buddhist beliefs and practices were in terms of dealing with the negativity that was generated over the trip. I couldn't do anything about the suffering. Not then (in 1975-79) and not even now. I couldn't pray or wish away the pain. I wonder how much negativity I brought away by doing tonglen.

This later prompted me to go for the Pchum Ban festival (akin to Singapore's Hungry Ghost Festival) at a temple in Phnom Penh though. Second time I missed sleep for this event. But it took on a new meaning because I imagined the amount of trauma that is faced by the living and the dead because of those 4 years.

I hope this lesson stays with me. I hope I don't prematurely judge others in future. I pray I always listen to - and imagine - their stories fully next time.

I pray peace comes upon all who suffered or is suffering because of the events that occurred from 1975 to 1979 in Cambodia, the then Kampuchea.

From playing with sand to...

2008-08-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

7th AUG: Today I decided to build the Great Wall of China. And so I did. Nothing major happened. Just that it left me with a huge backache that lasted 3 days before it subsided.
14th AUG: I aspired to build/sculpt a model of the Effiel Tower. Inspired by Yin Har actually, one of my best university friends. Got me thinking about how to do something special for my gf, Miranda. But guess what? I didn't manage to get the sandpile up to my desired height. I wanted something around my waist. And before I could even reach that it COLLAPSED!!
There you see! The left (or is it right?) side collapsed. On hindsight, I could have still carved it. But I decided to go for something else.

And that something else is a classical buddhist hand symbol. It looks like an OK sign.
But according to Wikipedia (the worse academic resource to possibly quote from), "The Vitarka mudrā ("mudrā of discussion") is the gesture of discussion and transmission of Buddhist teaching." But my discussion, I mean the sculpture collapsed because I sensed the movement of the 3rd finger when I was carving some details, but didn't realise it's a sign of impending collapse. Which means my sculpture was structurally unsound. So by the time I thought of taking pictures, I'm just left with an amateurish index finger and thumb portion. This talk about understanding and reading signs seems to come from Paulo Coehlo.

21st AUG: I built 2 sandpiles TOO CLOSE to the water! Argh! And I had to abandon both in the end. But I discovered an interesting fact today. That the natural weight of the sand does a much better job at compressing and giving rise to the structural integrity of the sand below the surface level. So thus, when it rained, I went to an area when the sand was much coarser and dug. And wa-la! I dug deep enough to reach my waist with my feet in the hole.

My idea is to build a Chinese-styled roof and house a simple (read: I can't do a complex one) image of a Buddha inside.

This took me a lot of effort blowing! Blowing is done using a straw (duh!) to get rid of sand which cannot be gotten rid of using tools.

The abstract outline of a Buddha statue. Meant to be 2D.
The completed work looked impressive to me. (Allow me some self-boast, since I never thought i could finish this, especially the roof) The Buddha looks amateurish, I admit. And he has abs! Haha... Maybe it's my wish that I have abs too? In the midst of carving, I was interrupted by some staff of Sentosa. (They basically manage the island) And they kindly requested me to cover the hole when I'm done. Pretty sad isn't it? But as with many things in life, we must learn to let go. And so I did cover the big hole when i left. To at least 90% I think.
What is interesting is that I managed to do another piece. This one is basically a rudimentary and experimental sculpture of a castle with spiral stairs. It's not quite elegant. But a good try for a start. Lessons learnt!
7 AUG21st AUG
These 2 times when I build sandpiles too close to the water taught me one thing. LET GO! In some sense it's the concept of stoploss used in forex trading. When one knows the position is a bad one, one should cut losses as earlier as possible and look for another opportunity. Exactly what I did in these cases.

My sexy back view! (according to Miranda)
I really really enjoy sculpting! It's not so much about expression anymore. I started out doing this because I wanted to find some means of expression. It was and is in line with my idea of including some form of arts in my life.

But my work attracted people. Not many. But a handful. Usually tourists. In sculpting, I talked to people from India, Dubai, Pakistan, China, Vietnam, and Taiwan. And I bet that list will grow as I put more of my ideas on sand. I'm glad my work is appreciated by some, even if it's just a few. Thanks to all who gave me wonderful comments and noted my efforts!

I'm freaking late!

2008-08-19T02:33:00.001-07:00

"Freaking" is a word I commonly use these days. And I guess it expresses a sense of exasperation. After all, things are moving as fast as I hope they can. Which really is my fault, since my effort in some aspects is either really lacking or non-existent.

But after opening the IBFX platform last friday, today I finally found the time and will to sit down and figure out which are the Support/Resistance lines for 5 pairs - GBPUSD, EURUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF AND AUDUSD. To be honest, I don't know why I put in the last one. It just seems like the aussie is an attractive pair to trade. I took slightly more than an hour to complete the SR lines for all 5 pairs using the monthly and weekly charts. Haven't managed to collect info like how many times the lines were tested respectively though.

And it really is some sort of art trying to figure out which lines should be drawn. As with sculpturing, I'm starting from scratch. I'm just trying out the tools and trying to learn the ropes (or rules). I'm sure I've drawn too many lines. But that doesn't matter I think.

Anyway, using the lines I've drawn. I'm gonna embark on my backtesting of 1000 trades. An outline of what to do have been drawn up. I'm basically gonna test some hypothesis. And my testing will tell me whether my hypothesis stands and how well they perform. I'm doing some basic math modules that deal with uncertainty and risk, and I wonder if I can use the knowledge to analysis my methodologies and results. But that aside, my first hypothesis is that SR lines A)are strong supports when price tests the line from above, and B)they are strong resistance when price tests the line from below. Effectively that means this hypothesis is that whenever price tests any SR line, it should bounce off the line and return in the direction it was coming from.

This one is pretty easy to test, and probably will be proven wrong in no time. My backtesting will have to be to long whenever (A) occurs and short whenever (B) occurs.

My second hypothesis involves the use of trend indicators to establish the strength of the SR lines. Basically if the trend indicator indicates a downward trend, and price is testing a SR line from above, then the SR line's strength as a support is uncertain. If however, the price was testing a SR line from below, then it is that the SR line would be strong as a resistance. The opposite also is possibly true.

So the testing for this hypothesis is as follows:
1. Long if a support is tested from above and trend is up.
2. Short if a resistance is tested from below and the trend is down.

Third hypothesis. By using momentum/strength indicators(MSI) (eg. Stochastic/Relative Strength Index etc), we can tell the strength of the trend relative to the strength of SR lines. The testing will take the form of:-
1. Long when price approaches either C)support line when MSI points to a weak trend
or D)resistance lines when MSI points to a strong trend
2. Short when price approaches either E)support line when MSI points to a strong trend
or F)resistance lines when MSI points to a weak trend

FOR FITNESS, I think I've gotten better. I made plans to run about 3 times a week. But weather wasn't too good yesterday. And I still some strain from my slightly sprained ankle. I was thinking I was just making more excuses. But I seriously don't want to worsen any injury (if mine can even be considered one). I'll start next week.

Back on track (pun unintended)!

2008-08-11T15:01:00.000-07:00

Haha, following my last post, today is the "post (about my forex plan) later today"...which is really a "tomorrow" by yesterday's standards.

For fitness, nope, I still haven't ran a single bit since I last lost the war against IPPT. But I did go back to doing chin ups and sit ups. For the record, I can safely say I am now able to achieve the pass standard for IPPT - 6 chin ups. I'm thinking of doing some charts on a piece of mahjong paper and putting them up on the wall. To remind me of what has been achieved and what more can be. In fact, that sounds like a good exercise for anything major in life. So there's financial, academics, love, social, etc etc

Anyway, I'm ultra late in executing my plan to pull my socks up as a forex trader. Oh wait, to sidetrack a little, I lost all my data on my expenditure which I've been recording in my hp since 12 days ago (which is the start of August). I guess that teaches me about backing up data. Especially when I have a laptop which seems affected by either a worm or virus.

Anyway, on to my detailed forex plan. First the timeline.

8 Aug Finalise Forex plan
9 Aug - 8 Sept Test method 1
9 Sept - 8 Oct Test method 2
9 Oct - 8 Nov Test method 3

In the midst of typing this post, I thought I had already done this sometime back. I checked, twice. And I realised I am way behind in my blogging. MANY things and incidents that I think is worthy of mention is left out. Mostly unintentionally.

Anyway, the approaches I'm taking is going to be very foundational and traditional tools of technical analysis. Support and Resistance lines, Triangles and Channels. I haven't figured how to trade all of those. But I have quite a detailed test plan out for the first. (That again warrants another post - it's way to long to subsume under this one) But one thing is certain, I need to be doing at least 1000 backtested trades per window of 1 mth.

So that's that, I got a few of my friends to passively check my progress, which means they won't hound me if I don't do anything which I plan to do, but I would send some reports or reflections to them at the end of each period. Serves as a motivation to me. I (hopefully) tend to work harder when we think I need to disclose how much I've accomplished.

Lagging... I'm slacking...

2008-08-10T17:15:00.001-07:00

ARGH! I am freaking slow! My life which was so filled with direction and aims and goals and programs stopped completely for the past 2 days. Haven't gone ahead to fulfil schedules for my forex trading, fitness etc etc.

But today's a good day to start again. After all, school's starting! I don't quite know if I welcome the sem. Well, I do, but I just have my concerns. (But who doesn't yeah?) Arranged to meet my academic advisor for the very first time today! And that's after email exchanges since 2 months ago I think.

Plus I'll go back to seeing my nus mates with much greater frequency. Haha, but I'm gonna be such an econs-freak this sem because I am taking 4 major modules. But I'll still keep my sanity with 2 usp mods. The new one costs me A LOT of points! Just bidpoints though.

And I would like to welcome all freshies that I have met, no matter how brief that meeting was, to NUS Fac of Arts and Social Sciences. I hope you guys and girls have lotsa fun and find learning and exams not too much a bore. Learning definitely isn't if it's taken in the right spirit. But I totally can't say the same for exams.

I guess I'll talk about my forex plans later today. Alright, have fun till then!

Playing with sand!

2008-08-04T06:16:00.000-07:00

A few days back I was at the beach with my best secondary school friends. Just 4 guys who were really bored and ended up on sentosa's beach. After having tried my hand at sandsculpting (of sorts) during an earlier trip with the beach with Miranda and friends, I brought my tools (garden spades) again to see if I have the chance to have some fun.

And guess what? My friends were game for it and even sculpted some of their own stuff. We tried (and failed) to make a watch tower. And I thought we could make it a part of the Great Wall of China thing. That was when I learnt that my ability to stack sand to a decent height is not decent at all.

Looking closely, we actually did pretty well - if we were trying to make a volcano.

But later we (at least I did) still got our tan, and in our last hour on the beach, I sculpted a squarish watch tower by going subterrain - digging into the existing sandbed, rather than building upwards.

And here's how it looked like.

But I think the prize for the best sculpture surely goes to Zhidong, who carved a nice turtle out! (there should have been eggs)

And as the story goes, the turtle swam from the water to the shore towards to mountains!

Anyway, after a very fun day, we ended up with this!

And I figured out that I wanted to learn more about sand sculpting. Guess I'll go back to the beach more often to have fun while tanning!

Fitness plans

2008-08-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

Just a very short update. And I hope this doesn't bore you. Part of my intention of more intensive blogging is to provide material for reference and reflection when I need them in future. So some posts might really seem pretty useless, boring, or even annoying. ("WHY DID HE HAVE TO BLOG ABOUT THAT SILLY THING??")

Anyway, in line with the requirements of the Ministry of Defence, I am to pass my IPPT (physical fitness test) in 2 months. Judging by my performance during my last test, I need to buck up on mainly my pull-ups (did 5 out of the 6 required) and running (didn't finish even half of the required 2.4km distance).

Also, I want to strengthen my sit-ups, so thus I launch a three-pronged approach to passing. I'm already in the midst of applying the first and third aspect. I do pull-ups whenever I go to Miranda's place (since there's a fitness station nearby) and when I don't get to do any in a day, I do 30 push-ups.

As for sit-ups, I started off with doing 40 sit-ups every night when I get home or before I sleep. But I realised I didn't have any reaction from my body (in terms of aches during the following day). So I tried doing 2 sets of 40 sit-ups, still no response. I realised the problem is that doing sit-ups do not target my abdomen muscles directly. So after some thought and consulting a friend, I switched to crunches today. I wonder what the effect will be, but it sure seemed more difficult to do 50 crunches. I'm considering if I should hold and count to eight/ten rather than just contracting my abs momentarily on every count.

As for runs, I really haven't decided how to go about it. I was thinking I should run twice a week. Maybe even thrice, even though I don't quite enjoy running. The short term goal is certainly to complete 2.4km in 12 minutes. But the long term goal is to join my friend at Standard Chartered Bank's Marathon. I was told it's 10km. That probably qualifies as a fun run as compared to the full-fledged 42km marathon. So that would mean I need to do endurance training too.

Goal setting

2008-07-31T11:30:00.001-07:00

Inspired by my birthday that has just passed by me, coupled with the fact that I really have too much time on my hands now (since I hold no jobs, unlike a couple of my uni friends who are still working very hard just before school starts), I decided I needed a plan to go forward.

Oh, another source of inspiration is reading Adventures of a Currency Trader once again. My fourth or fifth read of the book I think. So much of what my goals entail concerns my financial health and expenditure/income management. I'll go into detail some other time, since I think they aren't quite finalised as yet.

I was also inspired by dance, having taken a basic waltz course at Whypong and Michelle Danceworld. The course was organised by the NUS Social and Ballroom dancing club. I realised that I really needed some form of artistic expression in my life. Probably partially fueled by the fact that Miranda and her siblings have their lives intersperse with various forms of music. One thing to look into is definitely to take up a course to learn Lindy Hop.

Fitness is high on the list too, since I'm supposed to pass IPPT (fitness test) within two months.

I'm tempted to start a new blog for every aspect of my life, but I think that might be a little too much for me to update and keep track of, even for myself. But I guess the least I can do now is to update this blog as often as possible.

Thailand trip

2008-07-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Qingren and Kah Chun for a wonderful trip up north to Thailand. I don't know if it's a land of a thousand smiles, but I'm quite sure for now it's a land where salesmanship (on the part of taxi drivers) can mean we end up lost, paying too much, at the wrong location or simply lost for words.

But despite all that, it was a wonderful trip. We had sufficient (QR would probably say too much) time for shopping in Bangkok (but interestingly, I either fail to bring the stuff back or bought the wrong sizes) and made 2 day trips to cities 2 hour's bus journeys from the capital. And those two were Ayutthaya (capital of earlier dynasty, around 15-16th century I think) and Kanchanaburi (death railway). Well, to me the highlight was the latter. First of all, they have a wonderful museum right within the immediate town area. Takes no more than 3 minutes on mini-bus (which only costs 10Baht a ride. Don't be fooled by those who extort more.) There you'll find many models which depict living conditions during the building of the railway. A very visual collection.

We later went to the Bridge over River Kwai, apparently famous, but I couldn't get much out of the place. That was the same with Ayutthaya, probably worse, because the museum gave virtually no information in anything other than Thai, despite being a world heritage site. We later spent another hour or so on a bicycle, visiting a war cemetary in the outskirts, padi and maize fields, cows, and a cave temple.

My biggest takeaway this trip is somewhat about history. I was at the war cemetary, quietly whispering a prayer for all dead, especially for those in war. And I was walking down the rows. Rows that look so dignified and beautiful (complete with plants and flowers, well maintained indeed). Home to those who died (mainly British in this cemetary) during the building of the railway. I think of a artsy film that I earlier watched - which informed me, in a subtle manner, of how the POWs' spirits and philosophy of life was superior to that of the devilish Japs. But the breaking point was reading the words left by the loved ones left behind by the late soldiers. I saw words from fathers, mothers, siblings, children, wives... Some of them reflected on what their beloved sons died for - peace. Some spoke of meeting again - in eternal bliss, hopefully. Yet others spoke of longing, remembrance, love. I couldn't not tear when I passed by those that spoke of the remains were those of "our (or my) son". I cannot imagine the anguish of losing a love one to something as stupid as a war. I've run out of words to describe such conflict and brutality. The message lives though. That war should and must be avoided. That peace and understanding is the only way for the human race to progress.

But not all tombstones had lines left behind. And not even all had names.

A soldier of the war. A soldier of the war. A soldier of the war.

That was all that was left of him. No one claimed some relationship to his bones even in death. Maybe no one could, for he was unidentifiable. But history is THIS. Unnamed people, positions, ranks, numbers, groups, formations, societies. After another 2 centuries (I dare say 50 years), who would remember this names? For the named soldiers, who would know of them and their personalities after their immediate families pass away? Probably no one, but right in our history lessons we learn that there was such a war and so many people died and they did this-and-that. And the reasons and trends was such-and-such.

WHAT IS THE POINT??

We should all stop to ponder on this. Somewhere, somehow, I recall that someone ever spoke of these lines to me: "We can avoid making mistakes we made earlier in our history in future if we truly understand our past." Note that there are two time phases there. Past and future. But read deeper. The past to us is nameless, and the future cannot be named for it hasn't come to pass. The only way that line is going to work is for the present to be involved, for numbers and statistics and academic studies cannot bring us the message and lessons from our past.

To fully comprehend and adopt these lessons, we need to be grounded in the present. Our current emotions and worldview and ideological (and moral) systems and codes. Our understanding of what happened previously. So we need bridges. In Singapore, the new generation has lived through at least 30 years of peace. No major conflicts which ends up in many deaths all at once. So we have to try to imagine the undesirability of wars and conflicts. We have to make up, in our mind, the hardships that those before us went through. But all this is not all that difficult. We just have to think of the times we came under threat, the fear, and maybe the bravery and camaderie such trying times resulted it. We could just reach deeper within us to recall times when we were hurt by others in various ways, and I'm sure we can all feel a small part of the soldiers' suffering.

We may be different, but we are really quite the same.

Birthday at Harry's

2008-07-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

Hee.. so happy.. I came back, slightly tipsy, from Harry's @ Boat Quay. Went on a martini spree since I have a card which gets my martinis for 4 bucks! Just 4 bucks each man, and those at this outlet is darn gd!

And Miranda did the sweetest thing possible, to get the live band to dedicate the last song, before we left, to me. It's a samba number I think, titled Black Sugar. When I asked the band pointed to the lead singer, an African lady I suppose, and said she's the one that the title is referring to. Well, it really seemed quite funny at that point in time. Must have been the alcohol.

And we did more odd and outrageous things. Like we tried to dance some waltz on the way to Raffles Place MRT (train) station. Complete with laptop, tons of piano books, plastic bags (from Miranda's shopping). I'm sure you can see why we failed terribly.

And we jumped down a few steps. When we got into the train, we relived our childhood (in fact, doing the following doesn't even exist in my childhood) by turning round poles. Like run, hold on to the pole, do a 360 degree with your legs off the ground kinda thing. And we played a game of charades - always starting with "I pray...(whatever)"

It's my 22nd. And as was my 21st, it was you, Seet, who was there. No doubt I have a few friends who smsed me to wish me a happy birthday, but life couldn't possibly be complete without you and your thoughtfulness. (and antics too)

Hope you enjoyed yourself as much as I did, Miranda.

Today I'm satisfied

2008-07-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

Well...no long post today. A long post after a long time having not posted will put people (me included) off.

I met Seraphina today on a train back home from town. Now, who's Seraphina? Let's see...she's my ex-jc schoolmate, a classmate's netball teammate (I think)...not much more I can say I think...but I'm just glad that I met someone from jc and had a small chat.

