DFA kept appearing as one of the institutional shareholders when I looked for more info on some of the popular counters in VB. Examples are Penguin, CMP. I decided to find out more about them. While I do not really understand their method, I am totally impressed with the qualification of their management ( Nobel winners, PhD, Rocket Scientist ).

http://online.barrons.com/news/articles/...2021894432

Excerpt:

"With 3,000-plus active managers, some are going to look good -- but that's what you'd expect as a matter of chance," he says. "It's very difficult to tell luck from skill." Even to the extent that skill is involved, stock-picking is not a repeatable process with the consistency and persistence of returns that would enable investors to anticipate which managers are likely to outperform -- especially given the cost of making those bets. "Active management is a zero-sum game, and that's before costs," Fama says. "That's not opinion. That's math."

My Trading History

The first stock that i traded was “Singlun” and it was back in 2004. It was of an investment mode that i looked at Singlun, which into apparel manufacturing sector. It was a good dividend stock back then, until Vega Co privatised and de-list Sing Lun in 2008.

And this first trade lead me on, where i pursed my ever hungry for different trading methods, from fundamental analysis to technical analysis. Soon, i was into Penny Stock, where i got my fat pot of gold with my first penny trade – JapanLand. I would say my profit was more than my loss, but my day job didnt allow me to continue on, as trading penny require constant monitoring.

With that, it lead me to Options trading where i attained the infamous Dr Clement Chiang’s Options Trading course. I guess some of the reader will know his story, but for those that dont, follow this site.

Within the period from 2004 till now, i have try from Blue Chip to Penny Stock, and from Options to Index trading. Trading during these whiles, i get to know that this Stock Market is as cruel as the food chain hierarchy in animal kingdom! And it is full of manipulation!

Nevertheless, knowing that stock market is manipulative, it helps to improve the way of how i executed my trade.


Index Vs Stock Trading, and the 3 reasons why i like Index Trading are

Less Preparation Work

Firstly, stock trading requires you to be full prepared for your trade, depending you on which school of thought – FA or TA, you in. You will find yourself sourcing over a dozen of websites to get various key information like the NAV, EPS, TrendLine, Support and Resistant Lines, Insider trades, or some TIPS from friends. Some may just keep track from the Top 30, or based on the Top Gainer or losser or Volume Spike to generate a watchlist of stocks that have a high potential of profitable trades. And study the charts over and over again. I have went through it and i know it takes a lot of time and efforts.

On the another hand, Index Trading requires less effort as compare with Stock Trading. I just need to study and revise out the direction of the Index, with in reference of a long and short time view. And i ready to trade.



Flexible Time

There are a lot of Stock Markets out there, and since i based in Singapore, naturally i will trade Singapore Stocks. As i have my day job, i definitely will have tasks assigned and i cant juggle with all these day job’s activities with trading. Can you imagine this? That you are presenting to your Head of Department over some proposal and your Stock broker sms that some Stock Operator trying to sell down the stock that you have a “Long” position. That will be a unpleasant situation to be in.

For me, the best time for me to trade will be after work. And there are markets still available for me to carry over Index Trading. Like DAX and DOW. The best part about Index Trading will be, i traded with a Mobile Application during traveling back to my home. No time wasted.

More Personal/Family Time

With the 2 points as above, it frees up a lot time, that was previously occupied by either the preparation work or the monitoring portion. With the time make free from chosing Index over Stock Trading, i can have more quality time with my family, friends or with myself! And that definitely sometime which i enjoying at the moment.


My Index Trading Plan

My plan will be simple, with an objective to carry trades with overall profit of 10 dollars, less the losses. (I cant be winning all the times).

I decided to have a smaller objective, as that will allow me to be less greedy and be in a better control of my emotion.

In each month of 20 working days(estimated), my monthly income will be around $200($10 * 20 working days) and that will be another additional source of income.

visit http://bigfatpillar.com for more articles!

Is it necessary to get a Second Income as your Life Jacket?

During one of my previous job, i got to know this lady colleague whom was working as a Graphic Designer and doubling up as a freelance wedding photographer over the weekend. It sound tough and unwelcome to work over weekend but her passion keep her going and she enjoy it thoroughly.

