All About Kwarta

I will be taking a whole week off from work. Yay! Unfortunately, I'm not going on a vacation. I'd have to have my crooked teeth repaired. Not that fancy. Just to gain back some confidence to smile at people. I know it will cost me a fortune but I had to do this for oh so many reasons. The global market is fucking crazy. I see a lot of bearish signals of a possible breakdown (at least in the US charts). My portfolio has not recovered yet from the incessant beating this past few weeks. The good thing about money management is that it grabs you by the neck, looks at you straight in the eye and shouts at you rather harshly to diversify your portfolio. The stock market is rather unsympathetic. It's the first lesson every investor should know.

EEI FPH FLI FLI has broken the neckline of an inverted head and shoulders today at 1.28 which hopefully signal a bullish reversal. If my projection is correct, I am seeing at least a 30% minimum upside. That is if it could break it's immediate (stronger) psychological resistance at 1.30. It still amazes me how patterns reoccur as if by instinct. What's more interesting is the underlying psychology. We do wear our hearts on our sleeves. It only takes a few patterns to figure that out.

I'll never gonna pay any credit card annual fees again...ever! This has been a personal promise I could not break. It all started about a year ago when I diligently paid my Citibank Visa card dues including the annual fee. Of course, I asked for the fee to be waived, as any sensible person would do. But the Citiphone officer (phony bastards!) I talked to informed me that there were no automatic waiver for the annual fee. And so I paid in full and almost forgot about it, just to found out later that the same annual fee was waived for someone I knew. How freaking retarded was that!! To think that I am constantly paying all my dues on time, availed of their balance transfer programs and installments and never ever defaulted nor thinking of running away from my debts. I'm just a small fry. I knew that. I'm am not a high-networth individual and never will be in 5 years time (the universe is listening, you know. ). So in Citibank's perspective, I am just one of the expe

After posting Resilience this past week, SCC, which I said has the most gorgeous chart, took the opposite price movement.The selldown was apparently driven by the Deutsche Bank analysis of the said issue . The analysis downgraded SCC from a BUY to a HOLD with a target price of 205. At the same time, CitisecOnline upgraded SCC's rating to a 295 fair value. With a little digging, I also found this research from another broker, DA Market Securities on SCC . In this paper, SCC is also upgraded to a 270-fair value. After a little reading from DA's and COL's research, the upgrades seem valid. Deutsche's research seems contradicting all the other sentiment. So where do we draw the line? After a few digging again, I finally found a snippet of the Deutsche report (note, however, that I could not verify if this report is valid though :P). Deutsche Bank - Equity Research - Asia Semirara Mining : Fairly valued; downgrading to Hold Semirara Mining {Ticker: SCC.PS, Closing

The market is down across the board today where the index lost 0.67%. The second down day where the index has gone down the 4200 resistance once again. The most interesting part for me perhaps is that while the market has been correcting this past few days, my portfolio have shown a bit of resilience everyday against the common sentiment. If I was a  bit more aggressive in taking positions in my issues, the gap could have been wider. Among my latest positions, SMDC was probably the most aggressive of them. Bought initially at 7.92, sold at 8.78, bought again at 8 and sold at 9.2 - in just a matter of week. It could continue its ascent but I'm not going to push my luck any further unless a very compelling correction present itself (see Fibonacci retracement ) before the 15% stock dividend ex-date which basically drove the stock higher. SMDC A few of my holdings include SCC , FPH , and FLI . SCC has, by far, the most gorgeous chart. It's one of those rare issues that

Well, it's the end of another quarter. Or should I say, the end of the first quarter of the year. And boy, what a quarter it was! There sure a lot of things going on, mostly the bad kind. The instability of the Middle East and North Africa, the devastating Japan quake and tsunami that killed a lot of people, and in effect the world in the verge of an oil crisis In the local front, everything seems to look a bit ugly too. The Armed Forces' pabaon issues which led to the suicide of the former Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes, the Ligot couple's blatant display of arrogance, the Merci Gutierrez impeachment, and the death penalty of the three Filipino OFW's in China who were convicted as drug mules. On the extreme side of the spectrum are the "activists" who we're blabbering incessantly of how the government has deprived them of all the rights in the world. I mean, come on! These news get into my nerves sometimes that I wish I had that notebook that kills all