And guess what? A stranger talked to me today on the very same train. Because I was holding a book by Paulo Coelho. Haha, and I guess we share quite a bit in common - educators, seekers of financial freedom, philosophers (at least I hope I am)

It's a good day. Not because of what happened, but because of what I interpreted and reacted to what happened.

And I started reading Adventures of a Currency Trader again. That's the kickstart the 2nd leg of my forex journey!

A long entry & some food for further research/thought

2008-06-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

It’s been such a long time since I wrote anything, despite having the pretty frequent inspiration to write.

But in any case, what is lost cannot be recovered, especially when the “thing” is time. But this is no time to focus on lost time. Rather, I want to talk a little on what has been going on these 2 days, or rather, weeks.

Of course, there was Miranda’s birthday chalet. Although the 2^nd day wasn’t quite as expected (we were planning to play war games – or at least dirty/gruesome ones), but the party on the first day really was quite impressive with the number of people and food and cake and…erh…kids! Yeap! Kids from her piano classes and a few from her sister’s, Denise’s, ones too. And I don’t think any of us could have forgotten this cute little by boy called…oops…I don’t know how to spell his name…but it’s pronounced “Joe-Vers”…

One more thing I want to mention…for those who are turned off by my occasional philosophical thoughts you can stop here…but I believe this is a pretty interesting issue to think about for most people.

The problem is probably age-old. Or more properly speaking, as old as the ages. The epic conflict between truth and wit, between honesty and craftiness. Which would enable us to succeed in life? Instinctively it seems the answer is the latter. Only by cheating and misleading one’s competitors/enemies can one succeed. Let him know your weakness and you’re done for. And much of our worldly wisdom points to using strategies and battle tactics to achieve success in whichever field we are in. Just for instance, since this series is what I am currently in hearing about, we have the Chinese classic “Sunzi’s Art of War” and “The 36 strategies”.

In modern military organisations we also have units which specialize in collecting intelligence – information about the enemy. This highlights the need for information and how much of that is concealed in perceived situations of rivalry and warfare. Even in economics we talk of asymmetric information – that any two parties engaged in an economic transaction will necessarily, or at least probably, have unequal access to information about the other person.

It seems to me that many of today’s economic problems arise because information is asymmetric. I still think that if we all had perfect information (despite the impossibility of such a situation), we would not have issues such as overpriced goods and exploited labour. Maybe I’m wrong, and I indeed should take time to think through the validity of my position.

But let’s get back to the real issue. Is truth really that valuable? In If Aristotle Ran General Motors, Tom Morris, business-philosopher, argued that anything less than absolute truth would cripple an organization’s ability to perform in a competitive market place. His reasoning is simple. Assuming there is some inconsistency in a firm’s management and they lie to their customers about the performance of their products, the workers within the firm would then feel that the management could also be inconsistent in the truth of what is told to the workers about, for example, their future in the company. The insecurity generated by the inconsistent/untruthful information released by any department of the company would cause other departments within the firm to second-guess the management motives in anything they do.

But is absolute truth really the answer to all our problems? Or is the opposite the reality? In a recent tuition session, I came to the conclusion that some theories might seem to point us to an ideal state of affairs, for example the communist ideal of equality for all, they might simply be useless to a human race incapable of communally achieving such situations. Insofar as the ideals are unattainable, the theories or hopes are, to that extent, not useful.

Maybe some theories, such as being brutally honest about everything aren’t quite that useful for us as social and political beings. Maybe we shouldn’t believe in free trade and its benefits.

P.S. Kelvin, if you happen to read this, please contact Firman or me. We’re pretty worried that we’ve not heard from you for so long.

End of exams/Start of holidays

2008-05-03T09:24:00.000-07:00

"Every ending is another beginning, just that people are not aware of it at that point in time." (adapted from Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom)

Alright. The exams are over. I'm fairly satisfied with my papers, but I know clearly that there are little chances of getting any A grades. I forecast I'll get B+ for all 3 modules and maybe B- for my writing module.

If that actually happens, I mean the latter part of my prediction, then I guess I'll quit the glorious University Scholars Programme. But I'll put that bad news or possibility aside for now.

Next up - the hols. So what am I to do? 3 months. A few key events - Miranda's birthday (21st - which means preparing nice gifts), physical fitness test with the army, getting my trading back on track. Seems like a job isn't too much in favour of a schedule of a person who needs to trade and want to catch up with people.

The standard celebrations (or gatherings) are in place - clubbing, drinking, lunches, dinners. There would be orientation for freshies later. And hopefully I get to go as a councillor with my friends.

And a few other hopes. One is to grow some vegetables/plants during these 3 months. Probably at my gf's place. And the second is to do some (a lot, I hope) exercise like kayaking, swimming, trekking etc.

Oh...and a trip to Thailand. That isn't quite that cheap, but hopefully is worth the money. Hia Hian, I heard, is the beach we're heading for.

More on my trading later. For now I've prepared some carrots and green beans for planting in the next few days.

McDonald's dilemma (the McCafe problem)

2008-04-13T22:54:00.000-07:00

The Issue
Ok, to be utterly fair, it is really my problem. The case is this. Last Sunday, 13th April 2008, at about 2.30pm, I purchased a large Hot Chocolate drink at the McCafe/McDonald's Woodlands Civic Centre outlet. And then I took a seat, just one table, and started reading a Peter Duus' book on Japanese history. About an hour later, I heard a complaint from a mother (with 2 kids I think) waiting for a table. The comment was meant to be heard. Something about how inconsiderate it is to be studying when people are looking for tables to have a meal.

Shortly after that, as expected, the managers on duty represented McDonald's to point out a sign which was put up stating "Please refrain from studying during the following periods:...". And the poster indicated the "period" includes the whole of Saturdays and Sundays.

Now, that is perfectly fine. I admit that I was studying, since I was reading the book because I have to collect data for my history term paper. And the request (or order, depends on how you read it) to refrain from studying is right, since it seems McDonald's is a place to eat. By studying without consuming any meals, I am decreasing the revenue for the firm and preventing it from gaining more by having someone else have a seat and buy something more substantial than my $4.80 cup.

And so what was the solution? Well, I was told that I certainly could retain the seat, just by putting my books away. I could have been bitter, but I conformed, largely because I could do other things. (like write a draft for this blog and analyse the McDonald problem)

The Dilemma
Call me an academic, but I found an interesting viewpoint to the whole problem. It is a matter of structural lag (something I learnt in an introductory course to Sociology). It is a lag between what McDonald's is evolving into and what people think/expect McDonald's to be. Simply put, it is a clash of old and new.

Fundamentally, before McCafe was introduced to the Singapore consumers, McDonald's was a great place for fast food and to meet friends/business contacts. I think I aren't doing the chain any injustice by saying that it was (and still is, to some) simply a place for food. Therefore the moralistic view that one should leave after one is done with his food is pretty understandable, if not justified.

But then came McCafe, selling coffee and other premium drinks. So, without cracking our heads too much, it seems that McCafe is a competitor of Starbucks and Coffeebean and Tea Leaf. And I shall speak for myself as to what the latter companies stand for. They are places to relax ("chill" in colloquial terms), to meet up with friends for long chats, to study (for many secondary to tertiary students), to meet clients and to have a good cup of coffee (or any other "premium" drink). Notice I mentioned the coffee last? Not that it's not important, because I so love the Hot Choc at McCafe and Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks, and Caramel Ice-blended coffee at Coffeebean. But it really is more than the drink. I pay good money not only because those drinks are palatable and desirable, but also because I am paying "rent" for the seat I occupy for the time I spent in the coffee chain. And I wouldn't expect someone to be unhappy that I'm not finishing my drink fast enough or occupying the seat despite not consuming anything substantially.

Although in recent years, the latter companies also advise their customers against studying (especially during peak hours), it is a taken that reading leisurely is certainly not prohibited.

As a new consumer of McCafe, I wonder which attitude should I adopt - "eat and leave" or "stay because you paid 'rent'". I favour the latter, but I decided to consult McCafe on their vision of what sort of business they intend to grow into and the clientèle they target. I thought that would be evident from their slogan. To my great surprise, I only found vague statements like

"Pleasurable coffee moments at McCafé™" and "Premium coffee at great value™"

So that left me utterly confused. I had no clear indication of what McCafe is or wants to become.

The Lesson
Nevertheless, I think the takeaway I got from this incident is this: By introducing McCafe, McDonald's have thrown their consumers into confusion, especially at outlets where the McCafe consumers share the same domain with those of the fast-food McDonald. The expectations and meaning of time spent at McDonald's is very different for these two groups. While the chain has moved on to become a more comprehensive lifestyle brand, certain sections of its consumer base still sees the company as essentially a place to have a quick meal.

And as long as this difference of attitudes is not harmonised or resolved, we will always see McDonald's managers telling people to keep their books.

Limits of conceptual understanding (or concepts, simply)

2008-04-06T09:03:00.000-07:00

This idea is far from developed, but I'm just gonna pen (read: type) it down to serve as a foundation for further thought and analysis at a later date.

The (series of) thought is ignited by Miranda's father. He mentioned something like "one can only enjoy a job if one puts aside all thoughts of limitations of the job at hand" which led me to think about the limitless nature of any object. (Now, that's very vague, I'll refine it as we go along.)

This entry is not meant to be some philosophical treatise on what is reality or what limits we face in our human life and experience. The end conclusion should be easily understood and be fully applicable to everyone in whatever they intend to do with their lives.

My thought is this: We resent or cannot accomplish some goal/task/ideal/project successfully because our thought is simply limited to an extremely narrow scope or understanding of what is at hand. That is to say, if I want to achieve good academic results for my final examinations, we tend to be really limited and think of what specific actions should be taken to actualise the final goal of, say, getting straight As for all my modules.

I can see 2 effects from such a limited and focused method of achieving the goal. One is that we get frustrated. Overdoing and focusing on such limited areas and tasks makes our overall mission extremely dry and repetitive. If I'm thinking of getting good grades all day for an entire period of 2 weeks, I'm sure I'll be very irritable during that time. The second is that we neglect other areas/secondary aims which in fact contribute to the achievement of our final mission. Factors such as maintaining our (physical and mental) health, being spiritually balanced, developing motivation and being inspired.

But at an even deeper level, every grand goal we have at every stage in life is never a standalone. No goals are accomplished in isolation. If I may quote a spiritual text, there goes a line that "accomplishing one [aim], one accomplishes all [aims]". Every single goal is meant to be, and supposed to be, a completion of our entire being and purpose for this life. That means in trying to be a top scholar, or develop a kind heart, I am really trying to accomplish a far greater mission - to develop my human potential to the fullest. Personally I also take that to mean to benefit as many as possible.

By maintaining this greater or more expansive view of our personal goals, we are not bounded by things like job scopes, ascribed roles, lists of responsibilities and other means of limitations placed on ourselves. I believe that's where we find real joy in whatever we do. When we truly put down our need to fulfil ourselves and our desires, but instead focus on the much bigger picture of the entire universe and its inhabitants, that is when we find greater motivation and joy to propel ourselves to fully achieve whatever aim we might have.

For this coming week, for my trading, I hope to refocus and build up my approach to the entire exercise. I'll write more on that later.

Consecration of the Hindu temple

2008-03-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

I hope this is as short as I want it to be.

It's really simple. Close to where I stay this Hindu temple held a major event to consecrate the compounds after having being refurbished with new carvings and interiors. I'm sure more than that changed, but I know not how to describe the rest.

The event was amazing. Many people waited in the sun to have a chance to enter the temple to seek the blessings of the Gods they so revere. I didn't dare try, and neither could I afford to wait. But I decided to stay around and see what is happening.

My takeaway? A appreciation for a particular line in a song I've been listening to. The line goes "I pray that enlightenment can be achieved in this lifetime" from Calling the Lama from Afar. I was nearly moved to tears. Probably I cried deep within me. Because that is the cry/plea/wish/aspiration of all devotees. Regardless of faith, beliefs or religion we belong to, we all hope that is achievable. To encounter the divine, to achieve enlightenment, to be reunited with God, to enter the paradise-heaven etc. All those individual perfect endings to the story called "life" hopefully can be attained within this lifetime. It doesn't matter if you believe in rebirth or reincarnation. Because the sum total of any faith is to achieve the perfect state within one's time on earth.

The universality of the line struck me. And for a brief moment, maybe I have a deeper understanding of universal truths, such as that all beings desire happiness.

Karma and Compassion

2008-03-20T02:59:00.000-07:00

I was totally supposed to write this entry some 2 weeks back. But I kept delaying it and so now I have little to write. But first, I want to tell you guys to expect (possibly) shorter entries. I decided I should break my writing up so that my titles say more about the entry itself.

This title, which I saved as a blank post earlier in a bid to jolt my memory when I finally get to write, is doing no good. But I'll reflect on it from my current frame of mind. But I think it'll largely be on compassion.

I first thing I want to mentioned is the Tibetan term "tonglen". As far as I know, the term can be safely translated into "exchanging oneself for others" and involves the giving of one's merits/happiness for other people's suffering. Rather, it is to take on others' suffering. How is it, by any law of science or natural occurrence, possible, is a question I cannot answer. But I think at the gross level, it is very possible. Like one who pushes another away from the danger of being knocked by a oncoming car. At a subtler level, then one can take on others' misfortunes upon oneself. Again, there exists only circumstantial proof which is far from verifiable.

Stories of great spiritual beings who in their death seem to have experienced signs of many illnesses manifesting their entry and exit in their bodies. And as the stories go, at the very same time, people in the vicinity start to get cured of their ailments and severe degenerative diseases. I'm no intellectual. And I admit it takes quite a measure of blind faith to believe these stories.

But aren't our lives always inspired by events like that? When humans take on and accomplish tasks and ideals beyond what seems to be beyond our abilities? When an athlete breaks records which have never been broken for the past century. When a person gives up his/her life in service of others. When people heal the sick through prayer. When one survives and prospers despite having all odds stacked against him/her.

I might be making mountains out of this insignificant examples. But could our existence bother on the divine and infinite? Could our own nature be that very same potential? Could we be bigger than life?

I've no answers. But I know the inspiration will live on and affect many others.

GRBB and PIPS testing

2008-03-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

To take accounts seriously, last week I made 10 trades. 6 losses, 1 breakeven and 3 winning trades. All trades were of size 1 mini lot. Total loss of USD 236.85, winning trades raked in USD 277.48. So that makes a gain of USD 40.63 for a 30% hit rate. Starting capital was 355.87, so that makes my gain over 10% for a week's trading.

I am very happy with this week. Not because of the gain of 10% (after all, 40 bucks is hardly anything) but because I managed to follow my declared intention to use and actively test a system.

And after trading conscientiously for a week, I realised this is not an impossible and unachievable dream. I can possibly trade properly and profitably by the end of the year of so. In fact, I hope it's earlier. But hard work awaits. Another observation: This week was a difficult week to trade. Mainly because many pairs are hitting or have gone beyond historical highs or lows. So it is hard to say if the pairs have momentum, especially when I'm trying to trade using TNT methods.

My consolation is that, many a times, I spot the trade when the price is quite close to the short Moving Averages. So I get really good positions. In fact, my profitable trades ran my floating capital to a high of USD 900+ at some point in time. (But you really have to discount 300 off that because of an earlier mistake, profitable one though)

So that's one more issue. How do I get the best out of a trade? I had trades that ran up to more than 200 pips positive but then hit my protective stop at +120 pips. I think it's probably every trader's heartache. But it shouldn't be. Especially if you are trading according to your system. Having said so, always evaluate your system and trading methods and see if you can get more out of the market. That's where the bookkeeping columns suggested by Dr. Alexander Elder is very useful - maximum paper profit and maximum paper loss after stoploss/profit target levels are hit. That would help one track if one is trading too conservatively or being overly greedy.

Met Firman yesterday. Had a good session of info-exchange. One thing I can never match Kelvin and Firman is in their boundless energies and devotion to trading. From Firman's end, he told me of 5 different methods he tested the last week or so. The most interesting is probably rainbow moving averages. I think I want to put in a picture of that here to show you guys how fascinating the visual representation of price movements can be. So here it is:

Beautiful, isn't it? This picture, of course, shows a downtrend. Unfortunately, the system is designed for scalping. Not my style definitely.

So my next move is this. Oh, before that, I should say my good but unprofitable trades this week mostly were signals from the TNT method. So I'm admittedly in favour of testing the PIPS and GRBB methods now. Quite a powerful indicator in hindsight. As are many indicators. So I'm alerted by Firman to the "REPAINTER effect". Essentially it means indicates change their signals according to past price data so that it appears, during backtesting, that the indicators work perfectly in accordance with trends in price changes.

So that task 1 of the week. Check out if the GRBB is a repainter program. And to have that. Once a day I will take a picture (screenshot) of the currency pairs on my charts and indicate (by putting in arrows) when the last bar is when I took the picture. Then I'll match them to those I see on the following day to see if they changed.

The second part is, certainly, to trade the system. For that I think I want to be thinking of the best time frame to trade in. So I'll put in the GRBB-PIPS indicators on 1 hour charts as well and monitor them according to current trading rules.

So that's my aim for the week. I'll submit my report next week!

The battle analogy (permission of Kelvin)

2008-03-03T01:45:00.000-08:00

If any single one thinks trading is a boring sport, involving only clicking, then I'm pleased to present to you an extremely creative and engaging version of what really happens on the market. This was from an email from Kelvin, which he allegedly spent half an hour on. (Now, don't tell him this, but I think I would have taken as longer as he did)

On 28th February, Kelvin shared his trade with us: (adapted)

"Here comes the interesting part: i would hereby present the screen shot of this movie titled The Battle at the Fort.

The leader of the white soldier is planning an attack at the fort( 213 area). but knowing that the 213 fort is a very strong wan, he needs to motivate his soldiers. so he play solo and starts his attack, he slaughtered many black soldiers and each time he advances, the black soldiers is getting less and less defensive. (Higher High, Lower High), which leads him nearer to the fort. thus he thinks tt he had completed the first part of the plan which is to lead his soldiers into thinking tt it is indeed possible to get near the fort and eventually break it, in other words he had managed to motivate his soldiers and fill them with fighting spirit.
And finally the attack began, he told his soldiers, 'guys, if we manage to break their fort we will win this battle and beyond the fort contains food that we all need and lots of chiobu that we may need too, so give it all your best' and all his soldiers said 'Yes Sir!'
if u look at the hourly chart, u can see massive attack at the fort, chaos is happening there, firing of arrows, sounds of swords clink clung clink clung, shouting and fighting, heads and hands flying around, blood spilling etc etc. the best fighting action of the movie is at the 30 min chart. u should take a gd look at the 30 min chart now.

As u can see white soldiers give it all their best but the fort is just too strong. what the leader did not realize that he is putting himself in a 'either u win or lose position' the battle of the fort decides the outcome of this battle, if he conquered the fort, he'll win and price will rocket. but he is commencing a full force attack and put all his soldiers at risk. if he cannot break the fort, he will have not much soldiers left for defence. as u can c he cant break the fort and now the leader of the black soldier says: "hey guys, they do do not have much soldiers left, it's time to counter attack. he does not need to motivate his soldiers and bluff them that there's a lot of food or there are white lady to f*** if they win because all the black soldiers know that they can win easily.
as they were counter attacking, black soldiers face some problem at the camp of the white soldiers. this camp( upper triangle ) is where there are still some white soldiers and the upper triangle( res turned support) had managed to push back some black soldiers. when the leader of the black soldier saw this, he employed the bluff tactic now and say to his soldiers, hey guys if we can take their camp, beyond their camp has lots of food and white ladies, I'll give u all the permission to fcuk them if we win. the black soldiers became so highly motivated that they killed more than a hundred white soldiers in an hr! if u look at hourly chart that's 110 pips in an hr. and well that's the end of the battle and the black soldier won. but it's not the end of the movie yet, this movie is forever and the eternal battle between the white and black soldiers will keep goin on.

