KH Tang's Blog

Project Freedom (3): Why and How Successful Traders CAN Keep Making Profits from the Market

2012-01-31T16:50:00.000-08:00

Let's start by reviewing an old fable: “The Mathematician and the King”

Once upon a time there was a mathematician invented a chess game for a king. The king was so happy about it and told the mathematician to name his reward.

“I don’t ask for much,” said the clever mathematician. “A single grain of wheat on the first square on the chess board, two grains of wheat on the second square, and double the number of wheat in every subsequent square….”

“So it shall be done,” said the king, who was not having any idea about the concept of exponential growth.

After the King got his men to work out the numbers, he was shocked that before reaching half of the complete chess board, the number had become bigger than total annual wheat production in his whole Kingdom.

The moral of the story is: TWO CONDITIONS are required to grow Rich. It takes both the “TIME” and “EDGE” to increase the number through exponential growth.

Now, let's see how these concept apply to trading:

* TIME: Every move to the subsequent square represents the “Time” required in the game. Adding all the individual step, short term, together become a long term.

* EDGE: In the story, it has an “Edge” in doubling every next step. Similar to say that as long as there is a CONSISTENT edge, it would grow over time. The stronger the edge (Percentage growth over a fixed period of time) the faster the number grow, and Back Testing the system would help to identify which "Edge" is better.

Just like the house of any Casinos, as long as there are enough customers keep playing the game, they can keep making money because there are “Edges” built into all games by designed, though these edges may be very small in percentage in terms of winning probability bias towards the house.

(-> Here is a good article illustrating the Edage of a casino. <-)

So...

When one can workout a consistent "EDGE" and keep himself continuously participate in the market... It is like, he is operating an online Casino by himself.

Of course, the "edge" must be much stronger than many other devaluation factors to be meaningful edge, such as "Inflation","currency devaluation","Tax", etc.This link has a picture to show how serious inflation could be over time:
http://blessedfool.blogspot.com/2012/01/personal-finance-8-where-have-all-money.html

The moment when a trader is able to change from the state

of "understand the principle of probability" to the

state of "thinking in probability mind set",

he changes his world.
( Credit goes to Mark Douglas - "Trading in the Zone")

Personal Finance (8): Where Have All the Moneys Gone?!

2012-01-23T05:44:00.000-08:00

(Click on the chart to Zoom-in)

In the above diagram:
1) The upper pane is the price chart shows a long term monthly chart of S&P500 ETF (SPY) for the past 19 years.

2) The middle pane shows that DEVALUATION of currency due to INFLATION. The Back/Blue/Green/Red color are representing 0,-3,-5 and -10 percent per year respectively.

3) The lower pane shows the inflation adjusted value of the S&P500 Index. Now, when factor in devaluation rate of 0,-3,-5 and -10 percent per year due to inflation, the number is more realistic in reflecting the "actual value" after all these years of investment.

Consider the annual inflation rate as of today, and think about how this FACT would affect your retirement plan (if you already have one).
For those people who simply look at their bank account balance without factor in the devaluation due to inflation could be having a shock at a later date.

So, after many decades of world peace since the end of WWII...
After chopping down so many forests...
After using up about half of the total crude oil on earth...
After polluting so much rivers/air/environment under the name of development...
At the end: Where have all the moneys gone??!!

May be this song will give you some inspiration to find out.

Where have all the Moneys gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the Moneys gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the Money gone?
Gone to ????? every cent
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

->Home<-

Project Freedom(2): In Search of the Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre Indicators

2012-01-19T07:12:00.000-08:00

“武林至尊，宝刀屠龙，号令天下，莫敢不从，

倚天不出，谁与争锋。”
-- 金庸小说《倚天屠龙记》

Above is a phrase from Jin Yong's famous novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre.

It may be translated as follows: "The precioius Dragon Slaying Sabre is the most Honourable Weapon in the Martial Art Community. It commands the world and no one dares to disobey! Who else dare to challenge it unless the re-appearance of the Heaven Reliant Sword?"

The story background was set in the late Yuan Dynasty, and it revolves around a pair of extremely powerful weapons as named by the novel. Of course, one can imagine that all the people want to own one of these weapons, and some went to the extreme, by hook or by crook, in order to get it. Almost all Chinese spoken people know more or less about this story as it been flimed into movies and TV series for about ten times since the last 3 decades.

Dragon Sabre

There is a saying, "人生如戏戏如人生", "A Life is just like a Movie, A Movie is just like a Life." So True!
From personal experience and what I read from the trading forums... Most system developers are in their journey in search of such powerful indicator(s), and the west call it the Holy Grail Indicator.

Many people in the forums claimed that they don't believe that there is such thing, yet keep on discussing and debating about it...
And, some started subject for discussion like...

"Let's share... and You start first!" That's also very funny and entertaining... and I AM continue to amuse when I happen to see it. :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

Having told some stories...
The following are some good reasearch sites for indicators/systems, and some indicators used to be sold for a couple of hundred USD (bought a couple before and are not so usefuel) are now for free:

1) MetaStock Zone

2) EasyLanguge Zone

3) WealthLab Public Chart Scripts

4) Amibroker AFL in WiseStock Trader

5) Trader Tips from TASC

My engineering view point is this: there is definitely no Holy Grail indicator, but there are Holy Grail systems which consist of multiple indicators working in harmony at the background. In such system, each individual indicator would cover the shortcomings for other individual indicator , like a Master Mind Team, and make it works great. Everyone has blind spots. Cannot see it don't mean it is not there.

"Nothing great was ever achieved

without enthusiasm."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

... to be continue ...

Self Development Idea (13) - Two Worlds of Reality, and the Magic Mirror

2012-01-10T06:15:00.000-08:00

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everyone of us is simultaneously living in two worlds of reality. One is the "Inside world", and the other is the "Outside world".

In the Inside world, it is yourself consist of "Philosophy, Thoughts, Feelings, Emotions, and Attitudes."

In the Outside world, it is your Environment of "People, Place, Things, Events and full of Public Opinions."

And, in between the two worlds, there is a Magic Mirror.
This mirror has the ability to reflect the reality from one side to the other side...

Note: A summary note taken from reading the book "Mind Power by John Kehoe"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Take for example.

If the person has a stronger faith in his own Internal World, he is able to eventually project it into the Outside World through the help of his own subconscious mind.

On the other hand, the other case is true also, for a person who does not set any goal or does not has any belief of faith that he can make a difference... The Outside World would keep telling him that this is wrong and that is bad ... Eventually, this would reflect into the person Internal World. Which would create stress and harmful to the body.

So. It is a better deal to choose to be happy and have peace of mind, rather than let the Outside World to dictate what they want you to be.

Many may have read that popular phrase "Your are what you think you are...". Well, that is over simplified and not accurate. A sage puts it, "We aren't what we think we are, but what WE THINK, WE ARE!"

"All mankind's inner feelings eventually manifest
themselves as an outer reality."
— Stuart Wilde

Season Greeting (2) : Prosperity Mind Set Indicator

2011-12-18T23:39:00.000-08:00

// <- Start copy from Here...
//
// This is an Animated Indicator for Amibroker
//
// This is for the Spirit of Season Greeting.
// Absolutely no copy right or what so ever...
// Composed from idea on webs....
// Free to change text or customize for friends.
//
// Putting this indicator at the top pane could trigger
// your Prosperity Mind Set sub-consciously. :-)

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GfxSetOverlayMode(1);
SetChartBkColor( ParamColor("Chart Color", colorBlack));
GfxSetOverlayMode(1);
GfxSelectFont("Tahoma", Status("pxheight")/20 ); /* Up down name*/
GfxSetTextAlign( 6 );// center alignment
GfxSetTextColor( ParamColor("Text Color", ColorHSB( 42, 42, 42 ) ));

k = (GetPerformanceCounter()/100)%500;
printf("GetPerformance Counter %g",k);

GfxSetTextColor(colorBlack);
GfxSelectFont("Arial Narrow", 15, 700 );
GfxTextOut("T O:    A M I B R O K E R   U S E R S   ",100+k ,5);

GfxSelectFont("Arial Narrow", 30, 700 );
GfxSetBkMode(1);
GfxSetTextColor(colorYellow);
GfxTextOut("       H A P P Y   N E W   Y E A R   2 0 1 2 . . .   M E R R Y   X ' M A S . . . .",100+k ,30);

GfxSelectFont("Arial Narrow", 12, 700 );
GfxTextOut("B I G   M O N E Y   O N   O U R   W A Y   N O W!!!    ",100+k ,68);
GfxTextOut("!!!!!!!!!!       Millions & Millions      !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!                             ",k ,88);

RequestTimedRefresh(1);
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GfxSetBkMode(0); // transparent
GfxSelectFont("Tahoma", 7 );
GfxTextOut( "KH Tang", Status("pxwidth")/2, Status("pxheight")/1.5 );
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Status("pxheight")/2 ;
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anim=ColorHSB( ( k ) % 256, 255, Param("Brightness", 75, 0, 255, 1 ));
SetChartBkColor(anim);

XLogo = 15;
YLogo = Status("pxheight")-68;
GfxSelectPen(colorGold,2);
GfxSelectSolidBrush( colorYellow );
GfxCircle( Xlogo+14, Ylogo+14, 17 ) ;

GfxSelectFont("Aral", 13, 700 );
GfxSelectPen(colorBrown,2);
GfxSelectSolidBrush( colorGold);
GfxPolygon(
            Xlogo + 11, Ylogo + 0.4,
            Xlogo + 14, Ylogo + 11.5,
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            Xlogo + 17, Ylogo + 15.8    ,
            Xlogo + 24.3, Ylogo + 23.6,
            Xlogo + 14, Ylogo + 20.5,
            Xlogo + 3.7, Ylogo + 23.6,
            Xlogo + 11, Ylogo + 15.8   ,
            Xlogo + 0.6, Ylogo + 18.3,
            Xlogo + 8 , Ylogo +11.5
            );

GfxSetBkColor( colorYellow ) ;
GfxSetTextColor(colorRed);
GfxTextOut("GTS",28,Ylogo+35);

Title = "Bless You";

// <- End Here.

--------------------------------------- SEASON GREETING ---------------------------------------

Wishing all to achieve greateraccomplishment in health, wealth and happiness in this NEW YEAR!

See… There is nothing blockingthe future!

And, the drawing is not in scale,

meaning that the futurecould

be the next moment. J

Personal Finance (7): Realistically, What’s the Yield Rate for Top Traders?

2011-12-14T22:29:00.000-08:00

For many beginners who come to invest/trade in the stock market,they don’t have a realistic idea of how many percent they might gain over ayear. For years, from the trader libraryand forums, I figured out that the top number was around 28-35%/year. And, recently, I discovered that these numbersare way too low for benchmarking at all… and, that could set an invisible barrier of limit in traders mind.

1) Breaking Through from the Limiting Beliefs:

Here is just a short story of how imaginary barrier canlimit people performance and may spark some inspiration in the mind…

* The 4 minutes Barrier

Just like once people thought that the world was flat. Before 6 May 1954, athletes had never able torun a mile under 4 minutes, and some “experts” at the time even commented thatit was physically impossible for a human to do so, or the heart would explodeunder the pressure to run a mile in under 4 minutes.

Roger Bannister was medical students at that time, not even aprofessional runner, believed it could be done. He prepared himself with training and he became the first person to everrun a sub four-minute mile (3min 59.6sec) on 6 May 1954.

More interestingly, 56days after Roger Bannisters breakthrough, John Landy ran the four minute milein 3 minutes and 57.9 seconds in Finland. Later Bannister and Landy raced inthe Mile of the Century where Bannister won in 3 minutes and 58.8 seconds.

As for today,it is no more any surprise for high school athletes to run a mile under 4minutes, for that mental barrier had been gone.

2) Setting the Right Benchmark or Higher

Recently, I have come to know ofan old trader who wrote and trade his own system for 30 years and only work for himself. He does not sell his system or even signalsfor trade.

On the other hand, he joins someforums and professional groups to share some valueable views and ideas… He also presents his research paper freelyfor others who may interest to read.

For those who may get the ideas from his paper would knowthat his system is for REAL, and not fantasy.

If you are interested to get into the financial market someday, say in the future. Then it is stronglyrecommended that, take a look at his website… His papers and his simulationresults.

http://alphapowertrading.com/

These are some of the back test results with over 100% returna year:->
On Turtle system:

http://alphapowertrading.com/index.php/tests/turletests/turtles-test-v32-improved
On Modified Jesse Livermore System:

http://alphapowertrading.com/index.php/tests/livermorechallenge/livermorechallenge3rdact

(with permission to post as reference)

ONLY when there is a good Benchmark, then one can know whatkind of aim he should set…

OF COURSE, the market cannot give profits from air, whenmore and more people are aware and able to use such strategies and tactics, the profits woulddrop according to number of participants are able to develop such systems.

