Stocks indexes have hit bottom and rebounded. Nobody is sure if it will hit bottom again… not even the experts. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index of the 30 of the largest and most widely held public shares in the United States hit a low of 7,900 in October 2008 and has since rebounded consistently above the 8,000 mark. The same can be said of the NASDAQ and S&P500 Index.

In my previous article on investing, I stated that indexes have hit 2005 levels. Now it appears that they have hit 2003 levels and lower.

From the chart below, you can clearly see that a major recession happens on the average every 7-8 years, with some smaller events in between. This is clearly a big one. While nobody knows when it will recover or by how much, the saying goes that “History repeats itself”. A recovery will surely come… and the only question that remain is “When?”.

Regardless, Stocks are at bargain basement level and with some careful research, you can pick good stocks for mid to long term investments. However, it is advisable to exercise caution at this time to ensure you are able to cut loses fast in case the market searches for a new low.

With some caution, some good money can be made at this time for sure. Happy buying!

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For me, this is a really inspiring video because we all have read about humans who have forgotten the love they had, the good times they enjoyed, once they move on in life. At times, it is good to be able to let go and move on, but at times, we all must look back and appreciate the great times, the great love, we all experienced in our lives.

Enjoy the video!

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Recently, the local newspaper published an article on 17 Oct 2008, stating that 10 brands of bottled water were tested in the United States by the Environmental Working Group and found to contain a total of 38 contaminants and pollutants.

This is not totally new. In my 3 part article, I also showed some test done by other organizations which showed that even well known brands of water such as Vittel contains such contaminants. And what is even more frightening is that these are water brands coming from well developed countries.

In Asia, many brands of water are bottled in less developed countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Imagine the regulations in these countries and what you can expect from them.

So when it comes to paying a few hundred times more for your bottled water (as compared to tap water), make sure you be smart about it and choose distilled or Reversed Osmosis Water. However, the best solution is still to buy your own water purifier at home!

Enjoy the article!

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Recently I had the opportunity to visit the Cuchi Tunnels of Vietnam. Situated some 60km from Ho Chi Minh City, the Cuchi Tunnels were probably responsible for a big part of the communist victory in the Vietnam War with the Americans between 1965 to 1975. Of course, the perserverence, determination, courage and discipline of the Vietnamese people was the other half of the jigsaw puzzle which saw through this victory.

The Cuchi Tunnels are a maze of tiny tunnels, barely enough to allow a man to go through, stretching some 75 miles in total, covering the area around the Mekong Delta. They comprise 3 layers, carefully crafted with basic tools of nothing more than a rattan scoop and “chankol”. Sited in this maze of tunnels were kitchens, hospitals, meeting rooms, and a host of other living amenities to house thousands of Vietnamese soldiers and their families.

Today it is one of the country’s prime tourist attractions, part of a new industry of war tourism. Sometimes, these spots seem to be memorials to wartime propaganda as much to the war itself.

Visiting this historic site was a great inspiration for me as it is quite a conundrum as to how a bunch of “farmers” with basic weapons and tools win the war with a country so technologically advanced as the U.S.A. Not many country can withstand the technological might of the mighty U.S. Army.Witness the recent fall of Iraq and Afganistan, all within a month.The Vietnamese army did not have hi-tech weapons, planes or nuclear bombs. They didn’t even have uniforms and boots to fight the war. As the picture on the left shows, this basic army fought in sandals made from damaged truck tires and inner tubes. They make them in all sizes from baby sizes to the large adult male!

The picture below show just how small the tunnel is. The man in the picture is a small japanese tourist posing for a picture.

The tunnel entrance certainly is not big enough for a bigger man to get in. The hips will be stuck for sure!

We face obstacles and hurdles through our lives day-in and day-out, and we certainly can draw a few valuable lessons from the Vietnamese, as to how to overcome these odds with nothing but a load of perserverance, determination, courage and discipline! The “obstacles” faced by the Vietnamese during the Vietnamese War must have been bigger than any most of us will ever face in our life!

Following our tour guide, we arrived at an open-sided hut, where a women in black(typical communist wear) show us to our seats (a few rows of bare benches similar to their war briefing rooms of the past. The only difference was probably a big-screen television set playing a video of the Vietnam War showing B-52’s dropping strings of bombs, villagers run for cover and communist guerrillas fighting back.

For those who still don’t get the message, a narrator says:

“Cu Chi, the land of many gardens, peaceful all year round under shady trees … Then mercilessly American bombers have ruthlessly decided to kill this gentle piece of countryside … Like a crazy bunch of devils they fired into women and children … The Americans wanted to turn Chu Chi into a dead land, but Cu Chi will never die.”

Since the war ended in 1975 with a communist victory, Vietnam has rebuilt and moved on. It is almost impossible to find anyone who still talks like the soundtrack of the Cu Chi film. Even the young women in black, who work as guides and ground keepers, dismiss the hard language, repeating instead today’s government line: “We’re all friends”. This is another lesson we can all learn from the Vietnamese; the ability to move on and forget the past. Many people are not able to let go of their past and this has held them back from moving forward and making progress in society. Hmmm… the Vietnamese must have read, “Who moved my Cheese”!

