Jo's Journal

November 21st, 2009

Shenzhen

A very dynamic City. I'm staying at 布吉城 (Bujicheng), a city slightly north of Shenzhen Central. The busines is open until wee morning 2am... barbershop, dentist, supermarket, eating house, etc
Shenzhen Trip 001 Shenzhen Trip 003 

The next day, we went to OCT East taking a 20 minutes bus ride from Shenzhen Central. I'm surprised by how many mountain tunnel the bus passed through. I'm pretty sure I will never see tunnel in my life if I stay at Indonesia.. (Is there any tunnel in Indonesia right now?). How a city can develop from almost nothing to now in 20+ years... Thumbs up to China

Shenzhen Trip 009 Shenzhen Trip 005

Shenzhen Trip 012 Shenzhen Trip 014

The cable car at OCT East is much newer and more spacious compared to Cable Car at Ocean Park Hong Kong

Shenzhen Trip 017 Shenzhen Trip 018

Dare to play this on the top of the mountain?
Shenzhen Trip 022 Shenzhen Trip 023

Shenzhen Trip 024 Shenzhen Trip 031

Taking train to another part of the theme resort @ upper mountain
Shenzhen Trip 033 Shenzhen Trip 039

Shenzhen Trip 041 Shenzhen Trip 043

Shenzhen Trip 046 Shenzhen Trip 053

Very artistic
Shenzhen Trip 055 Shenzhen Trip 054

Shenzhen Trip 058 Shenzhen Trip 061

Shenzhen Trip 069 Shenzhen Trip 070

On the way back through Upper Mountain, We literally walk through the cloud
Shenzhen Trip 072 Shenzhen Trip 073

 

 

Posted by sentosa at 06:19 AM on November 21, 2009. | leave a note

November 19th, 2009

North Asia Trip - 1

HK Trip Day 1 (Friday)... taking plane from Changi Airport Terminal 3 @1.30pm... arriving at HK @ 5:30pm... basically nothing much to do =)

HK Trip 01 HK Trip 02

At the same time, visiting the recently born baby of my cousin

HK Trip 03 

On Day 2, Taking bus and visiting Aberdeen 香港仔 (Repulse Bay/Tsuen Wan and Ap Lei Chau 鴨脷洲)

Tsuen Wan
HK Trip 08 HK Trip 10

HK Trip 11 HK Trip 07

 My aunt is staying at Ap Lei Chau (South Horizon), the common area is magnificent

HK Trip 12 HK Trip 14

Posted by sentosa at 02:45 AM on November 19, 2009. | leave a note

November 3rd, 2009

Singapore CPI (Sep 09)

                                   Consumer Price Index
                                      (2004 = 100)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   Group                   | Weights |          Index        |      % Change     |
|                           |         |-----------------------|-------------------|
|                           |         |  Sep  |  Aug  |  Sep  | Sep 09/ | Sep 09/ |
|                           |    (%)  |  2008 |  2009 |  2009 | Aug 09  | Sep 08  |
| --------------------------|---------|-------|-------|-------|---------|---------|
|            All items      |   100   | 111.2 | 101.8 | 101.8 |  -0.1   |  -0.4   |
|                           |         |       |       |       |         |         |
| Food                      |    23   | 115.7 | 116.4 | 116.6 |   0.2   |   0.8   |
| Clothing & Footwear       |     4   | 104.3 | 106.0 | 104.3 |  -1.6   |    -    |
| Housing                   |    21   | 119.0 | 116.6 | 116.1 |  -0.5   |  -2.5   |
| Transport & Communication |    22   | 101.5 | 101.5 | 101.3 |  -0.2   |  -0.2   |
| Education & Stationery    |     8   | 107.6 | 110.0 | 109.8 |  -0.2   |   2.0   |
| Health Care               |     5   | 112.6 | 114.8 | 115.0 |   0.2   |   2.1   |
| Recreation & Others       |    17   | 110.3 | 108.1 | 108.3 |   0.2   |  -1.8   |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by sentosa at 08:15 AM on November 3, 2009. | leave a note

November 2nd, 2009

Circle Line MRT

Circle Line MRT map (in exact scale)... fully ready in 2011

Note the additional Station of Bayfront and Marina South, connecting with North-South-Line and future Downtown-Line.

ccl 

Posted by sentosa at 06:58 AM on November 2, 2009. | leave a note

November 1st, 2009

Oct09 Performance

luckily no bloodbath this month

asset 

inv1 

inv2 

inv3 

Posted by sentosa at 05:02 AM on November 1, 2009. | leave a note

October 30th, 2009

random rumble

Have a 1-cent coins but you don't know where to use it? You have 2 choice

1. Deposit it to the McD for charity purpose
2. Deposit into your bank account. That's what I just did today... and finally getting rid of 1cents coin :D

Posted by sentosa at 09:11 AM on October 30, 2009. | leave a note

October 29th, 2009

Don't believe everything you hear ...

