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Fellowship of the Shares

So elf, you be my KWAI CHABO SOON eh?

 

ooh, Chinkiasu...its jerome actually


what you doing in the "Green City in the Sun"?

 good decision or otherwise, how do you stand out from the rest of the standard answers that the interviewer will get about being jaded in engineering, thus want to seek greener pastures.

Also cannot possibly say want to change for the money ma...

what a moral dilemma

 

hi shijez, jeremy!.. greetings from Nairobi ..

I read your post about switching job  from engineering to finance...  I think it is a very good decision.. reason for change.. you see yourself as a CEO of a multinational company.. all round exposure.. and most important in any company is a good working knowledge of finance..  that's what running a company is all about --  to make money..

good luck to your job hunting..

 

confirm..i went for one preview and decided not to take it...its not any diff from wat i studied in nus business anyway..lol..i'd much rather spend my money and time on TA and candle stick courses..


nope..still looking for jobs....goin for an interview with a company later..=p..plus sent out a few resumes already...awaiting their news =)

 

 

Google the word KYC.
likely to go into that

 Will check out the link later Shijiez, thanks.

So you staying put in your job?

btw, i went yest for the preview, not so impressive lei.
 

 

hmm..but jerome..which part of the finance field u gonna enter? i understand there's like tonnes of diff fields you can go into...your answer prob can be altered to suit the field u are entering? 

btw...juz recieved this from jobstreet ..http://sg.jobstreet.com/jobs/2007/6/u/20/1520069.htm?fr=L  =) take a look and see if you're interested... 

 

hi Elf and Shijiez, plus de facto grandma Choohian,

Thanks for your inputs,

the part of me getting married is spot on (good call, elf). I realise the time that would have to be devoted to work, and its really some food for thought. Actually, money is not really the issue here, cos i am actually taking a pay cut if i go in there.

 

 

anyway elf...the thread didnt go quiet by much la..prob because RT not ard..then no one to post 1 reply with us every 10 mins..heh.

 for myself..i decided to post less...cos i'm quite like the leech..not much skill and insights i can offer the forumers...and if i keep posting i figured its like noise pollution..lol..so now i juz quietly watch and learn from the side...=D
 

 

jerome...I've been in the exact same dilemma as you 2 weeks back...was seriously looking for a switch into the finance field and stuff...but the prob with me was i didnt wanna be a pte banker..wanted to be more of a fund manager/ dealer...more products than sale..lol..(rem the CFA preview toks? lol)


 In the end..after 2-3 weeks of internal battling..i figured i juz liked trading with stocks and learning more about the stock market...rather than enter it as a job by plunging str8 in...lol..so i decided to take up courses on TA instead...and find a proper 8-5 job outside.=p..

anyway...if you are looking to enter the field...may wanna flip last sat's (090607) newspapers...there's an ad recruiting dealers at the last few pages of recruit. and they even provide trg..Good entry pt i say..


 


 

 

you be our calming, maternal and gently moderating influence here.

in other words, just be yourself. :)

HG metals breaking out, ppl. take a look. perfect charts. bollies squeezing in, c/o up for days, a/d hasn't turned yet, price range constant. elf is in. haha.

 

elf, defacto grandma eh? What does it mean? what requirements, qualifications or expectations?

 

gone quiet....taken over by ray's squeeze thread. haha. 

just to let all know elf's fine aft yesterday's trades. :) and apologies for making my bros worried. haha.

jerome, finance degree etc not necessary lah. it's a singaporean thing to focus only on paper degrees. but if it's private wealth mgmt  you want etc, then no, they take you from any degree. assuming you mean foreign banks.  if it's to be a technical trader etc tho, then yes, need some qualifications.

don't think, just switch! on a whim and a fancy, my boy. ;)

and if you can't figure out the answer to that qn yourself, then might consider why you want to switch. :P of course, you can just be very baldfaced with them and tell them straight out: for the money. MIght shock them into remembering you. haha.

you did say before you were getting married etc and didn't want to commit full time tho.... so consider well? money's not everything.. you'll have to sacrifice family time etc for that kind of salary. that's why they get paid so high, ya know; bankers. work morning to night. they usually pay with their families.

and rayphua, apologies, can't join your group 'cos its msn. if anyone in there has a longer term focus and shd like help on that aspect tho, feel free to ask the elf via the ray. :) 

i could perhaps help in structuring an appropriate portfolio for you, customised on your own risk appetite and personality. 'cos i used to do retail and institutional fund mgmt.

rather than just doing contras, which are essentially a short term measure. but i understand that there are many different personalities on the market, so only for those with a longer term perspective tho. wealth growing is about years, not days. :)

good luck people. make the most of this rally before the lull coming. 

