Travel Perks

 One big perk about travelling is that I do not have time or bandwidth to monitor the markets.

That’s a good thing.

I have always been prone to overtrading and just stopping all this for almost a whole month is actually doing wonders to my total portfolio.

Less obsession with daily PnL and more obsession with the snow of Hokkaido.

The longer term portfolio also needs little monitoring.

The cash portfolio continues to compound.

It’s also been helpful that there is little volume in the markets as more people travel during the holidays, so stock markets just slowly chug up.

Maybe I should do this more often?

My Saxo Colleague

Maria is a close colleague working with me.

She got featured in the Sunday Times a couple weeks ago.

Could be my turn soon but I’m a little hesitant.

Anyway this is a great read.

December Stale Musings

 December is shaping up to be so stale in the markets.

And maybe that’s a good sign?

The investing world is trimming down its positions.

There’s a lot less volatility than many years past.

Santa rally? Haven’t seen it yet.

Only Gold is surging and I think I’ll close off my XAUUSD position.

Then I’ll be ok for the rest of the year liao.

Just cruise for the rest of this year, enjoy my holiday and don’t think about investing or trading for a whole month.

C’mon December let’s go!

Huat ah!

Tenth Berserker Rage Of 2023

 Wah lao eh.

I thought I had a really good run with no berserker rages since September.

Dammit man really upset with myself but I felt compelled to document this so I remind myself what a gambler I am.

Maybe lately work has been stressful.

I know it’s no excuse but still.

Last night just decided to find my IG Markets account and played Knock In/Knock Out options on Nasdaq100 until I lost whatever I funded.

Really like a casino.

Ended up losing 4K.

Not as much as the last few rages and thankfully my last couple months have been super profitable but this quick loss still hurts.

But still.

Always wake up beating myself over why I’m so reckless.

Let this rage be the last for 2023 and hopefully none in 2024!

Cash Hoard

UOBOne. Max it out. 100K maximum in there nets you 5% pa when conditions are met.

OCBC360. Max it out. 100K maximum in there nets you 3.8% pa when conditions are met.

SSB. Max it out. 200K cap maximum. This period you can get >3% interest for 10 years guaranteed. Good to consider a ladder.

TBills. No cap but locked in for 6 months. This period you can get nearly 4% for 6 months locked in is really good. Only risk is 6 months later, interest rates might have dropped who knows. Good to consider a ladder.

FD in obscure bank. Fixed Deposits in those less popular consumer banks like RHB, ICBC, SBI or Maybank can give you around 3.5% now for a full year. 

Just doing all this gives you free money, near zero risk. Again, seriously, NEAR ZERO RISK! And a lot more than what all these have netted you just 12 months ago.

What’s not to like?

Passive income at its best.

Shiok.

A Really Good Period

 This is the way.

Just chill and cash in on high interest rates.

That’s it.

Keep it simple.

Don’t gamble, don’t take unnecessary risks, don’t make foolish trades.

And watch the AUM grow.

Also Gold headed down as expected. YAY!

Crypto especially BTC is heading up. YAY!

No berserker rages since. YAY!

Huat ah!

Another Mention In The Papers

 Was quoted again in the papers.

This time it was the Sunday Times.

Saxo Unfiltered @ Marquee

 We had our most extravagant macro event yet and how epic it was!

Booked out the whole Marquee club (only the second financial institution to do so), turned the Ferris wheel on and wow what a night it was!

Here’re some awesome pictures.

Crypto Pump Is On Again

 With the rumours of Blackrock listing a BTC ETF, Bitcoin is pumping once more!

My crypto portfolio has suddenly come alive! 

Was so happy to see!

HUAT AH!

Shorting Gold

 Initiated a short position on XAUUSD.

Some may call me crazy but hear me out.

Current XAUUSD is spot gold. 

So you are trading trading gold against the USD. 

This means there is carry trade financing involved.

So when you go short on XAUUSD, you earn the USD carry.

Which, in Saxo, pays close to the Fed rate of 5%.