The picture above is a bunker with a small firing hole at the base which is almost indiscernible to anyone walking by. They certainly do look like termite hills to me!

But in their new struggle for foreign currency, the Vietnamese are exploiting their harsh history, offering visits to long-forgotten places that were once considered vital to America’s national interests. Most of the visitors here are foreigners; the Vietnamese who come are mostly schoolchildren with their teachers.

The Vietnamese people are a tough lot. We complain of our cars being too small for passengers, but on the way back to the hotel, I managed to snap this picture of a little 80cc honda cub carrying two big water tanks we would not even carry on our cars! These tanks are placed on the roof tops of houses and hold water for daily consumption. These two tanks must have weighed as much as the motorcycle or the rider!

If you are every in Vietnam visiting Ho Chih Minh City, the CuChi Tunnels is a must on your agenda!

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So, it is with a great sense of anticipation that I decided to visit the 2008 Singapore Motor Show held at the Suntec City. This year, I decided to do something I’ve never done before at a motor show; take pictures. So I lugged my almost brand new Nikon D300 with me to the show as well.

The Singapore Motor Show is a yearly affair but this year’s show promises to be something different. I expected it to be much bigger as it coincides with the Singapore Formula One Night Race, the first of its kind in the world. For this reason, this year’s Motor Show runs for almost a full 10 days instead of the usual 5 days or so of previous shows. I expected to see more exotic cars and maybe even a few Formula 1 models on display as well.

Unfortunately, I came away a little disappointed. This year’s show was not only smaller, it was substantially smaller. While it used to take two full floors of the Suntec City Convention Center, this year, it is only on one floor. There were no red hot Ferrari’s in sight, no Lamboghini’s, no Aston Martin, no Jaguars or any exotic cars at all. In fact, the three biggest booth were all taken by Japanese manufacturers, Honda, Nissan and Subaru. I don’t even remember seeing Toyota’s and Mazda’s! Can you imagine, Singapore biggest seller not being at the Singapore Motor Show!

Well, at least I got to see some nice motorcycles on display. For the first time, I saw the new 2009 Yamaha VMax, the long awaited (23 years to be exact!) replacement for Yamaha’s legendary Vmax which first debuted in 1985!

Also on display was Honda’s futuristic new DN-01, the world’s first automatic motorcycle. Before this bike debuted, automatic gearboxes were only found on cars and scooters. This motorcycle is bound to turn heads wherever it goes!

And of course, what would a car show be without the girls! As such, I’ve included a selection of pictures I took which I hope will inspire some. Enjoy!

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Becoming as master in anything can be a daunting task. However, as always, if you have a system, there is an almost sure way of getting there. One of the first step to take on your journey to becoming a master (read competent) in anything you do, is to understand the 4 levels of competence, a concept popularised by Tom Hopkins, the Sales Guru. Understanding the path ahead can allow a budding market master to plan his or her development path in a more realistic manner, while at the same time helping to reduce the risk of developing unrealistic expectations.

According to Tom Hopkins, the world-famous sales trainer, the 4 levels of competence (which originated from the work of Maslow) are as follows :

1. Unconscious Incompetence
2. Conscious Incompetence
3. Conscious Competence
4. Unconscious Competence.

Here is a description of each stage of competence everyone has to go through in the journey to become a Master of anything.

1. Unconscious Incompetence

Unconscious incompetents are people who do not know what they do not know. This is the stage of a raw beginner.

A good analogy of this could be little kid living in the farmland of a remote village in China. He watches his parents toil all day using their hands and the help of animals. He has never seen a motor vehicle and don’t know that they exists. He doesn’t know that motor vehicles such as cars and tractors can do the job much better than animals can and as such, as he grows up, he continues to depend on these farm animals to help him do his job. He does not know what he does not know and as such progresses no further.

Many of us go through this stage when we first learn anything. We don’t know what we don’t know!

2. Conscious Incompetence

Conscious incompetents know that they do not know. According to Hopkins, this is where they think to themselves “this is nothing like I thought it would be”. This is arguably the most frustrating stage in the life of master-to-be but yet, it is also one of the most important step he needs to go through. It is only when you know what you don’t know, can you really start your journey to being a master!

Take the case of the boy above. As he grows up, he makes his first trip to city with his parents. This is his first experience seeing cars on the roads. His inquisitive mind starts to whirl and imagine how he can control these motor vehicles like he’s seen people in the city doing it. He now knows there is such a thing as motor vehicles and vows to learn how to drive one of these vehicles. He now knows there is such a thing as motor vehicles and knowing this allows him to take his first step towards learning to master one of the machines.

3. Conscious Competence

Conscious competents know what to do, as long as they think.