 

erm, the proper certs are there.

now is how to answer that ques.

Cannot say i'm jaded with engineering ma...

what would be a politically correct answer? 

 

unless u are doing sales in finance else hard to change. i am in the same prob as u. nevertheless u can work to get a proper finance cert 1st.

like cfa or a degree.


 

 

erm, like some inputs here from the fellowship.

I am thinking of switching industry from engineering to finance...So what would you say if you were interviewed and the question is why do you want to switch over?



 

 

this thread gone quiet liao lei...

what happened? all busy with family and work?

remember to take care of health though. 

 

Singapore shares outlook - Firmer on bargain-hunting after rebound on Wall St      6/11/2007 7:43:00 AM

SINGAPORE (XFN-ASIA) - Share prices are expected to open firmer on bargain-hunting following last week's sell-off and Wall Street's rebound on Friday, dealers said. However, any gains are likely to be capped in the absence of fresh domestic leads, they added. On Friday, the Straits Times Index closed down 54.74 points or 1.54 pct at 3,491.59, after moving between 3,480.62 and 3,511.02. For the week, the benchmark index lost 56.73 points, or 1.60 pct. Losers beat gainers 497 to 352, with 1,527 stocks unchanged. Volume traded reached 4.25 bln shares worth 2.67 bln sgd. "We could see some bargain-hunting today following Wall Street's rebound on Friday," a dealer with a local brokerage said. Dealers said investors are likely to focus on select blue chips, including COSCO Corp (Singapore) Ltd, which may gain after its unit Cosco Shipyard (Group) Co Ltd won contracts worth 1.19 bln usd. (1 usd = 1.53 sgd) singapore@xfn.com MMMM

 

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Successful investing is all about avoiding mistakes. That doesn't mean playing it safe. It means having good sense about when to take risk and knowing how much risk to take.

Since that's easier said than done, people often hire financial advisers to steer them through the tough decisions. But even the pros can fall victim to the mistakes that plague individual investors. Errors in judgment and short-sightedness aren't exclusive to novices.

"People always feel they have a piece of information nobody else has, and that's exciting. But once a piece of information is public, don't think for a minute that everybody hasn't figured it out." says Todd Lowe, a financial adviser in Louisville, Ky.

"We don't have any better information than anybody else when it comes to buying a security," he adds. "We hopefully have better judgment."

Have you ever been wedded to a stock or become convinced a high-flier couldn't fall? Perhaps you've been unnecessarily cautious, chased performance or overstated your abilities. You're in good company; the experts have too. Here are five common mistakes we all make -- and how to avoid them:

1. Falling in love with a stock or strategy

A stock doesn't know you own it, but it sure would be great if it did. Given the sweat equity pros put into research and analysis, it can be tempting to buy a stock regardless of price and to stay invested after the allure fades.

"One of the biggest mistakes I've made is holding on to an investment too long, hoping it turns around," says Scott Kays, a financial adviser in Atlanta. "It's too easy to become emotionally attached to an investment when you really should let it go."

Two recent purchases that didn't pan out, retailer Jones Apparel Group Inc.

 , taught Kays to sell quickly if a stock isn't meeting expectations.

"A turnaround may happen, but not in a time frame that's relevant," Kays says.

Advisers can also buy too much of a good thing. Maybe a terrific small-cap stock manager has appeared on the radar -- so skilled, in fact, that this stock jockey winds up handling more of your money at the expense of other investment sectors and styles.

"Pros can get too excited by the solution and forget to address the problem," says Kacy Gott, of Kochis Fitz in San Francisco. "We lose our own discipline."

2. Believing that this time it's different

In every bull market, skepticism about rising stock prices is invariably met with the same response: "It's different this time."

Recently, the "it's different" crowd has affixed itself to emerging markets, real estate and commodities. A decade ago, true believers embraced profit-challenged tech and telecom stocks with higher market valuations than steady earnings growers. In that savvy "new economy," a wary value investor like Warren Buffett was hopelessly out of touch.

"Rarely, it is different," says Lowe. "Every day when you come in, you start fresh with your thinking. Question your own beliefs and don't assume that what you believed yesterday is true today."