Many “ConventionalWisdoms”, such as ship must be built by wood in order to be able to float, nomachine can fly, and later believe that plane cannot break the sound speedbarrier, etc… are now proven to be wrongideas that limiting people imagination...

"One person with a belief is greater than a force

of ninety-nine who have only interests."
-unknown

Games that People Play(2):- Work Behind the Scenes

2011-11-25T05:19:00.001-08:00

The world economy and major events that are happening all around the world seems like following the plot of the story in the book - Atlas Shrugged - in the final section.

There are many people complain about their current president can not fix the economy problem effectively. Some could look further blame previous term presidents that their economy policies are not sound.

Actually, the seeds of trouble for today economy were planted decades ago while Alan Greenspan was at his position as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006! And now, all the troubles have grown to their mature state.

If you were to search in the web: "Who is Alan Greenspan mentor?" You can find that his mentor was the author of the book "Atlas Shrugged", Ayn Rand, and they have a small circle of mastermind.

If you were to dig further and see who's was backing up Ayn Rand -->
http://www.kt70.com/~jamesjpn/articles/atlas_shrugged.htm

Of course, many people would simply say that this is yet another conspiracy theory...

So, I believe that the best way to keep a secret is to put it up onto the web, as people don't believe any secret can be found in the web.

The following pictures are self-explanatory:

It is Strongly Recommend that you watch the video clip (only 24 seconds) on what

Alan Greenspan has to say.

You may not believe what he say without watching it!!!

If you have trouble to see the video from this blog, click on this -> link <-

But, history has proven, it is not necessary that their plan would succeed as human being are most creative under huge pressure in critical time.

AND

What Matters Most is How You See Yourself, and not

limiting your own beliefs due to circumstances.

Bless All

Project Atlas Shrugged!? (2): THE EURO ZONE

2011-11-01T17:22:00.000-07:00

I have a German friend told me that there is absolutely no reason for them, German, to retire at 65 while the Greece to retire at 57 yet need their financial help...

Looking at the current situation, people would wonder how to keep all the countries in Euro Zone to work together... For they have their very own and broad range of cultures, social benefits, productivities, etc.

Attached is a link to an article on the cause, current situation and potential effect that may hit the world.

It's All Connected: An Overview of the Euro Crisis.

------------------------------8<------------------------------

1. It Starts With The Euro ...

In 1999, most countries in the European Union adopted the euro as a common currency. This union allowed poorer countries like Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Spain and Greece to borrow money at the same low interest rates as rich and financially prudent Germany, even though their inflation rates were higher. That give them a strong incentive to borrow.

------------------------------8<------------------------------

See from the excerpt... How could one lend more money to those companies that are continuously losing money with no particular plan to do better, and just hope that they can perform better and return the money in the future?

With the computer aided simulation, one can simulate to send a rocket into the space and turn a few round about the earth and bring it back before it is actually launch the real one. As, all these financial data has been there all the while and more importantly the trend was there, yet the politicians need to wait till last minutes to inform the public with no plan in advance. What's going on wrong?

Therefore, there is reason to "re-think" about the whole thing...

What was the Real INTENTION to create EURO?

Was the Euro Zone create to last or Intentionally created it to Fail?

Now, if one were to compare the current Euro Situation with the story line in the Book "Atlas Shrugged"... He can find similar situations...

In Greek mythology, Atlas was the primordial Titan who supported the heavens. You may have seen some of his pictures - who holds the world on his shoulders. By the name of the book, "Atlas Shrugged", Atlas wondered why should he support the world by himself all along... and he just let go and shrugged.

In the book, there were a few genius, lead by John Galt, believed that the system that they lived-in was not set up right and wanted to change the world. They secretly persuaded the world's creative leaders, including inventors, artists and businessmen on by one to quit and disappear from their position and join him. They organized the team in an effort to "stop the motor of the world" and bring the society to collapse - so that they can carry out their plan.

They did not just sit aside, just shrug and watch, rather they planned in every detail and executed their plans religiously to speed up the collapse of the system. So, that when the government cannot handle the chaos, they eventually have the opportunity to step up as heros to execute their blue print in mind.

On one of the tactics in speeding up the process, by Francisco d'Anconia, one of the central characters, was to create good investment opportunity to bring in huge funds from the society and then destroyed it on purpose. At about the end of the story, he personally destroyed the world's largest copper mining empire that he owned by inheritance.

Doesn't it looks like what is happening to the global financial system now?

"Give me control of a nation's money and

I care not who makes it's laws"

- Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild

Project Freedom(1): Awareness of The Current Reality

2011-10-15T00:06:00.000-07:00

8<-----------------------------------1----------------------------------------
"我翻开历史一查，这历史没有年代，歪歪斜斜的每页上都写着"仁义道德"几个字。我横竖睡不着，仔细看了半夜，才从字缝里看出字来，满本都写着两个字是‘吃人'!"- 鲁迅的开山小说《狂人日记》

8<-----------------------------------1----------------------------------------

The above Chinese message is briefly translated as:

"I flippedthrough the history book and checked, this history covered all ages. In every pages, with the slanted words, it repeatedly written withthe same phrases "humanity, justice and Integrity". I could not go into sleep in all positions,and carefully examined it for the whole night, and finally I realized theinsight through reading in between the lines, the whole book is filled with twowords - 'EAT PEOPLE!' " - Lu Xun (September 25, 1881 – October 19, 1936), "A Madman's Diary"

8<-----------------------------------2----------------------------------------
"THE FEAR OF POVERTY! It requires courage to tell the truth about the history of this enemy of mankind, and still greater courage to hear the truth after it has been told. The Fear of Poverty grows out of man's habit of preying upon his fellow men, economically. The animals which have instinct, but no power to THINK, prey upon one another physically. Man, with his superior sense of intuition, and his more powerful weapon of THOUGHT, does not eat his fellow man bodily; he gets more pleasure from eating him FINANCIALLY." - Napoleon Hill,(October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970), The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons
8<-----------------------------------2----------------------------------------

Above are short excerpts from two great writers, one from the East and the other from the west. Interestingly and accurately, they pointed out the same thing that had repeatedly happened in our civilized human history, that is - "Eat People." And, this phenomenon has even become more frequent, bigger scales, and obvious globally nowadays. -- In this, I AM referring to some manipulators are wiping out public investment and saving through more economy crisis and hyper-inflation!

There are more illustrations of how the current system works in the following Link.
-> What's Preventing Most People From Financial Freedom. <-

As the saying goes...

"The person who does not realize that he is in
a jail will never think of getting out."

So, awareness is empowering. On the other hand, awareness without action is worthless too.

->Comment<-
-> Home <-

Personal Finance (6) - In Devastation, There Is Opportunity.

2011-09-30T04:55:00.001-07:00

Attached are two video clips on "Traders' Mentality" and a news article describe how the Wall Street is functioning and would surely affect your bank account sooner or later.

1) The first one is a clip from the Documentary -"The Corporation." It shows how a typical trader think - Emotionless is the key.

"Traders' Mentality"

2) The second one is a clip from a recent interview in BBC News.

This guy is really telling the Truth of the Truth, proudly and confidently, on what happening in the market .

Key Messages:

i > The ONLY OBJECTIVE is Making Money.

ii> Money Rule the World, not Your Government.

Of course, these traders do not create the devastation, they just grasp the opportunity and add more trouble to it.

But do you think that some would actually go to the extend to CREATE this kind of Opportunity? You bet! And, it is getting more and often.

3) Mathematicians and their trading programs are increasingly taking the place of professional investors in financial centres across the world! (<- click the link for full article)

So, when the next financial crisis come, probably the Wall Street can blame it on the computer system rather than any human being...

In my opinion, there are two ways to avoid "Risks".

One is to totally avoid it. Such as for those who cannot swim, they can avoid the pool, etc.

Another is to learn and master it.

Since the financial matter affect everyone in this "Civilized World ?!?!?", and we are in it... Avoiding is not an option.

Of course, some people choose an alternative way...
Such as PROTESTING - "Occupy the Wall Street" is an example.

Surely, this movement would definitely help to raise awareness of the public in understand how corrupted the current financial market is and bring across the message to the authority - "Enough Is Enough!" Or, it may even eventually able to force the system to sacrifice a few scapegoats. But, not likely to change how the system works, for money and authority have been working hand in hand for centuries.

Therefore, instead of hoping everything is fine, it is good to learn about it as early as possible and take the advantage of the existing system. For I do not see any ethical conflict as an individual to protect himself from being hurt.

Let me explain...
As you must have heard of this kind of message every time when you are taking a plane... "If there is a turbulence and have difficulty to breath, the oxygen mask will automatically drop in front of you. Make Sure that you Put On Your Own Mask FIRST before you taking care of..."

So, the same and simple logic go with the case when there is a devastation happening in the system. For:
1) If those people do not protect themselves, they would also be in trouble and totally forget about the possibility to help others.
2) If you do not take the advantage, the creator of the events will take all of it anyway.

And, it is my simple thinking that... if most public know how to take this kind of advantage all together, then there will be No Incentive for the manipulators to continue in creating these troubles.

"A Trap is Not a Trap if you know it, it is an Opportunity."
- unknown trader

Current Market States:(Countries ETF)
For those who had done their research, these monthly and weekly chart are self-explanatory.

..
.click on the chart to zoom in.
..

Bless you
KH Tang
Wealth Resonance Pte Ltd

-> HOME <-

-> Comment <-

Personal Finance (5) : Cut Lost

2011-04-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

Case 1: The Battle of Red Cliffs (赤壁之战)

In the year 208 AD, during the era of civil war and the process of forming up the Three Kingdom…

Prime Minister Cao Cao after conquered the Northern China wanted to conquer the Southern China. Two leaders, Liu Bei and Sun Quan, arised against Cao Cao's tyranny. Cao Cao brought 240,000 soldiers to fight the battle against the ally of Liu Bei and Sun Quan, which had only 50,000 soldiers.

For Cao Cao’s army to attack the enemy, they must sail across a river. Since most of the soldiers from the north was unused to battling on the ships and having seasick, they set up the camps next to the river bank and doing their training.

The ally strategist, Zhou Yu, thought of a way to exploit this weakness of Cao Cao’s army. Zhou Yu idea was to attack the Cao Cao’s battle ships by fire. But, he also knew that it was impossible to burn up most of the ships as they can sail away easily.

How did Zhou Yu prevent Cao Cao from CUTTING LOST during the fire attack??

He sent spy to suggest to Cao Cao that he should get all the battle ships to be chained together by heavy metal-chain in order to reduce the fluctuation of the ships, and then his soldiers can speed up the training without having seasick. Cao Cao happily accepted that suggestion and implemented accordingly…

And, that fire burned up most of the Cao Cao’s army during the battle. Though Cao Cao managed to escape back to the north, he never able to gain back the strength advantage over his two opponents for the rest of his life...

Case 2: A Typical Mutual Fund

"Click on the chart to Zoom-In"

Sometime ago, I saw a Professor of Economics on TV commenting on stock market matters... He said that even the best fund manager, such as Warren Buffett, had lost more than 50% of his fund value (Berkshire Hathaway) during the last economy crisis from 2008 to 2009. So, as a individual investor, if you lose lot of money in the market, that's normal and don't blame yourself....

So. What do you think about his comment?

I would say that this professor had not done his home work properly, and thus comparing an Apple to an Orange!

Let me explain...

The Mutual Fund Mangers, by law, are supposed to be fully invested with the fund under their management. They can "Rotate" their fund among various sectors, but are not allow to hold cash over a period of time.

Therefore, by law, they cannot CUT LOSS even if they know the market will continue to fall for a period of time. This law is necessary for the stability of the market... Imagine that if all big fund managers are pulling out their investment due to economy crisis, no one can know how deep the market can go.

So, one must realize that the main goal of a fund manager is aiming at beat the market, and not to make money for the clients. They make money by charging the clients for managing their money, not by how much they generate the profit from the fund.

BUT, on the other hand, as a individual investor/trader. There is NO LAW restricting you from cutting lost or even going short. Thus, I say that many commentators appear on the TV do not know what are they talking about.

These tell us that... It is not that the bigger organization can always eat the smaller, it is the faster can eat the slower.

Having looked at the the effect of not being able to cut lost timely, now let us look at the importance cutting lost decisively while it is still small:

1) It is much easier to gain back the lost while it is cut at small percentage.

The following table show a Recovery/Loss Ratio. When the lost is cut less than 10%, it can be recover with about the same amount of gain in percentage. BUT, if one were to let the lost grow bigger, say 50%... then he need to gain 100% just to recover... With even bigger lost, the chances to recover are getting smaller!