UPDATE 2018/01/31 : The ROHQ's 15% preferential tax rate is now officially dead! The provision has been vetoed out by the President in the final TRAIN Law ( BIR Tax Advisory ). ****** A few years ago, while I was still with my first company, our company HR then and the admin in general had this dilemma (as most HRs in the IT industry) - the worsening employee retention rate. In other words, rampant resignations. One of the major causes apparently (as usual) is compensation and - by association - benefits. The usual dilemma is in addressing the compensation issues while not compromising the company's profitability. I could imagine that the admin must have studied the existing laws to exploit the taxation that has been a major setback in enjoying our respective monthly salaries. I mean who wanted a 32% void in our respective payslips, right? In perspective, that's a little more than a quarter of work without pay yearly! And so the idea of an ROHQ was born (That wa

Yesterday, I showed you a personal graph of my assets and liabilities minus the actual figures of course. But I'm pretty sure you get the idea. I just included the part where I reorganized the figures so that it will account every single centavo in credit and debit. But if I had to stretch the graph farther to the left - way back several months - I'm sure you'd come to conclude that I'm a hopeless case. Seriously, the hobo on the street has a far more higher networth than I was then (that is to exclude any future earnings in the equation). There's always a turning point. And like most turning points of this kind, it's ugly. Everything doesn't stop in realizing that everything is in mess and a plan to stick to my budget this time around. It involved a lot of cutting off some of my expenses to avoid defaulting on my debt which was constantly haunting me like forever. So it was some kind of a clearance sale. Food budget 30% off! Entertainment 90% off! Come

Wow. Time surely does fly fast. This blog had just turned 1 year! And it's almost an instinct to assess in retrospect what have I achieved so far... financially that is. We've got lots of things going on in the world right now - with Japan quakes and nuclear threats at its doorsteps and all that (Nikkei is down by 10.55% today! ) and in effect threatening our market as well (and the world's in general). Despite all this, I've got a lot to celebrate about. Exactly one year ago, I mentioned here how much I owe the credit card companies . I hardly could not believe what I read. A hundred and twenty thousand in credit . However you view it, it doesn't look good. I mean, REALLY?! Sadly yes, that much. It was sad but yeah it was a bit of reality that I was since trying to correct. Fast forward to today. I had around almost the same amount, but this time, it's biased on the positive territories. That means I was able to wipe out that much of a debt and accumulate

... AFPSLAI has distributed dividends at a whopping 17% pa rate for the last quarter of 2010 ? The dividend was released last Jan 25 to members. The best part is that, it's tax free!! Unfortunately, only the following are eligible for membership. For regular membership: Military Officer Military Enlisted AFP/PNP Retiree/Pensioner AFP/PNP Pensioners (Widow/Widower/Orphan) Inactive/Reserved Officer (with one term of three continuous years) PNP Officer/Non-Officer Civilian Employees (AFPSLAI-accredited institutions) Resigned from Service/Honorably Discharged (for AFP/PNP military/police) only BFP/BJMP Officer/Non-Officer Associate Membership: Legitimate spouse of regular married member Legitimate children of the regular married member (21 years old and above) Philippine Veterans Administration Office (PVAO) pensioners PNPA/PMA/PAF Cadet Candidate Officers (OCS and NOCC). I'm an associate member by the way ;)