Ten stock market myths that bedevil investors

IN THE dinosaur saga Jurassic Park, author Michael Crichton wrote about a man who believed a tyrannosaurus couldn't see him if he held still. The carnivore ate him.

Later in the book, someone asks what killed the man. Another character answers, "He was misinformed."

Misinformation can be costly. Here are 10 notions that lead investors astray.



1: BEST FIRMS = BEST STOCKS

Stocks advance when a company exceeds prevailing expectations. The best companies usually generate lofty hopes among investors, which are hard to exceed.

I began writing about stocks in 1972, when the "Nifty Fifty" stocks were all the rage. Companies such as IBM, McDonald's and Xerox were so loved that investors paid 60 times earnings to own them.

These were good companies: Their earnings climbed strongly for a decade or more. Yet they were bad stocks, because people overpaid for their anticipated success.

Today's equivalent in my opinion is Apple. The maker of iMacs, iPhones and iPods is highly profitable, debt-free, and held in universal awe. That's why shares sell for 32 times earnings, more than six times book value and almost five times revenue.

Apple is a great company. But I predict over the next two years it will be only an average stock.

2: ONE MUST BE AN ACTIVE TRADER

Before you are tempted to believe this, consider commissions and taxes. The commissions are not too bad these days, now that discount brokerage is routine.



3: ANALYSTS PICK GOOD STOCKS

Analysts are intelligent, know a company's manager better than you ever will, work long hours, and have a staff of young, hard-charging assistants.

None of that necessarily makes them standouts at picking stocks. In my ongoing study, now at 10 years and counting, analysts' most-favoured stocks underperform the Standard and Poor's 500 Index. I think analysts tend to fall for Myth No 1.



4: BEWARE OF OCTOBER

The worst month for the markets is September, not October. According to Ned Davis Research, the average monthly price change for the Dow in September since 1900 has been a loss of 1.1 per cent.

February and May also show small losses, on average.

October, with an average gain of 0.1 per cent, is the fourth-worst month. Admittedly, it has seen more than its share of stock market crashes, but there have also been plenty of robust Octobers.

The best months, incidentally, are December (average gain: 1.5 per cent), July (1.3 per cent) and April (1.2 per cent).



5: COUNT ON THE PRESIDENTIAL CYCLE

The stock market has precious few things one can count on. In general, the first year of a president's term is the weakest for stocks, and the third year is strongest. The second and fourth years tend to be average.



6: P/E RATIOS ARE THE PERFECT MEASURE OF A STOCK'S VALUE

I love Price-to-earnings ratios as much as anyone. Yet they are neither a perfect measure nor a magic shortcut to stock picking.

Ford earned US$1.20 a share in 2005. At the end of that year the stock was selling for about US$8 a share, so the P/E ratio was attractive at about six. But this didn't stop Ford from losing money in each of the next three years. And it didn't stop the stock from falling to $2.29 at the end of last year.



7: BUY STOCKS WITH MOMENTUM

Many respected market participants believe this. Perhaps foremost is William O'Neil, publisher of Investors Business Daily.

I tend to side with Burton Malkiel, a Princeton economics professor who argues that the benefits of relative strength are cancelled by the increased trading costs with this strategy. Momentum investing works some of the time, but in my judgement it doesn't work consistently.



8: WAR IS GOOD FOR STOCKS

Because spending on World War II helped pull the US out of the Great Depression, many think rising military spending correlates with a rising market.

It's often untrue. The market gained little in the 1970s, during the Vietnam War. It boomed during the 1980s, a time of relative peace.



9: MARKETS PREFER REPUBLICANS

According to Ned Davis Research, the annual gain in the Dow average was 7.2 per cent under Democratic presidents from March 4, 1901, through July 8, 2008.

It was only 3.6 per cent under Republicans during the same period. The best stock-market performance on record so far was under Mr Bill Clinton, a Democrat.



10: TIMING CAN BOOST RETURNS

Successful market timers are rarer than scrawny sumo wrestlers. Most people who try to time the market end up being on the sidelines during the unexpected sudden upturns that account for a significant part of the market's long-term gains - this spring's rally, for example. Bloomberg

Source: Today 29 October 2009

Posted by sentosa at 04:26 AM on October 29, 2009. | leave a note

October 25th, 2009

Flash Mob @Raffles Place

Was told by my friend that there is a flash mob on raffles place last friday..

If you miss it, here's the clip

This entry contained scripting, which has been removed for your safety. Click here to see the entry in its entirety.

Posted by sentosa at 04:54 PM on October 25, 2009. | leave a note

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