JALUR GEMILANG IN LONDON

This photo was taken on the eve of Merdeka the 50th. I am not sure what year the car is, but I supposed it must be in the 1980's. A VW van tucked with patriotic note to it, 2 Malaysian flags on it and another big one flying in it.




I went to see the owner and asked him about the flags. He told me the big one inside the van has dual purpose. Other than the national pride, it is also to hide the mess in his van. Hmmm..... sambil menyelam minum air.

The van has the resemblance of the transportation of hippies to the Woodstock Concert in 1969.



Somebody was born in 1969, during the height of hippies world. I wonder who???

SUBPRIME MORTGAGE CRISIS, AN OPPORTUNITY.

Subprime mortgage crisis in the US.... KLCI went down below psychological 1200 pts. The best time to pick. Seized the moment, so I picked Bursa Bhd counter at RM8.10. It went up to RM10.8. I didn't sell, thinking to sell after it crosses RM11.00. Dow Jones dropped 280 points yesterday and KLCI went down..... I got feverish. So.... sold my Bursa counter at RM9.95. Real profit 22.47%. If sold at RM10.80, should have a return of 33.33%. Well, less profit but no loss here.

Now....sakit hati time!!! Dow Jones rockets back 250 points today. I don't think I can buy Bursa counter at same price RM9.95 when its open in 2 hours. Need to learn where I went wrong.

But at least, I got better return (as for now) compared to ASB of anticipated 7.5% at the end of the year. A 22.47% return in a week in KLSE is not bad at all.

Say if I have RM100K (hypothetically). The above should translate to RM22K odd return in a week. But............. I don't have RM100K. My real return?? Heh... heh... bole la bawak kekawan open table teh tarik aje.

20 TIMELESS MONEY RULES

Well.... here's more like it, some pieces from the famous investors.

THE AURA MASTER IN LONDON

The Aura Master is coming to London. At 65 Pounds (RM455) you will have a 3 course dinner, a signed CD and will be entertained by Mawi on September 4. Not that bad value for money. You can get near to him really.

Well.... sorry I am not his fan. For those going... just enjoy.

LITTLE RULES FOR MY SMALL INVESTMENT

1) Cash is king.

2) Buy at bear.

3) Sell at bull.

4) Reward your remiser.

Only 4 rules at the moment. Why? Because the investment is still very tiny. Hope to have the momentum and a little luck. It is a long way to join the big boys.

If you have other rules, glad to hear them.

WHAT'S YOUR AURA.......??

knock... knock....

"Yes...???"

"Inche east43street we have a request to use the conference room today, at 5.15 pm."

"From whom?"

"From a rep of a Malaysian company called Positive Aura" said Johny English. "Shall we allow? It is a for a talk about their product. A health treatment with water."

Water health treatment??? Hmmm.... and they brought water all the way from Malaysia to sell in the UK?? What water has to do with aura. How interesting.

"Just prepare the Conference Romm.... no... no.... arrange in the Dining Hall instead.... and invite everybody by email."

"TQ" Johny English left.

At 5.15 pm all seats were taken at the Dining Hall and in front stood a lecturer-looked person, nicely dressed, assisted by 2 gentlemen and a smart looking lady. On the table in the far corner of the hall I can see a lot of bottled water already arranged. He introduced himself as Dr. Hamid. After a preliminary gestures, he started by a tale how he survived cancer and how water treatment had helped him so much during that process.

So.... he is a cancer survivor.... and he looked so healthy (and merrily down the stream too)... hmmm. I can imagine the expression of my face already. It wouldn't look that good, I knew it. My colleagues had told me a few times already that I am quite transparent. I cannot hide my feeling and it will show clearly on my face. Worst still if I am angry, they wouldn't dare to look at me.

It is so obvious and he sensed my feeling. Then he engaged a defensive mode. "Those who have a negative feeling about this talk don't have to waste your time and mine. You may leave the hall if you want to". WTF!!!! (sorry I borrowed this from En. Akula). I was the one who allowed him to use the hall and now he is trying to kick me out. I can kick him out of the building there and then if I wanted to, but I chose not to let my anger to overcome me and ruined others in the hall good time. I couldn't control my anger once and I lost a very good friend because of that. I looked him in the eyes and imagined how my eyes looked like. He got the signal, he is in other people's house. Better not continue with the attitude or he will be sent out to the street. I think he knew that.

So he continued the talk with a computer projection of an image of a head with blue steam so called positive aura around it. Those who have a positive aura would be able to avoid a lot of sickness, will have a better sex life and for heaven sake he also mentioned of stamina and longer erection in bed. The positive aura can be achieved by drinking regularly the water that he brought. He was betting his water on these. Bye-bye viagra!!!