If you're an avid observer of the market, you'd understand why I'm not quite enthusiastic anymore to post my stock positions. I lost some, if not all, my optimism for the market to take some drastic move up in the short term. To say that the market is bleeding is definitely an understatement. This business is really not for the faint of heart. However, while all the others are stampeding out wherever exit they may find the nearest, I decided to go long. As a matter of fact, I increased my positions after I got both my last pay from my previous company and my first paycheck from my current company. You say I'm crazy. I say, it's a matter of perspective really. If your position in the market involves preserving your capital to be the highest priority, then getting out of the market is probably your best choice. The charts are ugly, the optimism is waning and everywhere you look there's carnage. And then there's madness. Stocks which had been losing or miss

Four ASEAN Exchanges, namely Bursa Malaysia (BM), the Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. (PSE), Singapore Exchange (SGX) and the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) working together with NYSE Technologies, today said the design study of the technology framework for the ASEAN Trading Link has been completed. Shortlisted vendors who are able to provide the infrastructure have been invited to tender. The ASEAN Trading Link aims to electronically interconnect the participating markets and facilitate cross border order trading seamlessly. Depending on the selected vendor, it is expected that the link will go live toward the end of 2011. - source PSE Months trading Total Gain YTD Loss W-o-W Gain 5 mos. 19 days 4.03% -2.24% 0.06%

  I finally got my Nook Color a week ago from a friend who had just arrived from a business trip from the US. I tell you, I loved this eye candy the first time I saw it, I loved it more when I get to use it for the first time. This is my first and only ebook reader so I can't compare it with its counterparts in the market today. It has been around since November of last year at the earliest, so this may came out late. But still I wanted to talk about my own experiences. So I'd like to start with the package. My friend who bought it never opened the package even after insisting a few times to give it a test drive while she's still in the US. So in a consumer's point of view, it's as immaculate as it could get. The crack to the opening at about one-third to the bottom was a successful attempt at getting my attention. Opening the box by literally breaking in two was a refreshing experience. The rims are equipped with magnets that do all the snap open/snap close

I'm lazy. That and the market's quite unfriendly these days. So basically there's nothing interesting to write about. I promised I had to document a weekly report on how's my money doing. But the market's been extracting the serotonin out of me (think of Harry Potter's dementors). But though I have no obligation whatsoever, I'm doing this for myself. I had to write down my money's performance. The very wise were right after all. Making money is a very boring hobby. Is it worth the effort? I still think it is. The Phisix was down by -5.49% year to date.The continuing massive sell-off according to some experts were a way of foreign brokers to lighten their positions in the emerging markets. So where are we going? Don't ask me. I'm just as clueless as you are. Months trading Total Gain YTD Loss W-o-W Gain 5 mos. 13 days 3.96% -2.30% 1.75%

That's right. it's been 2 days since I started not going to work anymore. And it would take at least a month before I'd get my last pay from my soon-to-be-previous company. It left me broke. My cash on hand right now cannot pay off all my scheduled debt payments for the next month. I had to cut back on my expenses and hopefully, I could survive the next month unscathed (until I take hold of my first paycheck with my next company). I sold various old PC parts just to have some additional  cash (I managed to raise a little more than 5K). I also desperately considered selling my Nook Color (scheduled to arrive on Monday). That would surely solve all my budget woes. But I think I don't have the heart to let go of that thing too easily. How about cashing on my investments? Not a good idea either. You see, it's not performing as particularly exceptional these days. The index is moving sideways and so do most of my holdings. Why do I'm experiencing these ordeal?

Happy New Year!!! I know this is a bit late. There has been death in the family that almost deter us from celebrating the holidays altogether. My father's youngest sister died of heart attack. She's 43. It was painful to see her leaving her family with three young children. She's not only my father's sister but a second mother when I was in college.  I get to live with them for 6 years. And the news that she's gone was particularly shocking. I guess it's one of those black swans in the family the author Taleb is talking about . We know death is just waiting for the right (or wrong) moment to strike, but it always never fails to surprise us. And, sometimes, crush us to our very core. We always see death as something in the future, but when we see it in the face of our love ones, we are always reminded how vulnerable our mortality is. But this new year I'd like to think of a new beginning. I got a new job. I reconnected with my family. And of course, mo