All About Kwarta

It's been officially the end of a quarter when I started trading the stock market. I have learned a lot since then. And I'm still learning things as they unfold. I see my portfolio climb new heights and watch them tumble down helplessly. I learned to listen to others but try to recognize information from pure noises. I learned to trust my own instincts. I learned to be patient. But at the same time, I learned to quit when circumstances calls for it. Again, instinct at work. My total gain was almost totally wiped out when the foreigns are selling profusely. Where does it left me? I sold my fragile MEGW1 position(at a personal record-high loss) and bought URC and FLI (which according to my instinct should rise already after a long time of non-movement). In retrospect, If I hadn't cut-loss, my portfolio would be down to 3.96% total gain. Still, not bad. For the same quarter, I could have earned 3.75% with AFPSLAI, around 1% with TD deposit , and with my savings account at 0.

Do you know Madoff, right? If not, you might want to start by knowing him . He is the modern-day Ponzi . They're basically the face of swindling - the American way. What made them stand out is the expanse of their activities and the sum of money involved. So great that made their respective names earned such similarly huge reputation. You know Madoff's sons, right? If not, you might want to read again the wiki link above. They were the one who turned their father to the authorities after the latter confessed. The news that came out today that one of them committed suicide is definitely a sad one. Even with millions or billions of dollars attached to my bank account, I'd definitely would not want a Madoff on my name. ---- On a more personal note, I'm thankful that my plan of a loan to leverage my positions in the stock market didn't push through. If I did, I maybe crying blood by now. Months trading Total Gain PSEi Gain (Same period) w-o-w Loss

So much for beating the index, eh? Months trading Total Gain PSEi Gain (Same period) W-o-w Gain 3.5 mos. 8.27% 20.03% 0.07%

I'm a big fan of books. I think I already mentioned that somewhere. So it was just normal when I wished for a decent e-reader. I wished for a Kindle since time immemorial. But the huge shipping fees and taxes made me think twice. I saw Kindles in gadget shops in malls but the prices were ridiculously twice that offered by Amazon plus taxes. Why pay that amount when I could get a 16 gig Ipad Wifi or a Samsung Galaxy tab. I almost bought an Ipad when I happen to pass by (rather intentionally) some gadget shops. But something reminded me that I wanted a decent e-reader. Not some ridiculously priced machine (I could buy an Intel i5-powered notebook instead at the same price range). When I remembered a friend who was at the moment on a business trip in the US, I grabbed the opportunity to buy Barnes and Noble's Nook Color. Isn't she gorgeous? From B&N's website : Stunning 7 inch VividView™ Color Touchscreen shows more than 16 million colors on the best-in-class

The Good I got a new job! It's not yet official but I just sent my confirmation last night. The offer was good and about just the right time. I just sent my resignation last week. It was not just lady luck smiling on me but I was also anticipating this since I know I'm doing good at the interviews. So I guess I still had a reason to stay in the country for the time being. I'm not sure if I mentioned it in any of my previous post, but I'm entertaining the idea of finding work in Singapore. It never stops looking for technical manpower beyond its borders and I think it's always a good opportunity to work there. I got my 13th month salary. And I'm seeing my personal networth to new highs. From the general standards, it's not that significant. But seeing the figures in the green finally shows that one of my goal was attained. In perspective however, I do not see breaching the 100K mark in investments and cash when the year ends. But that's okay. I had to

I'm a lover of books. If I had that freedom to buy all the books I find fascinating, I might have a small library by now. I have a few programming essentials in my collections as part of the industry I'm in. A few fictions (fantasy, horror, philosophical) and nonfictions. It was just recently when I have been seriously involved in investing and stock market that I felt the need to lose a few pesos in exchange for tools I found essential. So here's are a few of the books on my shelf that has been (and has continually been) a valuable companion to understand financial stuffs which are otherwise completely alien to me. Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter One of the earliest books I had from my first paycheck. It quite piqued my interest on a relatively old idea that school can't get you rich (or something like that). While there are a few points in the book that I might disagree ( John Reed has a whole page devoted for this ), it nevertheless tran