Fundamentally, gold will rise when uncertainty in the world rises. And that’s what’s happening right now with wars and the markets showing signs of fear. But a lot of this has been priced in. The war in Ukraine has gone on for more than a year and a half now and gold still went down to test 1,800.

Last night’s jump was spurred more by recent events and Fed speakers saying that interest rates will not hike in Nov. This is not a cut call, and I expect interest rates in the US to stay stubbornly high next year.

Also people are also moving to cash. That’s why the USD continues to stay so strong. Why take more risk when you could just earn 5% with low risk?

That’s why it is my personal opinion that gold will go down to 1,600 - 1,700 over the course of next year.

Going Good

 October’s been a great month on the investment front. 

The market isn’t going so well and my shorts are printing brrrrrrrrr.

Sometimes I think the best thing is to just set myself up, set my SL and TP, go into the trade, then set and forget, once you know your upside and downside, STOP obsessing about your position! And maybe that’s the best advice I need to stick to right now. 

Many a times our trade hunches, when properly thought out, and correct. It’s just the anxiety of seeing losses or early profits that cause us to cut earlier than planned.

The migration from stocks to more cash also continues, so that is great. Just gonna max out OCBC360, UOBOne accounts, whack some more T Bills and SSBs. At least this part of the portfolio maintains the saneness of ultra low risk with very good returns.

PSNY as a sidekick is slowly coming back up…but very slow. As long as the business continues to prosper, then I believe the technicals will eventually catch up with the fundamentals.

IREIT is still down a lot, but as long as the guru says hold, buy or sell, I will just follow on that.

Initiated a short position on Gold. It’s not looking so good at the moment but I think it will play out over time. Hopefully I have the patience to hold it for a long time.

Moving To Cash

 As resilient as the stock markets are right now, I’m beginning to return to cash now.

Why take any unnecessary risk and added costs when you can get 5% interest on a high yielding savings account? 4% on T Bills? And 3+% on SSB?

There’s a war brewing in the Middle East over the weekend too.

Looks like oil will jump tomorrow.

I think stock markets will start to trend down soon and I’ve gotten my shorts ready.

Let’s gooooooo!

Huat ah!

Quoted In 联合早报

 Nice to have been quoted in today’s 联合早报。

Pity they didn’t put my handsome face in the article haha.

Financial Horse Interview

 My humble thoughts on my personal finance journey.

Here

Wake Me Up When September Ends

 Yay I get to wake up now since it’s the first day of October. 

NGL yo, September has been rather topsy turvy and volatile all around, but IT HAS BEEN A GREAT MONTH all things considered.

Health, investments, overall networth, family, work. All good but I don’t want to go into details in case I jinx anything.

There was some downside when PSNY hit $2.18! OMG that was bad.

Thinking of starting my monthly dividend posts again next year.

Hopefully we can keep up this momentum and end 2023 on a super high note!

Huat ah!

Time For T?

 Wow!

T-bills have finally crossed the 4% threshold, hitting 4.07% last month,

It is time to allocate some cash into T-bills indeed.

Great to earn higher interest from all these safer instruments.

The power of compounding really adds up!

Huat ah!

Saxo CBD Roadshow

Saxo had its annual CBD roadshow.

It was fantastic and successful.

Hopefully we see more results like this.

Polestar

 Polestar is now trading at $2.75.

OMG.

It’s wiped out my super huge investment in that by 1/4.

So alarming yet such a slow burn.

Yet the company appears to be doing well and expanding to plan.

Just still waiting to be profitable but you can see it’s getting there.

Really just hoping for things to get better for PSNY.

Into The SEA

SEA Limited recently reported its results.

It was not what market was expecting due to slowing gaming sector while Shopee continues to grow well.

Also it grew into profitability but CEO came out to say moving forward it may sacrifice profits for growth.

Wahlao the stock tanked 30%.

So I decided to take the plunge to go quite significantly into the stock at an average price of $43.

Let’s see if this works out.