The last attachment is a 4hr chart, but the triangle is drawn is a bit different from the previous wan, this is drawn on a 4hr chart. initially i plan to say that let's see if S3 holds. but as i was telling my story i realise S3 not only hold but push price back to 212.

anywae that's the end of this email, i spent half an hr plus typing it! my typing speed slow bo bian. also dunno whether my story make sense not or I'm just wrapped up in my own world of story telling world which has no link to the real world (market). LOL!"

So that ends the story, but not without some clips!
Enjoy!

A fresh start

2008-03-03T01:13:00.000-08:00

Well, if you notice I'm always giving myself fresh starts, I must admit apologetically that it is true. But I hope it is not of any consequence and have not become a habit. Last week, I stopped trading altogether (which I realised, today, wasn't entirely true). Well, I didn't trade in my dreams, or sleep-trade (cf. sleepwalk), but I did make the same old mistake again. The profitable one. This time it is EUR/USD. Longed the pair on the 21st of February, set the SL and forgot all about it. Today I've closed the trade at a positive 350 pips. A nice gain, but again, a mistake that shouldn't have been committed in the first place.

But maybe I should tell you guys a little about why I took a break. Well, the simple and apparent reason is to focus on my academic obligations. I have a backlog of 6 weeks' worth of material to review and integrate into my being before my tests within the next 2 weeks. I've had many thoughts and, as undisciplined as I am, many other non-academic activities along the way.

BUT the reason isn't that simple. I stopped trading because for 2 straight weeks, and on two weekly meetings with Kelvin and Firman, I reported losses. None of my trades went right. And the reason? Because I confused the two systems, PIPS and TNT. (taught by my mentor)

Also, Miranda, my girlfriend, awakened me to my low sense of commitment and urgency towards learning and ultimately professionally trading Forex. I have no doubt I can only see forex trading as my way out of this rut - this situation of (relative) poverty and non-self-sufficiency. And as aware as she was, I knew I was committing enough to my cause. I traded infrequently, and often not adopting any proper system. The tragedy occurs - I fail time and again to keep a demo account afloat. Then the irony sets in, for I repeatedly advice people to trade by a strict system, for it helps not only personal accountability but also in tracking the reliability and efficiency of any system.

I decided to start again. But with what but a bad load of trades and loads of ill-discipline on my hands? Well...remember the extra-academic activities I did? Part of that was thinking. In part an angry response to an event, I thought long and hard about idealism. That is too much of a word to encapsulate the essence. I should say "dreams". And I went wondering, why do people set goals way beyond themselves, when the aims are remotely possible or maybe totally impossible? I watched The Last Samurai two times and tried to figure what is the value of a romantic ideal of self-sacrifice and directing all of one's energy and time to perfect one single task. Why aim for the moon? Why try to be perfect?

Motivation. That's the answer I got. How possible would becoming rich be if one never starts to think it possible for him/herself? The fact is, romantic and far-fetched ideals attract us. The ideas of saintliness, holiness, compassion, power, riches (in all its perfections) are inclinations within us.

So I uncover another layer of meaning and significance behind the mental practices as advised by Napolean Hill in Think and Grow Rich.

My Plan

I shall build my forex trading and training program in steps. The first is my basic code of conduct, the rules I shall trade by regardless of the system I choose to adopt in future.
(I think I'll talk more about them later this week)

The intermediate step is to implement the two trading systems - PIPS and TNT separately. For that purpose, I've totally segregated the indicators onto 2 different charts.

My immediate concern is twofold. One, to design the excel sheet to properly account for, and later analyse, my trades. Two, to trade both systems on 4hour charts.

My ultimate goal: TO GO 'LIVE' BY THE END OF JUNE.

I hope it is not too late then.

Yeah! Great maiden trades in 2008 and some good progress

2008-01-24T19:20:00.000-08:00

Hi fellow traders!

Here are my trades: (as per my email to my forex group, which is mentored by Clarence)

Trade 1

Date : 23-Jan-08
Currency pair : EUR/USD
Position : Short
Time Position open (GMT) : 09:26
Strategy Used : TNT Short Swing (continuation) + PIPS
Entry price : 1.4620
Stop Loss : 1.4670 (50pips) then changed to 1.4620 (0 pips)
Target Profit : 1.4525 (key support level)
Profit: 95 pips @ GMT 13:56

Trade 2
Date : 23-Jan-08
Currency pair : EUR/JPY
Position : Short
Time Position open (GMT) : 06:00
Strategy Used : TNT Short Swing (continuation) + PIPS
Entry price : 1.5568
Stop Loss : 1.5610 (42pips) then changed to 1.5568 (0 pips), then 1.5500(PS 68 pips)
Target Profit : 1.5300 (key support level)
Profit: 268 pips @ GMT 13:22

I'm real happy to have this 2 trades after such a long time not trading. I think a few things to share. One thing, the stipulated SL as per one's system is very very important.

The rationale is this: if you get the wrong signal, you have to get out and wait for the next signal which will actually give you gains. And usually that gives you a better price to get into.

The next thing is that we should always look from a big picture. In both trades, I looked for potential on the daily and weekly charts for the currency pair to move more in the direction I believe it will go.

That much said, I am going to get a gift from Clarence (CNY ang pow). Well, not quite any money or red packets, but he is giving away a certain indicator and the system which he designed to traders who achieve some measure of understanding of his initial system, TNT. Apparently, the system is meant to be more passive, requiring nothing more than weekly monitoring of one's trades.

He's gone on to start a full trading course with "live" support (and I suspect for, at least his, lifetime). Very amazing deal, with other trading schools offering something like 6 to 12 months follow up.

So that's a big congrats to him. And a small pat on the back for me.

Now that I learnt to use the BOLDEN effect. Maybe I should use it to organise my blogposts.

Tuition with Kelvin
Haha...I still call it tuition because it is hilarious to think of it that way. And if it really is "tuition" then it's 2 way -- I learn very much from Kelvin.

For one, we make promises to each other to put effort in accomplishing certain goals over the following week before our next session. Then we meet and we see what have we done. And we review our trades together.

For this week, I told Kelvin I'll continue trading according to the TNT and PIPS system. On his suggestion, I also committed myself to doing some backtesting of the TNT system, at least 20 trades by Sunday.

NO MONEY!!
Haha. Well, I know this is an issue many people my age face. And this problem is compounded by the fact that I am reluctant to give tuition (personal reasons - maybe I'll talk about them later) and also unwilling to work for lower-end hourly wages (5-6 bucks/hour). Well, sounds like I am typically middle-class, who can't adapt changes in the economic landscape.

I don't deny I might be stuck in such a situation but I draw inspiration from my favorite trading book "Adventures of a Currency Trader". As per the story, I will work to earn my right to trade. But for now, it's still studies and forex first.

To all...please share your trades and thoughts with me! I'm sure we'll all learn much from one another.

More motivation needed!

2008-01-07T16:52:00.002-08:00

I've been wanting to put in this entry for the past few days. But as discipline (or lack of it) would dictate, I never got down to it till now.

I had wonderful meetings last weekend.

This were words typed some 7 days ago, on the 7th of January in this new year.

Amazing, isn't it, that I can take so many days of procrastination to finally sit down and complete this post. But I'm glad I'm doing it anyway.

I won't dwell too much of matters of the past in this entry, but I must say my meetings left me with resolutions, which I haven't followed or complied with last week. So odd a mind I have that I don't do what I want to do.

An afternoon chat with Firman and Kelvin left me with the impetus to come up with a list of "to-dos" concerning forex. And that would ensure I come into contact daily with forex too. But that was not to be given my ill discipline.

But I just had a conversation with Kelvin and we promised one another to do trades and note them down in a log book so that we can review and learn from one another ('s trades) when we meet coming Saturday.

On top of that, I'll refine and reaffirm my current promise to myself to ensure sufficient contact, on a daily basis, with forex trading. I've 3 main concerns as follows:

1. Do backtesting of TNT strategies on 4hr charts - 5 trade studies a day

2. Clear the backlog of emails from my mentor's yahoogroup - 50 emails a day

3. Look for trade opportunities daily and read Daily Analysis - Done DAILY, analysis at 9am
sent by Clarence

So that's it for now. And I pray I can PERSEVERE, and later develop proper trading PSYCHOLOGY, based on a strong PHILOSOPHY of life and trading. That is the 3P formula devised by Kelvin.

Alright, wish me luck and effort guys!

A sweet mistake of 369 pips!!

2007-12-28T20:18:00.000-08:00

When I first saw this position still open my trading account...I must say I was overjoyed. But on thinking and rethinking, I realised it is a trade which shouldn't have stayed open. The only reason it happened is because of negligence on my part of even being aware of an open position.

1. Date : 29th Nov 2007
2. Currency Pair : USD/CHF
3. Trade : BUY
4. System : TNT
5. Method : Retracement - Continuation Signal
6. Entry Price : 1.1131
7. Time of Entry : GMT 0539
8. Stop Loss : 1.1101 (later adjusted to 1.150 around 22/11/2007)
9. Target Profit : NONE (THIS IS A MISTAKE!!!) (later adjusted to 1.1630)
10. Exit Price : 1.1500 (On 26/12 GMT 13:07) (Win 369 pips)
11. Commentary and Reflection : Alright. Honestly I love this trade and it shows me the power of longer term trading. But it is a mistake because I did not set a TP at first, and later forgot about the trade. When I saw it is still on around 20th Dec, I went in and put SL and TP levels. Ended up with SL triggered. Could have saved another 19 pips though, because Clarence's advice (which I did not act on) is to change the SL to 1.1519.

I won't say much for now, but this system seems to work pretty well. I've been trying to do backtesting with my sister, but I got discouraged 2 hours into the research. But, well, like the word says , I'll go re-search for the truth.

Do have a wonderful and meaningful last few days. Have a great year ahead!

The season for trading

2007-12-15T08:42:00.000-08:00

12.45 (early) in the morning, 2 weeks non-stop no forex and trading actions, hardly done anything since my varsity hols started...but this is certainly the PERFECT time to blog.

For a few reasons of course. But I won't list the reasons.

I note that it's real close to where and when I'm supposed to start trading. And I actually feel I have a better chance trading in school. I picked up trading again while preparing for my varsity exams. And so going back to school quite excites me - continuous wireless, and my laptop's usually with me.

Talking about that, I spoke to Kelvin last night. In short, he's a friend I met during my national service days. (in the camp where I, thankfully, was allowed to slack for more than 1 year) For a brief period, I got to know this guy with some ideals and ambition, but appeared like an educated Ah Beng to me. Well, years go by, and I realised he's really not a Beng (or hooligan, apologies for the colloquialism), is pretty friendly and has learnt a lot since we parted about 2 years back. He picked up English, surprising me with his vocabulary and fluency, having rejected reading Rich Dad Poor Dad in english when I first got to know him in camp.

Anyway, back to the conversation. He gave me my most unusual request to date. To tutor him weekly (and charge him my normal tuition rate) in forex trading. And that was easy to answer. For many reasons, I can't accept a single cent. Simply because I'm as much a student as he is. But I know what he's aiming for, and I agree we should do as he suggests -- to meet consistently at least once a week to discuss trading and stuff. We'll see what comes out of that in our next meeting.

Next, (I hope you guys are tired of hearing this from me) I finished the ebook "Adventures of a currency trader" once more. The first time was during my extended lunch times in the Times bookshop in Centrepoint. And I still absolutely love that book and recommend it to all traders, but more so for traders for have had a little experience in trading but is going nowhere. The book has no answers, but is a great direction pointer. (Firman, I think you should read the book, if you haven't.)

I'm not gonna say too much now, lest it be repeated stuff. But I must emphasize this point to all fellow traders. Trading is NOT about the system. Everywhere in the market, we see trading systems being promoted and sold. Some claiming to be a sure win, others say they guarantee a path to riches. I'm not saying they are not true or can't do what they claim. But that's TOTALLY MISSING the point.

Trading is about yourself! There is no system that works without the trader clearly knowing what's the rational behind the system. And the system has to suit you, the trader. I clearly know you can't use a system that trades on the hourly chart if you can only afford to go on to monitor trades on a daily basis. (or even less frequent than that)

At this point, I must say I don't really know how to substantiate my abovementioned point, so please do leave a comment if you guys have something to discuss or some questions to direct my posting on this issue.

Just a last point. I attended a seminar on futures. Really great info there, learnt a lot about futures and investment in general.

I'm a student, and I believe we all are on this amazing journey.

ENJOY IT!

Reflections and (re)Awakening

2007-12-03T02:10:00.000-08:00

I'll be honest, I don't know how to start this post.

It's just a mini looking-in-and-looking-back exercise.

The whole deal of getting any more affluent (not to even mention rich) was partly propelled by my wish to see something and funds and energy being done for and to people who are worthy. I know the words more commonly and easily understood include "unfortunate", "poor", "needy" etc. But that's not what I mean or who I want to refer to on two counts.

One, help should not be blind, even if someone is commonly thought to be in need (eg. African starved babies), not everyone deserves it. I'm no one to judge, but I learnt through my life experiences that one can only make full use of help or additional resources when one is willing to help oneself first.

Two, people who are worthy, deserving help, are not "needy" or "unfortunate". They are the people who truly live their lives (and use their hearts to achieve their goals) They are more than deserving. To me, people with purpose are sacred. (I'm really not apologetic if someone thinks this word should be in the domain of religion)

And these few days, events (again, I can't remember what happened, but I preserved the lesson) told me to look again at this aspect of myself and my desires. I remember setting aside money out of my income when I was working to be used to donate to a cause I thought is worthy.

Well. I failed and succumbed in the face of financial need (rather, wants) of my own. Well, I should say it was desire and wants to caused me to steal my own money and betray my integrity to splurge it on myself. All that money quite a few cents) came from my "charity pool".

I think I owe it to myself, not even to anyone else, to do something about that.

And I will. But when?

The shock continues...

2007-12-03T02:05:00.000-08:00

And what's the shock? That so much time has passed since I posted in August. In any case I'm starting again, and with a BANG! (I hope)

Anyway, here's a trade I did based on the system of Clarence, my mentor in forex.

1. Date : 28th Nov 2007
2. Currency Pair : USD/CHF
3. Trade : BUY
4. System : TNT
5. Method : Retracement - Continuation Signal
6. Entry Price : 1.1057
7. Time of Entry : GMT 0430
8. Stop Loss : 1.1027 (later adjusted to 1.1087, then 1.1127)
9. Target Profit : 1.1147 (later adjusted to 1.1192)
10. Exit Price : 1.1192 (at GMT 12:45) (Win 135 pips)
11. Commentary and Reflection : Well, the price went really smooth, in part I attribute it to that the price has been above the PIPS pivot level for some 8 to 10 hours. Also, remember Clarence mentioned about how he observe prices suddenly shoot up upon contacting the MA line? Well, it sure happened here!

Yeah! so happy! (to finally get a proper trade which wins)

This is just a common email that I get within Clarence's yahoo group, full of forex enthusiasts, experts and noobs alike!

The post is a little outdated though, do pardon me for that. I will try to post more trade on the blog to share with everyone too!

Maybe you guys could share your trades with me too?

What?? IT'S ALREADY THE END OF NOVEMBER!?!?

2007-11-27T22:27:00.000-08:00

The last post was in August...And to be totally honest (I've been using that phrase quite a fair bit I noticed) I feel like I've been asleep for the past 3 months. (Wait, August-September-October-November, maybe we can count that as 4 months). Anyway I'm in the midst of studying for my exams. My first in NUS (National University of Singapore). Been the most ill-disciplined guy who goes to library almost daily (because I sleep).

The MOST IMPORTANT (penting sekali) thing that motivated me to write again (other than trading again) is an act of kindness by someone on the streets of Singapore. And he/she was walking in the vicinity of Novena MRT station when I dropped 3 cards. Three very important cards - IC, Ezlink card and ATM card. And just today, I picked up a brown envelope sent to my address. There was something flat and hard in the envelope. Well, I gave the story away, but the cards came back to me in an envelope, anonymous, with no return address. I wish I knew who he/she was. I want to thank the person for saving me a lot of anxiety (and money too).

But more than that, I want to highlight how paranoid we can be sometimes. Immediately after discovering my loss, I called up the banks and transitlink offices to cancel the cards. The officer from the latter even advised that I waited for a few days to see if the card is returned to me. And I rejected that flatly. Not that it is a bad decision, but the mindset that I had is ultra-skeptical. I supposed someone would misuse the cards, or at the very least, not return them. I even suspected a particular restaurant's staff and customers of possibly finding but not wanting to return the card to me. When the envelope came, I thought (in a passing thought, maybe as a sort of joke to myself) that maybe it contains unidentified objects which are meant to terrorise (with anthrax or sth) (and, again, I overestimate my importance here). BUT...in the most unassuming manner, someone kind out there returned my lost items. And (pardon my meagre knowledge) all the religions I know of advocate this sort of kindness. Here I am though, to say a sincere thanks and pay tributes to whoever returns stuff to others, hopefully making someone's (like me) day and an unending cycle of "paying it forward".

One more thing. Here's a big "Apa Kabar? Bagaimana Kabarnya?" to all our indon friends. Took up a very basic course on Bahasa Indonesia here on campus too.

I guess the biggest news for myself is that I started TRADING forex again! To be totally honest (there I go again) I haven't been winning many trades. I think it's just a matter of refining my discipline and skill in choosing the right trades. I'll get down to business and talk about trading right after my exams. And my aim remains a constant. I want to trade at the end of this year - LIVE!

Hope you guys haven't been affected by the drought of news from me. (haha, there I am overestimating myself).

And congratulations to my fellow trader, Morris, who is going "live", or getting a-live(-account), very very soon. Phenomenal progress for a newbie when he started just 3 months back with Clarence.

Till then, have a great trading journey!

1(st) post in August!

2007-08-19T22:19:00.000-07:00

Alright...I'm getting a little too excited and flustered about varsity that I hardly can spend time on anything else. Even Miranda was pretty pissed actually. But anyway...here's my first, and possibly the only, post for the month of August.

Now, I guess I shouldn't bother you guys with any further info about my newfound varsity life, should I? But just to summarise, it's basically equivalent to having lunch with people, finding time to do non-academic activities, visiting libraries (even on Sunday, yes) and most importantly, to be buried under piles and piles of readings. I estimate I've to read and digest some 200 pages of material and research papers each week. But that aside, school is pretty cool and fun. Learning is supposed to be fun and interesting isn't it?

And as for Clarence's course, I guess that first session was meant for some Forex basics. But honestly, I think I wouldn't be able to learn that many technical terms and understand Forex trading in a 3 hour session. In fact, it was after quite a bit of experimenting and trying out the platforms that I figured out what it is all about. And I still don't understand why my limit orders sometimes are activated immediately when the order's price level hasn't been triggered.