I have just tendered my resignation from my current company last Monday. It was a bold move on my part considering I don't have a replacement job after the remaining two months. Why take the risk? Because I had to take a break from something I'm already weary of doing. I'm exhausted and not quite sure where my efforts go. It's one of those jobs you don't directly see the end result and most of the time it's frustrating. I don't have the slightest grudge against the company but it's time for a new environment. I wanted to explore things I hadn't explored yet. This made life a lot less boring. So i dare say, bring it on! Portfolio for the week:   - MEGW1 (51.19%) 3.56% paper   - RFM (46.62%)  1.42% paper   - Cash (2.19%) Trades for the Week:   - Added RFM @1.93 Months trading Total Gain PSEi Gain (Same period) W-o-W Gain 3 mos. 3 days 21.91% 20.80% 6.91%

Last week was a bad week for my stocks. But at the same time, it was also significant for me because my personal networth had just breached the 0 mark. That means if I had to liquidate all my securities, all my debts will be wiped out and an excess 2,000 pesos in my pocket. Graph of my Weekly Assets, Liabilities and Networth This was not the original plan however as the breach should have happened a lot earlier if not for the mugging incident that happened to me around 2 months ago (and I had a few purchases during that time :P). Nevertheless this is a very important milestone for my journey to financial independence.

Market Correction - The day after you buy stocks. - Anonymous P/E ratio - The percentage of investors wetting their pants as this market keeps crashing. Value Investing - The art of buying low and selling lower. Buy-and-Hold Investment - a short term trade that went wrong the hardest thing about riding a bull market is staying on. October - This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February. ~Mark Twain Don't try to catch a falling knife - i.e. if something is falling you could get hurt trying to catch it until it stops falling, then pick it up safely Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent. -- John Maynard Keynes Portfolio for the week  - MEGW1 (49.11%, -7.07% paper)  - RFM (31.57%, -1.88% paper)  - Cash (19.32%) Week-on-week loss is nearly half of the total gain :( Months trading Total Gain PSEi Gain (Same per

Normally, I'd wait till weekend to post about my position in the stock market. But the market has made quite a very interesting turn these past few days. These last five days of downward spiral wiped more than 2 months worth of gain. How's that suppose to be interesting? The downward plunge is sudden, very steep and across the board. And now I'm fallin', fallin' fast again The first 3 days were taken by many as a simple healthy correction. But come Thursday, blood splattered all over the trading floor. People panicked. This made me see the market in it's ugly form. I suddenly remembered  that the market is constantly undergoing cycles. And sometimes people felt comfortable of the uptrend, forgetting that there's always a downtrend to balance the market. I'm caught up in the stampede. Acquiring and dumping securities in a matter of hours. I saw my portfolio bleeding profusely. I was able to buy at low prices but the securities continued their down

Samsung Jet Once I had a Samsung Jet. It was my first touch phone. And I've promised to myself that this gonna be my last phone. It was a gorgeous eye candy. Too bad, thieves shared my sentiments to the point that they wanted it for themselves. Now it's gone. Samsung Wave  And then lately, I got myself a Samsung Wave. What more can I say? I love it the first time I saw it. I love it still even after Samsung introduced their Android-powered Galaxy S. My search of a good e-book reader brought me to my current obsession - the Samsung Galaxy tab. It's the big brother of the smaller Android phone Samsung Galaxy S. Certified drool-inducing device Android 2.2 running TouchWiz 3.0 7-inch TFT LCD with 1024 x 600 resolution (WSVGA) Weighs 380 grams 1GHz Cortex A8 processor 16GB or 32GB internal storage microSD expansion for up to 32GB additional storage Front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera and rear 3 megapixel camera with flash 4,000mAh batte

Trades for the Week   - SOLD RFM @ 2.21 (19.45% gain) Portfolio Allocation   - IP (40.16%) 5.30% paper   - MEGW1 (21.80%) 12.17% paper   - GMA7 (11.98%) -0.71% paper   - Cash (26.05%) Months trading Total Gain/Loss PSEi Gain (Same period) W-o-W Gain/Loss 2 mos. 19 days 25.49% 24.99% 2.27% And the bull's still in rage.

