Singapore Public Holidays for 2010

Here are the 11 specified public holidays for 2010 as release by Ministry of Manpower on 8-June-2009



Since Chinese New Year falls on Sunday 14 February 2010 and Monday 15 February 2010, the next day, Tuesday 16 February 2010, will be a public holiday.

Looks fine but not 100% perfect yet....Did some changes to my blog’s template.

I tried using Configure Header feature provided by Blogger to add new background image but the result is not what i wanted. The image wasn’t properly placed over the original position. It was slightly shifted to the right side. (Go to Layout Tab, click on Page Elements and follows by the Edit for Header)

To resolve this problem, I use Edit HTML to modify the HTML code directly. I uploaded my image to Googlepages and copied the image URL and paste it onto the following codes....It work as what you seeing it now. I also changed the header font and side header font to Cambria and text fond to Calibri. (Thanks to the tip from a website).

#header-wrapper {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
font: normal normal 100% Cambria;
background: url(paste your image URL here) no-repeat top;
}

I like to share this poet with you. Observe the words and you may catch the deep meaning the poet is trying to illustrate. I hope this may awake the giant lies within you and arouse to the altitude of achievement which you never dream before.

If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don’t
If you like to win, but you think you can’t.
It is almost certain you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost
For out of the word we find,
Success begins with a person’s will
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man
But soon or late the one who wins
Is the one WHO THINKS HE CAN

Daylight Saving Time (DST)

Most of U.S. will move to Daylight Saving Time on 2a.m Sunday. U.S. previously switched to DST each year on the first Sunday in April, but in 2007, the start date was moved to second Sunday in March. Standard Time is to resume on the first Sunday in November. For those trading in US market do take note.

Warren Buffett and the Interpretations of Financial Statements

You have to understand accounting and you have to understand the nuances of accounting. It’s the language of business and it’s an imperfect Language, but unless you are willing to put in the effort to learn accounting – how to read and interpret financial statements – you really shouldn’t select stock yourself
--Warren Buffett

This book is about how to search for the company with a durable competitive advantage. It was written by Mary Buffett and David Clark. This book explains every item in financial statements from Warren Buffett's perspective.

I find this book suitable for beginner who is interested to learn how to read financial statements yet has no clue where to start. The book is divided into three major sections: The Income Statement, Balance Sheet and The Cash Flow Statement. Each chapter in the section is dedicated to one item of the statement. The authors uses companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Wrigley, Procter & Gamble, etc for an example to illustrate the differences between the companies that have durable competitive advantage and those without it. (But I wish the authors could have reduced the usage of the word ‘durable competitive advantage’ in this book. I do get it that ‘durable competitive advantage is important in every chapter that I read.)

You can get it from book store around the island for $40 but I recommend you borrow from national library (http://catalogue.nlb.gov.sg/) before you decide whether is it worth investing your money.

Last weekend I attended Wealth Academy Options course conducted by Mr Ron Ianieri from Options University. Ron is a former floor trader, market maker and specialist on the Equity Option and Foreign Currency Option Trading Floors. (His Bio). Ron is also a well-respected option trainer and he has been invited to speak on U.S markets and movement on CNBC Asia TV channel several times. (CNBC's Interview)

Option is a derivative product. It is tradable at stock exchanges and its price is derives from the underlying product. There are options for stocks, indexes, currency, commodities, bonds, etc. The advantages of option are cost efficiency, better percentage return, limited loss and portfolio protection.

In this beginning course, you get to learn things like Volatility, The Greeks, Options Pricing Model, synthetic positions, trading strategies and morphing techniques. Besides learning these that I mentioned, you also entitled to ‘Options 101 Home Study Course’ learning materials from Options University (Click on my blog recommended course).

Before you begin with options trading, it is important to understand the basic knowledge such as volatility and the Greeks. Learning this basic knowledge will certainly help you to decide which and when to apply the correct strategies. Have you ever wonder why the current market situation causes the VIX to hit the record of 80? Why volatility has to do with options pricing? I heard many experienced options traders mentioned the phase ‘buy options when volatility is low, sell options when volatility is high’. I got my answers through this course.

Volatility is one of the factors that affect the option prices (on the extrinsic value). Volatility is widely discussed in any options trading books. It is defined as dispersion of an asset’s returns from their mean and usually modeled through a bell shaped curve with the standard deviation values. Understanding the volatility will able to help you to better understand what is Historical Volatility (HI) and Implied Volatility (IV). Knowing the HV and IV, you will able to determine the theoretical value of option prices (most of the broker software platforms have this value available, so you do not have to worry about applying the complex mathematical formulas) and thus allowing you to make judgment of why options are priced at respective values.

I invite you to check out this course and take some time to go through it if you are thinking of taking your first step into becoming a professional option trader.