"An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." - Orlando A Battista

2) Allow Yourself to Participate ONLY on the Up Trend Market.

The following show the S&P500 returns and it normal distribution over the year of 1926 - 2008. This is the kind of chart you can find in any Quantitative Analysis books on the stock market that shows the probability of win and loss in buying a stock over a period of time.

click on the chart to zoom-in

Now, imagine with your mind that if you were to chop off a big portion of the left-hand-side of the distribution chart through the technique of CUT LOSS (as show in the following diagram), you can literally allow yourself ONLY TO PARTICIPATE IN THE UPTEND MARKET!!! (Of course, for those who are shorting, chop off the right portion of the chart.)

Last but not least, in order to be able to use the technique, especially for the beginner. It is best to use market index tracking ETFs (exchange-traded-fund) as the vehicles. As they generally do not gap up or down in high percentage that one has to miss the targeted cut lost point far away...

"There is only one side to the stock market;... not the bull side or

the bear side, but the right side. It took me longer to get that

general principle fixed firmly in my mind than it did most

of the more technical phases of the game of stock

market speculation."

- Jesse Livermore

-> HOME <-

-> Comment <-

Personal Finance (4) : Asset Allocation

2011-03-14T07:03:00.000-07:00

The movie, INCEPTION, besides it was extremely entertaining, reflected back to me a very profound message -> "What ever seed(idea) that is planted into the subconscious mind, given time, it will sprout!" Therefore, the show ended after the seed was planted onto the target, by knowing that it will be carried out in reality later on.

So, what does it got to do with this article on Asset Allocation?!?!

Well, after staying in the market for many years, only until recently, I suddenly realized that someone had first seeded the idea of Asset Allocation in my mind, which then lead me to have the burning desire to know how the stock market works.

Here is the story...

About 9 years ago, a former boss called me up and said that she had just attended an excellent 2-day seminar on "Personal Financial Success" which could lead to early retirement... And, she wanted to share with friends because she thought that could be helpful. Indeed, that was so helpful that it rocked my comforting chair in the corporation into pieces!

And, here is the Outline of the concept of personal financial Asset Allocation:-

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Asset Allocation can be defined as the process of evaluating and choosing among the possible asset class for investment. So, that it can generate Passive Income.

Recently I came across an survey that most US citizen has about USD25k of net worth when they reach their retirement age. That's less than one year of their salary! Not even the professional trader can live with this small capital account...

So, in order to have adequate saving, for the working class, one must first break the "Parkinson's 2nd Law: Expenses always rises to meet income". If one don't break this law, no matter how much he made over the years with increments and promotions, he would not have much excess money for investment, and lucky if he don't have debt with his credit card.

Now, let say that one has the discipline to save portion of the money from his paycheck monthly, soon he will need to learn to manage the money for compound profits or the inflation will devalue them.

The core concept of the Asset Allocation is to divide the money into three portions. Imagine that you have three buckets, and you label them as "Security Bucket", "Buy and Hold Bucket" & "Speculative Bucket". Then allocate the money into there different buckets like planting seeds and letting them grow.

I) Risk Management

The purpose of separating them into three portions is to diversity the risk. One VERY IMPORTANT concept is that these three buckets MUST BE COMPLETELY ISOLATED. Meaning that, if one portion of investment incur losses, one must not use money from the bucket to fill it up again... Until one do his home work to find out what's wrong with the investment strategies...

Otherwise, it might just repeat the tragedy of the "Unsinkable Titanic"... The Titanic sank because of the partitions to isolate the sections of the ship was not high enough. So that the water can flow through the partition from the front section to the back after it hit the iceberg head on.

II) Allocation

And, as for the percentage of allocation of the asset... many text books and financial advisors from banks would recommend you to be more aggressive when you are younger (under 45), then become more conservative when getting older (over 60).

The following is a typical diagram can easily be found from the web... (Will comment on this later on.)

III) Rebalance

These bucket will need to be periodically revisited, preferably 6 months, and adjusted as needs and financial worth change.

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Comment: The above is yet another text book/class room theory for the beginner who did not spend time thinking of asset allocation before... In practical, one will then realize that there are flaws in the theory.

For examples:

1) Why recommend younger people to take higher risk in the market?!

It reasons that if the younger investor fail, then he can has more time to start all over again... That's completely nonsense!

Especially for beginner, it doesn't matter one is a CEO of a high-tech firm or a worker in the workshop... The experiences in his other careers and success don't count when it come to the stock market. All should start with "Very Conservative" in mind.

So, it should not be grouped by ages (as what the investment firms advise)! Rather, it should be grouped by professionalism! And, professionalism means adequate amount of learning, practicing and improving. And that got to do with personal time allocation. :-)

2) Why Buy and Hold for six month period?

Unlike fund manager, in the bear market, they can choose to rotate the fund among different sectors, but there are law to prevent them from cashing all out. Otherwise the market will fall to some point beyond imagination. But, as individual investor, you are free to do so!

"Every challenge we face can be solved by a dream."

- Dr. David Schwartz

Evolve and In Sync With Business Demand

2011-03-06T17:29:00.000-08:00

《庄子·列御寇》："朱泙漫学屠龙于支离益，殚千金之家。三年技成，而无所用其巧。"

Zhuangzi once told a story:" A man, PengMan Zhu, wanted to learn the skill of killing dragon from a master, LiYi Zhi. He spent a great fortune for learning the skill. Three years later, he mastered the skill. But, he got no where to apply what he had learnt. (or in today's term, he cannot find a job.)"

The moral of the story is that one must lean a skill that can be applied in this reality world.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, let's see how this story, when combine with the following story, may help one to look at thing in a different perspective in this modern society, which may help to rock one out of her comfort zone or develop a sense of urgency in change.

Looking back in our history, the main business of all the developed countries had gone through the phases of shifting from farming/fishing to industrialization(factories), then from industrialization to information age and eventually become financial centers.

The paces of the shift were happened at different rate in different countries/regions of the world. In general, it happened faster in the more developed countries...

Now...

Let's take a look at a real life example of such rapid change of my lovely country, Singapore, in the past 4 decades...

1.) Since the late 60's Merlion was the key symbol representing Singapore. Its name combines "mer" meaning sea and "lion". The fish body comes from Singapore's ancient name back when it was a fishing village.

Merlion

2.) Then in the 70's, Singapore attracted more and more foreign investors from the west to set up factories, and getting more and more industrialized. Changi Aiport Tower became another important symbol to represent that milestone.

Changi Airport Tower

3.) On the same time, Singapore had also developed many theme parks, such as the famous Singapore Zoo, Bird park, and the representative one is Sentosa, for tourism.

Sentosa

4.) Then Singapore evolved into a Financial Center with Shenton Way Buildings as a Logo.

Shenton Way

5.) Now, Singapore has its new logo -- Sands Singapore -- a world class glamorous Integrated Resort.

Sands Singapore

Anyway, this is just to show the change in trend.

Needless to say in detail, there is really nothing to be proud of to have Casinos in the country... Though this will bring in progress in GDP, it would also bring along decay in other intangible aspects!

See... I once read about an interview with a VP of a Casino in Las Vegas, he described that his job is very challenging ->"On one hand, it is our business to suck up maximum profit from our customers; on the other hand, it is our job to keep most of them happy."

6.) What's next in the next decade?!

7.) In what Stage of the Industry Life-cycle for the job that you are holding onto now?
It may be a tough question to answer... And, if one does not feel that kind of excitement he used to have when he newly join the industry, the answer is clear and need to say no more.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With the above example, it shows that most skills that one can learn from the University would likely to be obsolete and out-of-synch with the market demand in about 10 years time. While a typical person working life span is about 40 years nowadays (say, 25 to 65).

Take for example, when the manufacturing plants move out to other countries, an engineering manager may choose to move together with the plant for start up... However, if he did not manage to learn some new skill, while he is working full time on the current job, he would need to follow the plant whenever and wherever it goes... and provided the plant is still exist and need him...

For this reason, just an opinion, self-initiated continuous learning of new things is suggested. :-)

"Without continual growth and progress, such words

as improvement, achievement, and success

have no meaning."

- Benjamin Franklin

Relevant Articles:
Project Freedom

->Home<-

The Pyramid of Harmonic Wealth

2011-03-01T01:15:00.000-08:00

Click on the picture to zoom in...

Above is a template that can be use to plan for personal goals and success. I first found the similar template, a few years ago, from a book (Fulfill Your Dream With A Diary) "记事本圆梦计划" by a successful Japanese businessman/ entrepreneur/ author - 熊谷正寿. And, it been very helpful to organize personal plans in a balanced and harmonic way. Such as, it can help one to focus on the ultimate goals rather than distract by the day-to-day activities. That is to focus on business rather than busy-ness.

Recently, while sharing the template with a friend, Clara Szalai, she immediately pointed out that something is missing... and inspired me to put in a very Key and Important factor that most of us had been taken for granted while pursuing personal goals --> that is the Factor of Environmental. Very true, we must intentionally preserve the environment while in the process of building individual wealth, that's the way for long term sustainability. Thanks, Clara.

O.K.
Having acknowledged the sources, now let's discuss on the philosophy, in brief, of the template and how it may be useful for individual.

As shown in the diagram above, there are stages in building the Personal Pyramid of Harmonic Wealth.

The Fundamental Stage consist of the building block of "Intellectual","Physical", and "Spiritual".
The Real-life Stage consist of the building block of "Personal" and "Social".
The building block of Result Stage is "Financial".
Now, think about it, where should this Whole Pyramid got to build onto? On the solid foundation on of mother earth... and that's why the "Environmental" got to be added - which is usually too conveniently forgotten.

In order to build a solid and stable pyramid, one should start work from the lower level. That is the Fundamental Stage. This take personal time and effort, such as learning and research of specialized knowledge, exercise, meditation, etc...

Follow by creating a harmony personal life and using his knowledge to contribute to the society. Then the Financial Wealth would follow automatically when one can bring value to the market place.

Take for example, there are countless examples of how some individual suddenly gain huge amount of money, but just not able to keep it and get back into poverty within short time. This is mainly that they do not have a solid foundation to hold on to the temporary financial wealth.

As for the environment factor....
It deserves everyone to put more attention to it, especially nowadays. Mainly because people did not pay much attention to it while on the way to build their own wealth.
Simple act such as bring along a bottle of water along when getting out rather than buying bottled-water which creates one rubbish bottle, etc...

Come across an amusing news:
------------------------------------------------------8<----------------------------------------------------------
A recent survey posted by US Private Banks surveyed individuals with a net worth of US$38 million or more. Of those surveyed, 65% stated that they felt "financially insecure."

------------------------------------------------------8<----------------------------------------------------------

So, apparently financial security should not be measured purely by the number of dollar alone...

Most likely their foundation for they pyramid got some problems to sustain the dollars that they had accumulated...

And, may be this could fix:

-> Downloadable Template and Planner <-

So, the state of being Financially Secure is not how much money

one had already been accumulated in the past, rather it is the

confidence in her own ability to earn enough now/future,

and to grow whatever she has at a rate faster

than inflation in the future.

:-)

Bless You
KH Tang

Using "The Power of Consciousness" to Heal Gaia (Mother Earth)

2011-02-05T00:25:00.000-08:00

The following blog entry shows a similar idea from two Great Men, Napoleon Hill and Bruce Lipton, in leading the way for building a better world using consciousness...

1. Napoleon Hill's Golden Rule

More than half a century ago, in his book Napoleon Hill’s Golden Rules, after learning from a scientist on how the human cells function in the body, he wrote about his imagination on how the entire human race is working interactively like the cells in a human body.

8<-------------------------------------------excerpt -----------------------------------------

I saw, in my imagination, the entire human race, every living human being on earth, all gathered in one spot and standing in such a position as to form the perfect outline of a human being. At a distance, this seething mass of humanity would resemble one enormous human being. I could see health and success and prosperity for the whole mass as long as there was no discord or misunderstanding between the individuals who constituted the whole. I could see some of the human beings plowing the ground while others were sowing seed and getting ready to produce food. I could see some of the individuals of that enormous gathering working on clothing. I would see still others entertaining the mass with music and causing each individual to be happy and contented.

Perfect harmony prevailed in this imaginary picture. Every individual had plenty to eat and plenty to wear. All were happy and contented. Sorrow and grief were not to be found.

