Better Trading

If you are trading for a living, this is an add-on book you should have. From the author of the Guppy Multiple Moving Averages, there's always new things that you can learn in any of the books he published.

Today, I learned about :

(1) Equity Curves You need to chart your Trading equity on a graph to "see" the trading performance visually. Many traders miss this point. They use MAs but failed to chart a moving Average for themselves. Drawdowns can be detected immediately when you see your own graphs.

 (2) State of Markets Young, Robust or matured?... Obviously you should catch the trend as early as possible but some traders prefer to catch only the middle third of the trend ie the robust part. A rule of thumb is to catch Longs from a % bounce from the bottom , say 10% or 20%. Technical recession is 20% from the top, so we should also do the same.

 (3) Flinch points The flinch curve is a very unique way of profiling the trader's response to stop loss.

He starts with :

 (A) Performance profiling : comparing various trading strategies eg buy and hold vs managed trading

 (B) Protect capital : his "flinch curve" is very enlightening

(C) Protect Profits : his "Grow-Up Strategy" is worth looking at

 (D) Protect Portfolios : do the "swiss roll "

 Allocate 1 month for this book. You will be lucky is you can go through the heavy stuff at one Part per week.

Be Your Own Boss

Anybody who is disillusioned about the JOB as an lifetime income source will find a legion of pathfinders before them. Gobala Krishnan of the Internet fame, Yeo Keong Hee of "Secrets to Forex Millionaires" are a few examples. Barefootexecutive above is the latest that I read about.

Their WHY's usually start with disenchantment with society's norms : get good grades, get good job , work 30 years , retire on half your income. Sounds like what Robert Kiyosaki said...you bet! I believe the ratio of converts has turned more than 90/10  now....  more than 10% are gearing towards " Minding Their Own Business"... I am one of the aspiring one too... Maybe one day, I will also write a book and gladly declare that  I am the new 1% to join the 10%!

Carrie uses a lot of easy to remember acronyms : her M & M's.

(A) MYTHS : (1) Job Security
                        (2) Why you must Own your own Business ( " MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS"... one of the 6 rules in Rich Dad, Poor Dad )



(B ) MISTAKES (1) Do not chase Other People's Dreams
                            (2) Chasing Too Many Rabbits
                            (3) Chasing Dollars

(C) METHODS (1) Mindset
                           (2) Massive action
                           (3) MasterMinding
                           (4) Mentor
                           ( 5) Mining Research

(D) MODELS  (1) Service Based
                         (2) Expertise
                         (3) Knowledge
                         (4) Goods
                         (5) Referrals
                         (6) Multiple Streams of Income

(E)  MARKET PLACE  (1) WHO WANTS WANT you have?
                                        (2)  Ideas to income
                                       (3)  WHERE will they find you?
                                       (4) Building Audience
                                       (5) WHERE will you find THEM?

Making the most impact on me?

" Quit worrying about somebody taking your idea or taking your intellectual property.You know what? Take my intellectual property. I can make more"
                       - pg 129 to 130

How much cooler can you get?

Go to barefootexecutivevideos.com for more info

Dividends Don't Lie

There will come a time when you have reached the nest egg target and wish to do some portfolio balancing between income, liquidity and growth. Assuming you have chosen for Liquidity (1) FD, Bond Fund ( between 3-5%) and for INCOME (1) REITS ( about 7%) , physical real estate ( about 7-12% , depending on the entry price) , that leaves GROWTH... you need to choose DIVIDEND YIELDING blue chip stocks.

This book listed 24 dividend yielding stocks in Bursa :

(1) BAT
(2) Bintulu Port
(3) Boustead
(4) Bursa
(5) Carlsberg
(6) Digi
(7) Dutch Lady
(8) F&N
(9) Guiness
(10) JTI
(11) KianJoo
(12) LPI
(13) MNRB
(14) Nestle
(15) NPTM
(16) PetDagangan
(17) PLUS
(18) PPB
(19) QL
(20) Shell
(21) Tanjong
(22) Telekom
(23) YTLPower
(24) Public Bank

Have over 100 counters in your CDS but none of the above?

Well...the writer has invested time and effort into the research of the list... how long did you research your stock list? Call your remisier for 2 minutes and that's it?

( update : 16 May 2012 )

Compare the above list with the FBM KLCI 30 components.... which dividends stocks above is in the list.... and which is not?

Secure, Comfortable or Rich?

So, do you want to be Secure, Comfortable or Rich?

If you have graduated from university, chances are you will choose Secure and Comfortable because that is what you are trained to be all your life! You would probably buy unit trust and use dollar cost averaging and then plan to retire on half of your income...just according to plan!

