King Wan Update

The sudden surge in King Wan's pricing on 20th June 2014 comes to questioning.

It touched a high of 0.370 and closed at 0.355. The strong resistance of 0.340 has been broken within a single trade. Some big fish bought 1628 lots and cleared the 0.340 barrier. King Wan's Volume hit a 1 year high of 9.57m shares that exchange hands. The last time it's volume was so thick was on 29th May 2013 (a year ago) of 18.1m shares.

So the question is who bought and cleared the 0.340 barrier? And a minute later 0.345 is being cleared with another single trade. Some big fish is probably buying up King Wan's share. Could it be an insider buying?

A fellow VBs (Thank you, BestPrice) tested water and sold some of his shares at different prices. CIMB is the opposite transaction. From this, it is most likely a retail investor that is buying up the shares and not insider buying (My assumptions).

The surge in price is also not due to the sales of KTIS because KingWan did not made any news on it. I'm not too sure has KW sold any KTIS shares as of yet. For that I have to confirm with them. Anyway, KTIS is currently trading fairly below it's IPO pricing, hovering around the range of 9.5 - 10 Baht/share.

Right now, these are just short term price movement or maybe some market noises. Meanwhile, I will just ride on it and wait for the next round of dividend which will XD on the 5 August 2014. SGD 0.015 will be issued. So with current price at 0.355, a full year dividend this year of  SGD 0.02 will have a yield of 5.6%. Still quite yummy if you are buying into it now.


Cheers!
Little Boy

Bought Into UMS Holdings

The recent sell down of UMS holdings gave me an opportunity to buy in.

As what Warrent Buffett said, "Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful"

Although semi-conductor is a cyclical industry, I do not believe that the fundamentals will change overnight.

CEO Andy Luong and AMAT sold their shares, depressing UMS holdings stock price. It hit a low of 0.545 on 11th June. AMAT decreased their stakes to less than 5% which means that in future, market will not need to be notified when they sell more of their shares. CEO Andy Luong decreased his stakes from 27.81% to 20.25% (Source). I am not too afraid of this because he has been a consistent seller. The last time he sold 7m UMS shares in the period of March and April, UMS share price gradually increase bit by bit.

Nobody knows the true reason why AMAT and CEO Andy Luong are selling their shares. Of cause, it is compelling and scary that the 2 biggest stakeholders are selling away their shares. Only time will tell. I may be catching a falling knife. But as for now, I am remaining confident that the fundamentals are still in good shape :)

Cheers!

Little Boy

It Is Always Good To Step Out And See The World (Social Skills)

Been out of here for quite sometime. I was having a getaway trip to Thailand.

I always love to travel round the world to see the contrast between Singapore and the outside world. Along the way, I get to sink into their culture and learn many pointers. These are life skills and experiences which are not attainable by books. It is always wonderful to explore and step out of our comfort zone to see something different. I also love to interact with the people there. Though I know nuts about Thai Language, it's funny and cute to communicate through a common language by basic English or Sign Language. The Thais are generally heart-warming and pleasant people. The only disturbing thing was that the locals love to price discriminate against the tourist. If you go for shopping, they will quote exorbitant prices. Taxi will be quoted at a flat rate to tourist. I managed to get on taxi-meter a few times after much persuasion. Hehe, ACHIEVEMENT! Anw, I got to chat up with a shop owner regarding my idea of shipping her supplies over to SG to sell. Seems like the shop owner is keen on it. Hopefully, I can get my Thai friend to help me out on this :)


I believe one factor that may help us in future is this word called "connections". In this world, we are now so inter-dependent. Working alone may not be the key to success anymore. High EQ and good interactive skills are imperative and it may bring you this "golden opportunity". Of cause, luck do play a part too. Sometimes you do see people with highly inter-personal skills climbing the career ladder faster than others with equal/higher credential. Why? Because they know how to network well and win the likes of fellow colleagues and bosses. I don't encourage you to go to the extent of boot licking your bosses and end up creating a scene of office politics. It's definitely gross and disgusting. Yeah, I do see such people too in every places and it is a real turn off.

