At Iba Pa

Why Trading on the Philippine Stock Exchange got Temporarily Suspended Today?

jonathan — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 08:52:35 +0000

Today has been a historical day for the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) after it had experience its first ever ‘circuit breaker’ activation - a 15 minute halt in day trading which occurred 11.23AM-11.38AM (GMT +8) local time.

Since this is something new for us Filipinos to hear or watch in the news, I thought it might be interesting that I write something to explain it in layman’s term. Even if only a very little percentage of our 90M population do live trading with a broker.

Stock Market Circuit Breaker

I guess everyone knows what a circuit breaker is. Its an electrical switch that’s automatically-operated, designed to protect an electrical circuit from possible damage that an overload or a short circuit might cause.

Basically, its the same thing with the stock market circuit breaker that got activated today. Only that in stock market terms, a circuit breaker halts trading for a definite period of time, after a market drops a particular level.

In the case of our country’s stock market, the Philippine Stock Exchange, a circuit breaker is set according to this rule:

The temporary trading suspension will be implemented only once in a market session and will not be resorted to if the decrease in the PSEi by at least 10 percent occurs 30 minutes prior to market close at 12 noon.

The PSE registered a 10% day drop at 11:23AM today, 7 minutes short of the 11:30AM deadline, thus causing its ‘circuit breaker‘ to get activated. This in turn temporarily stopped trading activities for 15 minutes or from 11:23AM-11:38AM.

Why the Need for the Tempory Halt?
Have you ever found yourself on a totally panicky moment that caused a series of unfortunate events? For example waking up late in the morning, say 7:30AM when you should be in the office or school by 8:00AM. To make it worse, you have a meeting or a big exam by 8:30. What happen? You get into panic mode and rush, rush, rush! But more often than not, all this panicking and rushing won’t do you any good but in turn would only make things bad. You misplace your stuffs, leave your keys inside the house, trip on the sidewalk, etc. You get the idea.

The same thing happens on a rapidly falling stock market.

For example, by the opening of the market, or 9AM, a trader has 1 million pesos all traded in various shares. By 11AM, let’s assume just for the sake of illustration, that the market and the trader’s capital has fallen 9.5%, or 95K pesos. That’s 95 thousand pesos paper loss in just 2 hours! And the market is not even halfway on its downslide!

So how does Mr. Million trader reacts? He noticed that everyone seems to be cutting their losses and are selling their shares. Figuring out that he’s in deep trouble with his wife once she found out about all the money he lose on the market today, he immediately sell his shares even at a loss just to preserve his remaining capital - and prevent an all out war with his wife.

But remember the law of supply and demand? Too many people selling their stocks and too few wanting to buy them will only cause share prices to drop, and in turn, cause the stock market to decline further.

The problem is, all the declines on the prices of shares in the stock market has nothing to do with the fundamentals of the companies they represent and are all emotion-driven.

Have you heard something like all of PLDT’s unsatisfied DSL subscribers pre-terminating their subscription? No. Yet, their shares fell 14% today. Did Ayala closed all its malls, buildings, insurance company, banks, etc. (or should we say, the entire Makati CBD)? No. Yet, Ayala Corporation’s shares fell almost 12% today. It did not even moved down that big when an explosion happened at Glorietta 2 last year.

If you’re still with me, you should figure out by now that there is really no physical reason on why the value of a company’s stock should drop so sudden. Yet they did today. What caused their decline? Emotion. Mr. Million trader panicked at the thought of going home tonight with the what could be greater than PhP95K loss news to his wife so without giving much thought about it, unreasonably sold his stocks even at a low, luge price.

Just like everyone else in the market.

And so, the PSE circuit breaker was activated after the 10% day drop has been reached, just as it was designed to do so, to give Mr. Million trader, and all his fellow day traders, a 15 minute break, to clear up their minds and figure out, that their heart is starting to rule over their brains.

By the way
Do you know that the use of stock market circuit breaker has been established in Dow Jones, USA’s stock market, after the Black Monday crash in 1987? The circuit breakers have been activated twice, both times in late afternoon trading on Oct. 27, 1997, when the Dow eventually closed off 554 points, or 7.2 percent. Wow, that’s exactly 11 years today!

Furthermore, do you know that the use of circuit breakers on Philippine Stock Exchange has been established, only almost a month ago, or last September 30, 2008? Wow again, the management of PSEi must have one hell of a strong foresight!

Complete List of Melamine Positive/Negative Products in the Philippines (as of 22-Oct-08)

jonathan — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:21:32 +0000

(Note: My compiled lists of Melamine tested products were getting a lot of traffic for the past few weeks now. I’ve also received a number of messages from concerned readers questioning the reliability of these listings. So just in case you’re also doubting the accuracy of this and this articles, I suggest you confirm what I’ve posted here directly from my source, BFAD’s website. Thanks!)