But with inflation raging at 8% to 12% ( real inflation, not the govt stats) , you cannot afford to use the old method of investing amy more!

Say , you start work at 25, work 30 years till 55 , then live on your savings for the next 30 years...you will find that 10 years into retirement, your savings will not last any more than the nex t5 years!

That's when the mid-"later life" crisis will set in!

Enter Rich Dad's Guide for Investing :

You have to make a PLAN and CHOICE on the end result : SECURE, COMFORTABLE, or RICH.

Decide what income you want : Active, portfolio, or passive?

Quickly convert your Active Income into Portfolio and Passive Income.

After being secured, and confortable, it is time to get rich ( retire young and spend your time to get rich! A job gets in the way of getting rich. Hence start generating Passive Income that will exceed your Expenses and bingo...you are financially free)

The choice you make will be measured in TIME, and not money.

Your security purcahsed could be an ASSET or LIABILITY ( asset gives income, liability gives expenses!)

It is AUTOMATIC, BORING and it WORKS. Rein in your impatience, do not rock the proven method.

And the 3E's : Education, Experience, Excessive Cash.
( if you have the Education, and Experience, but no Excessive Cash... keep at it....the experience has probably not reached the Critical Mass yet....)

Sounds simple , eh? Well, humans always tend to complicate matters....

Slow, Safe Trains for Normal Folks

Traditional investments vehicles like cash, FD, unit trusts, stocks,shoplots, ruber and palm oil estates, raw land are time-tested investment vehicles of our parents when Malaya was just developing and oil has yet to be discovered.

An acre of rubber plantation costs about RM100 when average pay was about Rm300 in the 1950's ( 1/3 of monthly pay ) Fast forward to 2010, average pay is Rm3,000 and an acre of rubber plantation is about Rm40,000!! ( 13x average pay, or about 1 year's pay ).

My first book on Financial Freedom was ...well, Financial Freedom! Published by KLMutual ( now renamed Public Mutual ) , it was THE book to read on financial freedom. Rich Dad came out shortly, and a few later, Retire Young, Retire Rich.

The is a BIG difference in the approach taken by the two genre : traditional financial books are well, traditional. Safe, tested, SLOW TRAINS. Rich Dad books are fast, high velocity, leveraged, FAST TRAINS.

Both will bring you to your destination....eventually. But the fast trains allow you to reach your destination when you are in your 40's, not 60's!

So, which train do you which to board?

SLOW TRAIN tickets...



FAST TRAIN tickets...

Retire Young Retire Rich

"When it seemed the darkest, what kept you and Kim going? I want to hear the real reason...not the ones you have given so far" asked one of the participants (pg 533 )

And the answer?

"What would you do if there was no risk and it required no money to become rich?"

A question to a question????

" Are you sure such world exist? " one might ask.
" Well , I'll go find it"
" It does not matter what I think. What is important is what you think."
" If you think it is impossible , then it is impossible."

Many people cannot reach their maximum potential beause they do not open their minds wide enough. Sight is what they see with their eyes, vision is what the mind sees. If their minds are closed to possibilities, then they cannot see possibilities.

With every new invention comes a new leverage and new opportunities. PC , internet, Facebook, google, clouds, tablets.

What does your mind see? Obstacles or opportunities?

To retire young and rich, open your mind....

Look at for the LEVERAGE ( can be found anywhere : Business, Real Estate, Papers ( Stocks, Futures, Options, Commodities, Forex), Internet, Systems, Education ) that will fast track your cashflow. Increase the velocity of your ROI ( target quarterly, then monthly, fortnightly, weekly ).

Buy assets for CASHFLOW...

Use LEVERAGE to buy ASSETS...

Increase the VELOCITY of ROI...

The rich use them MORE than the poor, should you too if you want to retire earlier?

( Just remembered the One Minute Millionaire...the authors can show you the path to the millions, but you have to walk the journey yourself!)

On the Brink

Henry Paulson was the Secretary of Treasury of the US that oversaw the collapse of Lehman brothers and the rescue of AIG, and Goldman Sachs. So why did he rescue so many but left Lehmnan to die?

In actual fact, ( according to his book ) he tried to save Lehman but there were just no buyers as the valuation of the assets were too difficult to quantify.

Many insights were gleaned from this book...

..." the economic version of war"

...the concepts of " originate to hold " to " originate to distribute"

... the NINJAs ( No Income, No Job, No Assets )

and his favourite verse fom the Bible ..

" God hath not given the spirit of fear, but of power and of hope, and of sound mind.."

- Second book of Timothy , Verse 1.7


A very gripping insider view of what actually led to the financial turmoil of 2008.

And all for Rm5 at the Big, Bad, Wolf sale ( the front cover was slightly torn!)