Stock Wealth - Let's Go Stock Trading!

Stock Trading On Hold, World Cup Now!

2006-06-09T11:15:00.000+08:00

It's World Cup time!

The market is still too volatile. A friend was considering buying Landwind at 38 cents recently. I am also looking at this stock, but will not be entering now cause we really don't know when is the bottom. Most analysts are already talking about the bear market...

Will carry on observing and wait for the uptrend. For now, it's all about World Cup!

Link to Stock Wealth blog

When Time to Cut Loss in Stock Trading, Do It!

2006-05-22T16:28:00.000+08:00

Remember my post on 6 May that says "recently I read that we should not give up the stocks too early as they tend to bounce back. Plus the economy is still going strong. So, let's see if this saying is correct." ?

This is half correct. Just like the stock market, it is either going up or down :p I think it all depends on the sentiment of the stock market. If the market sentiment is good, then tendency is it will carry on with an uptrend, and it is worth waiting. But if the market sentiment is lousy like today for Singapore Stock Market and other Asia stock markets, or like last Monday, then tendency is it will turn into a bearish downtrend, and we better cut loss!

I should have listened to the expert's advice, ie. "Sell in May and Go Away!" Plus this is a world cup year. Probably the stock market will only picked up in July!

Got to stay put and observe further before I enter the stock market and start trading again. Now my short term stock investment will become long term...

Fortunately, I have world cup to keep me occupied in June and July, while waiting for English Premiere League (EPL) to resume in August, and waiting for the stock market to resume its uptrend in July...

Link to Stock Wealth blog

So our GDP Data did Help our Stock Market!

2006-05-17T22:58:00.000+08:00

Singapore economy expanded by 10.6% in 1Q06, better than the median estimate of 10.1%. The Ministry of Trade and Industry has raised the 2006 GDP growth to between 5% and 7%, from the previous forecast of between 4% and 6%.

The stock market responded slightly positive to this economy report. I guess the stock market has been too volatile for the past two days. Investors have become very cautious, and the stock price did not move up much. Sigh, I went in too early last Friday and Monday, so my stocks have not reached my buying price...

What is the moral of the story? It is something that I all along knew, and I just could not get over it. That is, when the stock market is in the downtrend, we should not be buying, as we do not know where is the bottom! We should only buy when the trend turn up! And why is it that I always could not resist the temptation to buy when the stock price went down, especially in such a drastical manner! Guess what? I am just afraid of losing opportunities! But like someone ever said, it is always better to lose opportunities than to lose money!

So, what is most important in stock trading?

Discipline! Discipline! Discipline! Discipline! Discipline! .........................

Link to Stock Wealth blog

Bear Stock Market Coming?

2006-05-15T23:19:00.000+08:00

Today's Straits Times index plunged 85.75 points to 2,534.83, the single biggest decline in about 14 months. Initially I thought of being an observer today as I am not sure if the decline will carry on till the next sessions. But the stock price was so tempting that I bought UTAC at 0.965 cents. I waited till the final ten minutes before the stock market closed cause I realise that the stock market is usually very active duing this period, the stock movement can be quite drastic. Well, UTAC still closed lower at 0.96 cents. Need to monitor the market closely tomorrow and try to close the position asap!

Just received an email that there are signs that indicate the beginning of global bear market. If this is true, let's hope that the landing is a soft landing! Anyway, the advice from my broker is to stay light in equities, then can pick up cheap quality stocks when market corrects big time!

btw, Singapore will be releasing Q1 GDP data on Wednesday, May 17. This will be the first release after our general election, so I thought the results should be quite positive. And should be providing some good sentiments to our stock market. Let's see if I am right : )

Link to Stock Wealth blog

Election Over, Stock Trading Carry On...

2006-05-09T14:21:00.000+08:00

Looks like the election results did not have much impact on the stock market. The ruling party reported that they have received a strong mandate from the people. At the same time, we have some oppositions in the parliament. Also, more promising and exciting new faces from the opposition party! Guess most people are happy with the results, um... not the ruling party of course. And I presume the results are expected by most analysts, that's why there's no impact to the stock market. We seldom have surprises with our election anyway. So, good or bad? It really depends on what one wants...

So looks like there's no push factor for the stock market these few days. For the past few days, the market went up because of blue chips like banks that have significant impact on the Straits Times index. Those stocks that I am trading do not belong to this category, so got to wait for their turn to bounce back. Before I started stock trading, I always have this impression that the Straits Times index represents the whole of Singapore stock market, or at least the majority. Now then I realise that a few giant stocks can actually bring up the index by so many points with most of the other stocks lag behind! I wonder if it is like some countries when the minority rich get richer, and become the richest, because they took away majority of the wealth earned in the country, with the majority ordinary people lag behind, and the economy will still be reported as going strong?