On the other side, Ninoy is facepalming 10 Possible scenarios that might have caused the red splotch of dried red liquid on a 500 peso bill. 1. A rich guy “suddenly” spilt some ketchup on his date’s dress and refused to take the napkin offered by the waiter. 2. A street child knocks at a tinted car window and a lady with a ridiculously big hair, a shoe collection and a famous dictator for a husband gave him the bill. The child was said to have been shouting “Si Madam Auring! Si Madam Auring!” before being hit by a truck, cut his body across and splattered bits of his brain everywhere. 3 . A conductor on a bus sensed a hell huge phlegm coming. He’s out of other options really. The yellowish green with a tinge of crimson gooey stuff drops into a 500-peso bill and slids it back to his pocket. He gently knocked his chest and sighed, “Now that’s better”. 4. An emo dude runs out of something to cut himself and remembers that old Linkin Park song. Yes, I was talking about In

Here's my trades for the week. (1) Unloaded all positions in FLI (finally) at 1.40. It ended the week at 1.38. I don't see any movement in the short term. (2) Received a cash dividend of Php97.20 from VLL . Seriously, I didn't expected  it. I did remember selling on its ex-date though. It was just small but I'm equally happy. (3) Loaded up again on MEGW1 at 1.52 it went up to 1.62 and ended the week at 1.55. I still love this stock. I mentioned last week that I bought IP out of gut feeling. Well yeah, but not entirely true. I started noticing this stock when it spiked on Oct 14th and 15th. Then I started reading about the company . I believe this is a good company and a lot of potential. And then the news of getting one of its subsidiary, IP Converge , listed in the local bourse came out. This made up 42% of my portfolio and has since gained 7% (it went as high as 13% gain before falling back down). I completely ignored the urge of riding the highs and lows

Here are my issues and my attempt at reading the charts: FLI - Broke out its symmetrical triangle but heavy resistance (still) starting at 1.40. It would take gods (with deep pocket) to get this issue going. GMA7 - It broke out upwards its descending triangle . If I extend the charts since January of this year, I see an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern. That's suppose to be a bullish reversal pattern. But if I extend the chart farther to January of 2008, there was also a reverse H&S (the 2008-2009 recession), but a bullish uptrend failed to materialize. IP - My newest and largest acquisition. I don't see any pattern. Why bought this issue? Gut feeling, my friend. RFM - Also a new issue. This has been on the uptrend since January this year. I see an ascending triangle and an inverse head and shoulders which hopefully signal a continuing trend. My money tree Week-on-week, I gained a measly 1.39% against the market's index at 1.67%. Months tra

The market is stalling - or at least from my perspective. The PSE index lost 0.4% week-on-week. This may be due to investors locking in gains to subscribe or in prep to the apparently most anticipated IPO of the year, that is Cebu Pac. I sold all my positions in MEG when a much-needed bounce finally happened this past week. Sold MAB at a loss basically for lack of movement. In effect, I'm 60% liquid currently. Waiting for another panic. I'm holding on to FLI which, I realized, have been in my portfolio for almost a month now. It closed flat again with a massive resistance at 1.40 onwards. GMA7 is also a non-mover. The third quarter earnings might change everything. Not sure though if it's for the better or otherwise. My portfolio Months since First Trade Total Gain PSEi Gain (Same period) YTD Gain 2 16.23%* 21.17% 16.23% *Diluted with 66% additional fund.

The stock market index ended the week at 4236.98, just a 0.2% decline from an all-time high of 4245.05 on Thursday. This is despite the fact that the market is in the overbought level for a month now. There are major corrections among various stocks these past few weeks but the overall sentiment is in tack. Still, a major correction in the index itself will be a welcome breather to a growing market. PSE's steep climb $$$ President Aquino boasted of bringing home investments and dollar funds from his recent trip abroad. This and the positive economic activities were the main topic of his 100th-day-in-office speech. Some economists however had a little something to say. The "investments" he brought home and the Millennium Challenge Fund were already in the talks several years back. The stock market and other foreign investments were also a way of foreign investors to divert their attention from the still looming economy of the west. So to own something that's