Continue reading »]]> According to the Worldwide Cost of Living 2012 summary published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Singapore is the ninth most expensive city in the world to live in.

The prices of 160 goods and services were used to calculate scores, using New York as a base with a score of 100. Singapore has a score  of 142, making it 42% expensive than New York.

Ten most expensive cities

1. Zurich (Switzerland)
2. Tokyo (Japan)
3. Geneva (Switzerland)
4. Osaka Kobe (Japan)
5. Oslo (Norway)
6. Paris (France)
7. Sydney (Australia)
8. Melbourne (Australia)
9. Singapore
10. Frankfurt (Germany)

Ten least expensive cities

1. Karachi (Pakistan)
2. Mumbai (India)
3. Tehran (Iran)
4. New Delhi (India)
5. Jeddah (Saudi Arabia)
6. Panama City (Panama)
7. Kathmandu (Nepal)
8. Algiers (Algeria)
9. Dhaka (Bangladesh)
10. Muscat (Oman)

You can visit the Economist Intelligence Unit to download a summary of the Worldwide Cost of Living 2012 report.

Continue reading »]]> NTUC has reduced the premium rates of their regular term plan, i-Term. This comes a couple of months after Aviva reduced the premiums for their term plans.

Applicants who apply for sum assured of up to $750,000 for i-Term will be able to enjoy better rates (Applicants for higher sum assured are already enjoying better rates).

I did a quick check and calculated that the premiums for a male non-smoker, aged 30 years old last birthday, covering an insured amount of $300,000 (death and TPD) and for a 25-year term works out to be about $450/year under the old plan.

With the new rates, the annual premiums are only about $368. This is almost 20% cheaper.

The race to the bottom for term premium rates is set to continue as insurers will be constantly evaluating their products to make sure they remain competitive.

Of course, they will need to maintain certain minimum levels to ensure that the premiums they collect are adequate to pay for any future claims.

Continue reading »]]> It was reported in the Business Times that CAD were investigating the company Edgeworth Properties, a land banking company that sold land in Canada.

About 4000 investors from Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand had invested more than C$70 million with the company.

It is unknown when CAD started investigations but the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto had issued an order placing 16 of the company’s properties into receivership back in November 2011.

This Grant Thornton website shows all the correspondences and official letters related to Edgeworth Properties.

A steering committee comprising ten investors of Edgeworth Properties have been formed to liaise between individual investors and the Representative Counsel. Out of the ten members, four are from Singapore, two are from Malaysia, three are from Philippines and one is from Canada.

If you are an Edgeworth investor, you might want to contact one of the steering committee members to stay updated about the proceedings. Their contact details can be found in Annex A of this letter to Edgeworth investors.

Categorization of Edgeworth Properties in Receivership

1. Category I – Receivership Properties to be Liquidated

a. Edgeworth Properties – Derrick View Estates Inc.
b. Edgeworth Properties — Ellerslie Ridge Inc.
c. Edgeworth Estates at Manning Drive Phase I Inc.
d. Derrick View Estates Phase II Inc.
e. 1330433 Alberta Ltd.
f. Edgeworth Properties — Jasper Ridge Estates Inc.
g. Edgeworth Properties — Estates at Thompson Lake Inc.
h. Edgeworth Properties — Estates at Thompson Lake (Phase 2) Inc.

2. Category II — Receivership Properties to be Studied

a. Edgeworth Properties — Creekside Estates Inc.
b. Edgeworth Properties — Wolf Creek Estates Inc.
c. 1519560 Alberta ltd. — Blackfolds
d. 1253122 Alberta Ltd.

3. Category III — Construction

a. Edgeworth Place at Heartland Inc.
b. Edgeworth Properties — Heartland Ridge Inc.
c. Edgeworth Properties — Southpoint Landing Inc.
d. Edgeworth Place at Spruce Ridge Drive Inc.

Continue reading »]]> NTUC is currently having a promotion for all new application of their incomeshield plans. Customers who are already under an existing incomeshield plan will not be eligible for this promotion.

The promotion entitles a person to a 10% discount for premiums of the first year for both the main plan and any riders.

The offer lasts till 30 April 2012 but NTUC reserves the right to change the terms and conditions of this promotion without any prior notice. Any subsequent upgrades or application for riders made will also not be eligible for the discount.

Continue reading »]]> Singapore Budget 2011 was announced by Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam last Friday.

The  full Singapore Budget 2012 can be downloaded here.

Apart from the changes affecting companies, what would be some of the changes or initiatives what would affect individual Singaporeans either directly or indirectly?

Here’s a quick summary of some of them:

• An acknowledgement that “increasing dependence on foreign workers is not sustainable” as it “will test the limits of our space and infrastructure”. There will be a reduction in the number of foreigners by means of a reduction in the Dependency Ratio Ceilings (DRCs).
• Giving employers of older workers (above 50 years old) a Special Employment Credit (SEC) of 8% of wages for the next five years to encourage them to hire older workers.
• CPF contribution rates for workers of 50 – 65 years old to be raised from September 2012.
• Exemption of GST for purchase of investment grade gold and other precious metals.
• Adding 800 buses over the next 5 years with the government funding 550 of the buses.
• Double income tax relief for those aged 55 and above to be effect from Year of Assessment 2013.
• A Silver Housing Bonus of $20,000 for older Singaporeans who sell their existing flats and buy a 3-room or smaller flat.
• A doubling of the incentive from $10,000 to $20,000 for people who take up the Lease Buyback Scheme. This scheme is for people who wish to monetize part of the value of their HDB unit without selling it. This is done by selling part of the lease back to the government. Remember that you do not own the HDB flat that you bought, it is a 99-year old leasehold apartment.
• An increase in healthcare expenditure which will see 30% more hospital beds and 100% more community hospital beds by 2020. Looking at the acute shortage of hospital beds today due to our expanding population, I feel that the adding of capacity should be of utmost importance.
• More subsidies for long term care and absorption of GST. A good start but I hope the GST waiver can be extended to more areas in the future. At the moment, it is waived for B2 and C patients.
• An enhancement of the benefits of Medishield and also extending its coverage limit from 85 years old to 90 years old. Due to the enhanced coverage, premiums will also go up. There will be a one-time Medisave top-up of $50 to $400 (depending on your age) for those who are currently on Medishield.
• More education financial assistance for children from the lower income families.
• A GST voucher of $100 or $250 for those earning an annual income of less then or equal to $24,000.
• A Medisave topup of $150 to $450 for those who are 65 years old and above and whose annual value of home is not more than $20,000.
• Permanent annual utility rebates from $180 to $260 for those who stay in HDB units.

Overall, I find this year’s budget has a lot of emphasis on the elderly.  With the cost of living escalating, a lot will need to be done to meet the retirement needs of our elderly who were pioneers in our nation building.

Continue reading »]]> As part of a rebranding exercise, Prudential Asset Management will become known as Eastspring Investments. The change takes place with effect from 14th February 2012 and will provide for a unified brand.

The new brand name will replace the different business names currently in use in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. The new brand will not apply to joint venture operations in China and India, or in Hong Kong through BOCI-Prudential.

In Singapore, the name will change from Prudential Asset Management (Singapore) Limited to Eastspring Investments (Singapore) Limited.

As a result of the change, the funds here will also undergo a name change.

