Do you feel lucky?

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

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

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

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?

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

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!

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

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!!

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!

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

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!

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?)