Last Oct. 15, I posted a complete list of products that has been tested by BFAD for melamine content. Since then, 2 updates has been released with 2 more products being found to be positive for melamine.

Here’s the updated complete list of the milk-related products already tested by the Department of Health (DOH) and BFAD to be positive/negative with Melamine as of October 22, 2008.

Positive:
1. Mengniu Original Drink Milk
2. Green Food Yili Pure Milk
3. JollyCow Slender High Calcium Low Fat milk (1 Liter)
4. Lotte Strawberry Snack Koala Biscuit
5. Lotte B+W Koala Biscuit
6. Lotte Chocolate Snack Koala Biscuit

Negative:

October 3, 2008
1. Anchor Lite Milk
2. Anlene High calcium low fat milk UHT
3. Bear Brand instant
4. Chic Choc milk chocolate
5. Farmland skim milk
6. Jinwei Drink
7. Jolly Cow pure fresh milk
8. Kiddie Soya Milk Egg Delight
9. Lactogen 1 DHA infant formula
10. M&M milk chocolate candies
11. M&M peanut chocolate candies
12. Milk Boy
13. Nestogen 2 DHA follow-up formula
14. Nestogen 3 DHA follow-up formula
15. Nido 3+ prebio with DHA
16. Nido Full Cream milk powder
17. Nido Jr.
18. No-sugar chocolate of Isomalt 2 Oligosaccharide
19. Nutri Express milk drink
20. Pura UHT fresh Milk
21. Snickers fresh roasted in caramel nogut in thick milk chocolate
22. Vitasoy soya milk drink
23. Wahaha Orange
24. Wahaha Yellow
25. Want want Milk Drink
26. Windmill Skim Milk Powder
27. Yinlu Milk Peanut
28. Yogi Yogurt Flavored Milk Drink

October 8, 2008
1. Anmum Materna Milk Powder Chocolate Flavor (400g)
2. Bear Brand Choco (300g)
3. Bear Brand Sterilized Milk (200ml)
4. Cadbury Choclairs
5. Carnation Calcium Plus Non-fat Milk Powder
6. Klim Instant Full Cream Milk Powder
7. Milk Chocolate Bar (40g)
8. Monmilk Breakfast Milk Walnut Milk Beverage
9. Monmilk Hi-calcium Low fat milk (1L)
10. Monmilk Deluxe Pure Milk
11. Nestle Chocolate Flavor Ice cream
12. Nestle Dairy Farm Pure Milk
13. Nestle Fresh Milk (1L)
14. Nestle Kitkat
15. Nestle Milk chocolate (40g)
16. Nestle Pops Ice cream
17. Nestle Vanilla Flavor Ice cream
18. Nestogen 1 DHA
19. Nesvita Cereal Milk Drink
20. Blue Tree Express Milk Drink or Green Apple Flavor (500ml)
21. Prime Roast Instant Nutritious Cereal (28g)

October 10, 2008
1. Anchor Wam Froot Milk Drink (Mango Magic)
2. Anchor Wam Froot Milk Drink (Orange Chill)
3. Anchor Wam Froot Milk Drink (Strawberry Spin)
4. Arla Full Cream Milk Repacked
5. Austria Milk Candies
6. Candyman White Rabbit Butter Toffee Candy
7. Cottage Milk Sweet Cream Butter Milk
8. Crisp Bean Chocolate
9. Crisp Chocolate Stone
10. Dairy America Milk Powder Repacked
11. Dairy Kreem Skimmed Milk Powder
12. Dong Guan Bairong Coconut Biscuits
13. Farmland Milk Powder
14. Kiddie Soya Milk Egg Delight
15. La Crema (Puregold) Skimmed Milk Powder, Original
16. La Crema (Puregold) Skimmed Milk Powder, Regular
17. Magic Chew Grape Fruit Sharing
18. Milk Drink in Red Can (in Chinese Characters)
19. Oakland Skimmed Milk Powder
20. Showa Tempura Batter Mix