The twist came when she was unexpectedly retrenched off from her day job. She just extend her wedding photography assignment to included weekday, and that help her to make both end meet until she found another new day job.

Her passion and her photography skill in taking each wedding couples' heart warming moment, have in return become her Life Jacket. Her story is a good example of have a second income as your life jacket, and if she did not have this Life Jacket, she may become emotionally disturbed and worst of all, falling into depression.

Have you found your Life Jacket?

Do ask yourself this "In this high globalised economy, where there is not much Job Security left. Do i have my own life jacket if i will to be retrenched?" Have this question started to keep you on your toes? If yes, next will be the million dollars golden question is "What and how can i start with or start from?" Let read on!

Ways to create your own Life Jacket.

I will broadly group any potential second income into two areas, namely selling products or by freelancing your services

Selling Products

Create your Crafty handiwork Product

You can start off by creating and sell off your own artwork, jewelry, or other handiwork products. And with the advancement in web technology, there are plenty of free and good online store like weebly.com where you can create online store to market your handiwork products!

Sell Your Creativity

One easy way is to sell your creativity is by designing your own T-shirts and products in print of witty words or funny graphics and sell them. With a creative design and at the right time, it could turn into a success story overnight.

For example, just like the recent HK Protest, one of demonstrator with his T-Shirt "Not Made in China".

Freelancing Your Services

Market Your Knowledge

Over the year, you may have start and expand your knowledge and developed your reputation as an expert in some field. Example like taking good care of your kid and to shape them into obedient kids. One good way to get started will be to contribute your knowledge in some discussion website that suit your knowledge. Once you establish your command as an expert, you find yourself negotiating a rate with Event Organizer for making presentations or to write paid articles in some popular website.

Have Your Own PartTime/FullTime Service Business

Some of the way which you could market your Service will to think of some of the skills that you best at or skill that is unusual or valuable to other people. Do you know Web Programming well enough to be a Freelancer Programmer, or have a skill like Photography just like my female colleague that doing wedding photographic service? There always some forums that people demand such service, you can post up your services there.

If you’re in a more serious mode and interested in starting up a business, you can do up your business plan and start spreading the word among your friends/relatives to keep it rolling.

Next, Real live story of friend that create their own FullTime Service Business

Fredrick :
Much welcome our guest Jerry to be here for this interview. Jerry is of the capable ones among my friends! So, could you share with our readers that what have you been busy with during your free time, besides your current job as a Real Estate Agent?

Jerry:
Currently, I just started a cleaning business specialist in commercial cleaning with one of my army friend. Of course , starting a new business which I am not familiar in, is one of the issues I expected. But for me, every challenge is a learning curve. At the moment , we are a certified cleaning company by NEA. Even thought we are into the 5th months of our business, we have secure a few big contract from big established companies. We expect our small company will be able to compete with the big boys in the industries.

Fredrick :a
Wow, seem like you have become your own boss! Do you think your current day job or any other previous job or any other interests that enabled you to build up your skillsets/Mindsets needed for this new role? And what will be the top 3.

Jerry:
Well, i will say the top 3 will be stay focus , secondly positive mindset and have a "never give up" attitude.

Fredrick :
And thanks bro for your time to share with us of your life story and wishes you all the best. And for more detail, head down to Jerry's website at www.apluscleansolutions.com for his cleaning services.

Your Life Jacket

So i hope this article provide you with ideas and information to help you to get started to create your second income. It never easy, but with some effort, you will find your second income. So let get started to smell out that second income of your!

Visit http://bigfatpillar.com for more articles.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102088730?trknav=...:topnews:4

Why Singapore graduates aren't getting the right jobs
See Kit Tang | @SeeKit_T

A university degree may no longer be the golden ticket to an ideal job in Singapore amid a growing pool of degree holders and fast-changing economy.

Singapore's unemployment rate stood at 2 percent in the April-June period, well below the 6 percent global average for 2013 as calculated by the International Labor Organization, but recent statistics show rising underemployment in the Southeast Asian city-state.

In 2013, 2.3 percent of graduates were underemployed – highly skilled workers engaged in low-paying or low-skilled positions or that could only find part-time jobs – a tick higher from 2.2 percent in 2012, according to the Ministry of Manpower. The government analyzed five qualification levels; degree holders were the group in which underemployment increased.

