Tea with AK71: Reel fight to real fight!

I enjoy Chinese period drama. I enjoy Chinese pugilistic movies with good kung fu too. Two actors I particularly like watching in such movies are Donnie Yen and Zhao Wen Zhuo whom I recently found out is called Vincent Chiu.

Donnie Yen

I don't usually follow the entertainment news and I usually skip the "Life" section in The Straits Times. Due to this, I have been said to have no life by some friends and family members. Nice pun.

However, the recent fight between Donnie Yen and Vincent Chiu which apparently has been going on for weeks finally caught my attention. If it gets the attention of AK71, it must be BIG!

Vincent Chiu

I don't know either man personally, of course, and whether it is a clash of egos or if there are some serious and valid grievances, I do not know. You guys go read the reports and decide for yourselves. Apparently, the dispute created flaming in cyberspace that would make the Great Fire of London looked like a harmless campfire.

What caught my attention and created a deep impression was a remark by Vincent Chiu:

"All ten properties I bought at a low price in Beijing are now worth six times more.

"Even if I stop working, I won't have any difficulty getting by," Chiu told the media recently, in response to Yen's announcement that he would take Chiu to court.

Passive income in the form of rental income plus capital appreciation of 500%! Impressive. Vincent Chiu is not just an accomplished martial arts pugilist, he is also a savvy investor.

Read the article: here.

SoundGlobal: Golden cross.

Are we about to see the formation of a true golden cross which is the bullish crossing of the 200dMA by the 100dMA?

"A real, true golden cross — a very Japanese signal — occurs when a rising 100-day moving average crosses above a flat or rising 200-day moving average. It signals positive price action." Goola Warden, The EDGE.

The 200d MA in this case is still declining. So, the case for a true golden cross is weakened. Nonetheless, there seems to be longer term support with volume dwindling as price consolidation continues.

Although there seems to be longer term support, the 20dMA is declining and what looks like a declining triangle has formed.

Immediate support is at 58c which is where the golden cross is found. If that support should break, we could see the counter's share price declining to 52c which is where the 161.8% Fibo line approximates.

I was once upon a time a shareholder of SoundGlobal when it was still known as E-pure. Today, I am once again a shareholder as I initiated a long position at 59c.

SoundGlobal profit increased 43.1% (29 Feb 2011): Announcement here.

Tea with AK71: Learn a second language!

I remember a Caucasian lecturer from New Zealand telling me before that he wished he was bilingual. He only knew the English language and he didn't think he was totally proficient in the language either. He said he thought the Singapore government did the right thing in schooling us in two languages.


It seems that learning to speak a second langauge also makes us smarter if what I read in a magazine is to be believed.

Bilingual children performed better than monolingual children in a series of tests that assessed ability to solve complex problems. This is according to a study by Toronto's York University.

People who are more effectively bilingual also are less likely to suffer from dementia and other symptoms associated with Alzheimer's disease. This is from a study by the University of California, San Diego.

Seems that I should spend more time brushing up my Mandarin. Time to buy a copy of the Chinese language papers, perhaps.

Reference: MensHealth.com, 27 March 2012.

Low interest rates' a double whammy for some.

Central banks in many large economies around the world are keeping interest rates really low, near zero in countries like the USA and Japan, in fact. Low interest rates are seen as the way to encourage economic growth by making borrowings cheaper.

To revive their sickly economies, the relevant countries' low interest rates could be instrumental. However, as money would go to where it is treated best, a lot of this cheap money is finding its way to Asia. Although the USA would like to see inflation in their economy, their money printing has also caused inflation in Asian economies.

Declining value of the US$. Source: Wikipedia.

The low interest rate environment is hurting people who save. They get less interest income for their savings and they are also impacted by higher prices like everyone else. They are being paid less and forced to spend more! A double whammy!

Savers have to put their money to work if they want to be paid more than the paltry interest rates on savings offered by the banks. This means taking on risks by investing their savings. This sounds simple enough but we have to remember that not everyone should be taking risks. What about the elderly?

I get worried when my mother and others her age are telling me now that they should invest their money in real estate, bonds or the stock market because they are getting next to nothing for their savings in their bank accounts. Do they have a choice?

Related posts:
1. Perpetual bonds: Good or bad?
2. Money continues to flow into Singapore.
3. To protect our wealth, we have to take risk.

Stocks rise, Neptune Orient gains
Tuesday, 27 March 2012

© 2012 - The Edge Singapore

CapitaMalls Asia: To buy on possible weakness.

There is a rather obvious negative divergence between price and the MACD. Higher price was achieved with a lower high on the MACD recently. So, we should not be surprised if the share price should decline in the near future as positive momentum in the short term weakens.

However, look at the OBV. There is no sign of smart money retreating as price rose. In fact, it is scaling higher. This suggests that smart money could use any price weakness as an opportunity to buy.

Indeed, if we look at the weekly chart, there is no sign of a negative divergence. The MACD is rising higher into positive territory. The longer term technicals definitely have a bullish bias.

However, with the share price nearing the declining 100w MA which is at $1.71 now, the near term weakness is not unreasonable. The 100w MA is expected to provide some strong resistance.

With the OBV rising, any pull back in price to supports is likely to be a buying opportunity. The pull back should be on the back of declining volume to make the case for buying more compelling.

Of course, the counter could decide to do a correction using time instead. That would be most annoying but that is Mr. Market.

Related post:
CapitaMalls Asia: Going XD on 23 April.