October 14, 2008
1. Anchor Fresh Milk
2. Caidenly Biscuits (Milk Flavor)
3. Candyman Kendi Mint Chocolate Filled Center
4. Candyman Vi-Va Caramel Sweets Chocolate Filled Center
5. Dairy Champ Evaporada
6. DongGuan Bairong Chocolate Cream Biscuits
7. DongGuan Wanjiang Wan Fu Papaya Cookie
8. DongGuan Bairong Apple Biscuits
9. DongGuan Golden Paddyfield Giadenjy Biscuits
10. DongGuan Golden Paddyfield Little Biscuits
11. DongGuan Mayong Guang Feng Food
12. Engtian Layer Biscuits
13. Eugnitan Layer Biscuits
14. F&N Blue Cow Condensada
15. F&N Daisy Condensada
16. Farmhouse Skimmed Milk Powder
17. Fat & Thin Milky Soya Drink
18. Fudielai Biscuits
19. Keko Candy
20. Kyoto Cookies
21. Liu Wei Bang Lollipop Candy
22. M&M’s Minis Chocolate Candies
23. Mai Wei Su Cookies
24. Milky Soya Milk Drink (Chocolate)
25. Milky Soya Milk Drink (Green Apple)
26. Milky Soya Milk Drink (Melon)
27. Milky Soya Milk Drink (Sweet Corn)
28. Pengtian Thin Cracker
29. Pokka Soy 4 U Soy Bean Drink
30. Prime Roast Calcium Enriched Nutritious Cereal
31. Prime Roast Oligosacharide Nutritious Cereal
32. Sally Sikaoqi Milk Candy
33. Sally Sikaoqi Coffee Candy
34. Sukacita Little Bear Biscuits (Chocolate flavor)
35. Suntree Coffee Candy
36. Tiong Hwa Soya Milk (unsweetened)
37. Vitasoy Calci Plus Healthy Soya Drink (Low Sugar Hi-Calcium Low Fat Cholesterol Free)
38. Yeo’s Drink
39. Zhen Xin Sandwich Biscuits
40. Zhongshan Lewwa Food Jelly (Pudding)
41. Zhongshan Meihua Butter with Filling Cake

October 15, 2008
1. Arla Instant White Milk Powder Milex 126
2. Baby Sucker Candy (Smart Plastic Mfg.)
3. Baina Watch Milk Candy
4. Bainapie Coolmilk Bean
5. Barbie Milk Candy
6. Call and Text Candy (Smart Plastic Mfg.)
7. Chang’s Chin Tai Chang Square Cookies
8. Changtai Food Lollipop Candy
9. Chaozhou-Zhancui Original Butter Scoth Classic Candy
10. Cow’s Head Skimmed Milk Powder (Spray dried process)
11. Dairy Cow Instant Whole Milk Powder
12. Dongguan Bairong Strawberry Biscuit
13. Dongguan HSU-CHI Orange Sandwich Cookies
14. Duke’s Choco Crunch Bar
15. Erko Marsmallows (Dairy Milk Flavour Filling)
16. Galaxy Sweetened Milk Powder
17. H&Y (Healthy & Young) Jollybee Eat & Drink Candy (Orange Flavor)
18. Jiayuan Shuang Le Tong Candy
19. JollyCow Sterilized Milk
20. Khong Guan Custard Cream Biscuit
21. Khong Guan Marie Biscuit
22. Lotte Nidoo Skimmed Milk Biscuit
23. MC Nation Confectionary Milky Beans Candy
24. Milk Land Milk Powder (Sweet Cream Buttermilk Powder)
25. Orion “It’s Now” Custard Cream Cake
26. Palma Commercial Skimmed Milk Powder
27. Permen Aneka Rasa Buah Candy Granules
28. Red Bull Skimmed Milk Powder
29. Sam’s Super i Man Milk Candy
30. Strange Biscuit of Common Song/ Guava Cookies
31. Sweetworld Almo Milk Powder Bottle
32. The New Zoland Company Omilk Bonbon Yogurt Milk Soft Drops (Original Taste)
33. Tiwi Banana Split Chocolate
34. Vitasoy Malted Soya Bean Milk

October 20, 2008
1. Argentina Corned Beef Chunky 190g
2. Chang Long Pork Luncheon Meat 170g
3. Greatwall Brand Premium Ham Luncheon Meat 340g
4. Gulong (China Well-known Mark) Pork Luncheon Meat 340g
5. Liberty Pork Luncheon Meat 375g
6. MaLing Canned Prok Luncheon Meat 397g
7. MaLing Chunky Corned Beef 150g
8. MaLing Pork Luncheon Meat 170g
9. MaLing Pork Luncheon Meat 397g
10. MaLing Premium Pork Luncheon Meat 397g
11. MaLing Vienna Sausage 140g
12. Narcissus Brand Pork Mince with Bean Paste 185g
13. Narcissus Brand Premium Luncheon Meat 397g
14. Narcissus Brand Spiced Pork Cubes 142g
15. Narcissus Brand Stewed Prok 397g
16. Purefoods Chinese Style Luncheon Meat 165g
17. Purefoods Corned Beef 210g
18. Shanghai Brand Chinese Luncheon Meat (new budget size) 165g