Then, with sudden switch of the imagination, I saw the picture from another angle, an angle which is comparable to the story of the human cells of which the scientist had been telling me. Away down toward the bottom of this great mass of human beings, at a point which would correspond to one of the imaginary giant’s feet, I saw two tiny little human beings get into an argument. They came to blows. Other human beings began to rush up and join in the argument. Pretty soon, one of the entire feet of the imaginary giant had discontinued its regular business, and the ‘‘human cells’’ of which the foot was composed were fighting among themselves. They no longer cooperated. They no longer functioned normally. Pretty soon, the entire body began to feel the loss of one of its feet. It was crippled. It tried to walk but could not move. Other parts of the body commenced to suffer. The body, as a whole, commenced to suffer with hunger because the loss of its foot prevented it from producing food.

Slowly, that enormous body began to wither and go into decay. I could not help comparing it to the individual human body which withers, goes into decay, and finally into death when any group of cells ceases to carry on its normal work.

There is a remedy which is often applied with successful results when the individual cells of the human body begin to ‘‘lie down on the job,’’ and that remedy is to re-establish harmony and cooperation among the cells to the end that they will again function normally.

That same remedy is the one, and probably the only one, which will save the human race and bring it back to normal, healthy, constructive living once more. The same principle which causes the tiny human body cells to function and cooperate in peace and harmony while the individual enjoys a healthy, happy human body applies with equal precision to the entire human race.

8<-------------------------end of excerpt ------------------------------

2. Bruce Lipton's "Spontaneous Evolution"

Video Link to You Tube:<-

And now, Bruce Lipton, a modern internationally recognized leader in bridging science and spirit, has further illustrated the same idea with scientific data and examples in great extend!

In this 50 minutes video clip, it covers many topics which will propel individual onto the path of better consciousness, such as the difference between Subconscious Mind and Conscious Mind, the effect of circumstance on people, how this world became a dog-eat-dog world, and what's the solution to co-create a better world in the very very near future (as the current world system cannot sustain this rate of exponential decay.)

"天下事在局外呐喊议论，总是无益。

必须躬自入局，挺膺负责乃有成事之可翼。"

-曾国藩

"For whatever matter it may be, simply by complaining or shouting

outside the scene yet not participating in it will never help.

One must do his part in co-creating the event,

then it can be successful."

- GuoFan,Zeng (A Minister in Qing Dynasty)

Comments:<-

Be Aware of "The Marketing of Madness"!

2011-01-28T03:13:00.000-08:00

Protect Yourself and your family Against the Deadly Lies with Truth...

When the citizens cannot depend on their government to protect them against the lies from Pharmaceutical Industry, then it would depend on the self-aware individual to alert one and other...

Below is a documentary exposes the mistakes made by psychiatrists, allies the pharmaceutical industry. It exposes the criminal enterprise we know as psychiatry, and ending with a list of 11 important actions that one can be taken after viewing this shocking and compelling documentary.

Continue watching the video here :->Youtube Link:<-

A quote from the documentary from the Stock Analyst's point of view:

"There are only two disasters than can happen in the drug industry. The first disaster is if you KILL people. The second disaster is if you CURE them."

“Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize itself into an undercover dictatorship to restrict the art of healing to one class of men and companies and deny equal privileges to others and will constitute the Bastille of medical science.” – Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the US Declaration of Independence

Personal Finance (3) : The Business of Making Money from the Market

2011-01-12T01:18:00.000-08:00

In this Feburary issue of the "Smart Money" magazine, it takes a look at the America's Top 1% fund managers and find out how big is the profits from this business -- that is Making Money from the Market.

It reveals that recently most mutual funds have been under attack for being under-performed their benchmarks (indices). And, ONLY 7% of actively managed funds were beating their benchmarks by 5% point or more.

And, it gives statistics on the average annual return for the past 5 years for the Top Performers in various area of focus:
*Foreign Stock funds,*U.S. Large Cap Funds,*Global Real Estate Funds, and
*U.S. Small Cap Fund.
Unlike the advertisement that trying to lure the public into the stock market by selling few days seminar that can double your money in a year or two. It may be surprise to some of you that the average annual return (5 yrs) of these Top Performing Funds from various fields range only from 2.2 to 13.8%!!!

Having read this, I thought it would be an interesting research to find out how the world most well known investor, Warren Buffett, was doing recently. And, what conclusions we may derive from it.

The above are two charts showing the 20 years performance of the S&P500 and the Warren's Berkshire Hathaway(BRK-A). And below is an excel sheet showing the historical Average Annual Compounded Return for the chars. (click on those charts and table to zoom in for clear view.)

From the table above, it show the comparison of the historical compunded average return of S&P500 and BRK-A. The table below shows the summary of the result.

Here are some interesting points to observe:

* Like most business in the any industries, the business of making money from the market is getting tougher and tougher! Well, this is simply the fact. As the business in the industries is getting more and more difficult, more companies could go bankrupt or downsize. This would directly reflect from the S&P500 chart.

* Even the best fund manager like Warren Buffet can just beat the S&P500 in single digit percentage over the years.

* Despite the massive money supply created by the governments for the last couple of years, the stock market did not really seems to move up in trend, only the inflation moving up in trend, and apparently annual inflation of food is going up much faster than what the best fund manager can achieve... What would Happen!?

The intention of this blog entry is wish to project a realistic view for those who think to get out from the job immediately and trade the market for a living from scratch. Despite the steep learning curve that would last a couple of years, one must have million dollars to make 100k on annual basis even if he got the skill.

On the other hand, if one were to think of handling their money by themselves, due to too many scams in the financial industry in recent years, after their retirement. It is strongly recommended to start learning the skills at least 10 years before the actual date of retirement... and that is probably the minimum amount of time required on part-time basis. Dig your own well before you are thirsty.

Demonstrating to others that what they believe is wrong can be dangerous.
You can't count on people to recognize the truth when they hear it.
People will fight to preserve their own ignorance.
- lessons from Plato

The Man with the Mission of "Making You Rich"!? - Robert Kiyosaki

2011-01-06T19:31:00.000-08:00

Robert Kiyosaki has been well known since his first best selling book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", which
was published in 2001 (10 years ago). Yes, if you have not read the book, it is strongly recommended
to do so as it is really an inspiring book on personal finance.

Following by this inspirational "Get Rich" concept, multiple books had been published and become
best seller of the time. Especially on the Real Estate Investment Topics during the last US market
Housing Boom since 2003.

Click on the Chart to Zoom in for detail view of time frame

The above stock chart illustrates the Real Estate market in US since 2001 till now. Did he help to fuel
the last Housing Bubble in the US and cause many investors run into heavy debt eventually, I don't
know. But, it just prove few simple facts.

1) Which is with the current society system setup, "NOT ALL PEOPLE CAN BE RICH ALL
AT ONE TIME." This is true even no matter how hard that everyone is trying their best to read, to
learn, and to work. See... What happen if all people getting rich and all want to get retire early? Who
is going to drive the public transportation, who is going to clean the shopping mall, and so on...

2) Getting Rich requires a person to have a long term persistent effort and development on some
Specialize Knowledges and Wisdoms, which can not be Duplicated like copy a file from one
computer to another, by simply reading a book or attending a seminar would not get there immediately.
Similarly, simply by working on a job created by someone else for you (unless you are top executives
in big corporations which is rare) will not get you rich, nor get you to retirement comfortably in early
age.

Attached are few video clips that take the view from another angle of Robert Kiyosaki teaching. That
is by holding few days workshop with large group of participants at 45,000 Canadian Dollar per
person...

Did you ask the Questions:
"WHO REALLY MAKES WHO RICH?"
"IS THE INTENTION ONLY TO HELP THE RICH TO GET RICHER?"

If you have trouble to see the video clips above, here are the link to youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE6nT0oyPt8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv6feHB0AE4&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iimvyVCEGA&NR=1

Historically, getting less in number by now despite it has more population on earth ever, there are

great teachers in many fields, such as spiritual, philosophy, medicine, etc... helping others to have a

better live. I never heard that they went around helping other by charging them with big lump sum of

money first. So, what lead human to behave as today? And, more importantly, with the trend going,

what would be the future look like???

No man has a chance to enjoy permanent success

until he begins to look in a mirror for the

real cause of all his mistakes.

- Napoleon Hill

A Catch-22 Situation : Human Population on Earth

2011-01-02T19:03:00.001-08:00

In "The Economist", Nov 2010 issue, it has a special report on the aging problem of Japan's population. As it can see from the chart above, "from pyramid to kite", that the age group of the older population slowly become heavier weight than the younger population over time. This would mean that the age group of working class (say, 20-55) that bring home with the paycheck would have a heavier load (financially) to carry. Or the retirement age of the current working generation will have to continuously extend into the future, to a degree that in the future the children and their parents may compete for the same job vacancy!?

Well, may be the apparent solution is to have more new babies??? Which will bring the "Kite Shape" back to a "Pyramid"...

But, then look at the "National Geographic", Jan 2011 issue, that the human population is going to cross the 7 Billion mark some time this year, and it is in a trend of continuous growth towards 9 Billion mark in the next 30 over years! Does this planet earth sill has enough natural resources to sustain such growth in a peace and harmony way?

Well, I don't think there is any one can provide an acceptable official solution to all people and thus there is no public media want to cover both sides of the story.

Anyway, even the first article is using Japan as an example. How about the situation of YOUR COUNTRY???

Here is the Singapore Population Pyramid Projection till 2050.

If there is any difficulty to view the embeded video, click direct on this youtube link:->

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBEn6hcU5uQ

Attached is the link that will provide you with the "Pyramid Chart":-

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/country.php

Simply select the "Country" and the "Year" can click on the Submit button.
Then, click on the "Population Pyramids" button, and you will get the answer.

Some other relevant links:-
-> PEAK OIL: "Hello World, I Am Here!" <-
It's the Planet, Stupid.
Georgia Guidestones - Wikipedia.
Message at Georgia Guidestones - YouTube.

"The all is one, the one is all."

-Bashar

Self Development Idea (12) - Team and Grow Rich

2010-12-30T04:29:00.000-08:00

-----8< ----- Article Cut & Paste from Scientific American MIND, Vol 17 No 3, June/July 2006 -----

Better Than Individuals

When three, four or ﬁve people gather to solve a problem, chances are they will succeed beyond the efforts of an equivalent number of individuals working separately, even if those soloists are the brightest available. So conclude researchers at the University of Illinois.

The investigators enrolled 760 of the school’s students to solve complex letter and word problems. Some toiled as individuals while others functioned in groups of two, three, four or ﬁ ve. The groups of three, four and ﬁ ve performed better than any set of individuals.

The dynamic is sensitive, however. Teams of two performed at the same level as two separate people, suggesting that this team size is too small to foster the dynamics that create optimal problem solving. Also interesting is that groups of three, four and ﬁ ve did equally well compared with one another; there was no advantage to adding people beyond a trio.

Study leader Patrick R. Laughlin says that in addition to tackling workplace challenges, problem-solving groups might enhance classroom learning. Further research is needed to determine whether student groups perform better than individuals do in academic settings and, if so, at what ages and tasks.

— Mark Fischetti

--------------------------------------------------------------8< ------------------------------------------------------

Although the result of the above research is nothing new for those who had studied the books by Napoleon Hill, I think it is an excellent articles to illustrate the important point of teamwork.

Napoleon Hill called it the "Mater Mind Group"- the power beyond science. In short he described that "The Master Mind effort is to get those of like mind, form an alliance with about 5-6 people as optimum number, to work actively in a spirit of perfect harmony towards accomplishing of a definite purpose."

In my view, this concept is now more valuable than any of the historical time. This is because the knowledge that need to achieve success in the modern society has become so complex that not only the depth, but also the breath of subjects are increasing rapidly which fuel by modern technology.

For example, in the past, a farmer, scientist, doctor, teacher, engineer or any person who have a full time job can concentrate in their work and entrust their life-time saving to the fund managers and banks that would be needed for retirement. But, in this dog-eat-dog era, with too many "Bad Apples" in the market, people has to worry about the ethical issues of their brokers/fund managers, bankruptcy of banks... And even with the possibility of bankruptcy of certain states or the whole country... or yet another round of financial turbulence that might wipe out their saving or loose their job!!! Think about it, what a joke (though not funny but a sad one) for the thousand years of evolution of human history.

Working harder on the job can not solve such problems. Think of it this way:- one would need to fill up a bucket of water as accumulating enough personal retirement fund. But, one cannot fill up a bucket if there are a few leaking holes on it. The more water one can fill into it, the more it would leak out.

Anyway, here is a little suggestion... Individual can form team to handle their financial matters, and make sure that at least one person in the term have a compass to navigate through the turbulence market in the future.

"A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant

may see farther than a giant himself."

- Didacus Stella.

Here is a blog link for those who are not familiar with the term "Master Mind Group".

Why Old Beliefs or Behaviors (Habits) are Hard to Change

2010-12-28T05:19:00.000-08:00

The short video clip (1 min 20 sec, by Gerald Kein), above explains the reason why old beliefs or behaviors (Habits) are hard to change. And, it has deep implication on how our society behave as it is as today...

* The schools, religions, public media, together with the family members implants ideas and beliefs into the subconscious mind of child since he is borned. And, when the child has grown up, he tends to conform to the Rules of the Society.

Well, below is a short video that can provide the detoxification by only a couple of questions.... (by Jim Rohn).

"WHO said it could not be done? And what great victories has he

to his credit which qualify him to judge others accurately?"

- Napoleon Hill

Season Greeting (1)

2010-12-17T21:35:00.000-08:00

It was fun trying to learn some video editing skill...

Such as prepare a Season Greeting Video...

And other Stuffs...

How to Trade in Market...

Thanks for visiting and have a nice Day.
KH Tang

PEAK OIL:"Hello, World! I am here."

2010-11-14T23:10:00.000-08:00

Below are two slides Cut & Paste from the "Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas" ASPO 2010 World Oil Conference.

The first slide shows that we have gone passed the first half of the Age of Oil as we know it...
Where in this first half of the Oil Age:
* Oil is located on-shore or near to shore,
* In vast reservoirs called giants and super-giants oil field,
* Mainly consist of Light & Sweet Crude Oil,
* Inexpensive to produce which cost around $1 to $10/barrel.
(These had become history)

Whereas in this second half of the oil age which are are now at...* Oil fields are far offshore or deep underground,* Scattered in hard to reach, yet small reservoirs,
* Mainly consist of Heavy and Sour Crude oil,
* Much more expensive to produce which cost $80 and more per barrel.
(This is what we are going to face)
Original Source of slide by Andre Angelantoni, Title: Where Are We Now?: <- The following slide is a Zoom-in of the chart to have a more detail view of current oil production scenario... It shows that there in not much spare oil production capacity in this world.

Link to Robert L. Hirsch Presentation slides on The ASPO-USA Conference, 8 Oct 2010. Title: The Impending World Energy Mess, What it is and What it Means to YOU!

There are more presentation slides can be found in the following link. Which cover various aspects, such as Peak Oil Preparation and Investment topics, with over 30 presentations:->

The Association for the Study of Peak Oil(ASPO) USA Peak Oil Conference (7-9 Oct 2010) Presentation Slides Directory

For those who are first time to come across the topic of Peak Oil or not too familiar with it, the following is AN EXCELLENT 60 minutes video presentation by Congressman Roscoe Bartlett in the House in 2005. This important and valuable information had been overshadowed by few other major events, such as housing bubbles and Wall Street crisis... As these economy issues actually help to destroy oil demand to a certain extend and mitigate the oil price. But, the problem is still there, and it will re-surface with bigger trouble in these few years time frame... Possibly anytime now.

Part 1 of 7

Part 2 of 7, Part 3 of 7, Part 4 of 7, Part 5 of 7, Part 6 of 7, Part 7 of 7

“…By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 MBD.” - Congressman Roscoe Bartlett at ASPO-USA World Oil Conference, 7 Oct 2010.
Link to Congressman Roscoe Bartlett Keynote Presentation Slides: <- Click Here

Below is a PowerPoint slide that introduce the peak oil concept to beginner. It has to be downloaded with PowerPoint format in order to see some of the animation...
A brief introduction to PEAK OIL.pps (<-: Download link from 4shared site)

Another Important Point is that...

None of the government in the world has formerly inform their citizens on this issue, and try to openly form organization figure out the solution. It is up to individual to share information (books, documentary, blog, etc) in the internet or self-organized group, such as ASPO to fan out the information... Example...

Data Speaks for itself:-> PDF Link <-

^Click on the Picture to ZOOM IN for better clarity:^

Oil Supply vs Stock Market in the History

Note: Since Money is a very flexible things nowadays, which means the printing of it can get very fast... and when the money flow into the Stock Market, it raise the index. So, it is not necessary that the market will go down... Only the future can tell.

Our World Governments Response to Peak Oil

Or they will have to give up the 2nd term, and

the following video is an good example.

"My father rode a camel. I drive a car.

My son flies a jet airplane.

His son will ride a camel."

- Saudi Saying

Note:

Many people think that Gold or Silver can preserve "Value"... That could be true during the process of change. And, ultimately, the world economy is fueled by energy.

As the Black Gold (oil) is now getting less and less, it would just cost more and more. Eventually, who has the power to control the oil supply, who dictates the rule of the game.

Relevant Article:
-> A Catch-22 Situation: Human Population On Earth <-

-> Comment <-

World Current Affairs - Quantitative Easing

2010-11-12T18:55:00.001-08:00

Cut and paste for 100th monkey effect.

-----------------------------------------------8<------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------------------8<------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------------------8<------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------------------8<------------------------------------------------ Quantitative Easing Explained

-----------------------------------------------8<------------------------------------------------

Well, there is a slang: "You put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig." So, purely by creatively naming "Printing Money" as "Quantitative Easing" or anything else he may think of, is still "Printing Money".

"If you can not convince people, make it

complicated and confuse them."

Stock Market Tools (9) - Point & Figure Chart with Relative Strength

2010-11-07T19:27:00.001-08:00

Point & Figure Chart is an extremely old tool that use to trade the market. The oldest chart was found in a book "The Game in Wall Street, and How to Play it Successfully" written by "HOYLE" and first published in 1898. This tool is
very effective in aiming for longer term movement rather than day trading kind of hit and run tactic. So, it is particularly good for people who are having a full time job, and want to handle their own money in trading the market.

Fig. 1 The first form of Point & Figure Chart found in old book published in 1898.

Fig 2. P&F Chart on Commodity ETF (DBC) dated 6 Nov 2010(EOD).

Chart generated with Bull-Eye's Broker Software

Click on the Chart to Zoom In for clearer view. ^

Over time, with the aid of computer, Relative Strength Benchmarking feature is also added in the P&F Chart. The Chart (Fig 2.) shows the P&F diagram of the ETF- DBC, along with the Relative Strength against SPY and SGDUSD (Singapore Dollar vs US Dollar).

The first Relative Strength is to benchmark the S&P500. One should always remember to select a vehicle that is moving faster than the broad market index.

For the second Relative Strength, one can choose to benchmark a currency exchange rate. For example, a foreigner may like to buy some stocks or ETFs in the US market, but worry about the profits may be eroded by the weak USD against their home currency... By having this Relative Strength benchmark, one can make sure that he choose a vehicle that is moving faster than the change of currency exchange rate.

Many traders who know Technical Analysis may not know much about this tool or just ignore it. The main stream media, of course, do not publicize such tool that encourage patient which would lead to low trading frequency and hurt trading firms' commission.

On the other hand, this is a very straight forward tool that one can simply get a book on P&F and use the online free resources:-

-> P&F Charting Tools Online (Free).

-> Ebooks (Some are still under copyright).

------------------------------------------ Tea Break --------------------------------------------

Isaac Newton Loses A Big Fortune in the South Sea Bubble:

Even Sir Isaac Newton (4 Jan 1643 - 31 Mar 1727), the well known English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and theologian, got caught up in the South Sea mania and invested a big chunk of his fortune. Interestingly, he pulled out early (after making a respectable 7,000 pounds) then went back in after the bubble continued to inflate. The inevitable bust happened and he lost 20,000 pounds - a considerable sum at the time.

As a result of this crisis, he stated "I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people".

Well. Recently, I heard of quite a few cases that some people due to what ever reasons, get out of their jobs in the corporation and just want to go trading for a living... Thinking that the success in one field can directly port over to the stock trading business within a short period of time. Such as buy a trading system, attend a class or just read a few books. This real story may help one to realize that success in one field or many fields such as a genius like Newton can fail in the Stock Market speculation miserably.

The objective of putting up this fact is not to deter anyone to get into the market, but rather to ask one to prepare seriously in advance. One should seriously consider study how the market works as a part of the retirement plan. Such as learning how a trading system works, how to test it, improve it, when to follow it and when not to follow it, forming a study group, etc... DON'T expect the insurance policies can help to cover the inflation (or if there is still any life insurance companies lift over after the baby boomers,1946-1964, had collected their shares.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Put Stock in Yourself, that is the only

one that will always go up!"

-Bashar

Project Atlas Shrugged!? (1): WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?

2010-11-06T05:25:00.000-07:00

In this documentry, Who Killed the Electric Car?(2006)...

Link for Part 1 of 10 (<-Click here to get into You-tube to see the subsequent parts)

In 1996, electric cars (EV1) began to appear on roads all over Califonia. They were quiet and fast, produced no exhaust and ran without gasoline.... Ten years later (2005), these futuristic cars were completely gone, as they were called back and scraped into dust by their manufacturer(GM) , while they are still in good working condition...

In the last part of the movie, it questioned who was the "One" who killed these electic cars.

At that time, people tend to believe that the manufacturer, GM, was under pressured by the Big Oil Organizations to get rid of those energy efficient cars, so that it would not hurt their oil's profits.

At first, this logical thinking made good scense... BUT, later in Jun 2009 GM declared bankruptcy!!! Then, if one were to think it over again... It make no sense that GM would allow the oil companies to dictate their survival as a company and not using those electic cars, which may save their company as the world is crying for energy efficient cars...

So, if this is not the logical reason, then what is? Not only "WHO" killed the electric car, but also "WHY" Killed the electric car??? What is the INTENTION and MOTIVE???

For those who had read the book - "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, it provides a very strong and possible reason.(see the footnote below) That is to keep it for the future, after the world have come to a complete collapsed due to Peak Oil.
Why wait until then? Because, if anyone sell such futuristic product in the market for the Fiat Currency, competitors all over the world would buy them and duplicate with reverse-engineering!

One must learn not to cheat himself, by good will or intention, that the world is now in a completely peace and harmony way. This is definitely not the case among the super-power countries... And, not even within their own country.

Footnote:
In the book, Atlas Shrugged, a fictional character by the name of John Galt had invented revolutionary new motor powered by ambient static electricity, which means it can used for generating electicity with almost zero maintenance cost. He scrapped the proto-type and hided in a secret valley. Because that he do not think the world system was set up correctly in his perspective, and he do not want them to enjoy the benefit of the invention.

Not only that, Galt then secretly persuaded the world's creative leaders, including inventors, artists and businessmen on by one to quit and disappear from their position and join him. He organized them in an effort to "stop the motor of the world" and bring about the collapse of the society.

At the end, these group of Elites, lead by John Galt, appear as the heros to rescue the world and implement the blue print in their mind - how the New World Order should be.

All of us have one the following choices:-

1. Having an Open Mind

2. Avoid Thinking

Related Article: PEAK OIL:"Hello, World! I am here."

To be continue... Project Atlas Shrugged!? (2): THE EURO ZONE

->: Comments

Book Recommendation: The Study of the Future

2010-10-15T01:32:00.000-07:00

Attached are two pages from cut and paste fromthe Book: "The Study of the Future", which was published some 30 years ago... It is very much accurate in it predictions from the psychology perspectives. And many more other predictions ranging from personal, family and national perspective.

Here is the link for book for your free reading:-> The Study of the Future.

-------------------------------------------8<--------------------------------------------------

As you can see that there is a group (in fact there are groups) of very intelligent people trying to predict what would happen with any new technologies/products/policies implemented that change the people life-style... You will be amazed about the accuracy of the predictions if you were choose to scan through the book.

The question would be who own these group of people, another famous one would be "The Club of Rome"... What actions had these group of people taken? This is a very logical question as if you were to know something is going to happen in the future, what would you do to secure an advantage for yourself and your family?

As they would know the trouble that possibily cause by certain products, why not educate or warn the public in advance, for the negative side effect? But, if they were to do so, there would not have so much grow in GDP...

Anyway, form the prediction of this book, eventually the solution would likely to have a global government.... that help to manage the remaining resources on earth more effectively. Doesn't it sound like the New World Order stuff?

The purpose of this blog entry is to provide food for THOUGHT! Do we really know what lead us to where we are at this point? :-) While most people, today, main focus is busying in accumulating fiat money.

"The man who actually knows just what he wants in life

has already gone a long way toward attending it."

-Napoleon Hill

Personal Health: Know What Are We Taking

2010-10-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

-----------------------------------------8<---------------------------------------------------

Coca-Cola began putting the “sugar substitute” aspartame in Diet Coke in 1982. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Many of these reactions are very serious including seizures and death.

In 1999, the Independent on Sunday discovered that the maker of aspartame, Monsanto, uses genetically engineered bacteria to produce the “sweetener” at its U.S. production plants. Aspartame is made by combining phenylalanine, which is naturally produced by bacteria, with another amino acid. To make the bacteria produce more phenylalanine, Monsanto has genetically engineered them. “Increasingly, chemical companies are using genetically engineered bacteria in their manufacturing process without telling the public,” said Dr. Erik Millstone, of the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University, and a member of the National Food Alliance, told the newspaper.