In any case, it is a good refresher. Was really hoping to learn how to read the current market situation though. (Cos, interestingly, major US-linked currency pairs are undergoing major market corrections in favour of the USD.) Studying the GBP/USD, I found a nice doji at the end of the slide downwards for the past week. And the head and tail ends are pretty long, reflecting a whole lot of market uncertainty. Personally, on a pure gambling tendency, I bet the pair will head north now. Well, at least the stochastics agree. Parabolic dots are waiting to reverse, but I guess I'll need both to confirm my suspicions.

As for the system, I'm very glad to know I'm gonna learn alot more than just entry signals. My current belief is any system can work, as long as I can define a appropriate position size and stoploss system to take advantage of the expectancies of the entry system.

Another thing that surprises me is that Clarence's TNT system is applied on all 4 major currency pairs and even others like the EUR/JPY. In fact, he is looking at including the aussie and kiwi too.

As for the project to track my expenditure, and, in general, my entire personal financial accounting effort have been suspended for about a month now. I'm gonna try my very best to bring it on track by settling my financial spreadsheets today. And to truly implement my income management principles I set in place for myself.

Well, the GBP/USD didn'tmove northwards as I thought it would. Haha. Can you imagine? I actually wrote this entry over some 3 days. And so here's my mini-reflection-cum-updates.

Have a great week! Well, at least half of it is left.

The coming of August

2007-07-31T07:14:00.000-07:00

Here's the significance of this month is multifold. But of course it's mainly financial.

The first being that I decided to go back onto the tedious but rewarding and informative process of noting my exact expenditure again. I abandoned this project quite a few months back. February to be exact, if I'm not wrong. I did it for a full 2 months and found I spend some 700 bucks each month. And about two to three hundred goes to food. Haha. So here's an experiment to see how true is it that one tends to spend less in varsity. And it'll help in planning my expenditure in future. Well, to be honest, it's not quite in my policy to budget and to stick to one. I rather expand my means.

The second event, as I've been mentioning countless times, is that I'm starting my varsity life proper. And this is truly and exciting new phase. I just realised, today, that there is an investment club in NUS. But the people at the booth, two of them, weren't quite that active in getting people to know about the club. Nevertheless, my conversation with the two gentlemen led me to a shocking discovery that one of them is a fund manager. He said he deals with Forex too. Well, I'll definitely be going for their seminars to learn about whatever they have to offer and to network with some people with similar interests. Wonder how many in NUS is interested in their financial future though.

The third is to give a booster-start to my Forex trading. I, still, am keeping in mind that I intend to go live in Forex trading coming January 2008. Clarence's course would tell me what to do, but finally I need to understand myself and what style I want to trade, and best trade, the market. Reading "Trading your way to Financial Freedom," I understand that the Holy Grail in trading is really an internal search to understand oneself and how one reacts to the market than a perfect system which would gain constant and unfailable rewards. It really mirrors Kiyosaki's comment that investments AREN'T risky, only investors are. So the challenge is not so much to get this perfect system that uses loads of indicators that proves, according to historical data, that one can gain from the market, but to discover how our emotions and mindset limit and make our trading riskier.

And of course it means we have to deal with some of the assumptions and false beliefs and psychological barriers that we, and especially, I, hold about trading and the markets we are involved in. And the discipline to withstand loses, that's one tough nut to crack. But it will become a source of victory in due time as I progress along this path.

The future's exciting and pregnant with countless possibilities.

May we all have a great time ahead!

Stagnation... and my 21st BIRTHDAY!

2007-07-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

Things are going just as they do usually. Not quite. Anyway, I've just returned from a trip to Redang Island off the Eastern coast of Malaysia. Really nice beaches and water there! Imagine snorkelling and seeing fishes just some 20 to 30 metres off the beach. And you can feed them by hand. Had to be careful to avoid the bigger fishes though, cos fishes tend to bite and try and grab a piece of whatever food one has in your hands. The small fishes "bites" feel more like suckles, but the big fishes really bite with their teeth!

Haha. So much for my trip. Next up...my birthday! My 21st birthday was spent in a quiet meaningful session with Miranda on East Coast beach. And I was given some 21 gifts! I guess she didn't get the "guilty look" that she so wanted to see that day, but I was totally moved! (quite close to tears...but...) There was just this warmth my heart seeing all the effort in making and the beauty of her gifts for me. Which reminds me of how poor my gifts are. Nevermind...I have her 21st birthday to redeem myself!

And down to the more serious topic. About becoming stagnant. In financial matters in general and Forex in particular. I mean...I'm really getting nowhere. I'm not actively demo trading. Not posting or conversing on the forum. Not talking to my forex buddies. Not quite reading. (Though I finally got down to reading one of the many ebooks uploaded by Clarence).

It's the phase after all the excitement. In technical terms, it's consolidation. If that is so, I sure hope my long term moving average is still trending upwards and the trend hasn't reversed. I seriously see Forex and trading, in general, as a viable means of survival, and investing would be the longer-term way of accumulating wealth. A job is far off my mind now. Even teaching (tutoring rather) is because I really love telling people about the subject. Well, I fail at telling people how to speak and write and communicate in proper English though.

Upcoming events should give me a boost. Will be at Clarence's Forex course in August. And varsity will be starting for me too. In fact I'll be collecting my matriculation card tomorrow from NUS! Many activities will be filling my life. And I wonder if I can cope. End of the day, or year, or my university life, I hope I have gone thru a ride of my life and not have to depend on my bachelor or honours degree. (or even Masters and Doctorate!)

Well. Hopefully it's a good start then!

A major loss

2007-07-20T17:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was on my computer and I visited a thread on this forum which has gone very quiet for the past 2 weeks or so. It belongs to a team of 2 admins who started this program to invest people's money through the method of scientific/mathematical/logical betting.

The basic idea was to increase one's bet after losing the previous round. The increase would be sufficient to provide for the profit of the current and all previous rounds of failed betting. Well, I must say I ever heard of this approach used in other gambling or chance games like poker and blackjack. If I am not mistaken, Firman and I also thought of applying it to Forex, applying double of the previous trade in the opposing direction. I don't quite know why we chose to abandon that method. Maybe because it simply was too risky compared to putting in a Stoploss level. And the trade amount might get really huge given a few earlier losses. To give you an idea, we could start with 1% of our trade capital, loss it for the subsequent few rounds and use up to 2, 4, 8, 16 and even 32% if our capital. And that still doesn't guarantee one can have a successful trade.

Rather, why not invest time and maybe money to find and design a system which can historically prove its effectiveness? Well, pretty tough and quite a hassle. Which is why I'm meddling with the idea of hiring a researcher to get me some info.

Maybe I could get some help during my uni days.

Anyway, a few of my friends are coming up with interesting, albeit not so fresh, ideas. One is to set up a Forex brokerage firm. The key selling idea is to make it local, approved by MAS with low pips spread to benefit short term traders.

The other comes from Louis and gang. I met him during my NS stint in Nee Soon Camp. Currently doing a accounting programme, Louis has hopes of establishing an investment firm to save on taxes on capital gains from equities trading. Currently our team's just Louis, Aloysius and me. But we're still looking to pool the expertise and financial ability of a few more investors to make a winning team.

Well, my basic proposal is to send at least one of us for a good course for a few thousand bucks so that we can better manage our funds which should hit some 30-50k. But then again, I really wonder what's going to happen from here on. I don't even suppose I can afford the initial that they hope to get from each investor. But probably that's no problem because I would be involved in live Forex trading the start of 2008.

Which only means I have to work harder now to find my preferred (and preferably winning) approach. Ok, time to do more studies. Next up would be to document the potential of using indicators to decide on trades. I realised from my experiment with parabolic SAR dots that they respond fast enough to reversals at the entry level, but lag when telling one of when to take profit. And it seems stachostics will help.

Have a great trading week ahead, mates!

Why financial freedom?

2007-07-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to do this post a few days back when the issue was still fresh in my mind but somehow never found the time to do so. But, well, here I am to explore why we want to get rich...

My desire to do this post is triggered by Firman, who in http://intelnova.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=3507&pid=68486&st=0&#entry68486 exclaimed that we were not enjoying life like some of our other friends who are partying and having "fun". And Firman also reflected on the possibility that being too involved in forex to the point of obession would destroy us eventually.

And I share his concerns. After all, that "fun" is fun, otherwise I wouldn't have had the desire to drink, get high, and party. But...that fun is really short-lived. It leaves one with a headache, maybe some vomitting, and maybe a night of regrettable actions. (haha, I learn that the hard way) Not that I wouldn't do it, but it's good to know and be involved sometimes. But not too often. And as for the obsession part...I think this obsession is pretty good for the time being. While we might lose friends along the way, but that is just natural as one comes into active contact and relationship-building with other friends and associates along the same path.

Remember? The five closest people around you today will define your context and reality in the next 5 to 10 years.

Anyway, becoming rich is very exciting, because that means your standard of living goes up, you get to enjoy more material goods, you have the opportunity to quit you job in the middle of a career, you've no worries about your bills and many other superficial stuff.

But more importantly, the question "But have you ever wondered once we become financially free, what are we going to do?" is, to me, an answer in itself. No, that doesn't mean, just because I have time on my hands, I would laze around and waste time. In fact it is such that now the control over time and financials is returned to your hands, one can do what is most beneficial and important for oneself, loved ones, friends and many others. And if you didn't see charity, read again.

I HAVE A DREAM! That line was made famous by Martin Luther. His dream sparked and motivated the change in attitudes and constitution of America towards the "not-so-equal" people of his racial origin. Today things are alot better but still our brothers have more to do to prove their worth. The dream brought the people through amazing journeys and tough times.

In the same way, dreams will carry us through the toughest parts. Not that we won't get wet or slip or shot on this dangerous journey, but the dream would support us. And what's my dream? I hope to see, above all, that I can do what matters most. Be it to spend time with my gf (and wife-to-be), or possibly being there for my kids' special events, or to meet with my friends to always stay in touch, or to go on humanitarian trips to countries in need (and learn much more at the same time), or simply to sit down and learn to be at peace with myself. For all these reasons and more, I would like to be financial independent. Not of parents, but of a routine which would kill brain cells, stifle creativity, and make you lose what you love most.

So there you have it, Firman, and all, it is not going on this path towards financial freedom or passive income that will make you lose important stuff. But not going down this path would eventually get to you and you would lose even more.

In closing I would like to quote a motto of some ancient army (Greeks I think, or Roman, well, whichever).

ALL MAN HAVE FEARS,
BUT THE BRAVE PUT DOWN THEIR FEARS
TO GO FORWARD,
SOMETIMES TO DEATH,
BUT ALWAYS TO VICTORY!

Developments...

2007-07-09T16:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, another long (-awaited, I hope) post. Oh, I mean it's been a long time since I last said anything. My girlfriend also found that she's increasing lazy to post anything.

Haha. So much for that. No intention of closing the blog yet though, not like it would matter to anyone. Ok, that's random ramblings.

Recently re-read Robert Kiyosaki's "Retire Young Retire Rich" and found it so refreshing! I was honestly looking out for the section on getting insurance on trading thru options and hedging but I realised the book's about a lot more!

For one, I hope this was not repeated earlier in my entries, is this idea of content vs context. The basic question from Robert to people is this: "What level of income do you want to retire at?" And according to him, most people would be comfortable if they get 25k to 100k a year in retirement. But rarely do people reply that they want to make millions a year, or even just the 100k to 1 million a year range.

And that's an issue of context! If you can't see yourself doing it or achieving something, there are good chances you won't. I heard this somewhere before, so let me quote this. "If you think you can't, then you really can't." And that is not some far-fetched mind-altering theory. It's very logical. You see, the only time we make an effort towards something is when we believe in it. It's called "faith" by some. I have to have faith that, by working hard, I can do well academically before I'll even put effort into studying right?

Doubtlessly, we can be forced or coerced into making an effort to accomplish stuff. But that's sluggish. Motivated efforts arise effortlessly when one has the passion and belief! It's sometimes known as "fun" by some.

So faith gives you an impetus for action...and coupled with the chances of winning a certain percentage of the time, you increase you opportunities where you can succeed! Now, that's not quite far-fetched a theory is it?

Haha. Just a minor reflection on my end. Recently I had some events in my life that made me aware of the importance of choices. Cos if we always chase after stuff that we think are new and fresh and exciting, we would find ourselves never in equilibrium. It'll honestly be an endless chase. And someone told me I am a show-off. And I admit that. I admit I feel good when I can do something relatively well. I'll also admit that I love getting praised for those efforts. And I don't intend to change that. What, instead, should be my focus would be to follow principle NO. 1 in Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People"...that is to lavish sincere praise on and give due appreciation to people around me. Dale said it well that people often can't go hungry for more than 60 hours, but yet can be so deprived of appreciation, hearfelt praise, and affection for 6 days, 6 weeks, 6 months and even 60 years!

Well, I suppose it's a really good time to work on that since I'm entering a new phase in my life.

And darn! I missed Clarence's forex course after waiting so long for it. Cheers to him for letting me go back for the August intake. These months I've been really blessed with many people's guidance and forgiveness.

I hope sincerely that all of us can progress towards financial capability, autonomy, and then freedom.

Forex strategy testing

2007-07-03T17:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, so after reading "Adventures of a Currency Trader" at Times Bookshop, I started to do some tests to see what's the effectiveness of strategies purely using indicators.

For a start I've completed the Average True Range of GBP/USD for the period of 1st Jan to 9th Jun, 2007, and found that the daily average is around 119 pips and, the weekly is 290 pips.

So that leaves me some sort of way to know how to position my stop losses.

I begin my strategy testing with using the Parabolic SAR dots reversals as signals as my trading strategy, buying on day 1 of reversal and selling on the 1st day of next reversal. SL levels are placed at the level of the dots and are unchanged for the course of the trade.

Data was collected for approximately a year on the daily chart from May 2005 to Jun 2006. Parabolic settings at Acceleration = 0.020 and maximum = 0.20. And guess what I found? This indicator works superbly well only in a strong trending market, otherwise the signals could just result in whipsaws.

Over the period there were 20 trades averaging 17 days each. The best gain was a 1081 pips gain in a 44 days trade and the worst trade resulted in a loss of 422 pips that lasted 17 days.

On average, there were loses of 44.2 pips per trade. And the reward to risk ratio, calculated by taking the quotient of dividing the pips gained by the potential pips loss as dictated by the SL level, found that the potential gain is rarely even 100% of the potential loss. The sole exception is the strong upward trend resulting in the 1081 pips gained. That one has a reward to risk ratio of 2.92 : 1.

So I realised that the Parabolic dots are only useful in strong trending markets which present themselves more frequently towards year 2007. Still they cannot be standalones in deciding trading decisions. And a trailing SL level at each day should be set as indicated by the new period's Parabolic SAR dot.

I've also to device a way to find a better time to exit trades, since I realised that the indicator is good in telling direction but quitting the trade only by the next reversal signal would mean there would already be some downside to the earlier gains.

My next study will be on Stachostics alone to see if they work as reversal signals.

I'm also attending a course by Clarence and I should be able to gain much from there. Did see in an email from him that some of his students are still quite lost though, hope I'll be a good trader who can pick up the right signals as his TNT system dictates.

Hope you guys are doing great trading and having fun yeah!

Updates

2007-07-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

Now what's coming up man?

Of course, I had my orientation. And now I'm wondering if I should go ahead and do another one to know more people and have more fun! Haha, still on this "high" wave since Arts Camp...

So if I'm considering another one, it would be the sociology camp, which is packaged and advertised as a camp for socialites...

Haha, that's not what I am but I think I can turn to be a little more sociable. So far my networks are pretty limited and I don't quite know how to broaden its depth or breadth.

Or more like I don't know how to use my network extensively.

Well...in any case, I'll see if I should do the camp. Having another consideration, though. Gonna be overseas with my secondary school guys from 24th to 27th July. Destination: Redang. KC had to give up his notion of a historical/cultural trip. He told me why, but I can't remember.

So if I do go for both events...that's 2 whole weeks away from my gf! Which is really the opposite of the aim of quitting my job.

Sigh, I'll try to decide.

Back from the Big "O"

2007-06-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

Haha...if that gives you the idea that I'm referring to something sexual, you must have not read my blog before. Well..."O" is for ORIENTATION! And what I just came back from is the camp for NUS Arts Faculty!

And now I'm on a emotional high! It's always sad to leave those fun times, but what I brought away are lotsa memories and a whole new bunch of friends to start uni with! (Sorry about this post, cos it isn't biz or economical in nature)

It's kinda late though and I might be having a long day of tuition tomorrow. So let's see what updates I can make sometime later yeah.

Meanwhile you guys out there have fun!

The Flaw of Capitalism

2007-06-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

But, still, there's hope.

I think this news must have gotten to most people now. Brick workers in China being abducted or lured using sweet words to work in brick factories where they are ill-treated and poorly paid, if paid at all. And the best thing is there are appears to be some cover up on the law enforcement's end.

And this is not an isolated event. Neither is it limited to China or any single period of time. I believe slavery and abuse have been practiced from ages unknown till this moment.

And in some sense, it is actually the moral gap that surfaces in any capitalistic system. The fact is the system, assuming I'm right about the profit motive, drives companies or producers to cut cost to gain the most profit. And this sometimes occurs at the expense of human welfare. Or should I say that always occurs? While we try to get goods at lower prices, sometimes we have to ask ourselves if we are selling our conscience, simply because the dollars you save caused some others to lose precious time, comfort or even their lives.

Informed consumerism is a keyword we have to look at having known such realities like sweatshop and child labour. And in this case, forced labour. In fact, does it sound very different from rape in the activity's nature?

But the same system that caused the profit motive and problems would solve itself. Through a more perfect flow of information, we would know what to choose to buy or reject.

And if that sounds impossible to achieve, the real issue is if we have the conscience and heart to choose the right, over obvious benefits like enjoying more goods.

Downtimes

2007-06-13T22:11:00.000-07:00

Would it be surprising that I'm undergoing a rough path at work? Well, just part and parcel of life I suppose. I honestly don't quite know how to put in words what I've been going through at work over the past 2 days.

To sum it all up, I'm just more willing to quit my job. I don't feel there's much to hold me back now, since I am aware of the complaints against me. There's a Chinese saying that says the wise knows when to go and come at the right times. And this is a time to leave.

It's not some injustice I suffered though. It would be without doubt that their complaints are true. I use the internet during working hours, my chats with colleagues from the corporate sales side is a "little too loud", I go for break that are a little too long. And the best one is that I slack on the job. I slack? Well, I haven't quite seen my predecessor do more work in a week as compared to what I complete in a day. My team, which include my colleague and I, covered up a backlog of an entire month's work in a mere 2 weeks.

And what are we told? The previous guys in my position said this job can be completed with OTs(overtimes). Well, I should say to my superiors that they should learn how to fire those who can't and can't be bothered to work then. Is it not more important that I finish more than a day's work on a daily basis than focus on my inequities?

To be fair, my supervisor was nice, truly, to have not mentioned all this to me until I approached him to discuss when I should resign. He thought he really didn't have to bother me about such things since we were doing our work, coupled with the fact that I'm leaving soon. But alas! It revealed to me the undercurrents of politics and arrow pointing in a corporate environment. And in a recent chain of events, I realised there's tai-chi, an ancient Chinese martial arts school and philosophy, played in this company.

Well, enough said for now. I'm just looking forward to a good break, away from unseen eyes which spys on and scrutinizes our every action and dangerous mouths that spit forks of flame and daggers to your back.

And I think I should think about how to avoid having a job in future.

Hopefully my free time is used properly to increasing my forex power in July.

Interesting times for USD

2007-06-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

While the USD is still on a long term upward trend according to the 200day moving average, the recent events, particularly over the past 3 trading days. With almost no particular news on forexfactory.com that is in USD's favour and GBP's detriment, the G/U pair actually dropped some 300 pips!

So there's the drop on the daily, which came to be quite a shock to me at first. My mentor told me that the downward trend since mid April is actually a retracement of the previous uptrend since early March, and that the long term trend is still upward as indicated by the blue line beneath all the price action.

Well, nevertheless, i drew channels for the current uptrend as well. In fact I drew it for the downtrend since mid April and the uptrend for the past 2 weeks. And so on the 4 hour graph that's what I saw. The red arrow indicates where I first observed the situation where the price is sandwiched between the upward and downward channel.

I boldly predict that the market doesn't know where to go now, and it would decide by entering either the short-term upward or medium-term downward channel. On that day itself, it was the last few hours of the market when the trend entered the downward channel. And so I shorted the pair at 1.9668. My current SL for that position is at 1.9750 and the TP at 1.9550. A risk of close to 100 pips and a reward of 200+ pips. So that's a comfortable risk-reward ratio.

And this is truly paper trading. Because I didn't even open a position using virtual cash on the platform, but stuck a post-it note on my desk to remind me of this action.

And the reason for the drop? Was anyone wondering? To me it's pretty technical. On the daily chart, the big selloff started when Parabolic SAR dots reversed and the Stachostics crossed too. I had a look at forexfactory.com's news indicators and found nothing that would have given the USD such a boost. In fact, the news there were very much more in favour of the Pound.

So I consulted Grace Cheng(or rather, her blog). And she told me that yields on 10-year Treasury Bonds have hit highs, beyond 5%, apparently a high for the past 11 mths. And there are speeches made by guys at the Fed Reserve that indicate they are still willing to up overnight interest rates to curb inflation, which is still seen as a threat. Well, I do have to agree 3% per annum is a little too high.

Anyway, I think she can say it better, so you guys can read her post at http://www.gracecheng.com/blog/413/Forex%20universe%20revolves%20around%20USD.html

I think I'm moving towards a professional trading system and practice. Haha, and it is said right, that "I think, therefore I am"?

Wishing all traders and friends out there a great week ahead!

A Call to all Service Providers

2007-06-06T22:42:00.000-07:00

Now, as a semi-service provider myself, I would like to bring this attention to all those who face challenging customers, especially when they complain.

Read this article in The Star, a English-medium Malaysian newspaper, which featured a political viewpoint. That there should be a "third way" in politics. The essence being that not all who criticise are against you or the organisation. Instead, the key proponent of this concept said that "those who don't care, don't bother to speak".

And this is easily applied to the service sector. In fact, as long as there is human interaction, there are bound to be unhappiness because there are imperfections in much that goes on around us.

So how do we respond? Do we groan and complain to our colleagues? But why do that? To gain some sympathy? Well, on the other hand, complaints allow us an avenue to know what can and is going wrong, and is moving in the counterproductive direction.

So remember guys, THOSE WHO DON'T CARE, DON'T BOTHER TO SPEAK.

PS. Had my hair cut and styled, looked pretty out of place on my head, but no issue with that ego issue I mentioned earlier. Doesn't quite have an effect on how I feel, just that I have a much lighter head.

Trades and such

2007-06-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

Haha. To be honest, there will be no mention of specific trades here. Well...I did do a trade. But it was in a sheepish effort to gain some pips. Imagine, all that just to gain more money in paper trading.

Well, as previously said, I've been reading this book at Times. And I completed it yesterday, and I still plan to go back to read it up once or twice more while I'm still at working at my current position.

By the way, the title is "Adventures of a Currency Title" and I highly recommend it to everyone who is thinking of, or is involved in, Forex trading. One of the reviews put it very well. Raghee Horner said "The search for the Holy Grail (of successful trading) begins and ends in the heart and mind(of the trader)". And that is amazingly true. Because we can always buy a system, or learn how to decide on which trades are low in risk but high in profit, but we can never buy or acquire discipline. In fact, the main character, when guided by a mentor, was never told how to decide on trades.

There were 3 rules. And here they are:
1. Thou shalt not lose more than 25% of thine account.
2. Thou shalt test before trading.
3. Thou shalt stand accountable to another person in thine trading.

And that sums up what Harry, yes, that's the main characters name, was taught or induced to develop by his mentor. And the end is beautiful, because the person Harry stood accountable to was his wife.

Maybe I can hope for Miranda to join me in this journey.

Reflections and Doubts on my character PART 2

2007-06-04T00:45:00.000-07:00

So here comes the actual stuff I'm supposed to talk about earlier this morning. These thoughts were actually triggered after watching Spiderman 3 the movie.

Just a slight deviation again. Been reading a very expensive book at Times Bookstore. It's a first-person narrative of a person's journey in learning how to trade forex. And one important lesson today is this: The person who wants to and depends on winning most would not win. Simply because when one's survival depends on trading, he tends to trade emotionally without a system. And that's a killer. The best trader trades according to his system, checking his every trade against a list of factors that must be met before he enters a position, and knowing that the system has a certain long term yield which would not be undermined by short term losses. So it's not about trading more or less, winning more or less pips, but following one's system and perfecting one's discipline.

Ok. Back to topic. I just got back from Malaysia, and one of the highlights of the trip is collecting a photo album done some 2 months back. Well, my relative set up a bridal boutique, which, of course, does more than simply bridal stuff. So our entire family was convinced to have an album done. Just in time for my 21st birthday. But that doesn't matter.

And this thought, supported by other events in my life, arises. I can look good. Well, not boastful at all I hope. But at least I can look more acceptable than what I appear as now. And I told my girlfriend that I should have my hair done with her at a saloon. A proper haircut. First in my life. And that I should go for some sort of makeover. I can feel my confidence growing.

But is it certainly positive?

Remember what spiderman did when he was infested with the "black creature"? The way he treated his ex-girlfriend (sorry, I truly have no aptitude for names) at the jazz bar. I know the cause is the evil nature of the "black stuff" that affected him. But can looking better, and thereby boosting my ego, lead me down the same road? I've been discussing, with my girlfriend, her concern about the possibility I might look for another girl during my varsity days. Is that possible? I can't even say it's an absolute negative.

Maybe I shouldn't change.

I wonder what the future holds.

Reflections and Doubts on my character PART 1

2007-06-03T16:54:00.000-07:00

Just before I go into the topic proper for today, let me just say I've been in Malaysia for the past 4 days and learnt some stuff from my Dad. And did some thinking on my own too. From my Dad:

1. Our Western counterparts in America, Britain and many other European nations, apparently, have access to more sophiscated investment tools than what we have in Asia, or at least in Singapore. While it is common to hear returns of an average of 5% to 8% per annum locally for mutual funds, the corresponding rate in the States is around 20%, according to my father.

2. Wanna know why MNCs choose to rent properties for their offices instead of buy the space when they expand abroad? And they do that despite the huge probability that the value of prime land appreciates over time, and the fact that they can well afford to buy properties. Odd isn't it? Here's my father's take on it. Corporations aren't interest in anything that doesn't give them 20% returns a year, or at least a similar benchmark rate of returns. Can they be assured of 20% increase in property value over the long run? Well, not quite. And even if it's possible in boom times like recent years, they still sustain huge costs in administation and loan burdens in owning such properties.

And my thoughts struck me the last of the trip. In some sense they are simply extensions of the earlier post on "luck"...but I do realise that life indeed works that way! The Chinese have this saying that goes "An army has to be fed for a thousand days, but would be deployed usefully in just but a day". Pretty poor translation there, but the main point is that all major successes are built over a long period of ardous effort. Another saying goes "the performance lasts 3 minutes, but it takes one 3 years to prepare for it". Again, this saying reflects that spirit of vast preparations required for a short period which people can judge and value your skills and abilities.

Which, come to think of it, is very reflective of life, even in modern times. A middle school (or secondary school, in local context) student would spend some 4 years preparing for just one examination to prove his/her worth in the world of academics, and even then this system is insufficient to judge his aptitude for knowledge. And all things work this way. We prepare in all ernesty to face the task when it comes. And all our efforts goes unrecognised without the test.We face the same end if our prepartions are insufficient or are not done in the right way.

And, it might shock some of you guys who hear this, it applies to dying. In fact, it's an epitomy of sorts. We prepare for death (if we ever do), but yet we can never know when it comes knocking on our doors. Which means we have to be constantly alert, and do full preparations while we are still alive and kicking. Not unlike life and its challenges. In fact, all our effort is directed in building networks, learning to be smart, acquiring knowledge and much more is a prelude to the test, which could be an unexpected situation that is thrown at us. We prove ourselves in the "3 minutes on stage" when we face our audience. Maybe our bosses, managers, relatives, friends, family etc.

So put in all your effort and be always on the alert for opportunities yeah!

I think I would talk about my reflections on the Spiderman 3 later, pretty tired now.

Do you feel lucky?

2007-05-28T17:05:00.000-07:00

Strictly speaking, lucky is not a very proper word to use. But...well...I'm not writing a grammatically correct essay here, am I? In any case, this little entry would somewhat be slightly philosophical, but I'm pretty sure it can be understood by everyone.

But first let me start with some events that occurred for the past 2 days. One, I sustained a fall and, according to the doc, some deep abrasions, due to my stupidity in rollerblading down a slope on the carpark road. A bit of a swollen wound there, but shouldn't be an issue in a week or so.

And, two, I watched the Beauty and the Geek show(on prompting from my gf), and was amazed how geeks can look so cool! Haha...makes me wonder if I can do any better. But I'm sure my gf and I will work something out.

Ok. To the subject proper. I was chatting with my friend(I honestly can't remember who it was) some days back and I was lamenting that the Cashflow game is pretty dependent on one's luck(as with any board game, since it's always an uncertainty with dices and such). And guess what? Instead of objecting to that statement and telling me we can still learn stuff from the game despite that problem, he told me it isn't a problem. In fact, to my friend, it's reality. We don't always have opportunities come along. And what the game requires us to do is to keep trying and lie low till the right opportunity strikes.

And then when "luck" is on your side, wala! One must take all action to take advantage of one's position and work quickly to advance in one's desired path and towards one's dream. On reflection, I noticed that during the game, I can accumulate huge sums of cash-in-hand because of just one deal when the opportunity strikes, but be struggling up till that point financially.

Guess what? My father ever taught me that philosophy(well, very practical philosophy) through this chinese principle. To the traditional Chinese philosophical scholars, they would recognise that in various texts, the triple treasures in the universe is identified as "Heaven", "Earth" and "Human". (Pronounced Tian, Di and Ren in Chinese).

A further expansion of the 3 words would be "Tian Shi", "Di Li", "Ren He". Sounds confusing? Haha, not meant to be yeah. So here's a simple explanation.

"Tian Shi" refers to the element of timing. And it is coupled with "Heaven" because it is pretty true (at least to me) that alot of things we do and encounter are preordained. After all, we can't quite control what occurs to us even if we can take control of how we spend our time on earth yeah?) And we can never know which is the most opportune time for us to make the right decisions.

"Di Li" denotes geography. This refers to being at the right place for events to happen to catapult us in the direction of our life purpose's fulfilment. Again , here we see that we can't control where we are, or rather, whether we are in the right place for such events to occur.

"Ren He" speaks of orderly and harmonious human relationships. But, to my father, it also denotes human effort. And this is absolutely necessary, whether it is relationships or effort, for success to happen.

Oh, and if I haven't mentioned, this is actually a philosophy of success. The key idea is that of the 3 elements, humans, to a great extent, often only have control over the last element. But yet, it is required for all 3 to concur before success can come. For a project to work out, or an aim be fulfilled, the right timing, correct geography, and full effort are all required. Yet, we can only control the last.

So what's the lesson? Should we second guess when the timing and our location be right to act? If we can't control or predict when and where the wind of opportunities come from and arrive, shouldn't we do our utmost to make sure we always have fully exploit our position by maximising our effort and building networks?

So, we can expect that with maximum effort, we could and will still fail. But beyond that, when finally we have our taste of success with the confluence of all 3 elements, then we begin to exert our influence over the first 2 elements. Well, to be honest, I still need to figure out this point and it's validity.

Well, guys, for now, put in your best efforts yeah! You never know when the other 2 elements surface to help you in your quest for your deepest desires.

PS, I disabled the screening for posting of comments. So do try again and post as much you would wish to!

A successful trade

2007-05-24T00:29:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, just an update on a recent trade that I did yesterday. I believe many people should have made some cash out of the same opportunity. But here's the basic details.

This first graph is a 15min one. And basically I longed the currency close to the bottom of the that steep climb you see there. The entire movement is about 160 pips, stretched over several hours. BUT, as any and every trader knows, you would have set a stop loss and target profit. In this case I took profit at 50pips.

But that wasn't the reason why I entered the trade, the parabolic dots had no influence on me in this trade. But if you guys would care to look at the 4hour chart, it would be easily to realise that the GBP/USD pair has been on a downward trend for the past 2 weeks or so. So according to the channel, the pair was at the lower end of the band, which under usual circumstances, are an excellent place to buy to gain from a northward movement of the currency.

But I guess that's still not enough, so here you can see, on the daily graph, the stachostics actually crossed over the day before the huge move upwards.

At the same time, the pair (if you enlarge the daily graph you'll see it) broke thru the mid term MA in red, which means it has gone back into the long term direction of GBP strengthening/USD depreciating as indicated by the long term MA in blue.

So I hope that's not too difficult to identify? Right? No problem, we all can do it and earn something from this interesting market.

PS. I'm in for a long swing trade for the pair, but it's losing right now. But I've set the stop loss and wait for the retracement action to subside, then I can see some profits.

Numerous Updates

2007-05-23T18:15:00.000-07:00

Well...I've no idea where to start. First of all, many thanks to my readers for giving me increasing support. In fact, the stats show thatyou guys are reading an average of 2 pages when you visit my blog! Well, it's a good jump from the average of 1.something before this. But you guys aren't numbers on the report! I appreciate the feedback, both on- and offline, regarding my blog. But...please...use the comments section alright? Let's develop some sort of communication flow here.

Ok. Investment updates. My "high risk" investment in a duo who uses a system to gain from international horse betting have scaled down their expected profit margin from 50% to 20%. Accompanied with that, they took in more investments, and would be using a more conservative strategy next month onwards. So their strategy is to pay investors first(20%), build reserve funds, pay themselves, and then distribute bonuses. And so the estimate is a week to accomplish each task. Pretty good idea actually, except that the accumulation of reserves would take more than a week I think. And I totally agree with fund managers paying themselves, but not at the expense of investors. Obviously, we can't have fund managers of losing funds who continue paying themselves substantial amounts, and adding to the fund's negative returns right?

Next, tuition. I just realised my schedule is packed, especially for June, during which my tuition with Miranda's brother would double. She's my girlfriend, if it hasn't been indicative in this blog as yet. And so, to track all this commitments and details of each lesson and homework I dole out and et cetera, I HAVE TO GET A ORGANISER! (well, that serves as a reminder to myself)

I'm beginning to feel strongly about acting in the position of a value-adding tutor. And I'm very happy that I am of assistance and able to help my students understand concepts better thru examples (and yes, I remember I'm supposed to develop a game). Have my doubt regarding one of my year 2 students though. She seems well-equipped for now. But that just means I have to build on that foundation and work with her other problems in interpretation of questions and answering skills.

Did I mention I'm going for the FASS(arts faculty) orientation camp? Sure hope I have a rolling gd time meeting and knowing people. And if possible, get closer to some as well. And, no, that doesn't mean towards girls only. But on a serious note, it'll be a challenge to me to develop my social skills, networks and habits. And at this point in time, it's still a tough nut to me. But I'm still positive I would have lotsa fun then!

Last but not least, congrats to Clarence for the successful trading months, and developing a good trading system which has been well-adopted by the pioneer students. I'm gonna go for the course, and I'm sure I'll gain alot from that. Though battling the urge to forget stop loss levels would still be an uphill battle!

Have a good weekend guys!

Meeting of the Forex Tripatite

2007-05-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

Haha. We met on Saturday. And here I am talking about the meeting on a Tuesday morning. In any case, Firman, Eusof and I met up for a little chat of how we're doing and our approach and foreseeable future in the world of money.

So we had the usual talk. Firman's got a job that can potentially give him more than 2.5k a month. Of course, they expect lots of talant and hardwork from him. And it's a major international marine paint company that just started to venture into Singapore's shipping sector.

Eusof is, well, not very interested in going for any sort of training with any company. He has gone for a marketing company's training so far, and find it full of motivational crap. He's supposed to go for another company's one next. Apparently this company sells oilfield investment to the retail investors, with the minumum to invest as little as 20k.

Now Eusof's direction is mainly to look for ways to boost his passive income. I suppose that makes sense, but I thought that can be done in one's free time, which means time apart from an official activity (like having a job, and tuition, for me). But pretty good direction there. After all, I'm also trying to make sure I can receive a sizeable sum of money that I don't have to work for during my varsity days and beyond.

And, of course, we talked about forex. And, putting aside the possibility that Firman wouldn't have time for forex trading with his involvement in a new job, we decided we should go into an experiment. The basic concept is this. Based on Firman's experience in poker strategies and my understanding of a winning horse-betting system, and Firman's current system of hedging, we decided to try out this system that would basically trade in cycles.

So we would start with a small percentage of our total tradeable volume. And based on our own sets of indicators of reversals and trends, we would trade using standard stop loss and target profits levels. So based on a fixed risk-reward ratio, and the doubling method of increasing our trade amount for any subsequent trade to include the profits of the previous losing trades as well, we would experiment to see if this system works its magic.

So now the next step would be to find out what's the target profit and stop loss level. Firman suggested we find out the historical minimum daily pip ranges and take 2 levels off that. 75% and 50%. And we'll take one each and see who comes out doing better.

Now that's a cool experiment. And I'll be going for a course in July.

Anyone cares to join me to make some money?

Now, who's the tutor?

2007-05-21T03:07:00.000-07:00

It shouldn't be any surprise at all that I, and the rest of us, learn from people around us.

Confucius said that "When people walk in the company of 3, at least one is my teacher."

Well, I never quite figured why the number "three", but what I think he is trying to get at is the principle of learning from any and everyone around us. It also means we have no right and in no position to despise anyone or being around us.

Well...and here I am...giving tuition to one of my most hardworking and enthusiastic (maybe not towards economics) students...and she taught me a thing or two. Or more. Haha...and I thought I was supposed to be the tutor?

Anyway, I mentioned this issue before. Of changing my image. Of becoming more concerned about the way I look...and most importantly how I feel about myself. At my current stage, I can't say I know how to look and feel good but I don't choose to do it. At least not in the way I perceive.

"We (I) only live once." Her words. Not unheard of before. Basically a call to treasure and make full use of life. And living is...taking daily risks. It is in the willingness to take the chance to get to our destinies that we truly live our lives in full.

My first risk? To get my hair done by a proper hairstylist? And attempt to maintain a...intended hairstyle?

Well, I'll give it a try, and start living.

Forex Preview Seminar

2007-05-20T17:58:00.000-07:00

And, in a bid to write everything I experience and reflected since last friday, here's my second post for the day.