October 22, 2008
1. Angels First Love Barquillos Fresh Milk Wafer Sticks
2. Barbecue Candy (MM)
3. Darrys Milk Choco Candy
4. Golden Fuji Crisp Tomato Flavor Cracker
5. Golden Fuji Vegetable Flavor Cracker
6. Houshuang Winter Mint Candy (MM)
7. KZ Gundam Long Candy
8. Lipton Milk Tea (Original Flavour) — product of Indonesia
9. Lipton Milk Tea (Vanilla Flavour) — product of Indonesia
10. Nice Choice Pineapple Cake
11. OO Chocolate Bean Candy
12. Sandwich Biscuits (green wrapper, in Chinese characters)
13. Sandwich Biscuits (purple wrapper, in Chinese characters)
14. Sandwich Biscuits (yellow wrapper, in Chinese characters)
15. Sour Lollipop 2 in 1 (Strawberry, Orange, Pineapple)
16. Sweet Dart 8.8 Butter Bali Candy
17. The New Zoland Company Omilk Bonbon Yogurt Milk Soft Drops (grape flavour)
18. W.L. Sweet Dart Pines Milk Candy
19. W.L. Sweet Dart Royal Orange Candy
20. W.L. Yaahoo Cheese Biscuit
21. Zhongshan Meihua Galletas De Chocola Te Butter with Filling Cake
22. Zhongshan Meihua Good Taste Sweet-Smelling and Crisp Biscuits (Nutrition Health Foods)

Top 10 Richest People in the Philippines 2008

jonathan — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:52:47 +0000

If you belong to the typical masa, there’s a very, very slim chance that you’ll bump with them while your walking down the street or doing your weekly grocery chore. The chances of seeing them might get higher though if you work in one of Manila’s CBD (i.e. Makati/Ortigas/Fort), more especially if you work on one of their company’s building (yeah, elevators, lobbies, or parking lots).

Yet, these people are so damn rich that their total net worth assets amount to US$9.87B (if I got my computation right) and their presence could be felt by almost anyone, anywhere in the country - from real estate development to malls and fast food, down to the beer you drink.

The people I’m talking about? The richest of the rich people in the Philippines as surveyed by the annual Forbes Magazine’s The Phillipines’ 40 Richest listing.

Here are the top 10 richest people in the Philippines. You can view the complete list on Forbes Magazine Website.

1. Henry Sy & family - $3.1 billion
2. Lucio Tan & family - $1.5 billion
3. Jaime Zobel de Ayala & family - $1.2 billion
4. Andrew Tan - $700 million
5. Tony Tan Caktiong & family - $690 million
6. John Gokongwei Jr. & family - $680 million
7. Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. - $610 million
8. Enrique Razon Jr. - $525 million
9. George Ty & family - $435 million
10. Inigo & Mercedes Zobel - $430 million

Call on Globe for Only P1/Min with Tawag236

jonathan — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:34:39 +0000

I received a text advisory from Globe yesterday informing me that from October 15 to December 31, 2008, I could make 20 minutes Globe-Globe or Globe-TM calls for only 20 pesos. Wow, that’s only 1 peso per minute!

According to the instruction, you should simply change the 0 at the start of the number that you are calling with 236 (For example, if you’re calling say 09171234567, you should dial 2369171234567 instead) and the promo rate will be use for that call. Calls will be automatically terminated after all 20 minutes have been exhausted.

If you’re familiar with Globe’s 235 promo, which I am a heavy user of, this Tawag236 promo works the same but with the better rates. And this is a good thing because the promo will run during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

So Globe has now three 023x special call codes namely:
236 - 20 pesos/20 minutes
235 - 10 pesos/3 minutes
232 - 0.10 pesos/1 second

See, kaya naman pala ng Globe ibaba ang rates nila… Maybe they’re feeling the pressure of competition from Sun. But I hope that they’ll make lower call rates a permanent, standard thing on this land of text messages.

Complete List of Melamine Positive/Negative Products in the Philippines (as of 15-Oct-08)

jonathan — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:55:01 +0000

(Note: A more updated listing of Melamine tested products in the Philippines has been posted here)

(2nd Note: My compiled lists of Melamine tested products were getting a lot of traffic for the past few weeks now. I’ve also received a number of messages from concerned readers questioning the reliability of these listings. So just in case you’re also doubting the accuracy of this and this articles, I suggest you confirm what I’ve posted here directly from my source, BFAD’s website. Thanks!)

Here’s the complete list of the made in China milk-related products already tested by the Department of Health (DOH) and BFAD to be positive/negative with Melamine as of October 15, 2008.

Positive:
1. Mengniu Original Drink Milk
2. Green Food Yili Pure Milk
3. JollyCow Slender High Calcium Low Fat milk (1 Liter)
4. Lotte Strawberry Snack Koala Biscuit

Negative: