Category: Mundane

Have you read this about this 27 year old engineering who gambled on the stock market and lost 700K?? You can read the original article here.

He is no kid, he is about the same age as me. What could have caused him to have so much confidence in himself as to gamble on nothing?

Yes, gamble. There is absolutely no way we can call what he did investment. He gambled on high-risk contra trading. (Contra trading just means selling stock that you ordered but have not paid for within the 3 day period before you have to buy. So despite the bad name caused by irresponsible traders, it is a neutral feature of trading.)

He made some money, 80K to be exact, picking some counters that managed to perform within the 3 days. A few friends called him “Prince Midas”. He suddenly felt like he was an expert, and he had the Midas’ touch.

Probably enboldened by the 300K from his father’s savings, he bought shares with 700K that he didn’t have. Crash… boom… bang… hundreds of thousands gone.

Overnight, this guy made his father and himself bankrupt. This guy had been gambling on nothing. Less than nothing is what he has now.

Is this how investments work? Trading? NO. Please do not believe it is!

True investments are logical, emotionless decisions based on clearly defined entry and exit points. True investments are managed carefully, weighing risk appetite and gains.

Zeag has some comments on money management that would be worth reading. He’s 27 too. Read to find out how his brain ticks. He doesn’t have astronomical gains like the guy in the article did once upon a time. But I’ll entrust my money with him, anytime.

Who wants Midas as a friend anyway???

Just popped by my alma mata Raffles Institution today.

We were viewing a unit at a condominium nearby, and I thought I just walk in to take a look. Wow… a lot has changed. The school is well maintained, (Rich school lah…), looks ten times better than I remembered it. New additions were made, the canteen had the most changes made to it. Now there is a foyer area just above the canteen. I can’t really remember what used to be there.

Of course, now that RJC is sharing facilities with RI, the running track had been removed, and the field looks VERY well maintained. So did the tennis court.

But on the whole, everything I remembered was still more or less there. All the old photos (which I did not appear in), all the pictures of former headmasters (Mr. Wijeysingha will always be my favorite), all the classrooms. (some of them seemed air-conditioned, those lucky kids!)

I am thankful that I had a chance to study at RI. I am not sure I will enrol my kid to study there, however, but I do not regret studying at RI at all. I have learned confidence, and leadership at an early age. I was inspired by Mr. Wijeysingha. He managed to exude regality and calm, and yet remain fatherly and kind.

I don’t regret not going to RJC, however. I have learnt that RI and RJC attracted a certain group of kids that I nearly became. Thank goodness I came from Ai Tong before that, and YJC after that, so that I ended up pretty balanced. And of course, because I met Hwei Min in YJC, hee hee…

The condominium we visited on the other hand, gave us a very bad impression. Maintenance was poor, that whole place needed a repaint. There was one disgusting bald patch of grass next to the swimming pool. On the newspaper ad, it was stated that the showroom was open from 10 a.m., and when we were there at 12p.m, the guards told us no one came.

I have written this last Saturday, but took such a long time to prepare the video. But hey… I am getting better…

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Written on 24th February 2007
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Spent an afternoon at Hwei Min’s office today.

Ginza Plaza was hosting a lion dance performance today. Managed to do an hour of work on my introduction to the Internet. It’s coming on quite nicely now. Just trying to streamline the information further.

It was quite a disappointing turn out for the lion dance performance. Hwei Min said most of the guests went for their holidays over the weekend. Thankfully, there was a family with kids around. There were three girls who really enjoyed themselves.

Now that I have figured out YouTube. I’ve decided to piece a short video of the dance troupe together. Enjoy.

This year, we had a couple of new additions to the family. My little cousin, Aaron, and my not so little cousin Terence. Aaron is the life of our party. Just having him around and the rest of us pampering him added a lot of fun and laughter to our gathering. I’ve noticed that Aaron is quiet, but very smart with his hands. He plays and picks up spatial skills pretty fast. He is shy when trying out new stuff, like new words he learnt for example, but you can see that he understands what you are saying.

I guess this is a problematic age for parents because he is just beginning to understand boundaries and also beginning to test those boundaries. How much discipline to apply? Spare the rod? Will it spoil the kid? Aaron is just at the brink of cuteness turning into naughtiness.

Meanwhile, Terence is a cousin we have not seen for at least 12 years now. The last time we met him, he was only slightly older than Aaron is now. Now at 17, he is a stranger, but still familiar, still family. He still has the same looks, for one. It’s as if he got stretched by Willy Wonka’s stretching machine because he looks the same except taller, and his face is longer. He’s quite handsome too, so it’s not as bad as how I am sure you are visualizing in your head now.

I came back last night. As mentioned, a brief update on my chinese new year. How did you spend your new year? Pigging out like me?? 😛

A typical chinese new year’s eve begins at home with my mom preparing a dish for the reunion meal. I say meal because we usually have lunch instead of dinner.

Then we move off to my grandma’s place (Teo Family) in JB at around 10 a.m.

No point going too early, cos my grandma would be making prayers. Nowadays we are helping her, as she is not so mobile any more. Traditionally, the gods will have their meals before the mortals do, and the ancestors before the living. Don’t ask me which gods and which ancestors they are. We lay a few dishes and three sets of chopsticks, whisky and tea. My cousin, Han mentioned that he finally understood who those three sets were for, but that’s blasphemous and disrespectful to both Taoists and the Christians, so I shall not mention what he said now.

We move in to the living room shortly after and different sets were laid for the ancestors of the family this time.
Only when all the traditional ceremonies are done do the rest of us eat.

Every year, we have all the meats;- fish, duck, two styles of chicken, roast pork. We would have my mom’s dish with mushrooms, fat choy and ho see. And not to forget, the very expensive soup with abalone and sea cucumber in it. Very nice!

By the time we start eating, it’s 2pm, so I tend of overeat my first meal.

We will spend the day and the rest of the days at my grandma’s place watching movies together, playing mahjong, eating. Just chilling. Ok… not really chilling cause it is really quite hot in the house, and stuffy at times, what with 18 of us in the small 4 room HDB equivalent sized house. But hey, it’s the only time we get to meet, and I sure do cherish the moments.

Ever since my grandpa (Tham side) passed away, my father’s side of the family meet on the 1st day of lunar new year at my 1st Uncle’s place. Very huge gathering, my 1st Uncle alone has 3 generations under the same roof. I have 9 uncles, my dad is the 7th, and he has 2 elder sisters and 1 foster sister. Each of my dad’s siblings have kids, and some of them have kids, so you can imagine how many people there are in the gathering.

So a lot of ang baos are exchanged. Now that I am getting married, I am thankful that the currency for ang bao exchange is in RM and the norm is 4RM each packet. Phew…

Anyway, I tried the youtube upload again. Ya’tta! It works this time! Enjoy!
(Note : The video takes a while to become active after upload.)