MISS PLAY SAFE AND MR GAMBLER

I have two remisers. First is Ms. Pretty from CIMB Securities and the second is Mr. Jerawat Gambler from AM Securities. When asked for advise, both of them give me different views on the same subject matter. When asked about certain counters in the top volume league, Ms. Pretty always shy away from counters like Iris or Keladi. She said these are sydicated counters and she won't even look at them. She said these are companies of no value and punters buy and sell just to make short term gain. She prefer counters like Bursa, Maybank, Tenaga, Digi and the likes. Mr Gambler meanwhile always ask me to play margin (he uses term play rather than invest), like buying Iris at 0.235 and sell at 0.24 or 0.245 in the same day and take profit from the lower commission charged.

I think as a woman, Ms. Pretty always follow her maternal instinct which result of her being so protective over my investment. I wanted to buy Bursa in one low time at price of 8.50 and she asked me to wait for the next day afternoon as the price was going down. The price drop was actually stop at 8.50 and started to climb. In the next few days it went up to 11.80. I didn't make profit for that particular time. Again recently I wanted to buy Tebrau at 1.21 and she asked me to reconfirm a few times which made me change my mind. Tebrau went up to 1.33 the next day and another boat missed.

For Mr. Gambler, he always want to risk my investment. If I ever give him the authority over my investment, I either be very rich by now or very poor. I gave him a free hand once to do margin trading and I lost RM8K at margin call after 3 days for DBhd. Probably he didn't sell after Dbhd slided a little bit which made me lost RM1K. Thinking it may go up before the margin call, he didn't sell for 3 days and there my RM8K flew away. I didn't blame him. He probably did that in a good faith got caught in a diffucult situation. It is me to be blamed as I gave him a free hand.

I changed my strategy after that. No more free hand. I seek their advise and I didn't really follow what they say. I make my own market research and decide on the counters that I wanted to track. I study the fair prices of their shares. If their prices go down much below than their fair value without a good reason, then I will buy. It is not a difficult job. This always work and I have recouped all my previous losses. In investing, I am always learning. There will always be a new situation that I have to deal with.

I don't think Ms Pretty and Mr. Gambler have all the time to track a a few counters like what I did. I bet they have so many clients who do not track the same counters that I tracked. They look at hundreds counters everyday and my counters may not even show in their radar.

So the best option for me, just make my own decision regardless what they say. So far it works.

CASH IS KING

Asian Financial Crisis 1997-1998, I was in KL. Our stock market went down to the drain. Good and strong companies suddenly became so cheap to own. I was attracted to Maybank, the price went down to RM2.87 from the peak of RM20++. What a great bargain, couldn't get it in a lifetime. But, alas.... I have no money. I did have a little saving of RM30K and it was for my running budget, I couldn't touch it.

I knew that I need RM200K and I will be on my way to be a multi millionaire. But I don't have RM200K.

Maybank went up to RM15 after the dust of Asian Financial Crisis settled. That RM200K should have been above RM1 million already.

So I miss the biggest boat ever, just because I don't have that 'King'.

FAREWELL SWEET NURIN

I bid you farewell Nurin Jazlin. The previous world had been so cruel to you. In your new world, the angels will look after you and nobody would harm you again.

Rest in peace.

HOW COULD YOU DISPUTE A DNA TEST

So it is Nurin after all.... My anger and sorrow are beyond words.

Although it is difficult to dispute a result of a DNA test, I still go for a second test. Probably another one after that. And another one....

If it happens to me, I will never accept that reality.....

FIND NURIN JAZLIN

I am posting this after reading Akula's post and appeals on Nurin.




I pray for Nurin to be found safe and alive. I feel the suffering of her parents.

We are now living in the different world compared to 15 year ago, in a scarrier world now to grow our children. I hope she will be found.

As for the other girl who had been sexually assulted and murdered, I join the whole nation mourned. I pray for her to be amongst the angels. I damn the animal who did that to her.

Our march to become an industrialised nation has neglected our social responsibility. We are no longer living in the caring society that we used to live. For this I damn the politicians, policy makers and the local government authorities.

DON'T BE GREEDY

Haven't post for quite sometime now. Not to worry, I don't think anybody is missing me because my blog is a low traffic in a slow lane. On top of that life has been very busy from the start of Ramadhan. A lot of projects have to be finalised within 2 months. Hmmm... looks like I have to work until 9.00pm everyday.

Anyway..... a little news on investment. Well I have been ignoring my remiser for quite sometime and I didn't lock my investment to any counter since, just to be safe in the present time rough seas. She texted me the day before yesterday asking me on what is happening.

I straight replied with a question, "Tebrau berapa?".

She responded "1.16".

I instructed "Buy all my holding for Tebrau" and after 10 minutes she responded "K done at 1.144". Hmmm... a better price. I smiled, maybe duit raya is coming.

The next day I texted her "Berapa dah" and she responded "Ok 1.12". I didn't get what that ok actually means. Ok for for my investment not going down that far? Or ok that it will go up later in the day?. On my way to office, when I emerged from the tube station, I received a text from her "Tebrau is now 1.21". I quickly responded "Jual all my holding". After 20 minutes she replied "Done @1.22". Well.... I just made 6.64% return for my one day investment.

When the market closed for the day Tebrau closed at 1.29, which means my return would have been 12.76% if sold at that price, a slash of 6.12% when I sold at 1.22.

Well I have taught myself not to be greedy. No investment Guru will recommend buying at rock bottom and selling at the most peak because nobody knows when is the rock bottom and when is the most peak. The return of 6.64% in one day has translated to my duit raya already.

