Golden Agriculture: Downtrend broken.

With the white candle formed today, closing at 60c, the downtrend which started on 11 January is effectively broken.

The buy signal on the MACD histogram spotted in the last session has been confirmed. Momentum oscillators are still rising, forming higher lows which is good news for bulls. Although volume expanded today, a case could be made that we are seeing a negative divergence with price.  Just keep this thought handy.

If the positive momentum keeps up, we could see the next resistance at 62.5c tested.  Immediate support is provided by the flat 100dMA at 55.5c. Uptrend support coincides with the rising 200dMA.

Tea with AK71: Bought a new car!

On 2 May, I blogged about how expensive it is to buy a new car now. I mentioned that I paid only $80k for my current car, a Mazda 6, almost five years ago and that for the same price I could only get a Mazda 2 hatchback, not even a Mazda 3, now! I said I would continue driving my fully paid Mazda 6 for another few years.

Yesterday, I blogged about my Mazda 6 being pillarised in a carpark and how I toyed with the idea of getting a new car. I decided to just keep driving my pillarised Mazda 6 after some thought. However, I still went online and looked at what's new at Mazda Motors just for fun. I was kind of attracted to the new Mazda 2 sedan which was just launched recently. Why not the hatchback? Cars, for me, must have a boot. 

The boot allows me to hide my car washing stuff and it also acts as an extra large bumper if my car were hit in the back by some reckless driver. Also, people cannot see what I have in the boot and would not be tempted to break into my car. Might be a false sense of security but it gives me a peace of mind.

As I had nothing much to do today, I went down to Mazda's showroom to take a look at the Mazda 2 Sedan. Mazda is having a 90th Anniversary promotion and I was given a $12,000 discount. So, final price is $71k for a new Mazda 2 Sedan with leather seats and solar film. They also offered me $29k for my old Mazda 6, accepting all the dents and scratches.

I made phonecalls to my parents to get their opinions before test driving the car. As my previous cars ranged from 1.6 litres to 2.2 litres in capacity, my major worry about the Mazda 2 was the possible lack of power, being a 1.5 litres. Driving the car, I was impressed by how such a small engine could deliver so much punch. I am not an engineer and I won't go into details like DOHC and stuff. The information is available online, I'm sure. Anyway, as you have probably guessed from the title of this post, I bought it.  Decision made within two hours or so.

A smaller car with a more fuel efficient engine is environmentally friendlier and is easier on the pocket as well.  I will save on petrol, road tax and maintenance.  The car will get a 3 years/100,000km warranty which is good. I have replaced quite a few parts under warranty for my previous cars before. I think it will not be any different with this car. Did I mention I was given $300 servicing vouchers as well?

The only downside is, of course, the much smaller size and this will take some getting used to.  Then again, most of the time, I am just driving myself around.  The backseat is usually for my briefcase, my gym bag and my Crumpler. So, this will be my first practical car for city driving.

I had hoped to drive my Mazda 6 for more than 5 years.  It seems that is not to be. I hope to drive this new car for more than 5 years. Wish me luck.

Related posts:
Tea with AK71: Buying car now?
Tea with AK71: Pillarised.

SPH: A new high.

SPH hit a new high of $4.20 early in the morning of the last session and closed at $4.13, up three cents from the previous session.  Volume almost quadrupled from the previous session and this has corrected the negative divergence I have blogged about recently.

The MACD is once again pulling away upwards from the signal line in positive territory.  The MFI is rising after forming a higher low, suggesting that demand is healthy.  OBV turned sharply upwards, indicating ongoing accumulation.

Immediate support is resistance turned support at $4.08. Immediate resistance is at $4.20, the new high.

Related post:
SPH: Rising on low volume.

Tea with AK71: Pillarised.

What is "pillarised"? I would be surprised if such a word existed. It is just a word that happened to pop into my head as my car had a close encounter with a pillar in the carpark this afternoon in Burlington Square.  That building has to have one of the most badly designed carparks in Singapore! One particular turn near the exit ramp was very tight.  Anyway, that's where my car's passenger door got "pillarised".  Sob.

I usually drive well and I have survived even the most claustrophobic of HDB carparks.  So, this accident was a bit of a shock for me.  Talking to a friend when I reached home, he suggested that my car is too big. Too big? It's a Mazda 6! Imagine if I were driving a Mazda CX-7! Although my car is turning five in less than two months, mechanically, it is still in good condition. Change my car? I admit that it is a tempting thought but it is probably not financially prudent to do so.

However, a customer recently told me that the COE price is probably going to increase month after month because less vehicles are being scrapped.  This would mean that prices of cars would keep climbing. He said if anyone wants to buy a new car, it is now! Where is my chequebook?!

Then, talking to my mom after the "pillarising" experience, she suggested that I wait a couple of days and if I really want to get a new car, do it.  My mom is basically being very rational and hinting to me not to be impulsive, I'm sure. Cool down and think clearly. I just damaged my car. Do I want to damage my chequeing account too?

I took a shower and felt a bit better.  I went downstairs, washed my car and decided that I could live with the damage for another few years. Yes, you guessed it.  I don't think I will fix the dent and scratches although my dad might insist that I do.  Will see.

Usually, I could manage very tight turns but there were too many things on my mind today and I was kind of distracted.  Like I commented in one of my posts lately, work has been stressful. So, what is it about work that is stressful? Workload stress, I can handle but stress due to certain transgressions by people, I don't handle very well. It is the latter that has been bothering me in the last few days. People trying to take advantage of people and people not playing by the rules.

We could probably rationalise it in so many ways but it almost always boils down to money.  Radix malorum est cupiditas.  The love of money is the root of all evil.  How true.  Many will do so many things just for money, including creating trouble for other people.  It really gets to me.  Well, they don't say it is a dog eat dog world for no reason, right? Right.

Unfortunately, some of us have the thankless task of policing people. It is worse when we have a conscience! The task is not so distasteful if we were able to punish the transgressors, ensuring they would not do the same things again. It is when we are not able to do anything more than issuing warnings that it gets irksome. Imagine a toothless dog guarding a home. You get the idea.

If we keep doing the same things the same way, things will never change. So, what do we do? Make plans to change the way things are done or make plans to do different things. I know we might not have a choice sometimes but if we have a choice, we should remember that we have only one life to live and we owe it to ourselves to live it well.