-----------------------------------------8<---------------------------------------------------

Above is a cut & paste that found in the web:http://www.infowars.com/warning-to-glenn-beck-dont-drink-diet-coke/

There are many relevant articles on the side effect of Aspartame:

* Aspartame is, by far, the most dangerous substance on the market that is added to foods.

* Aspartame Side Effects

* Aspartame Kills (Excellent Video) (When you know that Aspartame was synthesized by fermenting protein in GENETICALLY MODIFIED E-COLI Bacteria, would you still consume it?)

* Aspartame: Sweet Misery, A Poisoned World. (A 90 minutes video documentary on Aspartame side effects.)

* And, much more when you google for "Aspartame"

Yet Aspartame is marketed as a is a low calorie sweetener that helps people to control their weight. http://www.aspartame.net/ ?!?

There is a saying... "You become what you think about all day long." As we also know that foods and drinks affect our health...

So, it is right to say that "You are what you eat and drink most of the time."

The Largest Intra-net in the World

2010-09-30T01:32:00.000-07:00

According to Reuters, China internet population had hit 384 million in the beginning of this year.

On the other hand, China also has created a great-fire-wall that turns those internet users to become their intra-net users. There are many sites, such as face book, google blogs, scribd, amazon, etc... are not accessable in China.

Ironically, a philosopher in China about 2300 year ago, Zhuangzi 庄子 had told a fable that would apply to this current situation. - "The Frog in the Well."

In this fast moving era, call it information age, globalization, or what so ever. What ever things can change in 3 years now, in terms of scale, would require at least 30 years if it took place a century ago. Therefore, access to timely information is very important, and internet is one of the most valuable tool that one can use for doing research. Building a fire-wall to limit the access is like putting the people in the well...

(Comic pictures are cut & paste from the book by Tsai Chih Chung)

Self Development Idea (11) - Why do we need to read lots of good books?

2010-09-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

continue from Reading Good Books

I have once read an article about a corporation-coach, but do not remember his name. He claimed that he can accurately predict a person incomes and asset net worth for person in five years down the road if one just agrees to take a simple survey.

So, what kind of survey?

It is very simple…

1) Just list down the 5 best friends that one always gets together for leisure or work.

2) List down their individual income and asset net-worth then divide by 5.

And, that would be income and asset net-worth the one person will have in 5 years down the road.

Think about it, it makes sense! See...

* "Bird of a feather flock together"

* "Wise men think alike, and fools seldom differ"

* " 物以类聚"

I have also come across a story told by Steve Chen (陈安之) that once Jack Canfield (author of Chicken soup series) was having a motivation speech in the same event with Anthony Robbins. At the back stage, Jack was asking Anthony: “Well, we are both giving motivational speech to our audience. But, I am wondering, after so many years of working… I am still just a millionaire and you are a billionaire. What do you think I can get improve on that?”

Anthony then asking back with a question: “Who are you best friends, and what’s their average net worth?”

Jack: “Well, my best friends are mostly pretty successful businessmen or professionals in certain fields. They are all millionaires.”

Anthony: “See..., that’s the point. My friends are mostly billionaires.”

So, one may think that what’s the use of knowing these stories as he don’t think that he have a chance to get to know millionaire personally…

Well, here is the Point: When people get together, they share information, ideas, inspiration, etc. AND, one can get similar information, ideas, inspiration, etc. from Good Books which were written by successful people.

Similarly, our thoughts (which will become our action and bring us the results) could affect by other “Information” that feed into our brain, consciously or subconsciously. One must not only just pay attention on the books that he read, but also the audio/video from the environment.

back to Reading Good Books with a short list of good books.

"You cannot change your destination overnight,

but you can change your direction overnight."

- Jim Rohn

The Corporation: The Entity That Change The World

2010-07-18T18:13:00.000-07:00

Few days ago… I was having lunch in a restaurant and overheard a conversation from the table next to mine. Two women were happily boasting and comparing how smart their kids are. They are speaking so loud that seems like they want to let everybody knows about it…

The theme of their conversation was about their kids are so smart that they know exactly what they want to buy when their kids go to the shopping centers. The products can range from toys, candies, etc. And if they refuse to buy, the kids know how to convince them why they should buy.

For the moment that I heard of these conversation, it triggered me to recall a documentary that I had watched about 3 years ago..."The Corporation." I think that if they have had watched the attached documentary clips (for about 5.5 minutes), they would understand why is that so… That is, the advertisement industry had spent billions of dollars, each year, in training the kids to nag more effectively for what they want.

If you don't see the "Video Clip" here due to browser compatibility, here is the URL Link.<-

If you think that the above video clip does give some insight of how the corporation work. You can follow this -> URL Link <- to watch the full movie part by part.

A Short Summary of this Documentary…

In the beginning, say a hundred and fifty years ago... Corporations are fictitious entities created by law to carry out business more effectively, with the aim of improve the quality of life for humanity. Over time, these entities have grown up to be so big and so strong. Now, they are sponsoring their favorite politicians to form the government, and influence them to create laws and policies that in the interest of the Corporation as priority, which is harmful to the quality of life for humanity.

If one were to think of it in certain way, doesn't sound like the story of the Blockbuster Movies "The Terminator". Which human being was building intelligent into robots to help out certain jobs. Later on, those intelligence robots get so intelligent that they try to rule the world.

Other Thoughts:

* From those movie clip, especially the video clip on the previous blog entry : "True Lies and True Crime"... Which shows a R&D VP lie about the toxicity of the Chemical "Corexit" that been spray heavily in the the Mexican Gulf... Some how, it shows that the "ethic" for those people had been totally gone.

* As the key driving forces for most corporations today are purely based on profits and growth. For any organization, making profit is a right thing to do, for it can be self-sustain, and growth with sustainable rate. BUT, profiteering is un-ethical; Profits from sacrificing or over exploiting of natural resources to satisfy greed is wrong. For what is right or wrong, think from the view point of your next generation rather than your current CEO or Corporation Goal!

* Yes. In the documentary, it has demonstrated many corporations had change the world nowadays, and they have changed the world in a very harmful way for the public interest. Such as creating pollution and cutting down trees in exponential speed! On the other hand, the Power of Corporation is just like Money. It is purely a tool which provide the Energy and get many things to be done faster. Also that corporation is formed by people... When more people are willing to take the right action... Corporations may be able to do good for the humanity eventually!

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help
the man with the wrong mental attitude."
— Thomas Jefferson: Third U.S. president

True Lies and True Crime

2010-07-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

The above video (URL Link) was an interview with Dr. David Horsup, the Vice-President for Research and Developmentof Nalco Energy Services (the ompany that manufactures the Corexit , and now continue to spray into the Mexican Gulf by BP) concerning about the public enquiry on the safety of Corexit. In the video clip, he claimed that the Corexit is many times safer than the dish soap that public use in their home.

Doesn't him not only telling true lies, but also committing true crime?

The below video (URL Link) by a citizen that volunteered to collect same sample of seawater for chemical analysis, and it is proven to be very toxic!

Besides, there are also many news that can be find in the web that the cleanup workers from the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil spill are still suffering health problems, 21 years later. And, they were using a variant of Corexit. (URL Link)

---------------------------------------8<---------------------------------------

A lawyer who represented on such Exxon Valdez worker told CNN that One examination of health records of 11,000 Exxon Valdez cleanup workers found that 6,722 of them had gotten sick. The government and the company called those illnesses the “Exxon crud,” a flu or cold that Exxon was not required to report to federal health officials, CNN said.

One former Exxon Valdez cleanup worker interviewed by CNN said he was “slowly poisoned” by the toxins he was exposed to. Today, he continues to suffer from rashes, respiratory problems, and is going blind.

---------------------------------------8<---------------------------------------

For oil and water don't mixed. But, as demonstrate from the 1st video clip, that when corexit is added to the oil, the oil will be dissolved and mixed with the water... Which would then pollute the whole sea rather than just the surface of the sea. So, no one can really know or figure out how much oil was leaked. Corexit help BP to hide the problem under the sea!

Just wonder how long does it takes this to be broadcast by the major public media...

On the other hand, as one can not count on the public media to report such critical issue, which will cost them lost of air time (profits), the next best thing to do is to get other inform through the net... as it is still available.

"There is no evil in the universe which is not the result of ignorance,

and which would not, if we were ready and willing to learn

its lesson, lead us to higher wisdom,

and then vanish away."

— James Allen

Self Development Idea (10) - Reading Good Books

2010-06-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

"It isn' what the book costs; it's what it will cost if you don't read it." - Jim Rohn

Jim Rohn been mentioned that most homes valued over USD500K in the US have a library. Does it tell us something? Do you think that these people read first and get the house later or the other way round?

"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read." Mark Twain

Reading good books is just like finding giants who allow us to stand on their shoulders, to get more ideas, see further, think deeper and broader, etc... Which can eliminate lots of trail and error in life.

Take for example, in the book "Buffetology", it reveals that Warren Buffet had put education in priority and perosnally spent time to educate his grand-daugthers, at the age of 10, in investment. And that these children can select stocks that out-perform the wall street professionals.

Well, as most public are not so lucky to born into those billionaire home where they can have private education on certain subjects that lead them to easier success in certain aspect of life. Therefore, one good way to over come this challenge is to read lot of good books. As this is fully within his personal control.

For the question which book is good and which is not... One could easily tell, after he read a couple of them...

Here are some classic that are surely good one(on the aspect of Personal Development):-
* The Power of Subconscious Mind - Joseph Murphy
* Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
* Master Key System - Charles Haanel
* The Magic of Believing - Claude M. Bristol
* The Magic of Thinking Big - David Schwartz
* As a Man Thinketh - James Allen (Attached Below)
* The Art of Exceptinal Living - Jim Rohn
* Mentored by a Millionaire - Steven K. Scott
* Mind Power - John Kehoe
* The Genie within - Your Subconscious Mind - How it works and how to use it. - Harry Carpenter

Due to some issue in browsers compatibility, if you can not see the picture book below, click on the link:->

As a Man Thinketh (Picture Book) (PDF version)

Continue: Why do we need to read lots of good books?

"People often say that motivation doesn't last.

Well, neither does bathing— that's why

we recommend it daily."

— Zig Ziglar

Something is Very Wrong - Spraying Massive Corexit 9500 (Highly Toxic) into the Gulf of Mexico

2010-06-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

For any industrial chemical, by law, it always come with a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). Attached, below, is the MSDS for the Corexit 9500. Take a look at item 3. "Hazards Identification" and item 4. "First Aid Measures", then judge by your common sense whether this stuff is toxic or not.

URL Link:- < Corexit 9500 Material Safety Data Sheet (Why US Government allow BP to use More Poison to hide the problem?)

For those who care to find out more, just fire up your search engine for "BP Corexit 9500"... There are lots of articles and video been made and shouting for help. How come that the US government can send troops to other regions for made-up reason that are thousands of miles away, and do nothing in their own backyard?

"The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people

who are evil;but because of the people

who don't do anything about it."

- Albert Einstein

"If you think you're too small to have an impact,

try going to bed with a mosquito in the room."

- Anita Roddick

Home Page

Self Development Idea (9) - Recognize that We Don't Know What We Don't Know

2010-06-08T06:40:00.000-07:00

"Click to ENLARGE"

The diagram above is known as the “conscious competence learning matrix”, it shows that mastering a skill divides into four different stages.

In stage 1: Not only that the person does not know how to do certain thing, but also that he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. In this stage, the person is just like a new baby.

In stage 2: The person has exposed to some new skills that other people can perform well, while he doesn’t know how to do it. In this stage, the person is just like a curious kid.

In stage 3: The person has put in effort to learn the new skill that he is interested in. He can then perform the task with full concentration. In this stage, the person is just like an apprentice.

In stage 4: The person can perform the task with ease as he already mastered the skill. The skill becomes his habit of handling any situation or task. In this stage, the person is the Champion in that field.

Well, this is just a very brief summary on the topic, and there are many literatures can be found in the web on this topic if one is interested… (Just search for “consciousness competence”.

On the other hand, based on this concept of this learning model, I think that there is one very interested aspect that we can questions and find some insights out of it…

Let imagine that we can quantify the number of skills in each of the different stage. How big would it be for each of them at any time? The picture above is designed to illustrate the relative size of each stage.

For example, the stage 1, “We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know.”, is by far the biggest as compare to the other 3 stages that it can only show an extremely small portion of it in our computer screen.