MONDOK

Since I was 16 I had never been to a barber to cut my hair. I cut my own hair. The fact that I can cut my own hair, my service was sought after in time of emergency by my dorm mates. You see, I was in a boarding school and in every Saturday we had this inspection by our warden, who was also the school disciplinary teacher. We must have our bed tidy with a clean bedsheet, clean and tidy locker, wear national dress with the school theme 'samping' and most of all we must have our hair neatly cut. This was where my skill in cutting my own hair made me busy in Friday afternoons. Cutting my friends' hair got me some extra pocket money that I needed most as my my parents couldn't send me much. I did not come from a well to do family.

I had a few regular customers with different hair styles requirement. The one style I could never forget called 'airport runaway' from this particular customer, who was also my good friend. We called him Mondok in school. I didn't know for sure why he was called Mondok, but all of us got our nickname while we were in school. I won't tell mine, it is secret.

On one particular Friday, I was so tired that I went for a nap in my dorm immediately after the school periods were over. I didn't even go for my lunch. I slept like a log. Mondok woke me up at around 5.00 pm and asked me to cut his hair for tomorrow's inspection. I was still groggy but I couldn't say no because I had promised him early in the morning before school. So I started cutting his hair while yawning myself out. Snip... snip.... snip... I was cutting his hair for an 'airport runaway' look. Snip and...... a big.... OOUUCCHH. Mondok yelled and jumped from the chair. I had snipped his right ear. Some blood dripped down and he ran to the sickbay for help.

I didn't charge Mondok for the service. I gave him a free hair and ear cut that day.

$1 AND A DREAM

I have two collegues who are looking at things in a very different perspective. One is a smoker and the other one is a lottery buyer.

The smoker is not at all into buying lottery. His argument is that the probability for one to strike a winning number is very remote. It is just like a dream and it is a waste of money to buy a lottery. He might as well smoke and make more friends. By smoking he will also fill certain vacuum in his life (to kill boring I suppose). Come to think of it, he is quite right. Smokers will make friends easily. A smoker can easily approached another stranger smoker and asked for a lighter. They have this kind of bond and from there they break the ice and start to have a conversation.

The lottery buyer has a different view. To him smoking is also a waste of money. What he gets just smoke, destroyed lungs and destroying other people lungs. To him by buying a lottery he will get the same satisfaction in smoking. He got this feeling of suspense and excitement while waiting from the time he buys until the time when winning numbers are announced, the same kind of excitement to win a girl's heart. To him he will never get to his dream if he doesn't buy it. Well, come to think of it he is quite right too.

MY FRIEND ISMIT ULAM RAJA.....

kring.... kring....

"Hello"

"Is that east43street?"

"Well good morning to you too. Yes this is he. Whose on the line please"

"Alloooo east43street, this is me, Ismit lah".

Ismit? My old buddy Ismit? What a pleasant surprise. Haven't heard from him for almost 7 years. It's must be something very important. And where he got my number from??

"I will be coming down to New York in a few days time. I will see you then"

"Is that all Ismit? Just you are coming down to visit me? What a priviledge. Tell me more, what you are up to this time?"

"Nothing lah. Will call you before I depart. Salam to your better half". He hanged up without leaving his number. Just typical Ismit. Always leave me in suspense. It is good anyway. Got to see him after all those years and to catch up the good old times.

Ismit is an entrepreneur. He owns a hard chrome factory in Puchong. Hard chrome is a specialise industry and he is among a few players around. His services are bespoked and have to comply with high Japanese standard micron of hard chroming. He told me once that he can chrome my car sports rim for free. He can even chrome my whole car if I wanted to. Phew.... awesome.

Ismit called again after 2 days. Time is the essence he said. He asked me to check if there was a new airport project completed in Abuja, Nigeria. I was confused. At that time Abuja was named as a new capital of Nigeria, but it was still a desert. He hanged up without leaving his number again. Well... well.... he must have thought that I am James Bond. Give me a little assignment and I will try to follow his trail. Ok, I will pay along. I did a little research and it was confirmed that Abuja was still a bare land. Nothing on it and the Nigerian government will start developing it after a few years. No airport, no nothing in Abuja just yet.

Two days later Ismit called again and this time he told me what it was about. He told me that he is finalising a business transaction and the other party has asked him to choose the venue between London and New York. He chose New York because I am in New York. He also told me that if everything goes well he will loaned me some money to start a new business, a new life probably. Wow! This must be big. Ismit is going big and I am so anxious to know what it is.

He told me that he was being contacted by the Nigerian government project manager handling Abuja International Airport project. The airport was completed and there was an excess of US$15 millions from the project. Ismit was offered 30% of that amount if he agreed to use his bank account to transfer the money out of Nigeria. What Ismit has to do is just provide his company bank account number and issue a fake invoice to the tune of US$15 millions. The format of the invoice would be supplied and Ismit just had to copy it to his letter head.

I told Ismit that there was no airport in Abuja and the fact that Abuja was just being declared as a new capital and it will take years to develop. I was surprised that Ismit did not believe me.

I kept on asking Ismit that there must be a catch to it. Nobody will transfer US$15 millions to a stranger. He finally conceded that he had to pay 0.15% bank transfer fee which will come up to US$22,500. So Ismit will have to pay US$22,500 of bank transfer fee to get his US$4.5 millions. How convenient.

I finally managed to get Ismit to his senses. I warned him that if he ever come to New York for that transaction, I will break his leg. Ismit did not make his trip to New York. Not because I was going to break his leg, but I think because he knew that he was being conned.

According to US government reports, US lost about US$3 billions every year to this kind of scam. The victims rarely report to the authorities because what they are doing is against the law anyway.

Ismit is still himself the last time I saw him. At least he got a dream to be rich for a short while.