Now got to wait for the interest rate announcement and see how it will impact the stock market. Let's see if I can trade some cheap stocks this round : )

Link to Stock Wealth blog

Will Election Results Impact the Stock Market?

2006-05-06T12:40:00.000+08:00

Today is Singapore's 10th General Election. Some analysts said the results of the election may impact the stock market, depending on whether the going-to-be ruling party receives a strong mandate from our people. A friend of mine jokingly said better sell all the stocks before the polling day as this time the opposition is quite strong. I have not closed some positions as the stock price has gone quite low, and recently I read that we should not give up the stocks too early as they tend to bounce back. Plus the economy is still going strong. So, let's see if this saying is correct.

As for the election, this is the first time that PM Lee Hsien Loong is leading his party into this election. He said his party has presented its vision for Singapore and explained what this means in concrete terms for Singaporeans. This means, Mr Lee said, "opportunities for all who work hard to secure good and better-paying jobs; top-quality education for your children to give them the best possible start in life; first-class living environment, with homes that all of us can be proud of; high quality but affordable medical care, with no one denied medical treatment because of inability to pay; and focused and targeted assistance for the poor and needy so that no one will be left behind as Singapore progresses." Let's check this blog again five years later and verify if these have been achieved...

PS: Use of language is an art. Different people can have varying interpretation for the same piece of art. That's why fortune teller can be right most of the time because it really depends on how we interprete the fortune :p

Link to Stock Wealth blog

A Happy Day for Stock Trading

2006-05-05T14:45:00.000+08:00

I bought 10,000 shares of Landwind Medical at 54 cents on Tuesday. Managed to sell them at 56 cents yesterday. The profit is about $140. For experts out there, this is peanuts. (btw, if you have followed our local news, you may know that peanuts can be quite expensive in Singapore :p). But it was a very pleasant experience for me, a beginner trader, cause I manage to do a range trade within 3 days! There was lots of discipline involved as it is always very tempting to wait for the stock price to rise further. I am not sure if this will happen, but I do know that it is coming to the end of the week, and next week will have interest rates news again. And I am going to get $140 deposited into my bank account soon :D

Hey, imagine it's about 2.59 % returns for an investment of about $5429 in 3 days! What we get from the bank of 3 % is an annual return! So I was quite happy when the trade was cofirmed : )

Link to Stock Wealth blog

Remember to Check for Stock Issues when Trading Stocks!

2006-05-02T15:58:00.000+08:00

I have made a very basic mistake. I bought a stock without considering its CB (cum Bonus) issue! I am only aware of it when I checked the stock price on the following day. I got a shock cause the stock price dropped by one-third of its last closing price! Only then I realised the existence of the XB (ex-Bonus) indicator. There was a 2 for 1 bonus for this stock. Problem is I will only get the bonus on the following week. While waiting for the bonus, I could only look at the stock price going downwards and I could not trade the stock cause I don't own the bonus share yet. Now got stuck on this stock while waiting for bonus...

So, moral of the story, while we are focusing on the charts, do remember to check for any of such things like CD (cum Dividend), CB (cum Bonus), CR (cum Rights), etc. before we consider a stock. I have learned this before and I am still making the mistake. Guess we always "like" to pay before we learn...

Note that some stock charts are not adjusted for such issues. For instance, the charts at UOBKayHian site are not adjusted for Bonus/Rights issues. So be cautious when you look at these charts cause the signal for buy or sell can be misleading!

Link to Stock Wealth blog

What Price to Buy for the Stock?

2006-04-30T21:56:00.000+08:00

The challenge that I am facing with the use of Stochastic Oscillator is that when there is a buy signal, at what price should I enter position?

There are a few prices that I am looking at:

The Moving Average of the stock price. Also have to decide how many periods of moving average to use.
The closing stock price of the previous trading session.
The lowest stock price of the previous trading session.

Some factors that I will consider are:

Is the stock a blue chip or penny stock? That may help to determine how much risk I will want to take.
How is the market condition. For instance, the high oil price due to continued fears of supply disruptions in Iran and Nigeria, when will the Federal Reserve stop its rate increases? And how about the nowadays less reported bird flu?
Is it the begin or the end of the week's trading sessions?
What is the opening price of the stock for the day?
Did the stock price rise above or fall below its moving average?

There was once I thought I could list down all the possibilities and the corresponding entry points like writing a program. It was not as simple as I thought cause the market is so dynamic! So now it is still an on the spot decision based on all the known factors...