For any adult the stage 4 would be the second largest, although it is extremely small compare to stage 1. This is because that for any skill that had been mastered, it becomes part of the person behavior as a habit. It is like everyone has a "Wisdom Pot" that can keep all the skills that we had mastered for a life time. J

The stage 3 is the smallest, as we can only focus in learning one skill at a time.

While stage 2 is larger than stage 3, but one has the choice to choose whether to learn or ignore it.

Now, imagine that we can plot a curve for a person’s stage 4 against the time (or age)… How would it look like? How would the curves be different for a mediocre, an above average, and a super-achiever in life? I am sure you get the idea... The chart above illustrates the difference.

The next question would be... Given that everybody has the same among of time a day (24 hrs), How Come that the Super-Achiever can learn so much more valuable skills that the others cannot?

Perhaps that a quote by Jim Rohn, on personal development, can fully answer this question:->

"Learn to Work Harder on Yourself than You Do on Your Job.

If you work hard on your job, you can make a living.

If you work hard on yourself, you can make a fortune."

Well, this is especially truth in today environment... As a survey made in 2008,

"Given that The median years a person stays in one job is 4.1 years (2008), an avg person will have to have 7-10 jobs."

Picture source from:-> Graduation Thesis

"One can not escape a prison if he do not know he is in one."

- unknown

Trap for Investors (6) - The Best Trading System in the World for Sales

2010-05-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

For anyone who has spent some time in the stock market, he/she must has come across some advertisements on selling of outstanding profitable trading system, courses, stock pick, etc. that promise to have your return of investment multiplied a couple of times in short period of time.

Now before we discuss on such advertisements, let me bring out a true story that happened in Niagara Falls:-

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Back on June 30, 1859, a man by the name of Charles Blondin accomplished an amazing feat. He crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope. About 5,000 people had turned out to see his performance as he had ran an ad in the New York Times earlier on.

The rope stretched 1,100 feet (nearly the length of 4 football fields) across the falls at a height of 160 feet (about 16 stories high).

Before Charles began his first attempt to cross the falls, he asked the crowd a question. “How many of you believe I can cross the falls on that tightrope?” The crowd just applauded and cheered to encourage him to start the performance. Charles not only safely made across and back on the tightrope, but also increased the difficult of the performance each time by pushing a wheelbarrow, on stilts and blindfolded.

As the crowd was so amazed with his skill, he then asked “How many of you believe that I can cross the Falls with somebody on my back?” The crowd applauded and cheered this man that they now believe in his ability to do so. Then Charles asked for a volunteer, “Who will volunteer?” The crowd was silent. He then pointed out one man standing nearby, “How about you?” The man replied, ”Hardly, you don’t think I am going to risk my life like that, do you?” and he turn away.

Next Charles pointed out another man, “And what about you?” The man replied, “I believe. In fact, I have no doubt at all.” The man then proceeded to climb on the back of Charles Blondin and they headed across the falls. The crowd waited breathlessly while they crossed and roared their approval once they completed the crossing. What they didn't know was that the man who crossed on Blondin's back was Harry Colcord, his manager.

You see Harry Colcord knew how good Charles Blondin was and fully trusted him. His faith was secure, as the object of his faith, Charles Blondin, was trustworthy and had proven himself so over the years.

Reference: An Illustration of Faith

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Yes. This story is about the "Faith" that we have on "some one" or "some thing". And, let come back to think about "The Best Trading System in the World for Sales"...

If those people, who are selling their Best Trading System, have Faith in their own system that can Multiply on the users' investment in short period of time, why do they just want to sell it for a couple of hundreds or thousands dollar????

One should be aware that for any good system, when it become public, it loses its effectiveness.(<- click here for some back testing results for many popular indicators that are used by the public.) The profits from the stock market are not unlimited. The profits have to tie to the transacted volume. Take for example, some penny stocks can get double, triple or even more in a short time. But if one take into the consideration of actual transacted volume.... He will see that it is only able to feed some speculators, not the major public. That is when a big pool of people want to take the profits, they have to sell the stocks, which would lead to excess supply... and the profits may suddenly vanish if not become negative. :-)

So, are you going to be the volunteer to use the system that the designers themselves do not have the full faith on it?

Well, one will never find peace of mind by letting the financial market to erode their hard-earned money, nor allowing others to determine their job stability in a compnay. And yet one can not simply buy a good trading system to depend on... So, is there any solution to escape the rat race? What about develop your own? If it is to big of a task for one person, why not workout a Master Mind Team to handle a bigger task?

"Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe,

the mind of man can achieve."

- Napoleon Hill

Trap for Investors (5) - Derivatives Market

2010-05-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

A friend had forwarded me a very interesting story that illustrates how the derivative markets created the bubbles. (I was told the author is an accountant, but don't know the author's name.)

------------------------------------------8<---------------------------------------------

Explanation of Derivative Markets

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.

Heidi keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers' loans). Word gets around about Heidi's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Detroit.

By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Consequently, Heidi's gross sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral.

At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then bundled and traded on international security markets.

Naive investors don't really understand that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.

One day, even though the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar. He so informs Heidi.

Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Since Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and the eleven employees lose their jobs.

Overnight, DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS drop in price by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community. The suppliers of Heidi's bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms' pension funds in the various BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds. Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers.

Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multi-billion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from their cronies in Government. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers who have never been in Heidi's bar.

Now do you understand?

------------------------------------------8<---------------------------------------------

And, one more IMPORTANT QUESTION is that:-

Is this was an Accident by mistake or an Intention by design?

There are other effects that the derivative markets have actually affected the traditional stock market operation. Such as:

1) Insiders Buying/Selling information used to be an excellent guide for predicting the short to mid-term price movement. By law, insiders must report their activities for buying or selling stocks. But, with derivatives, insiders can now using put or call options to make profits which need not to be reported. And not to forget that many derivatives such as options are higly leveraged. Therefore, Insiders Buying/Selling information is not so much useful as compare to the past.

2) As people are now able to use puts and calls to profit from the market, the classical Tape Reading Technique is no more as accurate as the past.

In real life, many of those who lack of money are not because that they don't know how to make money. They are lacking of money mainly because they don't spend their money wisely and more critically is that they do wrong investment with their money.

"The state of being rich is not how much money you had already

earned in the past, but how fast you can have it grown

against the inflation in the future."

-KH Tang

Personal Finance (2) : Retirement Fund Excel Tool

2010-04-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

Continue from Part 1:<-

As human perspective tends to focus on the short term events and, to most people, retirement seems to be something that is very far away. As the time keep passing by... and when it come close to their "official age" of retirement, most will get a shock that they are not ready for it.

Click to Zoom In

Another reason for people to ignore the retirement fund issue is as what Dr. Albert A. Bartlett had said:"The Greatest Shortcoming of the Human Race is our Inability to Understand The Exponential Function." That is most people cannot easily imagine in their mind that how big the number would get into with the compound inflation rate (and it now climbing proportional to the rate of Money Supply.)

To over come this challenge, here is a tool, Excel Worksheets, that was designed to help in putting all these figures down on paper. It can help individual to figure out how much it would require for him/her to be financial independent/freedom at a target date.

In the worksheet 1: just need to fill in the following data:

In the worksheet 2: one would need to fill in the details of expenses in various categories into the various fields as circled in the following diagram. It will then compute the ultimate retirement found figures with compound interest/inflation rate.

In the worksheet 3: Well, lot of people like to buy lottery and hope to retire now. This worksheet will tell you EXACTLY HOW MUCH you need to set the figure for achieving your goal -- that is the amount of money that you need to have in order to retire immediately. :-)

When someone is prepared early, this will not be his scenario:-

Here is link for the downloadable Tool in Scribd:->
Personal Finanical Tool:Retirement Fund Calculation

By the way, just some points for ponder....

* Why is there an "Official Retirement Age", and why many people follow? Are you plan to follow this "rule"?

* If making enough money can retire early, why many politicians and businessmen do not retire early and choose to work till the last day in their life?

"If you continue to think like what you always thought,

you continue to get what you always got."

- ?

Personal Finance (1) : Retirement Fund

2010-04-20T04:06:00.000-07:00

Recently, I had come across two articles on the subject of personal finance regarding retirement fund. Both articles are trying to project the amount of money that would be required for retirement with the goal of financial independent in mind. The first article is from the US and the second is from China.

-----------------------------------------------------------8<-------------------------------------------------------

The first article was a summary from a survey with 226 registered investment advisors, and attached Table is the findings: Source URL Link :-> $1 Million Doesn't Cut It for Retirement

The second article is from a Professor, Prof. Zhong, in Financial Research Center, Beijing Pedagogical Academy, China, stated that: “For those who, stay in the first-line cities (such as Beijing, Shanghai, & ShenZhen), are going to retire in 2027, having a sum of 10 million (RMB) might not be enough.”

“北师大金融研究中心一教授钟伟在《英才》杂志发表文章，称一线大城市的居民，2027年退休的话，预备1000万元养老恐怕也不够。”

Source URL Link:-> 白领存款1000万未必够养老

The article by Prof. Zhong had created a series of criticism in the web and media, as far majority of the people do not believe that they stand a chance to make 10,000,000RMB in their entire life. While Prof. Zhong defended himself by commenting that this would be the end result of continuous growth in Money Supply (or better known for the term as keep printing more money).

-----------------------------------------------------------8<-------------------------------------------------------

I think that these articles are of good intention to alert people in starting to plan for their retirement early. And, the following will add some mathematical charts to demonstrate why these article make perfect sense...

Albert Einstein had said:

“The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest”

And, this has proven been true as Warren Buffett made himself one of the richest man by compounding his fund - Berkshire Hathaway - with an average of 20 over percent over the last few decades. The following Chart (click on the chart to ZOOM) illustrate how money can growth in an exponential form want one learnt how to use the wonder of Compound Interest...

But, this is a double-edge sword. If one does not know how to invest and when the inflation rate keep climbing up directly proportional to the money supply grow. Then the Value of the Cash on hand will depreciate accordingly. The following is the chart to illustrate how fast the value (buying power) would evaporate over the years...

So, with both chart above, it clearly show that if one were to retire with the peace of mind... He/she really need to has a skill to earn more to cover both the expense plus capital depreciation due to inflation. Or else, at the age of 65, he/she will become the 95% of the people show in this diagram. :-> "What's Preventing Most People from Financial Freedom".

(...to be continue...)

"The Greatest Shortcoming of the Human Race

is our Inability to Understand

The Exponential Function." -

Dr. Albert A. Bartlett

Link to more relevant articles<:-

Self Development idea (8) - DO IT ANYWAY.

2010-04-12T22:17:00.000-07:00

Here are two short stories, a poem, and a song to illustrate the point:- DO IT ANYWAY.

I. Story 1: The Freshmen

In the first day of an engineering course in a university, a freshman was excited and went to the classroom early. On the way, he met an old man, who carried the same text books walking towards the same classroom. So, he walked closer and greeted him.

“Good morning, Professor.”

The old man replied, “ Good morning, my friend. I am just like you – a freshman.”

The young man was surprised and asked, “Oh, I see. By the way, how old are you?”

The Old man said,” I am 61 years old.”

The young man asked, ”So, when you finish the course, you will be 65 years old by then?!”

The old man smiled and replied, “Yes, my friend. I will be 65 years old anyway in 4 years time, regardless I take the course or not.”

---------------------------------------------------8<---------------------------------------------

II. Story 2: Star Fish

Original Version (public domain)

As the old man walked down a Spanish beach at dawn, he saw ahead of him what he thought to be a dancer. The young man was running across the sand, rhythmically bending down to pick up a stranded starfish and throw it far into the sea.

The old man gazed in wonder as the young soul again and again threw the small starfish from the sand into the water. The old man approached him and asked why he spent so much energy doing what seemed a waste of time. The young man explained that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun.

"But there are thousands of miles of beach, and miles and miles of starfish. How can your effort make any difference?"

The young man looked down at the small starfish in his hand, and as he threw it to safety in the sea, said, "It makes a difference to this one!"

Anonymous

---------------------------------------------------8<---------------------------------------------

III. Poem - Do It Anyway

DO IT ANYWAY
By a spiritual teacher

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
---------------------------------------------------8<---------------------------------------------
IV. Song - Anyway
Link<- (in case it does not appear on some browser)

"Don't die with your music still inside you.
Listen to your intuitive inner voice and
find what passion stirs your soul."
- Wayne Dyer

Stock Market Tools (8) - Global Trading System(GTS)

2010-03-30T01:42:00.000-07:00

1) Is all about Data Processing and Organized it into a User Friendly Charts...

( YouTube Link <- A friend told me that the video does not appear on her browser... If so, click on the link.)

Above is an amazing video presentation by Professor Hans Rosling, a statistics guru, in many topics on global level. Such as global child mortality rate, fertility rate, etc...