Rather than having to buy the bottled water lined at the corner, he took out a water filter from a nicely packed box. He explained that this kind of water filter is similar to the natural water filter used by kampung folks those day and produced the right kind of minerals. He even compared to water stored in labu sayong.

So he was not selling water anyway. He was selling water filter actually. A mere salesman. The bottled water being arranged at the corner were just for display or probably to be given away after the talk. And the price of the filter?? A whopping 350 Pound Sterling (closed to RM2450). Similar kind can be found at Subang Parade at price RM500 I think. Wow.... this is what the government wanted.... the business going global. What we have here?? A scammer going global. A scammer terbilang.

He ended his talk with a note that order of the water filter can be made to his assistants. Delivery will take a week. I stood up and about to go when he came and offered me to drink his bottled water. I declined politely and left.

A few weeks later a colleague invited me for a dinner at her home. When I went to clean my hand in her kitchen, I saw a water filter. The same water filter..... My colleague had bought it, at the price of 350 Pound Sterling. From??? ..... who else, Johny English. Johny apparently enrolled to be an agent. I dearly hope my collegue's health will get better from now on. And Johny English.... I will deal with him later.

For me, I regret for not kicking that salesman out of my office building.....

WHERE DID THE BULL AND BEAR GET THEIR NAMES?

Bull and Bear. I'll buy at bear and I'll sell at Bull. But sometimes people get caught buying at bear, only later it become more bearish. Or selling at bull when it is more bullish.

THINKING BIG, LAUNCHING MY VERY OWN BANK

By now I started to think big. I would like to open my own bank. But how to open a bank? How to start? How to get clients. How to manage it? I did follow my mother to Post Office a few times to see her deposit and withdrawal processes. I looked at the transactions in her passbook. Those days Post Office handled savings passbook. I got the idea already.

First step, I must have a record book, a master record. All clients records must be there. So I bought a ledger type book for recording all my clients transaction there. Then I bought a few 555 books. These would be the savings passbook. I am ready now. But where to get clients??

I love saving money. It is satisfying to see how your savings grow. While in school I admired my friends who can save out of their daily allowance. My brothers and sisters also like to save. Yesss... they will be my clients. I myself had a saving tube made of bamboo and another one of a big Brylcreem bottle (I will blog later on the story of this Brylcreem bottle piggy bank).

My first two clients were my younger brother and sister. I talked them to open an account with me. I promised them that all transactions would be recorded in the ledger-look book and they will have their very own passbook, signed by me in every transaction similar with my mother passbook except without the post office stamp. I guaranteed that their saving would be in the safe hand. I showed them my very own 2 piggy banks that I had (the bamboo tube and the Brylcreem bottle). After some persuasions, both of them agreed to open accounts with me. I have succeeded and I am confident that I will grow big.

After a few weeks I managed to have deposits of more than RM10 from both of my clients. Then tragedy struck. I lost my piggy banks. I lost my money and my clients' money. Somebody must have stolen them. Whatever it was, I will have to take responsibility. I broke the news to my brother and my sister. They immediately ran to my father and told him that I stole their money. They had the 555 savings books with my signature on every transaction. My father went mad. I know he just showed that he was mad, but deep in his heart he must be laughing at the whole thing. Probably he was proud that his son had opened and ran a bank. He paid both my brother and my sister. Then he cut my daily allowance to repay him back. I know he didn't have to do that, but he still cut my allowance just to teach me a lesson.

There goes my bank................. I was 12 back then.

Present day.......

The former BBMB lost money, bankrupt and got bailed in the same way, by PETRONAS. Their money were stolen by politically linked businessmen. So does a few other banks.

ASN

It started a long time ago. My passion to invest started when the Amanah Saham Nasional launched. I was in school back then. After reading the benefit of investing in ASN, I persuaded my father to open an account. 20% guaranteed return annually was good. Except my father couldn't start with a big amount as he was only working as a driver. He couldn't afford to invest but he opened the ASN investment account anyway. Probably to stop me from nagging at him. He managed to put RM200 at the beginning. When he returned home he chucked the investment book to me. I was ecstatic. The book was so nice and the paper was so good. The book must be expensive. I couldn't wait for the year to end to see how much my father reaps in the dividend. At the end of the year the scheme announced 20% dividend. My father got RM18 only because the investment was not in full year. I was overjoyed.

That was back there then....

THIS BLOGGING THINGY..

I am new in this... blogging thingy. But I have to start anyway. Learning still. My first post just to say hello..