3. Playing it safe

Financial advisers grapple with how to add value to justify their fees: Stand apart from the pack and you could lose clients; get index-like results and suffer a similar fate. And fewer assets under management equal less income.

"You don't want to look different," says Brian Breidenbach, a Louisville, Ky.-based financial adviser. "If your clients think you're different, you take a business risk."

The protruding nail gets hammered down, goes an old saying. Some money managers who don't want to be on the receiving end of such a blow find safety in stocks that resemble a broad benchmark index such as the Standard & Poor's 500 Delayed quote data

Fear of losing business can also keeps advisers from discussing why a recommended investment is appropriate and the precautions they've taken to cushion risk.

Gott, the San Francisco adviser, calls that sidestep a disservice to both client and adviser. Talking about an investment's volatility builds a client's tolerance for risk, he says.

Commodities are a good example, he notes. Returns can swing wildly, but commodities tend to move in their own orbit from stocks and bonds and so can smooth a portfolio's total risk.

Adds Gott: "Sometimes rather than explain that to a client, pros will say it's not worth it."

4. Following fads

Concern about retaining clients also spurs advisers to act against better judgment and make investments they ordinarily wouldn't. Such short-term thinking doesn't go very far.

The Internet bubble is a classic case in point. "Everyone knew it was a problem," Breidenbach says. Then why stay invested? "I have to be" was a common refrain, he recalls.

Some of this disruptive behavior can be pinned on clients, adds Kays, the Atlanta-based adviser. "Clients were driving their advisers into way too big an allocation to tech" in the late 1990s, he says. "You know it's the wrong thing to be doing, but you don't want to lose the client's business."

In truth, it's hard for value-minded investors not to capitulate when it seems that everyone else is making buckets of money in the market. But advisers are paid to stick to their plan even if that includes painful bouts of underperformance.

"We don't want to be stubborn and refuse to look at the data," Kays says. "But once we analyze that data, we've got to hold to our convictions. We can't change the way we look at that data to please certain clients."

5. Inflated expectations

Many individual investors bask in the runaway returns from the market's hottest stocks and sectors. Professionals do the same.

Advisers can't promise certain returns, of course, but some put too much stock in their trades and are overly confident in their abilities. Yet a relationship built on the past won't have much of a future. It fosters unrealistic expectations and isn't likely to withstand tough times.

Rather than dwell on performance, Breidenbach adds, investors and advisers instead need to define how money will be allocated and spent, and how they'll handle setbacks.

"The professionals' mistake in dealing with individuals is in not understanding what the money represents to them," he says. Investors make similar errors when they view the market as a casino or put more effort into buying a $500 dishwasher than a $5,000 stock investment.

Treat money seriously, and realize it's what you keep that counts. "Getting 10% or 12% [return] is not the answer," Breidenbach adds. "The bottom line is this: If you need 5%, why take any extra risk?"

Jonathan Burton is MarketWatch's investments editor, based in San Francisco.

 

 

• The Blue Chip Investor: Editor Steven Check currently is allocating about 84% of his model stock portfolio to equities. Though that is lower than where this portfolio's equity allocation stood in late February, Check's market timing model continues to be on a buy signal. In fact, according to Check's market valuation model, stocks were not overvalued even before the market's recent correction.
• Bob Brinker's Marketimer: Editor Bob Brinker, in his latest issue, dated June 5, says that he believes that there is "no risk" of a bear market occurring this year (defined as a decline in the Standard & Poor's 500 index His model stock portfolios remain fully invested.
• The Chartist and The Chartist Mutual Fund Letter: Dan Sullivan, editor of both of these services, remains bullish on the stock market. Writing Thursday night, Sullivan argued that a pullback in the market should not have been a surprise, since one had been long overdue. In fact, he says that he expects the market to fall somewhat more before an "effective bottom" can be reached. The model portfolios in both letters remain close to being fully invested.
• Timer Digest: Editor Jim Schmidt bases this newsletter's market timing model on a consensus of the newsletters he calculates to be the top market timers. As of Wednesday night, his consensus of the top 10 based on performance over the past 52 weeks was bullish, with eight bulls, one bear, and one neutral. His consensus of the top 10 for performance over the past two years was also bullish, with all 10 letters bullish.

 

just take it as a game, invest in the amount that we can afford to lose, but build a core holding that will pay good dividend yoy... and u can sleep well and tight