Again let’s take the analogy of this boy. He’s now grown up and he made his move to the city. He scrapes together enough money to learn how to drive a car. He know knows how to drive a car but each time he drives a car on the road, he needs to think of what to do each time. When he comes to a junction, he needs to remember to flip his signals. When he sees a traffic light that is turning red, he must remember to slow down and change down his gears and depress his clutch and brakes at the lights so that the vehicle don’t stall. He’s in a stage of Conscious Competence. He knows how to drive a car, but he has to concentrate hard to make sure he takes all the right steps in the right sequence.

4. Unconscious Competence

Unconscious competents are highly trained and highly skilled people.

Again using the analogy above. This man now owns and drives a car for some time now. He is comfortable now and can chat and talk to his passengers when he drives. He does not need to think as hard as his actions now come naturally to him. He reflexes are now instintive. The moment he steps on the brakes and his car slows down to a certain speed, he left leg automatically depresses the clutch just at the right instant to prevent the car from stalling. He is now in a state of Unconscious Competence as far as casual driving is concerned.

Does the above sound familiar to you? Was it the same the first time you learn to swim? As a kid who’s never been to a swimming pool, you never knew that a person could learn to swim(unconscious incompetence). Then comes your first trip to the pool, and you realised that people can actually swim and swim fast too(conscious incompetence). Then you decide that you have to learn and once you have learned to swim, you know exactly what to do but you still to concentrate on each action. If you lose concentration, you start to struggle and choke but you know that if you maintain your concentration, you can conquer your fear of water and get to the other side of the pool safely (conscious competence). Then after some months, you can swim really well. You can even play with your buddies while swimming and sometimes you can even talk to them if your head is above water. You no longer have to think to stay afloat (unconscious competence).

Experts say there is another level. The level of Conscious-Unconscious Competence. You see, to most people who have mastered the art of something, such as cycling or swimming, they do not know who to teach it. If you ask them how they do it, they will have a hard time answering your question because their reflexes has become so instinctive to them that they do not know how to describe it.

However, true masters also know how to teach their art. When you become a true master, you analyse what made you successful and come up with the system to teach others to be successful. You are Conscious of your Unconscious Competence… and this is the stage of a true master!

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How much is a Degree worth these days? Well, how about US$599? This was how much a reporter in Singapore paid for her pet beagle to get, not a Degree, but a PhD.

This was a report done to expose faked “Degree Mills” who churn out “faked” Degrees and even PhD’s to clients who are willing to pay big bucks for them. Some of them even have names which closely resembled well known universities such as “Ashwood University” or “Preston University”. And for some of these degree mills, you don’t even have to take classes. All you have to do is pay the amount stipulated using your Credit Card and you will be sent your certificate in due course.

Some other “Degree Mills” may require you to do some “course work” although these are still arguable. The report states that there are people who paid as much as US$18,000 for a PhD and all they have to do is submit a thesis on a subject of their choice. Unlike a PhD from an accredited University which can take years to earn, you can get one in less than a year…. and you don’t even have to be the one to write the thesis!

More and more people are resorting to such degree mills to get their “degrees” or “PhD’s” hoping to fool unsuspecting employers or clients to hire them or part with their money!

It’s rather amazing how low some people will stoop for success!

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This is such an inspiring video I just have to share it!

What would you do if you had only a few months to live. Well answer this question and then watch how Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who was dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving talk, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

Randy passed away on Friday July 25th, 2008. He was 47 years old.

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One of the greatest advise I learned in investing is, “Be Greedy when others are Fearful, be Fearful when others are Greedy!”. Obviously in a Bear market like this, fear is in the market causing people to dump stocks. This would be a great time to be greedy and go in and pick up some stocks at bargain basement prices. However, you still have to tread carefully as the market may not be at rock bottom yet!

In fact, the level you see above, is equal to levels in 2005 and may be a good time to get into the market with some good selected stocks.

As I write, all the 3 major index futures are going down, signalling that the actual index may actually fall further when the market opens. In any case, get ready some free cash to capitalise on this coming opportunity because such opportunities does not happen all the time. In fact, a recession happens once maybe in every 7 to 10, so don’t miss this one…

The issue is not whether to buy but what to buy. Finding the right stocks to buy is always an issue, even during a recession like that. Keep in mind that you are not trading but really value investing, so look out for value stocks trading below its intrinsic values. I guess a blog article is going to be way to short to go into a description of how to choose value stocks… but make sure you find some good books and get some good advise. A great book I can recommend is “How to make money in Stocks” by William O’Neil.

Happy Investing and beat the Bear Market!

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I was out for lunch at the Simpang Bedok Food Center a few days ago when I spotted this big sign put up by a local drink seller. I find it rather inspiring to see even local food seller capitalising on the recent Silver Medal performance of the Singapore Table Tennis Team. It was Singapore’s first Silver Medal after 48 years and certainly a cause for celebration!

Sure, they don’t use any high tech marketing techniques but a simple hand written sign will do the job equally well… certainly better than no promotion at all. What’s more, the sign is written in both English and Chinese. OK the English wasn’t that great (”Celebrate Offer”???) but what the heck, I’m sure it works!

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