HUAT AH!

Max The Saxo Money Minion

 We’ve got a new mascot in Saxo!

He is Max our new Money Minion!

We just introduced him today at INVEST Fair 2023.

#saxo #beinvested

Ninth Berserker Rage Of 2023

 USDJPY again.

I’m feeling quite numb to these berserker rages like I don’t care about money anymore.

Just looking for the thrill of trying to make something back.

Lost another 14K.

My full year loses have surpassed $130K liao.

How to make this back man?

Geez I’m at abit of a loss now (pun intended).

Haiz.

Eighth Berserker Rage Of 2023

 This is the worst!

Just over lunch, with BOJ announcement on the JPY Yield Control Curve that’s been causing crazy volatility in USDJPY, I went to launch a 1.5M long on the high!!!

Ended up losing SGD37K!

OMG!!!!!!

All my hard work last few weeks to keep clean and try to prevent any blowouts, invest wisely and grow my wealth, and I wipeout almost 40K of my networth.

What I dunno how I keep gambling like this man. 

Argh.

All I can think of is that I’m still alive another day.

But this is by far the biggest hurt this year I’m sure!

And just because of a moments folly during lunch hour!

OMG!!!!!!

I think I have to quit trading for 2 months at least!

USDJPY Long Again III

 Still holding to my long USDJPY.

Now it’s 250K.

Friday encountered a very heavy selldown.

It is currently at 142.01 which my average pricing is around 143.5.

But no sweat lah, I’m just gonna keep holding on and earn the daily carry.

Huat ah!!!

USDJPY Long Again II

 The gift that currently keeps giving.

Managed to hold on to the 400K position up until now.

Sold off 350K at $145.03!

Currently holding 50K at $144.40 now. 

Let’s continue to huat!

USDJPY Long Again

 Let’s goooooooo!

So I was holding 200K of USDJPY at 141.02 since last week.

Last night I added another 200K at 141.38.

The 5% carry is really nice as I’m earning money every day I hold this 400K position.

Pretty certain this will go to 145-150.

Particularly because the Fed definitely isn’t cutting rates any time soon, and might even raise rates two more times this year. All while the Japanese governor Umeda has said the loose JPY policy will still be in place for the next 18 months.

Let’s see how long I can hold this position for and hopefully I can earn tons of money on this!

Let’s goooooooooo!

Seventh Berserker Rage Of 2023

 This is really a tough year for me.

That PE I invested in Polestar, has lost 70% in value.

Then I keep going on these stupid trade loses which are just downright wasting money.

Right after my sixth berserker rage, I put in another crazy large sized same short trade in the NASDAQ hoping for a hawkish Fed rate hike surprise.

And of course that is contrary to the market’s reaction.

I’ve lost another 14K.

Geez.

I really don’t know how to stop.

Sixth Berserker Rage Of 2023

 I just can’t prevent these things from happening it seems.

As long as I have margin, leverage and some spare cash, I just throw it all away in gambling on FX or Indices.

This time it started with a Friday fun bet on shorting the NASDAQ, which spiraled into craziness of longs and shorts that made little reason.

Ended up losing $15K.

How can I stop this and when will it ever end?

When I’m broke? 

All Squared

 So I’ve hit my 75 trades by 9th May.

It means I’m all squared liao.

Was nice as I made about 5K on USDJPY.

Took a small hit on gold.

Only my SEA Ltd sold put is still in play but that is surely going to expire worthless.

New Positions

 I’m now squared so I’ve sold some puts and calls to potentially enter new positions.

I have two USDJPY sell puts at 136.40 and 137.00 respectively which will expire today.

I have one XAUUSD sell call at 1980 which will expire in a week’s time.

I have one SEA Ltd sell put at 72 which will expire in a month’s time.

Let’s see which ones get exercised.

USDJPY & XAUUSD Squared

 Closed both my positions.

USDJPY at 136.75

XAUUSD at 1982

I should be beating myself up why I do not have the right convictions and get scared by the market movements so easily.