Have you watch Wolf of Wall Street? With a skill like Leonardo DiCaprio (Sweet talker, superb convincing skills etc.), it can be a deadly weapon. In that movie, apparently he used it the corrupted way, so don't follow his footstep . But if you have that skill, it will definitely be an upper hand compared to your peers and people around you. These are skills that are very powerful because words can inspire. I also love the part how Brad sell the pen to Leonardo DiCaprio too. Cool huh?

What I am trying to say here is that, social skills are not hone within a day or just by reading a book. Yes, you can read all the book in the world. You can even read Dale Carnegie's book where he teaches you confidence and interactive skills. But without applying it in the real world, you will never learn. That is why the best way to interact is to step out and see the world. Travel round Singapore, pick up a few conversations with people, meet more people, learn foreigner's culture and lifestyle, talk to foreigners, understanding human body behavior, reading how people behave etc. Sooner or later, I'm sure you have no problem mingling with strangers. Use it in a good way, it will be a powerful tool.



Cheers!

Little Boy

Nikko AM STI ETF V.S. SPDR STI ETF

It's been awhile since I did my last post. Woohoo, exams are finally over. Yay, FREEDOM :)

I will be doing a summary on the difference between Nikko AM STI ETF and SPDR STI ETF. Some people are still confused over these two ETF. I hope my post can bring some enlightenment.

Basically, these two different ETF are managed by two separate fund companies. The inception dates for SPDR and Nikko AM are 17th April 2002 and 24 January 2009 respectively. Both track the STI ETF as close as possible by replicating the same 30 components. Both are Cash ETF whereby they are bought with underlying cash and not with derivatives.

Difference Between SPDR VS Nikko AM

It works a little similar like a mutual fund but their expense ratio (commission fee) are much lower. Nikko AM STI ETF has a higher expense of 0.39% as compared to SPDR STI ETF of 0.30%. This may seems a little negligible in terms of numerical value, but the power of compounding really can do wonders. Usually the larger the fund size, the lower the expense ratio due to economies of scale. In this case, in terms of lower expense ratio, SPDR is preferred. Moreover, dividend yield for SPDR offers 2.66%.

Both SPDR and Nikko Am works in a way where there is a buy/sell price. SPDR usually trades one cent wide while Nikko AM usually trades a few cents wide in spread. SPDR has a board size lot of 1000 while Nikko AM is 100. This means that small time investors are able to afford Nikko AM.

Tracking error is the discrepancy between ETF performance and Index performance. It measures the annualized standard deviation of daily return differences or to simply put the volatility in difference of performance. For this case it means comparing NIKKO AM STI ETF and SPDR STI ETF against STI ETF. It is quite impossible to perfectly mimic the index and thus tracking error arises. So, we can roughly say that tracking error is a measure of the effectiveness of a manager to replicate the performance of an index.


Below is the breakdown of the sector allocation of the two different asset management company.

 Sector Allocation of SPDR STI ETF

Sector Allocation of Nikko AM STI ETF

Why invest in ETF? 

1. A diversified fund.

2. Lower transaction cost as compared to buying 30 components by yourself

3. Investors who are lazy or don't have time to research

4. Investors who don't have time to monitor

5. Investors need not cherry pick stocks

6. It tracks the performance of the ETF and generally it is an uptrend. 

(Note: Point 3-6, it is still best to do your own due diligence) 

Sources:

Nikko AM STI ETF Fact Sheet

SPDR STI ETF Fact Sheet

Cheers!

Little Boy

Singapore Kindness Movement and Coca Cola Appreciation to Foreign Workers

Not sure any of you have seen this video.

This act of appreciation is simply amazing and touching.

They may have come from a foreign land, but they come with one common purpose and it is to live a life. For their hardship and perspiration, it is really worth commending. I am really appreciative and thankful for what they have contributed to Singapore. They are part of our family and we should treat them with respect and honour. They are taking the roles of Singaporeans' most dislike or hated jobs and yet most of us are complaining about own jobs. There may be some black sheep among the foreigners but we cannot simply write all of them off as "bad" people. Once again, I sincerely like to thank them for their dedication towards Singapore.

I dedicate this post to all foreign workers in Singapore :)
Hope you have a great time in Singapore.


Cheers!

Little Boy