PS: The moving average and recent stock price movements of SGX stocks can be found in the UOBKayHian site. Remember to use the "Setting" function to change the parameters.

Link to Stock Wealth blog

Stock Chart - Stochastic Oscillator

2006-04-26T13:50:00.000+08:00

I read about Stochastic Oscillator from a book on day trading stocks. In this book, it recommends Stochastic Oscillator as one of the tools for day trading. This Oscillator can also be used as a tool for short term trading.

Stochastic Oscillator tells us the percentage of the recent close price of a stock against a period of its high/low range. Readings below 20 are considered oversold and readings above 80 are considered overbought. When the oscillator falls below the oversold level and rises back above it, it indicates a buy signal. When the oscillator rises above the overbought level then falls back below it, it indicates a sell signal.

To learn more about Stochastic Oscillator, just do a search for Stochastic Oscillator on Google and you will get tonnes of information. Or simply go to this Stock Charts site which gives a very good explanation.

For my trading now, most of the time I am using this Stochastic Oscillator to look for buy and sell signals for stocks. I prefer to use 25/75 range instead of 20/80 range as it shows a stronger signal. Or the other approach recommended by some gurus is to disregard the first break above/below signal. The second break above/below signal should be a stronger signal to indicate the divergence.

The problem of being too cautious and choose to wait for a stronger signal is that we may lose opportunities as we may be too late to enter position. Well, it is always better to lose opportunities than to lose money!

A challenge for me to overcome is the discipline to follow the rules strictly. There were a few occasions when the down trend was so tempting that I chose to enter postition before the divergence signal. I was caught as the down trend carried on. And the subsequent mistake was that I hurried to contra with a loss without waiting for the up swing. For most of those occasions, I could have waited a few days longer to eventually make a profit! Well, I know I always have to be prepared for a loss once I chose to enter a position, no risk no gain right!

One thing about me is that I am not a day trader, so I do not short sell as that requires us to close a position by the end of the day. Therefore, fewer signals for me as most of the time I am looking for buy signals.

We cannot be right all the time. Hey, if we can get it right 70% of the time, we should be happily making money : )

And if anyone out there have anything to share on this topic, I would really appreciate it if you could give your comments. We would want to be the minority that gains from this stock market!

PS: For some charts for SGX stocks, you can refer to the UOBKayHian site. Remember to use the "Setting " function to change the parameters, and the "Chart" function to turn on the display of the charts.

Link to Stock Wealth blog

Stock Market to be Impacted Again...

2006-04-25T01:22:00.000+08:00

Evening news said Singapore retrenchment in 2005 is at 12-year low. One may be wondering why this piece of info came at this time? Any how, here we are talking about stock market, so we would not want to speculate too much on this coincidence :p

With this news, I thought it should be good for SGX as it indicates that our economy has picked up, or at least that's what we are being informed. Unfortunately, Iran has just rejected a United Nations deadline to suspend Iran's nuclear program. Does it mean oil price will hit another record high?

Got to decide whether to contra and close my position in the next trading session...

Link to Stock Wealth blog

When to Close Stock Position?

2006-04-22T00:40:00.000+08:00

Today I am quite upset as I look at the stock that I have closed postion by contra rocketed high!

I closed the position when I hit my target, but the stock price carried on with its uptrend. I may have to review the way that I set my targets. Not all stocks should have the same target as they behave differently. I need to be more intimate to the list of stocks that I have short listed in order to understand their behaviour.

But like a friend of mine ever said: "We cannot be earning all the money, else the market will be dead like a sleeping bear as there will not be other players. So we must share the profit!" In this case, I am sharing the profit, or the wealth from stock market, with others so that we could all enjoy this market : )

Link to Stock Wealth blog

Something learn on Online Stock Trading

2006-04-20T14:45:00.000+08:00

Some mistakes on past few weeks online stock trading:

Did not check for negative news on a stock before entry.
Enter too early when the down trend has not reached the bottom.
Not discipline to cut loss when it is time to call it a day.
Not discipline to take profit when set target is met. Greed!
Never monitor the market while chasing a stock.
Too slow in doing range trading.

It is really not easy to decide when to enter and when to exit. It is all about decision making…… quick decision!

And the keyword is discipline!

Link to Stock Wealth blog

Swing Stock Trading

2006-04-19T15:02:00.000+08:00

If anyone out there need more information on Swing Stock Trading, check out this site: http://www.stock4wealth.com/sop/

Link to Stock Wealth blog

Let's Go Stock Trading!

2006-04-15T00:58:00.000+08:00

Can I live a different life? Not having to waste my time to travel such a long distance to office every morning? Having my office at home? And trade stock with just my laptop?

Why not! Lets go for it!

Link to Stock Wealth blog