Read MoreSingaporeans value new skills over pay

Shifting dynamics

Retrenched middle-aged degree holders that face difficulty in re-employment are at the heart of underemployment, according to Hui Weng Tat, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Policy, but underemployment among graduates is on the rise due to a culmination of factors.

Changes in Singapore's economy are spawning increasingly specialized roles that often require work experience or cross-cultural communication, business partnering, and problem solving skills that may not be taught in school, making it harder for entry-level graduates to find work.

"Wages in Singapore are high and companies often look to reduce cost by outsourcing low-added value roles. Unfortunately, this means that roles for graduates can be hard to come by as Singapore becomes more of an executive hub," Emmanuel White, regional director of Hudson Singapore, told CNBC via email.

Read MoreIs F1driving down Singapore's productivity?

Meanwhile, the growing number of degree holders in Singapore increases competition for jobs. Among Singaporean residents aged 25-34 years, 51.1 percent had a university education in 2013 compared with 26.1 percent in 2000, according to Singapore's department of statistics.

"As a result, some graduates take a longer time to find full-time employment and take part-time or temporary roles in the interim," a representative of recruitment firm Kelly Services told CNBC.

Greater emphasis on personal fulfillment among the younger generation is another factor.

Read MoreSingapore workers are an unhappy bunch

"Many candidates, especially at the graduate level, are looking for more than just monetary benefits these days and this means they are more selective about the kind of company or even industry that they consider," the Kelly Services representative said. "Graduates [often] enjoy trying different roles and getting a variety of work experience before making a decision on their eventual career path."

Alan See, a 26-year-old with a bachelor's degree in English literature, is one example. He's currently interning at a local advertising firm and hopes the half-year stint results in a full-time job.

"The hours are long and I'm only paid $500 a month, but I'm having fun," he said. "I feel linguistically challenged every day and hope this can be my stepping stone into advertising,"

Read MoreDo you give your 100% at work? Not if you live here
Cause for concern?

Shifting employment trends are a concern for the government. In March, Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin cautioned that a graduate glut could result in "overeducated and underemployed" workers, as seen in South Korea and Taiwan.

In August, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong highlighted the need for a "cultural shift" in employment practices and mindsets to focus on industrial-related skills over qualifications.

However, recent underemployment data don't necessarily spell bad news for Singapore's drive to boost productivity: "The data just show a slight change," Professor Hui said. "I wouldn't be too concerned."

See Kit Tang
News Assistant, CNBC Asia-Pacific

talking about double standards. I am sure there are plenty of speculations(right or wrong) in a lot of posts. quite some name calling, too.

specifically, "never has his interest been to reward minority shareholders.", this is not exactly wrong opinion, just different opinion only.

I guess, the action of acquiring AustraLand is not exactly rewarding minority shareholders as far as most investors can see in any near future, speculation aside. FCL was leveraged to the hilt.

I have a question that has been vexing me lately and would like to seek the opinion of valuebuddies: What do you do with the hardcopies of the annual report after reading?

Throw down the rubbish chute? Cut out the photo of BoD and paste on dart board (for companies that you lose money on)? Any suggestions? So far I have been passing mine to the Karang Guni man. Sometime I felt a bit sayang because some of the glossy AR are really sleek.

[GPGT]Warren Buffet's stock holdings as of 5th Oct 2014

if i follow him will huat like him? Any comments and thoughts? 11:


[Image: OJf8aab.png]
[Image: nC1oKF9.png]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...scare.html

4 cases in us already they better find a cure or way for early detection soon or this could adapted into a scary new form of terrorism, would be terrorists just need to infect themselves with something get on a plane to fly somewhere then once landed go to some nightclub or football stadium where people are tightly congregated that's it gone case full blown epidemic the following week. no need to strap bombs to themselves or hijack planes anymore.

There are overwhelming responses, after cyclone initiated the portfolio thread.

I decided to join the crowd, but mine with a slightly different approach. Let's start with a brief background.