Basically I went to Apollo Centre and attended a forex preview seminar offered by FX:1, a forex-trading company. And they have an investment arm, as well, which is something new on the market. Claim to be MAS-regulated, but no way I can verify that. Nor did I bother. Well, it's honestly not a bad investment, with an approximate 4% returns MONTHLY. Again, I didn't ask it is compounded monthly or annually. But taking the bare minimum...it should be close to 50% interest a year. A very good investment as compared the standard options of Fixed Deposit, Bonds and what not.

But not to me. Maybe, just maybe, it would be a good option later. When I've excess cash, still wouldn't want that money doing lousy work at 3-5% a year. So I'll consider this, or similar, options by then. But for now, I'm willing to take the risk to earn some 20 to 50% a month, partially compounded. Those are supposed to get me more than 500 a month in passive income during my uni days. Possibly surpassing my income from tuition. But those are, at least in theory, supposed to stay in the investment account to make sure the growth of the fund is exponential.

The people were great though. I'm very certain they are all very successful people in whatever fields they are involved in. Especially this guy called Mario, now this guy can really sell by getting to the crux of the matter. Just too bad 3k is still pretty much to me and I've a cheapewr alternative which might not be any lousier.

Moreover, like I told those at the seminar, I think the problem is not so much the system but self discipline. After all, what good is the best instructional manual in the universe if you can't follow the guidelines right?

So that's my journey now. To explore and develop persistence and discipline and emotionless trading.

Get SMART! Don't trade the news!

2007-05-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

To be honest, this trade happened before this weekend...and so I can't remember a single detail about it now. But the general idea is this. I longed the pair, GBP/USD, because of various indicators. On the 15 min graph above, the stachostics and parabolic dots have shown a reversal, which I have been waiting for, since the 1hr graph also shows an upward trend.

In any case...I...didn't notice there was an impt news for Britain at 4.30pm that day. And that's what caused that full candlestick of some 30 pips drop to appear. Well...silly me, but I learnt my lesson and will check forexfactory before I trade in future.

Forex gains

2007-05-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

And so after some rejuvenation from a good morning (though I'm still letargic from the previous few months' work and increasingly hectic tuition schedule) I managed to find the drive to trade in the forex market again.

And, as usual, I'm on the GBP/USD. So here's a screenshot of what happened.

So as you guys can see, I wasn't actually at the top of the channel when I shorted. Fundamentally that's not a very ideal price to short at. In fact, it was a emotional response to my losing short at the base of that steep uphill.

In fact, I was prepared to lose until I hit the upper limit and short the pair again with an increased traded amount. Of course, my belief in that the mid-to-long term direction that the pair is going south is not unfounded. I base that view on the daily graph, which showed that the pair has broken a 40days Moving Average line, which is a significant support line. Parabolics dots also indicate the pair is on a downtrend.

In any case, the pair headed south prematurely on news that the US economy is not doing that badly. There were mixed data on the housing market, which, I quote, "is an indication of a soft landing" and growth in the industrial outputs. In both cases, the Fed Board can be less worried about sluggish economic conditions due to their policy of maintaning the overnight rate of 5.25%, targetting high inflation rates.

Honestly, I can't figure what's the obsession with keeping the price low...And based on the demand-supply analysis, doesn't the fact that there is inflation mean either there is overly-high demand or low supply in the US. Both doesn't seem to be true with the emergence of China and India. Both of which have been the fav target of US critiscism for some time for their unfair trade practices and such which affects the US economy adversely.

Or it might be because we are still in a boom cycle since 2001. Well, I'll get to study all those data and trends and theories when I go to varsity anyway.

For now, I'm toying with the idea if it is possible to properly administer and discipline my trading to a single system. Recently I got involved in an investment which earns from international horse betting. And the basic idea is to increase their bets such that they can earn the same profit for all the lost matches before at one go whenever they lose the preceding bet. Call it risky, but that decision made me 55% returns this month. And I think it can well be applied to my forex trading. Takes loads of discipline. Now I regret now having some sort of martial arts background.

A Very Good Morning!!

2007-05-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

If you wanna guess what could make your morning(or my morning in this case), just ask yourself what would be more refreshing/soothing/enjoyable to do to kickstart your day. And for me, it was a visit to Starbucks. Cliche again? Yeah sure, of course that is cliche, if it is otherwise, this company that sells coffee at exorbitant prices would collapse. And that would have occurred far too many years ago.

But it's really a very personal thing. My love for Starbucks developed during my A levels days. And you know what won me over? It's really not the coffee, and no, not the brand name (I don't give two hoots about whether people see me drink Starbucks coffee), but really the service. It is pretty much a personal bias since, when it comes to relationships, no one can be objective in determining the strength of the bonds, or even the degree of "friendliness".

And, as everyone says, it's the small things that matter. The all-embracing smile, in today's context, is known as a hidden dissatisfaction. Which means the customers aren't happier because they see you smile, but they would in a foul mood (well, at least they would notice and be negatively affected) if the service provider doesn't do it.

Of course, other details do have some positive effect though. And that "hidden dissatisfaction" theory doesn't work so well for me. I had no further contact with Starbuck's staff beyond the sales counter this morning. But the smile, or rather, that joyful and energetic greeting of "good morning" made my day. The smile comes with it of course. Can't quite imagine a grumbly service personnel who whines that greeting, can you?

And they wouldn't mind, as with my previous encounters at other outlets, to customise your coffee or add additional stuff(like more caramel or chocolate syrup) if you asked for it, even if you're already halfway thru with your drink.

I thoroughly enjoyed my Caramel Machiatto today I must say. In fact, I feel so rejuvenated that I feel like it's time to start working on my economics game and forex trading again after a pretty sluggish week.

Here's wishing a great morning to all of you! (Share it with me in the comments, if you will, too!)

I have a dream!

2007-05-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

Well...that's cliche yeah? These words were immortalized by our dearest Pastor Martin Luther King. And boy, one should really go download and listen to the speech sometimes.

And I don't quite have a dream...but what I wanna talk about today...is Charity. I don't know if you guys are aware, but I set aside a very slight portion of my income for purposes of charity. And I realised that I never quite knew what I am supposed to do with it. But that is fine, because I know I can take out a bit of cash if there's any worthy cause that comes along the way.
But I realised that money sometimes isn't sufficient. And to fulfil the cliche-ness of this post, the other component shall be time or effort. These 2 days I was recommended 2 tuition assignments for economics. One was from my ex-classmate in junior college and the other from an agent. And the similarity? They were offering below market rates. Of course the issue of my value, and how much is it relative to market rate, is a consideration. But I doubt my time is worth little given my passion and ability to explain concepts in econs(I'm still trying to hone my skills in engaging and inspiring my students though).

And I, honestly, go by my girlfriend's policy. I wouldn't lower rates even if my student's a relative of some sort. I don't want to end up making tuition a "favour game". Business is, afterall, still business. Should my rates be discounted on the account of relationships, would that then incur the beneficiaries of the discount some gratitude towards me? To me, that's not a good way to build relationships. It'll be even worse if there's no sense "thank you"s at all. So that's my policy now, it's all or nothing. (Nothing doesn't necessarily mean no tuition, it could mean no fees, again the turmoil of the "gratitude" issue.)

But this 2 assignments make me rethink part of that policy. Have I forgotten that not everyone can afford the standard market rates? Does it mean they shouldn't be provided for with any assistance, if they do deserve and need it, in education, or life in general? Do things all carry a price that reflects its full value?

Well, anyway, I took the one from the agent on the assurance that the student is hardworking and conscientious. And I dare declare it here, that I wouldn't mind giving this tuition up if the student isn't worth my time. And yes, I didn't say if the money's not worth my time, I said student. And I think I'll want to teach my ex-classmates recommended student over a meal or something. She said she found interest in the subject. I think, when one is earning a relatively comfortable salary, it does allow one to engage in efforts which provide more than material compensation.

So the dream is this: To someday have enough cashflow, so that I can do things without being bounded by considerations for my livelihood. To live as passion and a higher purpose would guide me. To be of assistance to those who are willing to work for their ends in mind.
Now, would you care to take a ride with me on this journey?

(PS. Lionel, my campmate during my NS days, and my understudy for my position in the unit, just landed a job with a very reputable firm at a good position, congrats to Lionel! Have a drink someday Bro!)

And I got my first interest payment from my risky venture! It's 50% man! Who would dream of that? For a "safe-safe" investor, that would take at least 5 years to build. Total working time: less than a day and a wait for 10 days.

Growth in Visitorship

2007-05-06T17:09:00.000-07:00

Thanks to various recent actions, especially having my gf setting up a blog and linking it to mine, there was a improved daily visitorship of this blog.

To be dead honest, it's something I don't even dream of till it happened, but I suppose my gf's network of close friends did, thankfully, visited my site. (I sure hope it wasn't boring since financials aren't the most interesting for most people, unless we're talking about what one can do with money). By the way, could I extend my most sincere invitation for any and everyone to leave comments and such?

And that brings me to the next point...social networks...Well, definitely everyone has their own circle of friends and family and associates and such. But it troubles me that I don't quite have a big or strong network. Or at least I think so. Even the thought of that statement being true is disappointing. And so I am supposed to go to orientation to start my varsity life proper? Would I survive?

One of my colleagues (well, improper use of term, cos they are permanent staff while I'm gonna be here for only the next 2 months or so) told me that I should seriously consider staying on campus. She said it'll "colour my life," and I responded with "What if I aren't colourful enough?" Wanna guess her response? She said "Don't worry, they'll(I suppose it means the rest of my varsity mates) will colour you(or me really)."

And I dunno if that will happen? Me? Colourful? Those who know me probably can see the improbability of that. Think about this, when everyone's thinking about celebrating their 21st birthday with one big bash, I, almost, can't be bothered. Neither can or will I come up with anything impressive if I tried.

Having said that, it kinda bothers me. It's like I don't have a life, but I think I've gotta admit it anyway. In fact, I just made my first memorable attempt at looking good last friday. And, no, it didn't turn out well.

Makes me wonder if I should bother thinking about grooming and image and stuff. I even wanted to call the director of a PR company to see if they have any personal grooming courses. So what sort of bearing will this issue have on my life in varsity for the next 4 years? Will I still be a lone ranger?

Or will I choose to make friends, and build very strong friendships?

May Day! MAY DAY!

2007-05-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

To be utterly honest, I haven't felt any urge to write since my last entry...after all, great things can't be happening everyday right? (Otherwise my life would still be boring...since there's no variation)
Well...but I do have a comment on the news report last night on our local english channel, Channel 5. Oddly, I heard nothing much other than labour strikes and protests last night. The report just jumped from the States, to UK to Indonesia. And then I realise that it's because of Labour Day. Well, in Singapore, we'll be much more willing and obliged to have a great day to rest (or party, for some) and complain about wages or labour conditions over a drink.

Call it apathy, it's really more like we know things can't quite change unless the National Wages Council tries to push for it...and it has met limited success(in my opinion) with regards to its push for the flexi-wage reform. I guess, in economic terms, the opportunity cost (the cost of the 2nd best alternative foregone) of spending time foregone is just way too high. Well, come to think of it, we don't even have a minimum hourly wage legislation to ensure no exploitation of inexperienced or temporary labour.

Of course the flip side of the story is that the minimum wage would kill the labour market's flexibility in responding to demand conditions of goods and services. But a slightly deeper probe would ensure the surfacing of this question: "Are those at fast food chains fairly paid?"

I really wonder...
At the same time, this has some implications for my economic board game...(I should really get it a name)...coupled with whatever I've been telling my students in writing and responding to economics essay questions: The ball is in your court, you set the parameters. And I realise, just like Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow game, I have to limit my game to a fixed set of (lesson) objectives and, therefore, game structure.
I have this strong feeling that Kiyosaki would have liked the game to be more flexible and reflect the real world of investing even more closely, which led him to design Cashflow 202, the advanced version of the basic Cashflow game, called 101. And I think he would have liked to taught people how bank loans and negotiations and financing and property checklists and advertising for buyer (and a whole lot of other stuff one has to learn in doing real estate and asset management) are done. Well, yeah, I'm complaining that why aren't all this in the game!
Guess what, I'll meet the same objections with my game. The fact is, a board game, to achieve its purpose of teaching certain principles or policies or evaluations, can't be fully "practical", ie. a good part of it is theoretical in nature. And the complexity of the game would depend on how "realistic" I want it to be. In a very fundamental economic way, I now have to make choices. Because there would be both costs and benefits to choosing "complexity with realism" or "simple but theoretical". In fact, Kiyosaki already influenced me and convinced me of a need for a advanced board, although, in my mind, I can build that into the current game just by changing the cards.
Well, for now it'll be some mauling over the cards for the first basic set! (Now who is gonna test run the game?)

Financial Planning and Advisory

2007-04-26T16:54:00.000-07:00

Hahaha! Gone are the days when insurance agents con me into believing they are "financial advisors". It's really quite crappy when the agents who talk to me about life-planning only manage to bring across one point - Please Buy Insurance.
One even admitted, when I ask for investment opportunities and didn't want it attached to an insurance policy, that "insurance is their key business" and there is no way they would offer any sort of investment or subsidary schemes without insurance attached.

But anyway, like I said, that's all in the past for me. Just yesterday I took an entire day of work to go to varsity to do a body checkup to make sure I'm healthy (apparently the varsity administration wants to ensure I won't die in the midst of a 3 year course), meet a financial advisor from FinExis, and go back to my army camp to collect all my stuff that I left in my store since...Nov 2006.

Come to think of it...it's been an entire 5 months since I finished my national service...but only managed to squeeze salaries out of 4 months.
Back to the topic. I met Isaac from FinExis, a comprehensive financial advisory firm that doesn't align itself with any single insurance, investment, banking or financial firm. Instead, they do a complete analysis of their clients short-medium-long term goals and current financial status and then recommend a path to ensure suitable and sufficient protection, auccumulation and distribution.

But be prepared to sit down and talk for 4 hours or more to complete this "health check," so I really went through 2 checkups yesterday. And maybe some of us would have to take time to develop a trusting relationship with the financial consultants since one would essentially be revealing all of one's financial data to them. Isn't an issue to me though...since I'm quite proud of my efforts in the past 3 months to properly manage my income and investments. Never quite bothered curtailing expenditure though.
Despite the long long long time I had to talk to Isaac, I really learned alot. The greatest fact that striked me is...Mutual funds and unit trusts can actually be quite profitable. But besides that I know that I do have to have an executive's pay package to achieve all the goals I have in the medium to long term. But for now I'll just wait for the report and see what it says.
Also, I realised I really wasn't covered enough in case any accident or major illness strikes me, not to mention death. After all, I can just pay pretty low premiums since I'm still quite young and continue paying that amount until the policy is underwritten again.

So do tell me if you guys have any desire to take charge of your financial future yeah!

Sketches of my game are out!

2007-04-23T17:22:00.000-07:00

Let me first start with a negative note. I feel kinda lost with my forex trading. No doubt, yesterday I read the indicators and felt that the short term trend for G/U is to head south, supported by the daily stachostic crossing over and gap widening since 21st April. So I shorted the G/U twice at peaks to gain 30 pips each time.
The thing is...is this the right way to go? I have a mentor, Clarence, who revealed a basic system of setting up indicators and a host of readings to improve my forex trading...but I failed to use all that information...I am still doing alot of "experimentation - freestyle" on my own with no purpose other than to see if my "luck" is good enough to get me some winning trades...

After I confirm that the first "draft" of my game is pretty much done, I'll really go back to run the system and read those books. This isn't procrastination but focusing. (Although NOT spending enough time and effort on developing the game IS procrastination!)

But well, back to the game, I got my first sketch of what the game looks like now. The general flow of game is also determined. The next step is to design the cards and play the game myself to see if everything works fine. Then it would be back to school to see if I can work anything out with my previous econs tutors...

And if I spend enough time dreaming and nuturing big dreams...I might well be building an educational game to sell to MOE to employ in teaching macroeconomics. But that aside, my motivation is still to benefit my students (so that they can learn the same principles without hearing me repeat them verbally).

I realised, though, that I need to tweak the designing to have some sort of way to show the progress of the player. It is part of making the player feel good and to enhance competition. A physical representation that indicates progress would make it obvious how well one and other players are doing. That competition would then make the game more than just economics. But nevertheless a measure of economic understanding and luck would be required.

But well...I've still to work on the cards first...so here I go...

Books Bonanza

2007-04-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

Was at Plaza Singapure where's there's this huge "warehouse sale" put up by Carrefour...prices are really pretty low...the books were going for 3 bucks each, but of course one had to spend the time to fish for worthy ones.

So I got a few titles...one was the famous (meaning I think I heard of the title before) "Why do Bad things Happen to Good People"...and I go the "Go-Getter"...that one I could finish in an hour...basically tells a story of a war veteran who lost half the functions of his body but perseveres and never gives up on a "impossible" task set by an incredible Boss.

One important lesson in that title is the concept of "degree of the blue vase." The impossible task is as such, the man being tested for his capabilities would be asked to fetch a worthless blue vase sold at USD 2,000. Now, to make things difficult, he was given the wrong address to buy the vase from, no means of forking out the cash, an impossible time limit, and the "examiners" would even tweek details like the shop owner's name and contact number.

Well...in any case...he managed to get the "degree"...which proved his persistence and resourcefulness. And what is the lesson? It is summarised in the phrase "It'll be done."
And that brings me to the point...how many times have we seen something worth doing and say "It'll be done" regards of all the current restrictions and barriers? How willing are we to abandon our comfort zones to brave the world to try for a home run?(My apologies, that's really just questioning myself)

I know I haven't...at least not to the extremes. The closest I came to do that is when I was super-motivated by one of my BMT platoon mates to run personal bests for 2.4km run and our Standard Obstacle Course. He went on to OCS anyway, and he definitely deserved that!

In some sense, I feel like an untested stone. And I sure hope that's I'm a gold ore.

Anyway, other than that, I chanced upon another opportunity. Just moments back was chatting with Eusof (who is in Uni now) and he said he wants to take up a sales job during his 2-odd month break...and I was commenting that I think I knew what I am good at selling. I term it "unsecured investments."

So happens that I came across My Winning Funds on the forum I frequent. It's an open program that basically uses a mathematical approach to betting on horses. I didn't quite know the admin so I called them up and checked out if this is for real. Actually the concern here is capital protection. I wouldn't mind no or minimal returns, but I don't expect my money to disappear overnight.

I think I've secured enough trust to invest with them, which would add to my portfolio of assets.

So for now, it is to quietly watch the cauldron and stir it once in a while to make sure nothing goes wrong. Of course, every and anything can go wrong, but that investing...and I can't manage the risk, but I at least do understand how my money is managed.

Conclusions

2007-04-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

I did abit of thinking and found that I don't quite have any need for the detailed expenditure listing I am doing now. After all, I don't do budgeting and I really don't like to limit how much I spend, since my expenditure is pretty consistent (except for the occasional splurge on food).

So I decided I shall give up noting down the nitty gritty I spend on. But as long as, for these few months till late July, I don't go into more than what my expenditure account holds...then that's fine. Would still be ok for me to dig a bit deeper into a negative 100+ region as long as I can foresee I can earn enough to get it out of the red.

Thinking of my game now...my gf said I should start by "playing the game"...meaning design what the gameplay is like and then derive the rest...

So my next step is to sketch out the game I suppose? But I realised different game models are designed to get at certain aims...so I do have to give some thought to the most fundamental aims of my game...ok...so that's the task for today: 1. Sketch the game & 2. Think of the aims

Can I handle 2 major goals in a day, or even a week? I wonder...

My accting book went missing!