USDJPY if I had kept my 800K position all through till today, I would have hit my original TP at 137.50 and made 32K. Instead I got scared and ended up chopping and trimming then reopening my positions because I feared the market turned etc. and ended up with a profit only about half of what I could’ve made.

XAUUSD I just got the jitters because I overleveraged myself o. The back of adding more USDJPY positions. Again very stupid to overtrade rather than keep a non-worrying small position.

What a poor trader I am.

Have a few new potential positions which I shall detail in the next post.

USDJPY & XAUUSD Update

 I squared off 3/4 of my USDJPY position right before it flew 200pips!

Really wasted.

Now holding only 200,000 in USDJPY. 

It’s a nice profit but I could’ve had much more!

USDJPY closed the weekend at around 136.30.

Greedy me.

Gold still steady, hardly any change but yield is gonna get even better with May’s hike likely incoming.

Making money definitely feels better than losing money.

I need to hold my positions for longer periods like these two babies.

USDJPY & XAUUSD

 So it’s the weekend and both my positions have continued to survive.

USDJPY is up to 134.10.

XAUUSD is down to 1983.

Both doing well in my favour, while earning about 5%pa credited daily!

Hopefully this can help me make tons of money!

Let’s go!

XAUUSD

 Opened a short 50oz position on XAUUSD this morning at 1995.

Was motivated by gold’s triple top chart structure. 

A break means a new ATH for gold but I really cannot see it happening.

Not when USD is paying me 5%.

USDJPY

 Funnily I’ve still held on to my 600K USDJPY position and even upped it to 800K, and have turned from a paper loss of 5K to a paper profit of 3K and counting!

This is my super high conviction trade of the month or maybe the year!

I believe the US is not cutting eyes any time soon, while Japan will not be raising rates any time soon either.

So we are likely to see USDJPY yielding about 5% in carry interest. Almost like placing a leveraged fixed deposit.

At today’s rate of 133.90, I think it will run back to 140.

For me, I only need it to go and test the last three months high of 137.90+ and I might get out already.

Hopefully I will have disciplined to hold this position.

Meanwhile I’m earning about $100 a day just holding this trade because of the carry. Shiok. 

Time to make back all that I lost in the new year let’s go!!!

Will update. Diamond hands!!!

Fifth Berserker Rage Of 2023

 What a bad year this is turning out to be.

Everything I touch in investments turn to losses.

And heavy losses at that.

Played the NASDAQ and ended up losing 5K.

Then longed USDJPY and now stuck with a 600K position and already down another 5K.

I cannot seem to get any respite from this bad gambling habit of mine.

Gosh.

Now hoping I can maintain that USDJPY position and not lose even more.

Saxo Social Sharing Campaign

  Saxo is having a social sharing promo right now.

Just share from your platform and stand a chance to win really exciting prizes!

#SaxoSocial2023

Chinese New Year Celebrations In Office

  This year's CNY celebrations were pretty fun in the office. 

I got the Lion dance troupe to come round and bless my table too!

HUAT AH!!!

Thank You Chocolates From The Boss

 The boss gave all employees chocolates and a heartfelt message.

Many a times, I tell staff, friends and colleagues, that working for a great boss, is very often better than many other things we look for in the perfect job.

And for that I am very lucky and I count my blessings every day.

The end will come, but until then, I appreciate every moment. 

Did your boss do this?

PSNY

 As you would know, I hold a really large position of PSNY since IPO.

On Friday it hit a low of $3.71.

Like WTF man, I have lost more than half of my original investment in Polestar. 

Really BBQ liao haiz.

Hopefully it can survive this global banking crisis.

No Berserker Rages Since

 After five near consecutive weekends of berserker rages since the final day of 2022, I’m very glad to report of none since 13th Feb.

Been plying it small and derailing quite a bit although not entirely unscathed. There were a miss or two where I could’ve gotten in berserker rage trouble but thankfully I keep reminding myself of the trauma of getting carried away.

