All About Kwarta

The Philippine Stock Exchange closes the third quarter on a high note - albeit a bit fragile. I have been trading a few issues this past few weeks and I can sense the reluctance of the market to go higher. That is of course after hitting a all-time high of 8294.14 last September 18th. My securities portfolio registered a 23.14% gain for the year compared to the 19.45% gain on the index. Much of the steep gains this last month was due to a steep runup of such issues as AGI and FLI and locking on some gains before the prices go down. A huge chunk of my portfolio is actually a worst-performing FPH. For some reason, I couldn't just dump the damn stock. Probably because (1) I felt it was simply just damn cheap and (2) it gives off  generous dividends - like 2-3 percent.  In fact, I was loading a bit when the price drops at ridiculous levels. FPH mountain of despair I also loaded on D&L this past few days. Again, because I believe the stock will eventually go back up

I just got back from Auckland TechXpo where some tech companies showcase their products. Aside from the usual super-rigs, this got my attention. That's the Omen Accelerator - the newest external GPU enclosure from HP which will be released in NZ in September. I wanted to play my PC games again since I left my decent rig back home. I cannot bring my bulky rig across the Pacific Ocean without breaking the bank. Also, having no permanent address really doesn't help in assembling a super rig once again. This is the closest I could get to a decent gaming experience. I just hope that my Dell XPS 9550 would support this setup. I would wait for the reviews to come in and see if it's worth the price.

Kia Ora! Wow, can't believe it's literally two months today since I left the Philippines. It's been a blast so far. New Zealand has always been a magical place for me and it's still is. Although unfortunately, I haven't been to the Hobbiton set yet. Sad! But that's another story (It's a 4-hour drive from where I'm currently at and I will definitely go there someday). I am officially an OFW - an addition to a demographic that has been a sturdy foundation of the economy back home. A demographic that on a macroeconomic level, contribute a very significant 10 percent to our GDP, narrows the gap in our BoP deficits, and cushion the impact of volatile foreign currency exchanges. I may be talking pure gibberish right there because on a very personal level, each one of us just wanted to take that piece of the pie back home. To help our love ones survive, to save some and to pay debts we left behind. That's exactly my concern in m

This has been a long journey that spanned almost a year. It's been a roller-coaster of emotions. From elation to depression and a lot of self-doubt. I left my job almost a year ago and today seems the culmination of that long arduous process. I am currently in the airport supposedly set to leave for New Zealand two hours ago. And the PA system just announced to wait for two more. The fact that our airport was voted one of the world's worst doesn't help a bit. Hungry, sleepy, excited and a bit apprehensive.But then again, I managed to survive those long months of painful uncertainty. What's a few hours more? UPDATE: In retrospect, the delay might have something to do with the Resorts World incident on that same day.

Mutual Funds in general were not spared by the turbulent market for the last two years. It has been understandably challenging to stick to your financial strategies when everything has been going the opposite way. There were a few exceptions with ATR Kim Eng leading the pack. A few years back, I bought a few shares of ATRAM Phil Equity Opportunity Fund. I sold them after almost a year once my target has been achieved. That year, ATRAM and FAMI  were the heavyweights. ATRAM, however, has the worst performing funds in 2015. Probably due to their aggressive selection of stocks. Again, it is important for an investor to realize his risk tolerance and his ultimate goal. Then plan a strategy around those factors. Equity Fund Fund Name ROI ATRAM Alpha Opportunity Fund, Inc. 11.71% ALFM Growth Fund, Inc 4.86%  ATRAM Philippine Equity Opportunity Fund, Inc. -0.56% First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund,Inc. -1.05% One Wea

The Philippine Stock Exchange ended the previous year at -1.6% - one of the tripartite of the Asian Market losers of 2016, just behind China and Malaysia. This of course trickled down to the country's Mutual Funds (MF) and Unit Investment Trust Funds (UITF) which generally settled in the negative territories. There were a few exceptions however with the top 8 Equity UITFs defying the market downturn (5  for Balanced Fund). I was particularly impressed with BDO's Dividend Fund registering an 8.10% increase. In fact 3 funds from BDO booked positive returns. The funds however were not quite as impressive at the end of the prior year. BDO's Sustainable Dividend Fund and Focused Equity Fund ranked 26th (-15.74%) and 27th (-18.11%) respectively that year (ESG Equity Fund performance was not available for 2015). Also, based on BDO's (and a few others) performance, it tends to show that dividend-focused funds were more profitable than their normal counterparts. But thi