I has always wanted to start a family office, to manage our family assets. With a new baby borne, that make a good time to start. I have kept track of all official doc for our investment (both mine and wife's), and using NAV method for tracking, with monthly closing. It is pretty convenience with monthly statements from CDP and broker houses. The starting date is 1 Oct 2012. Half-yearly report has been provided to "shareholders". The "fund" is taken as my 2nd child and should be a lifelong supportive sibling of my baby.

I will only disclose the top-5 stocks in my portfolio, in descending order of vested capital.

- YZJ
- M1
- ShengSong
- CM Pacific
- Penguin

In the last report, dated Jun 2014, the result was as follow, with STI benchmark with estimated dividend yield of 3.5% pa in ()

3 month 8.1% (3.0%)
6 month 15.5% (4.5%)
1 year 26.3% (6.8%)
since inception 49.3% (12.9%)

We have been pretty lucky for the past 2 years.

Thanks

hi guys. hi moderator.

i received some very positive feedback of late. Thus decided to ignore negative noises and share my positions. Luckily I could remember my password.

My positions,

ST Eng
TCIL
Hupsteel
NGI
SpRe
StamLd
Taisin

Due to positions in certain counters which can be derived from the AR, I decided not to place the %.

http://paullowinvestmentjourney.blogspot.sg/


Hope this can be informative.


p.s.


In case this blogsite is too cramp..i have cut and paste the info here:


Insight 1: Simple concept works

Do not to spend too much time crunching numbers, but spot perpetual dividend payers. Look at big boys such as MCD, gen mills and colgate, they are perfect candidate for dividend compoundation, in simple terms means suing the dividends to purchase more shares.

****The all important question: can the earning be repeated and dividend paid over and over again. When we are talking about huge huge companies with strong moat, the answer is an astounding YES.

For smaller companies, and mid caps, a bit more homework is needed, since the risk is higher with smaller companies, this needs to be mitigated with the necessary knowledge. It cannot be reduced completely but can be mitigated to some extent. But still the key is perpetuality olf dividends.

ST engineering, SIA Engin, Singtel, SATs are good candidates. Mid caps such as UOL, TCIL also fit the bill. Smaller caps such as hupstee; noel, singrein also do the trick IMO.

The local companies' dividend payout might not be as stable as those muiltibillion dollar companies in the US. But over a decade or so, the pattern has to be seen, ie there MUST be regularly dividends and these MUST be raised over time, though perhaps not year after year, for the reason alluded to earlier.


Insight 2: Invest regularly, no need to time the market


There may be many people who take advantage of bear market by keeping a big warchest.Some took this approach. This approach looks easier than it really is, as Munger said:" it takes a lot of character to be sitting on money", and the truth is, we will never know the bottom or peak until we passed it.

For me, I use the focus approach, not too many counters so that I can keep track of what's going on in each company. My ideal number would be 5-10. I invest a lot on these counters, and i just reinvest his dividends, i never bother about the direction of the market, i just make sure he did the homework before he buy and leave it for the long term. This is important, must read sentence ***The golden words: over the long run(we are not talking of even a few years, mind you), the downside will take care of itself, and whatever is left is the upside.


Insight 3: It is possible.


Family and children are not hindrances to investment. Keep your lifestyle simple. Buy what is necessary only. Live well BELOW your means. Personally, my lifestyle today is very much the same as when I just started working. I still enjoy my roti prata, mee rebus. I see nothing wrong with hawker fare. Low class? Not for me.


Insight 4: Enjoy the present. (This is important, actually very important)


DO NOT mix the active and passive income. Let the passive compound and use the active money to enjoy. If you mix active and passive, one day you might find yourself painfully selling your dividend paying shares to pay your credit card bills etc. Don't think too much, we never know what the future holds for us and our plans might go wrong.


Final thoughts:


Last warning and parting words from me, don't follow tips if any and expect only way is up. I insist I have no idea how my stocks will perform in days, and months. But that does not bother me. Handphone bills, utility bills and credit card bills have a way to find themselves in your post box every month, like it or not. So I am only bothered about receiving the regularity of my dividends. The day I call it quits from working totally, I can be fully assured that I can take care of all my bills and with surpluses.


Concentrate on building and increasing your soldier(ie share) base. Over a long time, you would have build up a sizeable portfolio with regular dividend cheques coming in every month or so.


regards,

Paullow