Hopefully no more for this year and a lot more savings instead.

Playing a little bit of low risk covered puts and calls as well.

Towards a more huat final 10 months of 2023.

Fourth Berserker Rage Of 2023 Continued

 Ok I’m so done with this.

So USDJPY bounced up in the morning and hit my stops at 131.92. 

To add insult to injury, it then dived down to the current 131.6+.

Total realized loss is 25K.

Haiz I’m so done.

75K loss since the last day of 2022.

I need to quit this useless trading!

Pui!

Fourth Berserker Rage Of 2023

Well we’re almost there as I’m carrying ad very heavy position into the weekend.

I need to be banned permanently for trading FX and CFD Indices for the rest of this year.

This time round a it was going well throughout the week until Friday when the new potential Bank Of Japan Governor was announced and it was a JPY-hawkish guy and USDJPY started to crash.

I thought it was a guaranteed strengthening of the Yen and it really looked that way as USDJPY plummeted from 131.80 all the way down through 131, then headed to 130.  And as I grew more confident, I loaded more and more Yen that I could possibly sell until I had a 1.5M position.

In fact I even sold a huge position at the near low of the day of 129.80, before things started to turn ugly.

Then suddenly USDJPY spiked upwards and surged past 130.50 and through 131! It turned out that this JPY-hawkish guy had to come out and say he would continue to remain dovish if elected as governor.

By evening as US stock markets opened, the USD further strengthened, taking USDJPY up to 131.50, near where it started the day.

Cui.

So now I’m sitting on a short 1.5M position in USDJPY at the weekend close of 131.48, on an $18K loss, with the potential to lose $27K because my stop is at 132.

I also don’t know what to do.

Hopefully Monday opens and JPY strengthens on the back of the market thinking that this hawkish guy was just blowing hot air. Else this time gonna BBQ le.

Will try to update.

I need to stop trading FX liao lah knn.

Third Berserker Rage Of 2023

 Help.

I need help. 

I’m sure an incessant gambler.

Last night I decided to gamble 5K on IG Markets platform, playing the NASDAQ 100.

Basically one thing led to another, I lost all that, and I FOMO funded another 5K to try and YOLO. And lost it all as well.

Then I YOLO funded yet another 5K and lost it all in 30mins.

In total I lost another 15K last night.

It’s just crazy.

IG Markets has this very dangerous function called Guaranteed Stops and if you use them, it basically frees up a lot of margin for you so that you can gamble a far, far larger position than you can afford, especially if your stop loss is place very near to the market like 20-30 pips/points.

I really do not recommend trading with them unless you are keen on losing all your money all the time.

Sigh.

I wonder how I can put a stop to all these berserkers.

It’s always the same each time. I’d lose a pile and then I’d blog about it, wallow in self pity for a few weeks, look through my net worth and money in all my bank accounts, and then a few weeks later repeat the same shit.

It’s so terrible.

So now since my Final Day Of 2022 rage loss, I’ve lost 50K. This was after a hopeful recovery of what I lost after the second rage but that hardly lasted a few days and then I lost all of that, and now even more.

Ouch. How am I to recover from all that?

Haiz.

Help.

Second Berserker Rage Of 2023

 Sigh.

In just as many days, I list another pile of dough.

Got screwed by the NASDAQ this time.

Lost SGD8K.

I can’t seem to stop this slide.

Now I’m in USDSGD long at 1.3124 with a SL at 1.2900 and a TP of 1.3450. 15 mini lots. 

Let’s see how this trade works out.

Perhaps I ought to start using this blog to journal my trades as and when I place them. This way I wouldn’t go crazy long short until I lose everything.

Haiz.

Imma try to huat this time.

HUAT AH!!!

First Berserker Rage Of 2023

 It’s here dammit.

Didn’t expect it to rear its ugly head so early on in the year.

USDJPY again!

I just cannot seem to ween myself of this draining gambling.

Lost 15K this time.

What a shit start to the year financially.

Hopefully my only one for the year.