USD Strength And The Rate Hike

Will they or won't they?

I'm talking about the U.S. Fed hiking rates this month. 

The world is anticipating a rate hike, and yet there is just so much going against such a move all of a sudden. The USD is becoming so strong that many are already saying it is TOO strong. All major currencies are still going ahead with QE (Euro, Chinese Yuan, Japanese Yen) and if the rate hike goes overboard, growth in the U.S. could be adversely affected.

Recently initiated a position in AUDUSD @ 0.6950. Yet it appears there is even further downside in the AUD as commodity prices continue to stay weak, China is slowing down, and the USD prepared for a rate hike.

Yet I am fairly confident the AUD cannot allow its currency to devalue so far below 70c.

Really don't know if this trade will work out but let us see.

Those Little Dark Clouds...

So many potential flashpoints all over the world.

- Greece is facing another round of impending elections 

- Turkey is facing war on several fronts

- The Middle East is still a mess with the ISIS problem

- Ukraine still a mess 

- Tianjin, China mega explosion 

- Bangkok, Thailand bomb blasts

- Malaysia mega corruption scandals involving Najib and 1MDB

- Koreas at most highly militarized state, exchange of artillery fire

- China stock market crashing

- Oil prices crashing

- Dow Jones down 3% last Friday night

It looks like a mega storm is brewing.

Be safe.

FX Binary Options

Lately been playing with FX binary options.

They are essentially gambling tools which is just a bet whether prices will hit within a certain timeframe.

Yes, I am gambling, and this is not good.

But from a cost perspective, they are cheap. A single contract minimum sized binary option costs between $6 - $94 with the chance to earn $100 if you get your bet right. Hence technically if you bought a low-odds binary option costing $10, you'd potentially multiply your bet by 10X! I guess this is where the draw of binary options lies.

Have to try to stop or reduce my betting sizes.

The Best Platform To Trade Singapore Stocks

Right now, it is the Saxotrader by Saxo Capital Markets.

- Commission is only 0.12% with $15 minimum

- Zero Custodian Fees for SGX stocks

Of course there needs to be the negatives to be weighed in:

- Inactivity Fee of USD$100 there is not a single trade within 180 calendar days

- Stocks are 3rd-party custodian-owned so it is not linked to CDP

Given that people normally brand Saxo as expensive, they are actually beating out a lot of the competition for those in the know. US stocks are at $9.90 for the first 1,000 shares (note the 0.12% pa custodian fee though), EURUSD trades as low as 0.8 in spread and Futures start at $6 per contract. 

Not the cheapest of the cheapest, but a good platform with many good functions and tools at pretty competitive commissions.

Of course please do your own due diligence and fact-finding before making any decisions to open an account with them. This is not advice or recommendation of any sort.

En Bloc Potential Or Not

This old condo I live in now has got tons of old folks. I hear that a lot of them have even lived here since day one, back in the seventies when this place was still a HUDC.

The oldies are very nice and friendly. Many a times if you're stuck in the lift with one of them, they'd be the first to initiate some form of polite conversation. It's very informal.

Yet this begs the question.

When you're already so old, chances are you won't want to move out of this place no matter how much money some cash-rich developer could pay you right? Home is where the heart is and these people have lived here all their lives, their comforts are all here. What would abit more money do for them? Money cannot buy the familiarity of this place they've lived so long, nor can it buy the old neighbours and friends they've grown to know and grow up with? Heck many of them have even seen their friends kids grow up and move out.

So what en bloc potential are we talking about afterall? 

The vote will never come to pass in this old town. Probably over their dead bodies.

Accordia Golf Trust (AGT)

So following my previous post, I have taken the big leap.

Accordia Golf Trust (AGT) is my first big dive into the dividend machines.

Why Accordia?

Well I have been looking around for a high dividend yielding trust and for what it's worth, I have managed to read up enough from alot of financial bloggers who have covered this stock favourably based on current entry price.

Here are a few inspirations that I got for the AGT trade idea (all of whom are very respectable financial blogs that I regularly read):

1) Singapore Stock Market News
2) S-Reit Investment Blog
3) A Path To Forever Financial Freedom
4) A Singaporean Stocks Investor (ASSI)

They always say in stock investing, if you suck at doing your own research on a company, then research on other people doing research on that company.

Hope this pays off!

HUAT AH!

Dividend Machines?

Is it time to get back into the dividend machines again?

I am currently looking at getting into:

1) Lippo Malls Indonesia Retail Trust
2) Accordia Golf Trust

Both of which are yielding >8% in dividends a year right now, as well as:

3) Singapore Press Holdings
4) Either M1 or Starhub

Both of which are yielding >5% in dividends a year right now.

Now sure if this will be a good move.

Marine Parade Old Condos

Along Marine Parade Road is a bunch on prime condos that were built on reclaimed land on the 70s and 80s.

They are: Neptune Court, Mandarin Gardens, Lagoon View, Laguna Park, Bayshore Park

All these properties have on thing in common. They are sitting on one of the hottest pieces of land in Singapore with very good en bloc potential.

That's why even though they are leasehold with maybe less than 60 years left in their leases, their values have actually maintained very well.

Plus they are all a 5min walk to the East Coast beach.

Personal Income Tax

Haven't had much time to blog much lately.

It's the income tax season unfortunately. So after paying my dues towards nation building, I have not much spare cash lying around to invest.

This might be a good thing given the current Greek crisis and A50 collapse.

Some liquid spares on the side should be useful when more opportunities come. And I think some good ones will come sooner rather than later.

A50

This is what the Chinese government does when the Chinese stock market collapses, to prevent people from jumping off buildings.

In China people mortgage their homes to dump into stocks at 10x leverage. So when the market collapses >5%, which these days seems to be fairly common, you see a lot of jumpers on the tallest buildings in the city.

The current PE of an average listed company is 300! That's how much of a bubble we're currently in now.