Posts

Showing posts from January, 2013

General Election - Crisis or Opportunity?

Yesterday KLCI plunged 40 points (2.5%) to 1635, while the KLCI futures plunged almost 60 points to 1624! Technically speaking, KLCI has violated 50 day and 100 day moving averages, and looks like the next supporting level 1620 (200 day moving average) is shaky.  All these happened because the latest speculation on the election date is March 30th 2013 which has caused investors highly uneasy as they are worried about the outcome of the election. In my personal opinion, (no offence to any party), that there are 2 possible scenario: either the BN will win by marginally or lose by marginally, assuming the opposition party increases their parliamentary seats from 20% to 40%, ie, from the current 82 seats increases 20% to 98 seats based on the assumption that the MCA (Malaysia Chinese Association) will lose majority of its 15 Parliamentary seats plus several seats from other BN parties. Or for the opposition party to win marginally, they need to secure 112 seats out of the 222 parliamentary

Making Demands on Diversity

Image
Rogers: "We are just not fighting hard enough." Last fall, John Rogers of Ariel Investments found a convenient forum to discuss the state of diversity in finance. At a SIFMA diversity conference last October, he scolded executives and the rest of the industry about the woeful numbers from under-represented groups in senior roles. "The state of diversity in the industry," he reportedly said, "is appalling."  He added, "Ninety percent of leaders talk a big game, but...we have gone backwards. We are just not fighting hard enough." Rogers is Ariel Investments ' founder and CEO. He, also, happens to be a pioneering African-American in the industry, one who has been a prominent investor and leader in mutual funds for 30 years. Hence, Rogers is no new kid on the block, not an industry novice who just appeared on the scene to make this striking, candid observation.  He has seen dozens of market trends and phenomena, endured more than a few volatile m

Today's "Bulge Brackets"

Image
Who comprises the Bulge Brackets of 2013? "Bulge brackets" in investment banking was once an acclaimed list of investment banks that dominated most of the activity in the industry--from staid, conventional bond underwriting to mergers-and-acquisition advice to flamboyant IPOs.  "Bulge bracket" signaled dominance and prestige. It implied a bank was a major player. Statistics and market share determined who made the list or not, and it was often a moniker awarded to banks that finished in the top five in most finance categories. Say "bulge bracket" and those who trade and do deals and those who follow the industry think immediately of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.   Just a few years ago, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch were "bulge bracket" mainstays.  Go back decades, and banks such as Salomon Brothers, Drexel Burnham, First Boston , and DLJ might have squirmed their way into a top-5 listing. Often they did, back then. Today, they don'

Rules For Trading In Stocks Part 2

Image
Today I'll continue with 2 more rules. Rule No.4: Buy and Sell on 3 Weeks Advance or Decline Markets do not go up forever! There must be some profit taking involved along the way. In Gann's rule, he said "buy when the market is decline for 3 weeks in a bull trend". What this means is that when the market is up for about 2-3 months, there'll be a correction, this correction usually takes in the form of 1-3 weeks decline, after which  the bull trend resumes. So to apply this rule, we have to wait for the market to decline for 3 weeks, then start buying, but remember to put a stop loss should the decline extend further. If the market only decline for 1 week, no entry. Similarly, in a bear market, markets do not fall forever, after a few months of decline, there will be a pull back. In Gann's rule, sell after 3 weeks of bear rally. Chart 1: KLCI 2010 The above chart 1 illustrate this perfectly well on our KLCI in the year of 2010. The 3 sell down in the month of F

Rules For Trading In Stocks

Image
In November last year I said the market would turn around by 30 Nov 2012 and the market did recovered around that time. When it comes to trading, technical analysis can help us to make some forecast base on how prices behave in the past. In today's article, I would like to share with you 3 stock trading rules by W.D Gann, in his book titled "45 Years In Wall Street". Rule No.1: Determine The Trend Always identify the primary trend first. This can be easily identify using trendlines and moving averages. As a rule of thumb, 10,20 MA are for short term trends, 50, 100 MA medium term and 200 MA for long term trend. When the price is above the 200 MA or the long term trendline, it shows that the stock is in a long term bull trend such as the diagram below. Rule No.2: Buy at Single, Double or Triple Bottom Buy at single, double or triple bottom. This is an important rule especially for double bottom when you see that the second bottom is higher than the first bottom, it would b