2007-04-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

Haha...I am really laughing at this situation...I misplaced my small little accounting book which I record my daily expenses and bank account balance.

And I honestly thought that it is "life-threatening"(meaning I panicked and worried about the issue) to have lost that book. After all, l had that with me for more than 2 months and the book is symbolic in that I started properly watching my expenses and cashflow with it's establishment.

But...as always, things aren't so bad. And I found a better way out...And that solution is called and computer and Excel Sheet. Haha, so now all I have to do is write a formula once and copy it all over the place. That kinda saves me time from punching in numerous figures into the calculator...but I sometimes enjoy that process of seeing numbers grow...

Haha...in any case, the loss of the book led to greater growth and efficiency, which is pretty desireable. Just one issue left to settle: should I continue with the daily expenditure recording? I suspect I won't be doing so, but I have to give it some extra thought.

Anyway, I managed to type out the draft agreement for investors in the AHF and will be sending it to Kiat Loong.

Customer Service! (Lessons applied)

2007-04-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

I love my weekend! I can't help but shout that out. Cos I gotta do a roadshow on friday and saturday. Well...to be honest(I phrase I commonly use at the roadshow) I enjoyed friday's more than saturday's...not because it is slacker(less busy) though...

But because the lesser volume left more alot of time to spend with customers with whatever assistance they need. Similar one earlier roadshow, I got some namecards from my customers. One namecard I got this time, however, established a strong relationship between the customer and I. For all my customers who enjoyed and allowed me to exercise quality customer service, a huge "Thank you" and note of gratitude to you guys!

Actually I'm pretty glad to be working in two positions within my company(both as temps)...One benefit is that I can assist my customers at the roadshow beyond the usual scope of advising on our services etc...Because of my admin job, I can actually offer to help with their problems, though still limited by my knowledge and authority.

mmm...if only we can have amazon.com's customer service staff's authority to make on-the-spot decisions. But at the very least, an espisode last thursday at my usual office job taught me how to bring problems to the official customer service people within the company. So that means I can help customers beyond my scope of duty should they require that in future.

For now...it is back to work...and to follow up on cases that I promised to get back on over the weekend!

Customer Service

2007-04-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

I recently picked up a book I read years back (just a year back really, shows my penchant for exaggeration eh?) titled "amazon.com - Get Big Fast." And the most fascinating part about the company is its focus on customer service. This time round, I haven't quite come across my favourite example but I was so impressed I can literally share the story with you guys off-hand.

The story starts with a customer ordering a softcover version of a title and expecting it to be in the mail a few days down the road in his mailbox. To his surprise(well they never quite mentioned what the customer's reaction was) he found a hardcover version of the same title with a note, handwritten, informing the customer that amazon.com ran out of the softcovers for that title and is sending him a hardcover one at no extra charge!

Another story tells of a customer who sent a postal order to pay for his purchases...well honestly I can't tell the story as well...so here's the Robert Spector's version. "Soon after launching the site, the company received an order from a customer who lived overseas. The customer sent Amazon.com a money order that was for the wrong amount. "Then he cancelled part of the order, so that we now owed him(the customer) money," recalled Barton-Davis. "But he decided to order some more books. He wanted to merge that order into the one he had already put in, and he wanted to pay for it with the remainder of the money order and a new money order.""

Wanna guess the response? "Jeff's(Amazon.com's founder) response to this was that the customer gets it his way."

Can you imagine that, despite the massive accounting and financial headache such an event would cause, Amazon's vision is that the customer gets what he wants as long as it is physically possible with the system.

I'll be honest, I really like that attitude! There were many times in my part-customer-service-part-administrative-duties job when I wished I could do more for the customer. One of the point that baffles me is why shouldn't I (or anyone else in my position" shouldn't be equipped and trained to handle a wider-range of customer enquiries since we(I represent my company) are calling the customer in the first place. It is disappointing (read: sucks) that I had to trouble customers to call our hotline for simple issues which would have been logically under my duties.

But I do try to be more jovial and attempt to match the styles of the customers I speak to. If the customer is in a rush, I speak faster, or ask if there's a more convenient time to give him/her a call. And I would schedule calls way back to check if a problem is solved, which gives me more work, having to track all this "extra" tasks. But it really is important and great to have problems solved for the customer.

mmm...maybe I should send appeal to my superior regarding this issue. The very least I should do now is to give suggestions as to what we can improve on to make ours a truly exceptional customer experience!

Cashflow games

2007-04-08T05:04:00.000-07:00

On first encounter with the game, I honestly thought it was all marketing and nothing very much in substance. (Sorry to Kiyosaki)

But nevertheless, I told myself I would play the game quite a few times(10 to be exact: to date i've been on 101 for...5 times, losing all games against 4 com players) and then write a review here.

After my first game, and ending up unimpressed, I met a friend online and asked if he had ever heard of or played the game. He has and I told him my first impression of the game, and he gave me an alternative view. Kris also mentioned that what he found most interesting is how players respond to and act in the game. I thought to myself(and replied similarly) that the game appears pretty simple and it is all about choosing the right investments with some luck.

Well...in any case, I thanked him and started playing with maximum number of computer players. Then I realised luck does play a very big part, but my mistakes and emotions started appearing as well! Of course the worst emotions surfaced since I couldn't win a single game and even got 0 passive income in one. I really felt luck was against me and gave me no good opportunities. But I also realised my formula for getting out of the rat race might be wrong. So far, I understand that to get into the fast track soon, I have to have some cash to buy into big deals without incurring negative cashflow because I took a loan to finance the downpayment. So I thought I should focus on capital gains first, by buying stocks and such...which the Mentor(Kiyosaki in disguise) actually approved of as long as the stock is trading at the low or lower than the trading range.

I need to start designing and sketching my own board game. And I got a positive affirmation from my econs student that a game should make econs more applicable and fun. But for now...it's more Cashflow 101 and 202 games for me...

A measure of progress

2007-04-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

First of all, I aren't allowed to work tomorrow(well, later today really)! My management is concerned about paying people twice their normal wage rate. Instead, they wouldn't mind if I did more OT during normal days at 1.5times earnings. In fact, I wouldn't mind doing hours tomorrow and have them counted at 1.5times...the important thing is I would rather not give up my income just because it is a holiday. Sigh...that's the downside of being "temp." In any case, I'll be going back on Saturday for maybe 8 hours of OT, to clear alot of the backlog I face in my department.

Finally got to play the e-game version of Cashflow 101 designed by Kiyosaki. Brought a laptop to work today and played the game when it was breaktime. Haha...and I got my colleague Hui Xian involved. And her friend who works in the same office asked for a copy of the game! Wonder if it's too boring for them though...honestly, does financial stuff bore people? Or am I limiting my mind by thinking that way?

No answer to that qsn now...but at least I kickstarted the process of making the econs board game. My gf was really encouraging and told me that I should test run it in junior colleges in the different 3 tiers and refine the game. Then...here's the good part...sell it to MOE! (Oh, that stands for Ministry of Education)

Haha...anyway...I've gotta get the game (well-)designed first. See ya guys, have fun over the Good Friday holidays!

Disappointments...

2007-04-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

Just slight ones though. Yesterday I skipped lunch to loan the Rich Dad's Cashflow 101 and 202 financial game CDs from Firman. And I thought I could play them at home on my family's laptop. Haha...and guess what? The laptop wasn't there!

Well, it is now apparent my father does need a laptop. And I suppose it be beneficial to be able to do work on the go instead of only completing computer-based work at home on our slow PC.

Which means I do have to fork out some 2k to buy my new laptop. Woah...that's more than 60% of my projected Uni Savings account.

In any case, I should hunt for more income streams then, so that I can sustain myself during my studies.

Oh...and so I am now delayed by another day in creating my economic board game. But I'm pretty sure I'll get to play the game tonight and start learning how to be rich! Haha...yeah!

I'll post a review of the game when I've played it...5times or more. In fact, on the recommendations of Kiyosaki, I intend to play the game for 10 times and teach the game to 3 other people. Achievable? you bet!

Ohya, one other interesting conversation that I had yesterday was with Micheal. He owns a customised-fishtank-building biz that has a shopfront in Park Mall, level B1. The essence of it, I guess, is to read between the lines for Business Times, because journalists can't legally write stuff which could be viewed as "inflammatory". And so my new phase of newspaper reading begins...

A winning trade

2007-04-02T17:09:00.000-07:00

Amidst all my losing predictions that the G/U would come down sooner or later, since it is just a couple hundred pips away from the strong resistance level of 2.0000, I finally did something right!

Not that mistakes are bad, but as a swing trade, I still am waiting for the chance to short G/U again. In any case, one learns most from mistakes, not the successes.

This success, however, is when I longed G/U because it broke out of the consolidation range of 1.9552 to 1.9685. The daily charts also showed a upward trend since couple of weeks back. So I figured if it breaks out of its consolidation, I would long it, and I did.

The long position was opened at 6.30am on 02/04 and I closed it at 10.30pm on the same day. Pips gained was 103.

Upon reflection, having seen it is an upward trend, I would not have place an order to short should the support for consolidation range @ 1.9685 was breached. But would say the same thing when similar circumstances present themself in future?

Developments

2007-04-01T07:29:00.000-07:00

I tried getting some sort of inspiration or direction to get my board game design started today. But I made no progress. Firstly, the library near my house has not a single book on how to create a board game. Can't blame the library for that, since I don't think anyone commonly thinks of many board games.

And so I retreated to a quiet corner in the building where the lib is located - Woodlands Civics Centre - and tried to figure out how should the game start. And I simply was bogged down with the many details I had to handle.

Was waiting for my gf then...to finish teaching piano...and she advised me to start the designing from how the game is played. Not right at the start. That kinda makes sense...since if I know how I want the game to progress...I'll know what I need players to have right at the start.

Some other sort of progress was reached with my gf...who today confirmed with me that she wanted to invest in the forex fund I am in. Well...but still I'm the "manager" here...bringing and handling all th cash...Hopefully I can get my gf to read "Rich Woman" and inspire her to greater financial awakening.

Creativity

2007-03-29T17:16:00.000-07:00

At this point in time I am beginning to wonder how did Kiyosaki develop his board game...

Did he work from scratch based on the experience he had playing monopoly and his key financial strategies & understanding? From scratch? How? Well, that's a good question to ask, since questions can lead to answers, of course not without a search. I do believe it's possible...or might there be alternatives on the market. Let me run a quick search.

That wasn't quite quick. I took at least 15 mins reading up on The Game of Life and its background. Didn't exactly find what I intend to design which is geared towards education and the academic understanding and application of economic principles.

Gotta start work for today. Probably will think about the general layout and framework of the game later during my breaks.

I can't help but wonder if anyone who test-play the game if I asked them to.

The joy of sharing

2007-03-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

Haha...sounds like Christmas came later by 3 months...instead of sharing in December, I actually did it last night!

One was with my colleague. We talked abit of our financial futures and how his interest in managing his own portfolio and getting his freedom after reading RDPD. And he said something which I think is very reflective of the book: No, it's not "I can't get enough" but "It's not enough" in terms of how to go about doing things after getting all raved up and excited about seeing a "rich man's world." And so I showed him a book I borrowed from Shirin - Rich Woman - by Kim, Kiyosaki's wife. There's one particular chapter I like which is about finally turning ideas and words and excitement into purpose and plan. Well, I've done some "quiet time" on that yesterday and determined I need a monthly cashflow of Singapore Dollars 5500 after I grad from university.

But for now my vehicle is forex for capital gains. I haven't envisioned myself doing cashflow investments...but I guess I'll have to get there cos that is true freedom. Even trading is considered sort of active income since you have to actively trade ya know!

Haha...and well...the second incident is meeting Lionel, my understudy in camp, online. Told him about my idea of building a game around economics concept, and he said he would buy it from me if it is good! Imagine that! I've my first potential customer without even asking! Haha...anyway...my purpose is to make learning economics principles easy and fun...not to sell...

Well...we continued to talk and Lionel mentioned that he hardly can understand what the financial books and terms are about. And I think we came to a rough conclusion that we have to meet...and so I told him that I'm free Monday and Friday evenings and Saturday and Sunday mornings. He suggested Saturday morning...and I realised I might have OT on my job...so...I suggested 6.30am. I was thinking...most people will say it's crazy to meet so early...and so it's kinda a test to see if he is really interested and motivated.

I'm darn glad my dear bro passed the "test" and proved his determination. Haha, congrats Lionel(if you are reading this)! Just realised I'm not familiar with equities at all, so I better send him a msg to caution him.

And so, everyone, continue having fun learning!

Control

2007-03-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

Arguably the most impt word in Kiyosaki's, and any financial, books is CONTROL. Well...control over what? Mostly over the autonomy and decision-making over an entity/investment.

Today this concept struck me twice. Firstly by an insurance agent who tried to get me to invest in some international forex unit trust - which mainly trades in bonds and gain based on interest differentials between countries. End of the day, I simply can't know what those guys called fund managers will do with my money...so I doubt I'll go into that even if I have the cash.

Quite happy today. Cos I was doing some calculations and projections of my income and account balances by the time I enter uni...which is about 3 mths away. And I found that having a job allows me some control over how much stays in my bank account and the ability to look at and involve myself in investments proper. The question is...how do I switch from earning 1.5k now to just 700+ depending on tuition fees during my uni days?

I've decided that I need to change my income distribution strategy. And so effective April 1, my tuition income will no longer be a 50% investment fund, 30% expenditure acc, 20% UNIs; but a 60% investment fund, 30% expenditure acc, 10% charity pool. This is to incorporate my recent thought of giving back into my actual money management. Projected amount which I'll be able to give to those who need it more would be around 500 per annum. Sure hope it can increase in future.

Today Firman doesn't seem so comfortable with the nice concepts of retiring young and rich. Think he must have grown desperate so he is looking for some job security and cash from jobs now. Honestly I can't fully understand his viewpoint. But I'm sure I'll do the same. We'll work it thru somehow, and I feel it is already time we start doing what we've been talking and experimenting about. I suppose we'll learn the real stuff if we start trading and investing "live."

Hope everyone is learning, earning and having fun!

Minor Trials

2007-03-26T15:06:00.000-07:00

Haha...not that I had to appear in the judicial courts...just some periods testing the endurance of my dear friend and partner Firman. He's definitely far from giving up from this fight for freedom...but he said to me "Look at what state we are in now" or something to that extent. And guess what, on retrospection, I actually got defensive and mentioned all that I've been "trying" to do...that I've been working on this board game, seeked out a forex fund to invest in, building my investment fund and looking into forex option...

And do you know my immediate of sending the sms when I did? I thought of encouraging him and show how that we are doing something. But I realised a good part of it was defensiveness and boastfulness. Which really doesn't help things.

When I read what I sent him now, I must sound like a egolistic being. And the effect on Firman would be far from my intention. Moreover, all those minor "successes" all came into my life by chance and not by deliberate effort. Neither did I really study them thoroughly. This is a setback but also a wake up call. A call to action instead of so much talk and probes into subjects like forex, real estate, stocks, etc.

I think the moment we really start learning is when we do things for real.

Have you done so?

A game

2007-03-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

Something's keeping me awake this 2 days. Not from sleep but from a boring day-to-day existence. So I thought maybe I can share it with you guys. Basically it's about how to creatively solve the "boringness" and "dryness" of basic economics studies. Haha, sounds impossible? I thought if people can find it fun to decide their life outcome and financial ability or war results on a board, then why not learn how to govern a country's economics and decide it's future. Well, I'll need some time to work it out, but the first step is to play other successful games, especially Rich Dad's Cashflow 101 and 202. Haha, can u believe it? I haven't even seen the game in any form before.

Secondly, to introduce my first link to my blog! It's my friend's Biz Blog so do have a look at the self-made accessories she provides yeah! Pretty interesting designs I must say.

Gotta go now, happy trading till next time!

Forex Options?

2007-03-22T17:32:00.000-07:00

Context-expanding, this morning is! After all the talk about insurance on the stock market(or paper assets in general) presented in Kiyosaki's Retire Young Retire Rich...and the closing chapter on how he changed his perception to finally believe in a world where alot of money can be made with no money and no risk...I was wondering...how come my trading in forex can't be insured?

And that was totally foreign to me. I thought options belonged to the stock market and nowhere else, but I remember my Dad telling me about how insurance companies can underwrite (another key word!) to insure against any fall in the value of a currency for a fixed period of time for a premium.

So insurance for forex does exists! I just had to search on yahoo for "options for trading forex" and here's what I found...so that's a nice introduction for now...and I'm gonna study(hopefully with likeminded traders, possibly Firman and Eusof) such an option(pun intended!) in detail possibly over the next few weeks...

So can money be made with no money and no risk?

Defining my Approach

2007-03-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well, today I wrote a draft as to how I would evaluate and approach forex trading and when to open positions. I would like to quote here that "all problems solved = wealth gained"...

Obviously, I see many questions marks on my preliminary strategy. Questions like how do I decide my stop loss and target profit levels, and which graphs to apply the various indicators, and even how to actually read and use the indicators and what they mean...The list can go on, but I recognise I have my skeleton which is to analyse the trends from big to small, that is, I would look at 4 graphs...Daily, 4hours, hourly, 15mins...Drawing trendlines and channels for all the graphs, I would be better equipped to spot longer term trends, before I focus on the shorter time graphs like the hourly and 15mins to spot the best opportunity to open my trade...

And obviously that system needs alot more work and defining...For now I am contented that I have started to develop my strategy and attempt to keep to it...

And I am increasingly thankful for getting the book "Retire Young Retire Rich"...one very interesting aspect of the book is on hedging against losses in paper assets like stocks...and the use of options to this end...it is intriguing to discover how I can apply such techniques to forex trading...

Another important note is that I managed to initiate one of my colleagues, nicknamed CCC, onto a more serious approach to investing by reading "Rich Dad Poor Dad"...now he can't wait to get his hands on "Cashflow Quadrants"...Now that is a very good start...but of course, like many of my dear readers know...it still requires sustained and dedicated, targetted effort...

In any case, I am happy as to what I see in my life now...and hope everyone else is happy and progressing in many ways too!

The Lack of Effort

2007-03-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

A few things convened or occurred within this time period which points me to this lesson I have to learn.

For one, my girlfriend have decided I don't seem to care enough to make any gifts worthy of her except for the very first gift. Honestly, I thought otherwise...I thought I've always been trying to be hands-on and make gifts for her. Well, not that they turn out great...but still there are stuff which I put effort into...And this brings me to the claim I often make...that I'm simply not romantic enough to be any more inspired to make better gifts or create a meaningful or romantic ambience or situation for our special days...

But I realised that is the limitation I set upon myself -- The same way I limit myself by telling myself and others that I simply cannot look good and attractive or even feel good about myself. But as my little "makeover" experience shows...I can be satisfied or even amazed at how my image can be so much better with some effort on my part to do so.

That brings me to think of my efforts in growing my forex trading abilities. And what Clarence said about approaching forex from a viewpoint of intending to survive on trading full-time -- that it would drastically shorten our learning curve since we would be more serious. To come clean...I haven't even used or tried the system I've been taught by Clarence with any bit of faithfulness.

2 reference to sources of my learning. One is Kiyosaki in his "Retire Young Retire Rich" which I happen to be reading right now. The keyword here is CONTEXT! So what is context? Well...it can be seen as capacity...like a capacity of a jug...(I should really draw the diagram here) Think about this...can a jug hold 30litres of water if it's capacity is 10litres? NO! So the only way we can improve beyond our current limitations is to grow our capacity, by expanding the jug. And the way we can do that is by getting inspired by hearing success stories, by reading, by opening our mind to new possibilities, by defining new realities for ourselves. And that's a really important step for me to take now. To stop telling myself I can't...that I'm unattractive...I can't be that successful in making the money I want...I can't be romantic...and accept that I CAN!