For the first four minutes, it shows that most of the public are making choice/decision based on wrong pre-conceived ideas, as many of them are out dated.

After that, when the data starts moving... We can be amazed by how fast things are changing in this world! He basically transforms boring data into lively stories.

2) Is all about where the talent is applied on...

Here is a famous story by Zhuang Zi (庄子) on the power of applying the right talent in the right field...

In Song, there was a family who was skilled at making a kind of ointment (a highly viscous or semisolid substance used on the skin as medicament) which could prevent the skin from cracking.

CLICK on the diagram to Enlarge->

With this medication, this family, for generations, had been making a living by bleaching cloths in the river all year round.

On day, a traveller heard about the ointment and offered to buy the secret formula with very attractive price.

The traveller then offered the secret formula to King Wu and explained its usefulness when apply correctly in the military affairs.

King Wu took the proposal and started a naval battle during a winter against King Yue.

With the secret formula to produce and apply the ointment, the troops of Wu state were spared from catching chilblain (an inflammation followed by itchy irritation on the skins resulting from exposure to moist cold). While the Yue Soldiers suffered from skin disease and were defeated.

After the war, a portion of the conquered territory was awarded to the traveller as a fief, and he become rich main and his status was elevated.

Note: Cartoons scanned from the book "Zhuangzi Speak" by Chih-chung Ts'ai.

The moral of the story is that, though it was the same medical formula. One can use it to make a living and the other can use it to make big profit when he see the value and know where to apply it.

3) Global Trading System

This is self-explanatory...

(If the document does not appear on your browser, click on the link.)

A Top-Down Engineering Approach to Profit From the Global Market

Example

"We come this way but once. We can either tiptoe through life

and hope we get to death without being too badly bruised

or we can live a full complete life realizing

our WIDEST DREAMS."

- Bob Proctor

Self Development idea (7) - The Art of Letting Go

2010-03-23T02:54:00.000-07:00

A great spiritual teacher had told us that:-

"Holding on to anger is like grasping

a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at

someone else; you are the one who gets burned."

So, if someone can not think that he can love his enemy... At least think in terms of "Forgive and Let Go". Let go the hot coal in the hand.

Or we can look at the matter from another perspective:

That's Dr. Daniel Amen's 18/40/60 Rule

At 18 years old - You worry about what everybody is thinking about you.

At 40 years old - You don't give a damn what anybody is thinks of you.

At 60 years old - You realize nobody was thinking about you at all.

Any Surprise? Since other people spend most of their time worry about their own "busy-ness", and not spending time thinking about you. Then what is the point of wasting any time to hate others which would be harmful to your own health?

So, the logical answer is still to "Forgive and Let Go". :-)

And, there are some simple exercises to experience the art of letting go:

Exercise 1:

Step 1. Take a piece of paper and scrunch it up to become a small paper ball.

Step 2. Use the stronger hand to grasp on the paper ball. Take a deep breath and then start to apply force to squeeze it as hard as possible... Hold the breath.... Squeeze harder... Continue to hold the breath, and continue to apply more force to squeeze harder.... continue to do so, until...

Step 3. Until that one can not take it any more. Then, release the ball, with the hand face down, and let it drop... and start to have normal breathing.

Step 4. Feel the sensation of "letting go" in your hand. Doesn't it feel good?

Exercise 2: Sedona Method.

Step 1. The first step is to identify the feeling that one wants to let go.

Step 2. Then ask oneself the following three questions:

Q1. Could I let it go?

Q2. Would I let it go?

Q3. When?

Yes. These steps and questions look very simple. And if one seriously asking the questions and think carefully. One will find that the choice lay within himself. The answers would then be: Yes, Yes, and Now.

As scientists have estimated that the average human has 60,000 thoughts a day. This may be sound interesting as human mind do not stop imagining/thinking all day long.

And, something more interesting is that, according to Dr. Deepak Chopra, 90% of the thoughts you have today are the one you had yesterday!

Therefore, it is a very Important task for every individual to make sure that his dominant thoughts are of good intention and a happy one, or else, like it or not, it will has HIGH chances to come back tomorrow.

"Every event that baffles you today had its seed

in an intention yesterday."

- Deepak Chopra

"Never let yesterday use up too much of today."
— Will Rogers: Humorist

Games that People Play(1):- 挟天子以令诸侯

2010-02-25T04:24:00.000-08:00

When most people hear that the world is actually controlled by a very few minority people/families who controlled most of the governments in the world... They would simply say that "IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!"

But, in reality, this is not a new concept at all. It happened around the world everywhere. Take for examples:-

In the late Han Dynasty, around 1800 years ago, in China, there was a minister - Cao Cao.

Cao Cao hold the weak Emperor under his control, and made use of the formal legal authority of the Emperor to control the other warlords and force them to comply to his order. In Chinese, it is well known as "挟天子以令诸侯 ". This strategy been repeatedly used in the history. Including the WWII that Japanese used it on China.

Fortunately, there is a defect in this strategy... That is people can see it clearly and try to repel it.

Therefore, in order to use this strategy in modern day, it must be modified, and lets look at how people play this game in this day and age. It must make sure that the people have the good feeling that seem like they have the choice. Like the illustrations from the video and picture below:-

Choosing between two men, or puppets, with the same secret boss behind is still choosing the secret boss.

. .

If the Video above does not appear on your browser...

Then, click on this Youtube Link.<-

Something Not in the Text Book...

http://www.asis.com/users/stag/25Pa.jpg

“You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even

fool some of the people all of the time, but you

cannot fool all of the people all the time.”

- Abraham Lincoln

Trap for Investors (4) - Ponzi Scheme and it's Derivatives

2010-02-22T17:52:00.000-08:00

Below is a good video clip that explains what is a Ponzi Scheme.

* Why some insurance company policies will eventually ended up like a Ponzi Scheme.

There were many insurance policies that promise certain amount of annual return at the policy mature date, usually a few tens of year from the beginning of the policy. In order to attract the customers, the return has to be attractive enough. Also to minus of all those big bonus for the executives and commission of the salesman, plus the tough economy time to make profits from the market. One of the KEY SOURCE of income would be the new comers to the pool.

To see how this kind of system would fail, one would need to examine the Population Pyramid attached below. (Click to Enlarge)

Population Pyramid (Click on the Chart to Enlarge)

Take for example, many well developed countries are now in the Stage 3 of the pyramid (Stationary) and in the progress of moving towards Stage 4 (Contracting). And, some countries are trying to solve the problem by importing younger workers through immigration policy. But, this could ended up worse when the world economy is not growing.

Therefore, there are many Ponzi Scheme Derivatives such as certain type of Life Insurance Policies, which include the US Social Security System.

The following are good video clips that explain the problem with the Population Pyramids in most developed countries.

* Why inflation is a MUST, in order to keep the current system running.

Around the world, there are many countries, including China, at this point are suffering pain for the Pension Scheme for the retired workforce. In general, a pension is an arrangement that provide the people with an income when they retire from their job till the day he/she leave this planet. Of course, we don't get to see this kind of offer nowadays, but it was popular, especially for civil servant, just about 40-50 years back ...

During that time, the medical is not so advanced and average life expectancy was around 65-70. While just after the WWII for not long, everywhere is booming, the economy grow rate was just taking off. And, currently, the average life expectancy has been increase to about 80 and still seems to moving up. Attached is a typical chart on life expectancy chart found from the web...

On the other hand, the growth of the economy in most developed countries are saturated. As also shown in the population pyramid chart, while more and more people are retiring, there is less and less new work force competing more and more aggressively in the competitive global market.

While the politicians want to be elected or re-elected, they must keep the promise on the Pension Scheme. Naturally, they would keep their promise to pay the retirees, but they would pay more to the workers who are still working on the jobs. While the economy is not growing, the only way is to Increase the Money Supply or so call Print More Money... When more money is flowing into the society while the productivity remain the same... It basically dilute the previous-earned money that keep in the bank.

So, eventually, those people depend on pension system on their retirement will find that their buying power are reducing year by year with respect to the inflation.

After all, keeping cash in the bank has many risk nowadays....
Such as bank go bankrupt or value of money get diluted for sure.
Therefore, learning how to grow the money is a wise thing to do.

If you don't see the document attached below, click on the link:->

The Future Can Be Predicted with Data...

"Wealth is the product of man's ability to think."

-Ayn Rand

Relevant Article:- On Population Pyramid

Is this a Conspiracy Theory or Fact? Lindsey Williams DVD - The Elite Speak

2010-02-21T06:03:00.000-08:00

For sure, many people would not like to spend time to know about something that is called conspiracy. And yet, in the past, many conspiracies had became Facts.

Anyhow, Lindsey Williams did predict many big events that had happened, especially on the Crude Oil price movement.

I don't think everything that he said is correct as there are conflicting messages. But there is no harm in knowing some alternative views of how the world events will happen in his view point. Or just treat it like watching another fiction movie, like 2012 or Avatar. Just need to have an open mind... and think for yourself, as he say that he is just a messenger. Also to ignore any religion's prophecy that get to mix into the video... especially on the 2nd half of the 3rd DVD.

Anyway, his predictions are talking about things going happen in the next 12 months or so. So, we would know if this is a BS or fact in next year.

To continue to watch the whole series in order... Click Here -> Link to youtube.

Here are some of the key points:-

* Human already mastered the technology to influence/control the weather... Such as direct the route of a tornado or hurricane. Google for "HAARP" if you are interested.

* Oil is priced in USD, and USD is going to devalue from 30 to 50 % in 2010.

(If this come true, oil price must raise by equal amount, inflation would be serious).

* Financial Deficit Spending is a wash in paper.

(If this come true, investment instrument that promise in paper is going to be washed away... Such as T-Bill, any derivatives,etc.)

The rest is for those who interested to find out the story....

"Money is a symbol of our confidence in our product,

our service and ourselves! The more confidence

we have in ourselves and/or our product

or service, the more we will be able

to charge for it."

- Paul McKenna

Trap for Investors (3) - Too Big To Fail: Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market

2010-02-17T01:33:00.000-08:00

Data from: http://www.mrainvestmentsllc.com/home/

Well, this is a known fact. Isn't it?

After the Nasdaq bubble, then by the Housing Bubble, followed by the Subprime Mortgage Crisis... What all US had done, and still doing it now, is to continue printing more money, and they call it stimulus and bailout.

So, we need not to be an economist to deduce that US Dollar is getting weaker and would continue so unless there is a change in the course of action.

Meanwhile, the people who hold on to cash in term of US Dollar would naturally doing their best to protect the value of their money by converting it into other "safer currency". Adding those traders and speculators encouraged by the financial houses... It is leading to another BIG BUBBLE, and it is already FORMED! That's hidden inside the Forex Market.

So, how Big is this Forex Market actually? Any idea?

Well...

Let's look that the short clip from his documentary,"Debt as Money II", Paul Grignon had a summary on that: " The transactions taken place in the Foreign Exchange Market in one week EXCEED the total value of the World Trade for Real Good & Services in the entire year."

(start from 3:11 -> 3:50)

While Forex is a HIGH LEVERAGE vehicle, some brokerage houses margin offer up to "400-to-1" or "100 to 1"!

When the public been seeing the trend of US Dollar continue for years to become weaken, they would want move their US Dollar to something else. EURO seems to be an Excellent choice, as it be trending up and up for years.

Did you ever ask that IF the Public is Right that the US Dollar is continuing to get weaker week by week, and month by month for another sure period of time, let say one year or two as suggested by some Gurus who sold newsletters...

Where are they got to claim their profit from???

So, when it come to a time that the statistics indicate most of the public money had already been sucked into Forex Market and BET on the EURO Win Over US Dollar... Something MUST HAPPEN...

So, now we have Greece Financial Crisis surface up....

Possibly follow by Portugal, and even possibly follow by Spain...

This would Create a FEAR for people to hold onto the EURO.

It will come to a point, like a crowd in a building that suddenly caught big fire everywhere, all people want to rush for the small exit all at one time, many would be burned. And, it could collapse the EURO in a very short period of time.

Is this yet another unpredicted event?

Actually, we are all co-creating the event.

We can choose to follow or not to follow.

"When masses of people succumb to an idea, they often

run off at a tangent because of their emotion."

- Humphrey B. Neill

(The art of Contrary Thinking)

Chinese New Year Greeting

2010-02-10T23:57:00.000-08:00

Click to enlarge

Oh! Did you drop by here by accident?

No way. There is synchronicity in everything that we do.

You are dropping by so that these angels of prosperity (招财童子) can get to know you... and they are on the way, rushing to send you tons of GOLD NOW! :-)

May the rest of your life be the best of your life.

- Jose Silva

Bless You

KH Tang