PRU Income X -> Eastspring Income X

Sub funds of Prudential Unit Trusts

- PRU Pan European
- PRU Global Technology
- PRU Asian Balanced
- PRU Dragon Peacock
- PRU Global Basics
- PRU Global Balanced
- PRU Asian Infrastructure Equity
- PRU Global Positioning Strategy
- PRU Singapore Select Bond
- PRU Protected Global Titans (S$)

Eastspring Investments Unit Trusts

- Eastspring Pan European
- Eastspring Global Technology
- Eastspring Asian Balanced
- Eastspring Dragon Peacock
- Eastspring Global Basics
- Eastspring Global Balanced
- Eastspring Asian Infrastructure Equity
- Eastspring Global Positioning Strategy
- Eastspring Singapore Select Bond
- Eastspring Protected Global Titans (S$)

Sub funds of Prudential Funds

- PRU Monthly Income Plan

Eastspring Investments Funds

- Eastspring Monthly Income Plan

The name changes have no impact on the investment philosophy or process of the funds.

Continue reading »]]> Before the start of the afternoon session with Dr Alexander Elder, there was lunch provided for all the attendees (which was paid for by our $100+ afternoon ticket).

Compared to the “mad rush for food” behavior at many AGMs, the crowd was pretty gracious and everyone queued up orderly for food.  What a relief.

Most people who came from the morning session were done with lunch by 1pm and waited in the auditorium for the afternoon’s session to start.

There was a short briefing for the Phillip Securities remisiers (from estimates there are more than 100 of them in the audience) which was conducted with the rest of the public listening in.

Similarly to the first session, we had Henry from Macquarie giving the same presentation on warrants, and so Dr Elder was left with about 3hr 40min air time. Minus off the tea break time, it was probably around 3h 10min only.

Alexander Elder talked a bit about trading psychology, and why intelligent people lose money.

My points below are a bit disorganized and go more by chronological order, as Dr Elder liked to jump from his slides to charts and then to answering questions quite randomly. He did a lot of chart reading (including Singapore stocks), but I will not touch on those.

Most or all people start trading with the objective of making money. But along the way, many people lose sight of the objective. They start trading for fun, out of boredom, or for excitement, which in most cases is detrimental to your trading capital.

Many people also count money (profits or losses) when trading, which result in bad trades.

It is easy to promise to be a disciplined trader when the market is closed, but most people lose discipline after it opens. So, it is always essential to have a written trading plan. Know the target profit area, stop loss level, and grade your trade according to how well you follow it.

And never talk about your trades until it is closed, as it will affect your decision to close it when the time comes.

Learn all about the market you are trading.

Allocate a certain amount of time to the market each day doing reading or analysis. Trading requires hard work and you will always need to spend time on it.

Learn and be open to new ideas but remain skeptical of claims.

Try to develop a steady increasing equity curve with shallow drawdowns.

Follow your money management rules as if your life depended on them.

In terms of trading methodology, Dr Elder always uses exponential moving average and not simple moving averages. 13 and 22 EMA lines are used to define the “value zone”. If the price falls outside the value zone, it is over-priced and vice-versa.

There are also envelope lines which are used to indicate 95% of price action. If the price falls outside the envelope lines, then it is very over-priced or under-priced and no trade will be taken. Where

EMA + k  x EMA (22)

EMA – k x EMA (13)

are used to define the envelope lines. K is a constant which will vary depending on which markets you trade, so you need to do some trial and error to find which value of k will capture about 95% of the data.

He doesn’t use Bollinger Bands for this purpose as they are a function of volatility and he thinks they are more useful when you are trading options.

How do you reduce risk from gaps?

Take smaller positions, and never trade around earnings reporting periods.

Should we specialize in markets or use filtering software to screen out trades to take?

Good idea to trade a handful of stocks and know them well.

Overall, I thought there was too much time spent on chart reading. Many people in the audience seemed to like it (the stock tips) but I’m not so much of a TA person. And I would prefer being taught how to fish, then being given the fish.

Continue reading »]]> Over the weekend, I was at a seminar given by Dr Alexander Elder, a world renowned trader and international bestselling author.

The first session on Saturday morning was held at Marina Bay Sands and was attended by a crowd of more than 800 people.

The session also included a market outlook segment given by Joshua Tan from Phillip Securities, and a brief introduction to warrants given by Henry Ng from Macquarie.

Dr Elder was given two hours to complete his presentation “To trade or not to trade”, which was supposed to be meant for beginners.

I wouldn’t call myself a beginner but I decided to be there anyway. I figured it was not often that I would be able to catch Dr Elder deliver a seminar. I happened to bump into an old friend from NUS days during the event, who was also far from a beginner. In fact, my friend is currently a full time investor and he’s only in his 30s!

The first question that Dr Elder posed was whether anyone could become a successful trader. He commented that those people who had addiction problems, or were very obsessed over every single cent, or were impulsive should not trade.

Trading by itself is not intellectually difficult. But once money is involved, it becomes emotionally very difficult. Whatever your weakness is, the market will find it and hit at it. If you are fearful, the market will make you afraid and if you are greedy, the market will exploit your greed.

It is better for someone new to trading to do it part-time while still keeping his or her day job. A beginner does not really need live data as he can trade using a longer time-frame. In fact, using live data should only be used by the professionals. Looking at live prices can induce impulsive trades, which is a bane to any traders.

Dr Elder then started showing some charts (he relies on technical analysis more than fundamental analysis) to give us a rough idea of some of his methods and thinking. As the information wasn’t presented in a linear fashion, I had a feeling some people in the audience could have gotten lost here.

Not to be confused by all the charts, one point he made that stood out was that the best trading decisions are usually negative decisions. ie deciding not to do anything. You might look at ten charts and eight of them do not trigger your buy or sell condition. In those instances, you should not do anything. You only act when your chart tells you to.

A lot of amateurs make the mistake of looking a chart, and then trying to decide whether to take a long or short position based on what they see. Often, doing nothing might be the best policy as you really only want to take trades that have a high probability of success.

Dr Elder ended his talk by answering some questions and giving a 1-minute recap of some important points in trading.

1. Keep a trading journal.
2. Know the difference between price and value.
3. Look at the chart of a longer time frame to decide your overall strategy before looking at the shorter time frame chart to make your tactical decisions.
4. Risk no more than 2% of your risk capital on every trade.
5. Stop trading for a while if you have a 6% drawdown on your capital.

We then took the shuttle bus which bought us to DBS auditorium for the afternoon’s session.

Continue reading »]]> About two months after it was officially announced, the Special Needs Savings Scheme by MCYS was launched this month.

Under this scheme, beneficiaries will be able to get a monthly payout (of at least $250) from their deceased parents’ Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings instead of getting it in a lump sum.

A parent’s CPF savings must be enough to support a year’s worth of payouts, otherwise the CPF savings will be disbursed as a lump sum.

Why would anyone want to do that?

It is because the scheme is meant for people with special needs, who might be unable to manage the money on their own.

Furthermore, funds put into this scheme will earn interest of up to 4%, with an extra 1% on the first $60,000.

Only Singaporeans and permanent residents are eligible to join the scheme. The person must require help in at least one activity of daily living, like washing or dressing, and has attended or is enrolled in a special education school.

More details of the scheme can be found at the Centre for Enabled Living website. You can also call 1800-858-5885 for assistance.

Continue reading »]]> With effect from Jan 2012, MAS introduced new requirements that impacts any investor who wishes to trade Specified Investment Products (SIPs) such as Futures, Options, ETFs, Warrants and more.

For those who are still unclear about the requirements, you can find out more at this special seminar organised by Phillips Futures with SGX.

Date: 11th February 2012
Time: 1330 to 1630hrs
Venue: SGX Auditorium
Cost: Free

Program Highlights:

• Introduction to CAR, CKA and SIPs

– What is the new CAR and CKA process about?
– Who needs to do this?
– Why is CAR and CKA needed?
– Which products are classified as SIP?
– What is the process to be qualified to invest in SIP?
– What educational resources are available to learn about SIP?

• Introduction to Exchange Traded Funds

• Risks in investing in ETFs

• Introduction to Warrants

• Introduction to Futures

• Introduction to Options

• Introduction to Certificate

• Introduction to ETN