The other source is on deliberate effort. It expounds the fact that most "geniuses" actually spend alot more time and directed and planned effort in improving themselves in their field than what is widely recognised when they become successful. And that is an attempt at improving content, or the volume of the water in the jug. But I think it really starts with expanding the jug and then the topping up of the volume(or know-how) comes in later. I lost the link...but I'll try to put it up later.

M'sian trip = Confidence building?

2007-03-18T15:32:00.000-07:00

My apologies for not having blogged for quite some time. For the past 4 days I was actually in Malaysia, and it was a trip full of eating really good food...I'm sure some of you guys know M'sian food is the best...haha...anyway, the "highlight," or at least one of the highlights, was that my family and I went for some professional photo-taking! I think one could call it a makeover...but it was quite cool...my sis got her own album and I've got a few shots to call my own...

And I realised (I hope this doesn't sound narcissistic) that I can actually look acceptable, if not good. It probably was because the photographer's superb...and also due to my image consultant(who happens to be my cousin) gave me the right clothes...but the fact is...I don't have to remain the way I look and feel about myself...

Now, talk about freedom! The choice to look either normal or good...and while it may cost some money and time to choose the latter, at least now it is slightly more achievable...Despite this nice "dream-come-true" I'll still need to spend lotsa time nurturing my confidence...

I came back yesterday to watch my first TV prog for a nearly a week...and that was the charity show for Ren Ci Hospital...well...my heartiest congrats to them for making a fundraising show less life-threatening...I could never quite understand why the artistes have to risk their lives to get funds in exchange. I'm really glad that they hit their target because I've been to Ren Ci and I'm sure the patients need all the help they can get...but here's an appeal...they need MORE than funds...

Although I was very moved and inspired to go back regularly after my first visit...I never made the commitment to do so...and for that I feel pretty bad...like we always hear and maybe say as well...and here's to Morrie's words(for those who read Tuesday's with Morrie)...very often a simple gesture of touching and massaging the patients' hands mean a lot more to them...it could signify acceptance, love, comfort, care...sometimes all they need is someone to show them they matter...And I think I found another type of fund my income should flow into...and I'm deciding how I can set aside a bit to give back to those who need it more than me...although ultimately I hope I'll take the time to give more than just a few dollars...

Ohya...just one last lesson...I've been on Kiyosaki's Retire Young Retire Rich...and I was, once again, reminded that my job as an investor is to manage risks...and my most immediate response to think of "not trading against the major trend" in my attempt to conquer forex...so for now...it'll be no more trading short when the trend's up and vice versa...

Revival...

2007-03-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

Of my habit to read. Well, there has never been a total break from reading for me. But for the past few weeks after ending Deepak Chopra's "SynchroDestiny," I found myself quite lost as to what books to pick up.

But well, thanks to Shirin (if she ever reads this blog I hope she's happy I thank her here), a colleague of mine, I managed to read "Rich Woman" authored by Kim Kiyosaki, Robert's wife and investment partner.

And if you were to ask me to value the book...I believe it will offer very interesting perspectives(esp to woman, duh) on top of Rich Dad Poor Dad...in fact...RDPD is a pretty boring book...other than the small sections when Robert describes his life story and does some general story telling...otherwise it's kinda monotonous...But RW seems to be very lively...and I found a general approach to drawing up an investment plan...And for that section, it definitely is worth reading. In fact, I'm gonna read it once thru again and write out my own plan...

Now, who knows I'm attached? Haha...well I am, and happily so for nearly 4 years. Something my gf gave me nearly a year back, a set of MPH vouchers, actually led to me getting "Retire Youn Retire Rich" today. And I never quite thought of getting that book...in fact, I've never seen it on the shelves anywhere before.

But the coincidence of the moment prompts me to buy and consume the knowledge in the book in all earnestness. And I shall report if I find anything interesting.

For now, my job appears stable and simple and I have my dream of getting a customer service position fulfiled!

Rethinking in Process...

2007-03-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

Rethink about what? Is there such a word in the dictionary at all?

Well, before I answer that...let me just say that I had much fun working at the roadshow. The best times were still when I could advise in the best interests of my clients though. Was assigned to distribute vouchers that were given as premiums for the roadshow. That kinda sucked but it still beats an office job! Haha...was sick on the first day anyway...pretty feverish...and I had to rely on panadol...whenever the effect of the dosage went off...the jitters came back and I even shivered at some points in time...but well, saturday came and somehow I recovered...I wonder y and how...but well...it's just gd I don't feel so bad anymore...

And what am I led to rethink? Today I had a tuition session with my nj student...and btw...I give tuition for economics H1 and H2 yeah...haha...that's some advertising...but doubt it'll get me anywhere...and I didn't even realise it was post-exams and the start of hols! which caused the mood to be generally quite relaxed and we had some small talk...

The most impt part is that my student actually lived and proved the "fix your mind on your objective and you'll reach it" formula...and she went on to describe some of her goals like looking better, learning how to dance, getting her As etc...the one about "looking gd" caught my attention...now, I've always prided(I dunno if that shld be the word to use, at least I didn't quite bother about my looks) on being simple and didn't give 2 hoots abt my appearance...my student wants fame...that's not my goal...but I wonder...shldn't I try to look better and presentable? At least some guy who can catch someone's attention(not in a negative light though)? And I think it is not that I can't...the phrase "there are no ugly ladies, just lazy ones" apply v much to their male counterparts as well...

Am I doing myself a disservice by staying the way I am? Am I still stuck in the cycle of self-defeating activity? Am I still killing my own self-esteem?

I need answers...but it has to come from within...I hope they surface soon...and mayb the next time you see me again...I might just look a little different!

New job...

2007-03-08T06:49:00.000-08:00

Well, today, in an interesting twist of event, I was internally rehired by a team which shared the same office as my current team. So without a break to my contract, and a good chance that I can retain this position till the time I quit to prepare for uni come late July, which is a good thing. Of course, I have my doubts as this job might potentially be as, or more, boring as compared to my current duties.

But the fixed 1.1k coming in a month with fixed schedules (and that's not calculating OTs) and no weekends is very impt to me. I don't know if I mentioned this before...but my tuition students come first, because they will be foreseeably my lifeline during my uni days.

So while I would like something less deskbound, I'll keep at this job for the next few months. And continue investing and searching for good investments. As for my forex involvement is a long trade made earlier in the day at 1.9313, losing 30 pips. I expect the trend to heard north, but it seems not very confirmed at this point in time. There's a temptation in me to not put a SL for tonight and see how things goes early tmr morning. And I'll be taking that risk. So free fall it will be, if it trends the opposite.

Next 2 days at IT roadshow...will be busy...earning to get money into investments.

Ohya...btw...I'm read a woman's guide to getting rich...authored by Kiyosaki's wife, Kim. Looks a little gay carrying the book ard but it's actually more interesting the rich dad poor dad itself. Will report back! And I sure hope all our dear ladies can be increasingly financially and emotionally independent by making their own keep.

Trying hard (too hard?)

2007-03-07T03:40:00.000-08:00

Well, today I made 4 trades, and as crazy as it sounds, I only traded on the G/U. Today's experiment was quite simple. Since the G/U formed a pretty evident consolidation range from yesterday on, I was able to draw a proper channel to decide on my trades.

So basically I sold when it was high, meaning the pair touches the higher limit of the channel and longed when the pair touches the lower limits. My first experiment didn't leave me very logical and my SL was -40pips and TP was 20pips only...Has anyone heard of a risk reward ration of 2:1?? Haha...

Anyway I learnt my lesson and my 2 other trades were strictly SL of -20pips and TP of about 40pips. Well, to cut the long story short, one ended up in full victory while the latter was stopped out, but I didn't lose anything since I had the chance to move my SL to breakeven.

The trade, last to be mentioned, but was the first one executed was a short in the middle of nowhere along the channel. Well, that decision was made because I believed there was still downside potential for the G/U, after all, the retracement of the overall rise since ages ago is minimal. But, well, I gave that up...believing I had no basis to believe the downtrend would continue.

Overall, I think I made neither gain nor loss, since I gained 40 pips off 1 trade and lost 20 off each of the other 2. The gain was more of the experience gained and getting to know that the channel actually works...albeit it requires time to form the highs and lows and establish its limits.

I'm wanted to test the method of playing with news (USD nonfarm employment change is coming out at 9.15pm Singapore time) Clarence mentioned (but definitely didn't encourage). But i think I had enough trades for the day.

So here's to each and every trader's dream - to live comfortably on trading.

Pursuit of Happiness

2007-03-06T03:43:00.000-08:00

Anyone watched the movie? The "pursuit of happiness"? Or should I spell it as "happyness"? Haha...with a dash of humour in this pretty heartwarming film, this show won't stand a chance in Oscars for anything other than its underlying philosophy and humanity.

And when it comes to the approach of direction, it really wasn't meant to be a tearjerker, not even meant to induce wet eyes. Well, at least that was how I felt, and given the title and its trailers, I really felt disappointed I wasn't quite moved by what the main character, played by Will Smith, went thru to get to his "happyness" of becoming a stock broker and later a illustrious founder of a huge asset management company.

But the quietness and seeming low impact of the movie is actually very important, on reflection. It is in such conditions that I begin to see, as I write, that the movie was crafted to allow people space to think and reflect rather than react with feelings of momental sadness, pity, hope or inspiration.

And won't you say, my dear readers, that is precisely the problem with media? Being constantly bombarded and influenced? And that we react with emotions of all forms. Not being religious here, but what if we could be above our reactions? Would that help in our own pursuit of happyness?

For now I am contented to know that the Declaration of Independence of the United States said everyone has the right to their pursuit of happiness. Note that it never said everyone had the right to happiness as an end itself, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive in our own small little ways, right?

A quick update

2007-03-05T21:51:00.000-08:00

Just a very short one to share with you guys that my trade of G/U was stopped out at 1.9300, gaining 140 pips, some 140% gain on the capital.

And I am beginning to appreciate stop loss levels...but I was stopped out due to a spike that went up to 1.9304, and that is pretty sad. In any case, the consolidation range seem to be quite apparent, or at least will be so by the end of today.

Stop loss...the thing is, no matter how gd one is at spotting reversals and trends, there are and will be times when the market moves unexpectedly. In such a situation, a stop loss saves one...but one can't used a stop loss properly without the knowledge of how to spot reversal points...otherwise the stop loss will just take him out prematurely, just before the actually action which was expected.

Been reading abit here and there...and probably will be focusing on Grace Cheng's blog in due time to see what insight she can offer. Another task (and reminder to myself) is to send my mentor the charts I drew to see if he has any comments for me.

A winning (and learning) trade

2007-03-05T08:40:00.000-08:00

Right, here I am typing away on my second attempt to post this entry. I can't believe my first post, which I think was quite long, was deleted just by one single wrong and careless click of my mouse.

Basically I shorted the G/U at 1.9446, which subsequently went down to a low of 1.9182. I didn't close the position then as I felt that there was still downside pressures, so I adjusted my stop loss to 1.9300(which means if I get stopped out, I still have a profit of 140pips), and target set at 1.9000.

So that looks like a pretty good trade, but, truth is, it leaves me more questions and a more intensive search for answers. Queries like "how should I decide my SL and TP levels?", "could this downtrend with trong momentum turn around suddenly and shoot equally fast up to the previous levels of 1.95xx/1.96xx?" And given so many indicators and moving averages and horizontal price lines, and channels all over the chart, how do I figure out some sense out of what looks like a mess?

Well, so there it is, I gain, and I am left with more ground to cover. But I shall strive, and someday I shall trade properly, profitably and gain boundlessly from Forex. A word of gratitude to my mentor, and all who helped, is helping and will help me along this route. And a toast to you guys out there who are treading the same path as I, to trade successfully to avoid the rigours of the rat race. May we all trade well with conviction!

Mentoring...at last...

2007-03-03T17:45:00.000-08:00

Well, who would expect my "desire" to find a mentor in forex and money making could actually translate into "reality"?

Haha...the very least, now I've someone to turn to in the event I need help in trading and furthering my understanding of how to use indicators and to spot trends in the market. In the coming weeks, I can expect to start experimenting with a system to decide my trades. And, doubtlessly, I would speak of my progress here and hopefully everyone can learn together. (And that's no one way traffic, remember to share with me your experiences guys!)

The day before I met my mentor, Clarence, I actually had a small meeting with Firman and Eusof, my 2 trading partners. Thanks for the chance to share whatever tiny bit of econs knowledge I have with you guys! Ever heard that you learn most when you teach? Haha, given my tutoring experiences and the various meetings when I could transmit my knowledge in whichever field, I realised that teaching consolidates one's knowledge and maybe make it more applicable as well.

For example, I used to study market structures in my JC days. And the info came to life when I passed it on to some of my friends who intend to go into stocks and maybe start a company. One more is the knowledge of channels and consolidation and the general patterns in the forex charts, and it really made me think about how to present the knowledge and make it applicable to trading. And wala! I think with the help (and more help in future) from Clarence, I should be able to really spot trends proper and trade based on such judgement.

But...haha...nothing is sweet in the beginning, and as I tried to draw the trend lines and stuff on the G/U graph (that's called doing homework, no weekend hols for traders), I realised I really am at a lost as to how to do it...

Well, never mind, I will just draw whatever I can and send it to Clarence and request him to see if I am doing it right...haha...so long...learn with me guys!

Just one last point, I was told that news do not affect the major trend of the currency pairs, but only delays the time it takes for the target to be reached due to swings caused by the news. And that it is not really impt to a swing trader, and actually, what Firman, Eusof and I have been doing so far seems to be more swing than intraday...

Ok, that's it for now...See you guys soon! (And to the guys I've met at the forex session, may we do our trading and profit in many ways!)

News Flux

2007-02-28T03:27:00.000-08:00

Well, now, who is aware that the China stocks, reflected on Shanghai and Shenzhen boards, have dropped 9% over a single day yesterday? There, I see quite a few hands raised. The shocking thing is that this influenced most regional markets and all but two of those suffered losses too.

For those who are not too aware of what sort of magnitude 9% is, imagine that if you have 100million in your hands today, and the next day you lost 9million of it, would you be shocked? Well, I would be. And how can it happen in a day!

The fact that the rest of the stock markets in the region closed lower as well indicates the increasing dominance of China as compared to the previous scenario of US being the "big brother."

On top of this news, quite a number of reports have pointed to major Central Banks further diversifying their reserves away from USD. And with another conflict brewing in the Middle East, crude oil prices went up and possibly will depress the USD further.

One relationship to note, since Australia is a major producer of gold in the world, set to possibly overtaking the current champion, South Africa, soon, gold prices invariably affect the AUD. And so up goes the value of AUD boosted by the recent spat of increased political and climatic uncertainties.

So, remember, next time, that when the wars are looming, and disasters are strife, buy AUD before anything else.

Opportunities Flux

2007-02-27T06:17:00.000-08:00

I'm sure most who read my blog have heard of the "law of attraction," but has anyone wondered how it works and the logic behind it? Honestly I can't easily believe the claim that when one has strong intentions and plans, the universe strives to coordinate its efforts towards the fulfilment of your goals.

Instead, I'm more logical, and if you want, superficial. At the level which I can perceive, I think thevery fact why the "universe wll coordinate itself with your efforts" is that you make the effort in the first place. The fact that we make the effort allows us to attempt to merge in unison with the functioning of the universe. Now, if we consider the law of averages, then certainly one can't fail all the time, and so strong intention brings multiple and much effort and thus allows one the chance for success.

The the key is "faith." A keyword found in all major religions. If one can first believe that what one desires is achievable, then indeed that becomes realisable, albeit not in and instant.

And why am I pondering on all these? Well, it's because I've been presented with more and more opportunities in the past few days. Interestingly, one of those opportunities was one that I came across before. What is making me reconsider looking at it is that a professional accountant is actually involved with quite a bit of money in this. Anyway, a bit of details can be found on http://rexleecorner.biz/?page_id=25

Hopefully all of us get involved in great opportunities which gives us substantial rewards in many ways, be it in terms of health, wealth, meaning, joy, comfort etc

Mundane Economy

2007-02-25T14:21:00.000-08:00

You know how people hate their jobs and still have to work because they know no other way out?

And why do people hate their jobs in the first place? Well, I had a small discussion with my student yesterday and found that the development of the economy led to specialisation and therefore that caused our current state of overdoing certain tasks. In some sense, we are robots and we're hired only because the machines can't do the exact same thing, yet.

Probably not al jobs are like this, but mine sure is. Customer service becomes disservice in my line. But I can't be thinking that way, cause it'll just lead to me being more and more negative. And that doesn't help when reality dictates I have to go to work or at least another month or so.

I made a substantial (to me) sum of investment into the private program yesterday. And I sure hopeit works out. No worries on my end, I'm sure the minimum is that I'll get my capital back, unscathed. But at the same time I still need to develop my forex skills, and so this saturday would see me going for a mentoring session with a local trader who earns at leas USD2.5k a month.

Excitement is in the air

2007-02-22T08:13:00.000-08:00

With the dawn of the new program that, I am beginning to recall my 12DP and investment fund days...haha...those were the days when I invested out of greed and suffered for it...

But now I'm doing very much proper planning and there are established sources who quote the admin as trustworthy. His trading abilities have been proven earlier so that is not an issue too.

It's pretty cool to be able to make a bit of money from sources other than work and tuition.

At the same time, today I felt that work was a breeze and pretty fun. Maybe it's because of this chance to invest.

Hope you guys use the Law of Attraction in your favour!

Chinese New Year!

2007-02-21T14:22:00.000-08:00

Ok, it's known as Lunar New Year in some parts of the world...this year's celebration is pretty ok...only that my young cousin of age 10 demanded all my attention when I was with him.

The big gift of this new Lunar year is that I found quite a good investment opportunity. Not very different from those HYIPs I invested in some time back. But this one is pretty confirmed it's legitimate and the admin's quite honest.

Well, no details here. But at least I found an avenue to get an "asset" - since it grows money...

As for my job, looks like it will last till end of March...I better start deciding that I like doing what I doing, otherwise I'll just dread going to work everyday...But the best moments on the job is when I can do true customer service - helping customers with their queries, finding better options for their normal mobile usage etc...

I learnt earlier that everything is a composition of the 2 ends/extremes...so I know even if I try to run to any other type of job, or any other jobs, I have to win myself in my mind and find the winner in me!

Errors

2007-02-14T14:33:00.000-08:00

Well...judging by where the trend for G/U headed, it sure seems that I got it wrong already. The doji(or is it called spinning top) indicated the market is uncertain and there are good chances the trend might reverse. But I opened my weekly graph and drew my trendline and found that the white bar might just be to test the previous channel as a line of resistance. In any case, I double my 2% buy and bought a 4% short at a 1.65xx level.

You know, things really would be different if I had a different trading style...or I'd learnt from different sources. But I think that's what causes the survival and the growth of any speculative markets - difference in opinions.

So all I have to do is to refine my opinion and senses to absorb and get into the flow of the market. My girlfriend is pretty keen on being rich. Haha...well, nobody would choose otherwise if that is a posibility.

But for now, it's "reality" for me. That is, I've gotta report for work, lest I want to be fired.